ALBUM REVIEW: Evergreen – PVRIS

This is a total reset. PVRIS is not what it formerly was; the new album Evergreen is a lesson in leaning into the power that you have left on your own and embracing that fact. Anything that could be considered tame in PVRIS’ backlog, compared to the new material, has been left in the past. Lynn Gunnulfsen has gone from delivering welcoming tracks to something more of a jawbreaking right hook, and in this regard it’s her most indulgent work yet. 

Evergreen opens with pure determination on I Don’t Wanna Do This Anymore, even if the title makes it sound like a plea, it’s a demand. Gunnulfsen holds all the cards now and can do whatever she wants with them. It only takes the first track to realise how much of PVRIS’ texture has changed, like new carpet that’s stained by fizzy pop, its fuzziness has a slight edge to it. The new and improved determined atmosphere doesn’t let up from there; Good Enemy, Goddess and Animal are full of swaggering mighty attitudes, three different flavours of the most exciting popping candy you’ve had. It’s a party for all senses. It would definitely be labelled “pop rock” by some — but that sounds more like an insult to the multi-instrumentalist than anything.

Combining the words pop and rock into one to describe a genre of music sounds like you’re either going to get watered down pop or faux rock music. It’s more like PVRIS has picked up on trademarks from previous work, separated them, and then enriched them all equally. The intention in each track is clear and that provides a mouthwatering satisfaction when you’re so used to hearing so much indecision from artists that attempt to do the same. Evergreen isn’t another pointless attempt at blurring the lines between genres — 90 percent of the time that sounds like code for “this didn’t turn out how it was supposed to” — it’s multiple different things done at an extremely high quality that compliment each other. Apparently clarity isn’t too much to ask for. 

On the more pop side of the album, Senti-Mental and Headlights shine brighter than most, so much so that it’s hard to believe that they’re on the same album as the previous tracks. But neither of them are as cleansing as the title track Evergreen where Gunnulfsen confronts the vast problems of instant gratification, ringing home how it corrodes us as people, growing us in a way that will make us come to expect everything in an instant. The multi-instrumentalist has transformed PVRIS into something refreshing at the right time, proving that she belongs right up at the top with the highest calibre of artists.

Rating: 9/10

Evergreen is out now via Hopeless Records.

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