When
Vampire Weekend's
Chris Baio released his second solo album, 2017's
Man of the World, his strutting synth pop was clouded by the anxiety of the previous year's elections in his native U.S. and adopted home of the U.K. Arriving in 2021, the title of his third
Baio LP,
Dead Hand Control, refers to an automated Soviet-era missile system (Dead Hand, aka Perimeter) still rumored to be operational decades later. Among the album's earliest lyrics are sentiments like "I've been thinking about the end times" and "The final days don't gotta be lonely." The record continues in kind, often offering reassurance while acknowledging troubled times. Unlike his previous albums, the play times on
Dead Hand Control vary widely, with tracks sometimes transitioning into one another. It ultimately has the effect of a night out at the club or, more precisely, a series of 12" extended dance mixes à la the 1980s that are cued up among radio cuts. An example of one of the under-four-minute, structured-pop entries is "Endless Me, Endlessly," which sees
Baio's deep, detached vocals and reassuring lyrics accompanied by a steady groove and '80s Atari keyboard palette. Elsewhere, the brisker "What Do You Say When I'm Not There?" and "Never Never Never" also deliver danceable low-key earworms. The more-epic tracks here include the pulsing "Dead Hand" (not to be confused with the intro, "Dead Hand Control") and the nine-and-a-half-minute closer, "O.M.W." ("on my way"). The latter is a collaboration with bandmate
Ezra Koenig nine years in the making that takes the form of a cinematic love song well-suited for the end-credits sequence of a retrofuturistic romance. It ends the album with what could be a message to the world: "Nobody wants to be alone/You're feeling the consequence of someone else's wrong." ~ Marcy Donelson