In June, the almighty algorhithm served me Vitesse X‘s “Way I Luv”, and it sounded immediately familiar – the ethereal vocals and breakbeat-style drum patterns were the perfect sound for the beginning of summer. It took me a little time to piece it together that I was already familiar with Vitesse X, but her music had somehow fallen off my playlists.
Vitesse X hit my radar back in 2022, when Pitchfork gave a strong review to her debut record Us Ephemeral. It set the blueprint for This Infinite, but there’s a much more organic and human sound to the new record. Fewer repetitive samples and the synth-heavy loops, in with acoustic guitar, lush beds and emphasis on the lyrics and vocals.
Over the summer, more singles from This Infinite were released, and they were in the same musical vein as “Way I Luv”: melodic and hooky, gentle and warm. Each one wound up on the Friday playlist, in constant rotation during a summer of long drives. “Eternal” was the most played of the bunch:
In her YouTube streams she’s referred to this album as her journal over the past year, and in an introductory note on launch day she talked about making the record as a therapeutic exercise — and this comes through several songs. It’s much more dream-pop, more introspective and meditative than the prior record (or interim releases such as “Into Dream” and “Ricochet”).
That’s not to say it’s low-key. There is still a ton of energy, even if it’s more paced for a winding highway drive than for the club. “Careless” is the centrepiece of the record — a soothing and memorable sound paired with some darker, almost cynical lyrics that could be arranged for a performance by a full band:
The lyrics of this record oscillate between anxious and liberated – there’s lots of natural-world metaphors: the waves, the sun, the ‘hole in the world’. Even the more upbeat, danceable songs in the second half of the record (“Get in Girls” and “End of Forever”) have lyrical darkness tied to the musical euphoria.
The album ends with “Something in the Air”, that builds to a cathartic closing crescendo:
This Infinite might have been a product of therapy, or a therapeutic exercise to write and produce. To me it’s also a therapeutic listening exercise – natural, soothing, layered and cathartic.
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