TOPS keyboardist Marta Cikojevic started plotting a solo record with bandmate
David Carriere around the time she joined the group in 2017. After deciding upon a formula that would mix emotional honesty with music that was catchy and danceable, they wrote a set of songs deeply rooted in '80s pop and smooth R&B, using a Rhodes piano and bass guitar. They later fleshed out the songs with analog and FM synths, samplers, guitars, vocal harmonies, and more with help from such area Montreal musicians as, among others,
Mitch Davis,
TOPS'
Jane Penny,
Braids'
Austin Tufts,
Better Person's Adam Byczkowski, and
Anemone's Chloé Soldevila. Released under the mononym
Marci, the project makes its debut with an eponymous album for Arbutus Records. "All of Your Love" sets the stage with a seductive, lightly jazzy, vintage R&B-pop, sans drums and with vibrating synth atmospheres. That's the last time that the album isn't at least slow-danceable ("Call the Wild," "When Love Had Just Begun"), as it quickly shifts into disco mode with the funky "Immaterial Girl" and sexual, saxophone-injected "Entertainment," a track that eventually settles into a bass-driven, borderline sophisti-pop. Even a bright, bouncy track like "Play by Play" stays in a sultry range, with breezy, breathy vocals and lyrics like "You and me gonna fly high/Move into the outside lane/All night, all day." Highlighted by the subtly rock-inflected "Deep Shade of Blue," the
Marci LP stays in character throughout, uplifting with its steady grooves, warm and sleek textures, and only slightly conflicted attractions. ~ Marcy Donelson