The 2018 Ex:Re (solo project of Daughter’s Elena Tonra) debut was a breakup caught mid-fall, all raw nerve and wet pavement. Save As is the morning after the morning after, after the morning after. The wound has scabbed, and now Elena Tonra is scrolling through it. The title is the whole conceit: keep the old file, make a new copy, never delete the original. Ex:Re named a record after the most tender thing a computer can do.
This is chamber-pop, songs like “Radio Station” and “Sleep” drifting through loneliness with the lights half off. It’s intimate enough that you lower your voice around it, and strange enough that the furniture seems to have moved while you sleep. Tonra has always sung like someone leaving a voicemail, but she has more gravitas here than in her 2018 debut. The songs are hushed, but purposeful, even though much of the demo-like quality still rings through.
“Am I Even Real?” is the question the mirror asks when you’ve stared too long, and it has started to doubt you back, a philosophical question driving into indie-verbed contemplation. I personally loved “Frozen Aisle,” a chamber synth epic perfect for the cold weather of contemplation.
