Caithlin De Marrais

Caithlin De Marrais’ third album What Will You Do Then? is incandescent—a candle lit in memory of the moody midnight teenage bedrooms of the early 90’s.

It feels nicked from the “Alternative” section of Tower Records, among CDs by New Order, Depeche Mode, and Siouxsie & The Banshees, from the days before Nevermind appended “-Rock” to the genre’s original name.

Of course What Will You Do Then? is no album from another decade. The songs were mastered by Adam Ayan, who put the finishing touches on Lana Del Rey’s most recent records, and he casts over the proceedings a looming dreaminess.

Lustrous and sometimes deeply spare, the songs took form over the course of two and a half years, shaped by Rainer Maria guitarist Kaia F, with contributions from vocalists Annie Nero and Mark Duplass, multi-instrumentalists Lary Hoffman and Lucola Bang, drummer Stuart Gunter, MIDI programmer Emily Lee, and others.

What Will You Do Then? is a question tumbling towards an answer. It is the bookmark of a coming love, an embrace of resonance and relationality. These are songs enchanted, slowly circling the dizzy edge of ecstasy.