Macintosh Plus, Floral Shoppe

I like interesting musical experiments, and I like the Mac Plus (the first Mac I ever used), and overall I like this. To be sure, vapo(u)rwave is a partially acquired taste; the stuttery starts and recordskippy bits, for example, may be a deliberate design aesthetic but they mostly just make an otherwise ethereal experience choppy (particularly "Geography," which is frankly obnoxious). On the other hand, the spread-out-like-peanut-butterrrrr super slow sample jams (Diana Ross! ... Pages?!) underlie this album's biggest winners all sedate, sumptuous and even just a little bit satirical in their deliberate excesses. I could have "Lisa Frank 420" on loop all day with Diana's slowlooped purr floating in the air, or better still this album's best jam, the pleasingly and atypically more conventional "Chill Diving With Ecco," which despite its seemingly deliberate repetitiveness never seems to grow old (see also "Te"). Like most derivative styles, this one from chillwave, the format steals too much from its ancestors to truly stand alone and this exemplar of the form seems to have its best moments when it frankly rips them off, but that doesn't mean it's not enjoyable. The cassette reissue (!) slightly changes the playlist as do the various digital releases, not better, just different, all of which can be found online at various locations including the Internet Archive. (Content: no concerns.)

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