Fed Up

Toronto electro-rock/New Wave duo Ice Cream exhibited a stylish breed of chilly detachment on their 2016 debut, Love, Ice Cream. On their follow-up, they stir a pinch of pop-savvy warmth into the mix. Which is not to say that Carlyn Bezic and Amanda Crist don’t stay sternly fixed on image and on message throughout—Fed Up, they’ve said, is a riposte to “late capitalism and the male gaze.” It's just that even after declaring, “I’ll gouge out all the eyes of kings/I want to be free/Use your eyes to make my rings” on the title track, they still leave room for a little ’80s-indebted fun amid the clamour. That’s the case with pretty much every track: Opener “Bun Roo” somehow manages to turn the phrase “subordinate culture” into an indelible singsong refrain. The gossamer ballad “Dove’s Cry” is a stealthily sensitive sob on behalf of anyone seeking solace in “gonna shop ’til I drop” consumerism. And “Peanut Butter” is both a middle finger to the overprivileged and definitely not the only dance cut here that could’ve come from ’80s Paisley Park.