‘The House’ has all the building blocks but nothing to keep it from coming undone

By Evan Balikos

The biggest problem with “The House” arrives in its inception, where it becomes stagnant, repetitive, and even ugly-sounding at times.

When Aaron Maine (the mind behind Porches) talked about the sound of this album, he likened it to going underwater and blocking out everything in your path—an unsurprising description given his infatuation with the liquid—but whereas his last studio album “Pool” flowed and moved like the ocean, “The House” drowns its listener by repeating wave after wave of uninteresting tracks.

On the opener “Leave the House,” booming percussion and encouraging synth chords arrive after guest singer (Sandy) Alex G squeals “let it have me.”

The song is loud and dynamic enough for a starter track, but it reveals its irrefutable flaws within its first minute as Alex’s intro is layered over Aaron’s simplistic rhyme scheme and then isolated completely. And then its over.

Moments of random minimalist nonsense are scattered all over “The House,” whether it’s the tottering not-really-saying-anything “Country”—which relies heavily on plain unprovoked lyricism and resonant synths—or “Anymore,” where Maine does his best to replicate the same autotuned cadence that various alternative R&B singers are known for before an explosive instrumental break begins to tape the song together.

This, and more, is what makes “The House” fall apart.

One of the biggest holes in the walls of “The House” is a penchant for vague lyrics and circular symbolism. Oftentimes, Maine will begin talking about leaving the house, swimming, or just focusing on water, but a solid idea is never presented to the listener throughout the entire album.

“I want it to be/All around me. I’ll think about it/’Till I am empty,” he sings indirectly on “Anymore.”

This type of songwriting works when your instrumentation creates a bedding that cradles your vocals and contributes to an overall resonance—you can basically ignore the lyrics from that point—but perhaps Maine’s biggest mistake on the album is him opting to create a more minimal and isolated sound, which leaves the lyrics center-stage and open for critique.

There are still proper foundations and well-lit areas inside “The House,” but for every good track, there’s three bad ones sprawled onto the wood floor.

The single titled “Find Me” is a bouncy and intricate techno track that creates a feeling of pure fun and ecstasy. Another notable pick is the confident and beautiful piano pop bop titled “Goodbye,” which contains some of Maine’s prettiest vocals and a rhythm section that knows exactly when to come in.

Bright and unique kick drums and 808s shine on R&B confessional “By My Side”, which has a depth more akin to the sensation of swimming that Maine wanted to achieve.

“It’s my fault, this I know/It’s just hard to swallow,” he croons somberly in one of the catchiest choruses on the album.

But this beauty quickly fades when “Åkeren”— a new-wave-tinted track which contains Norwegian spoken poetry recited by Kaya Wilkins of Okay Kaya—and “Wobble”—a modest squeaker with the ugliest layering on the album—arrive to confuse and annoy the listener before they can get to the final third.

Yet halfway through listening to the album, one thing becomes abundantly clear: there is no flow between songs. There aren’t many tracks that transition well into each other or even that many memorable melodies and this lack of cohesion is damaging to the album experience in its totality.

Listeners will walk into “The House” with a sense of excitement but will ultimately leave with a powerful feeling of disappointment after seeing that it’s not very big and not even fully furnished.

If I were to make an estimated guess on what Maine was attempting to do with his patterned sonic stylings and front-and-center lyricism, I’d guess that he was inspired by stronger and earlier LPs like “Blond(e)” by Frank Ocean.

However, due to its mixed track organization and inability to stay well-composed, his album is far more comparable to the unruly and often monstrous “The Life of Pablo” by Kanye West.

The more that I think about it, it isn’t a bad comparison. Both albums create tremendously high marks for themselves in the beginning of their duration (West with “Ultra Light Beam” and Maine with “Find Me”,) but also share in the bad habit of showcasing unfinished tracks and cutting them off just when they are about to reach their apex of sound (West with “Feedback” and Maine with “Leave the House.”)

Additionally, these albums are both better to pick-and-choose from than to listen to all the way through, and a concept album like “The House” can’t afford to have this reputation; apparently, there are two characters named Ricky and Julie hidden in the album. It is in no way a bad project and fans of Porches will likely find some good in it, but the alignment of “The House” is tricky, sometimes aggravating. The second-to-last track titled “Ono” starts out oddly warped but builds to a strongly satisfying chorus.

“Oh no/Oh no,” Maine shouts anxiously over layers of synths, bass guitar, and clattering EDM percussion.

The closer, titled “Anything U Want”, introduces us to Ricky and Julie in its first verse, but Maine opts again for unnecessary auto-tune that keeps all emotive responses at bay. Oh no.