Census Designated
Census Designated is the second studio album by the American musician Jane Remover. It was released by DeadAir Records on October 20, 2023, as the follow up to their debut album Frailty in 2021. The following year, they came out as a trans woman and changed their stage name as they worked on Census Designated. The material on the album was inspired by horror movies, the music of the singer-songwriter Ethel Cain, and an incident where they almost died while on a road trip through a blizzard. It was written in a variety of locations, including Remover's house, at school, and on the road while touring with Brakence. Going through numerous revisions, the tracks were recorded in both Remover's house in New Jersey and at Studio North in Philadelphia; the album was entirely produced by Remover themselves.
Census Designated is a concept album in the shoegaze and post-rock genres; its story takes place over the course of one night, from sunset to dusk. It presents Auto-Tuned vocals that address themes of desperation, isolation, and rejection. Throughout its recording process, Remover wanted to distance themselves from the labels that were given to their previous work. Its artwork was photographed by Brendon Burton and was chosen as the cover art to represent Census ''Designated overarching coming-of-age theme. The album was promoted with four singles and a tour across North America with Quannnic. The album received positive reviews from publications; Paste and Pitchfork'' included the single "Census Designated" in their best songs of the year lists. The album charted on the North American College and Community Radio Chart.
Background
released their debut studio album, Frailty, in November 2021, to critical acclaim. It was generally described as being digicore, hyperpop, emo, and EDM, as well as a variety of other genres. Ever since they started releasing music, they had always wanted to change their sound and "work towards the goal of being a jack-of-all-trades". During June 2022, they released the singles "Royal Blue Walls" and "Cage Girl" and came out as a trans woman, changing their stage name to Jane Remover; Census Designated is their first album released under the name. During 2022, they toured the United States with Brakence in support of his Hypochondriac Tour.Development
Writing
Due to Remover recording Frailty in their childhood bedroom in New Jersey, the state inspired a lot of material that was on the album. Alternatively, Census Designated was inspired by a self-described "near-death experience" Remover went through while on a cross-country road trip through a blizzard. They were travelling to Seattle late at night, but the snow became unbearable and they had to make a pit stop in John Day, Oregon. They said it felt like a "reality check" that made them "want to stop ruining things for ". They wrote some of the songs at their house, at school, and while being on the road as they were on tour. Speaking about the album's visuals, they commented: "I kind of just had this idea of an empty plane, and dilapidated houses and just like decay and nothing." The ideas for the album's imagery came to them when they first started working on the album musically.The songs on Census Designated went through numerous revisions. They were written about things Remover was afraid of happening instead of things that actually occurred in real life. Remover shared that while work on the album progressed, they felt the need "to make something else, to make something better" with each successive track that was recorded. The track "Lips" served as "a skeleton key for the rest of the album in both mood and sound", as Remover became obsessed with the climax of the song, and thought: "I can find a way to build a whole universe out of this." They wanted the listener to interpret the lyrics differently, as they thought with the use of body horror imagery, they could keep the lyrics vague and abstract. They were also interested in watching horror movies while creating the album; such as 1997's Cutting Moments while writing "Lips". When they wrote "Backseat Girl", they had not cried in a while and thought of a memory "of standing next to someone who was crying during a show", leading them to feel inconvenienced, which inspired the song.
Production
Census Designated was recorded in both Remover's house in New Jersey and at Studio North in Philadelphia, from February 4, 2022, to July 22, 2023. It was entirely produced by Remover. Remover originally planned it to be an extended play with six to seven tracks and a 40 minute runtime. They later realized they wanted to "revisit these old songs that deserved better". Following the release of Frailty, Remover felt conflicted over the vocal performances included on the album; criticism directed at the album's recording quality prompted them to " and clean … up in all aspects" while working on Census Designated. In an interview with Stereogum, Remover shared that they re-recorded the track "Lips" roughly 100 times because they were unsatisfied with each vocal take, and this desire to continually re-record the song persisted into the album's mixing stage. During the mixing process, Remover oversaw this aspect of the production in-person to ensure that it was "as perfect as it be" before the album was released. After hearing their music being played at a venue, it gave insight into how to make and mix their music in the future.On Census Designated, Remover wanted to distance themselves from the labels that were given to their previous work, specifically the term "Internet music". With the album, they said that they "kind of found the lane that to stay in", commenting on their production style. When speaking about genre, they believed that there is not a lane. Remover cited the music of the American singer-songwriter Ethel Cain, namely her album Preacher's Daughter, as another source of inspiration for material included on Census Designated. The song "Cage Girl", which Remover revealed was originally "a demo that made in an hour" for a creative writing class in 2022, is a favorite of Cain's.
Composition
Overview
Census Designated is primarily a shoegaze and post-rock album that has also been described as bedroom pop, experimental rock, and noise rock. It is over an hour long and all of the tracks run for more than four and a half minutes, with most lasting up to six minutes. The second half of the album is largely based on nightmares Remover feared would materialize in their own life; the tracks "Census Designated", "Video", and "Contingency Song" are told from the perspective of being in a relationship. It presents Auto-Tuned vocals that address themes of desperation, isolation, and rejection. Emma Madden of Them described the lyrics as "rich with half-vague, half-precise poetry" and thought Remover's guitar tone "holds both a sense of terror and beauty". Spencer Nafekh-Blanchette from Exclaim! called Census Designated "a new chapter in Remover's experimental production" and commented on how Remover delivers droning sounds that, though are noisy, are more calm compared to their previous music. For Pitchfork, Kieran Press-Reynolds commented that moments on the album shift abruptly from calm to intense bursts of sounds. He further questioned, because Remover has experimented with drum and bass, ambient, glitch rap, and Jersey club in the past, "why would choose fiery avant-rock as a primary vehicle?".Census Designated is a concept album that takes place over the course of one night. Its story begins at sunset and is "guided by Jane Remover's streams of consciousness", ending at dusk. According to Paste Madelyn Dawson, "its 10 tracks span over an hour of deliberate buildups, frenetic breakdowns and visceral, wry lyricism". It incorporates organic and live instrumentation. Ian Cohen from Stereogum said the album explores the darker edges of rock music. The Guardian Ben Beaumont-Thomas compared their vocals to that of K-pop and Europop singers, and mentioned how they reinvigorate guitar sounds by layering them with static and subtle noise elements. Madden proposed that the album should be listened to "just past sundown, when there's a brief and lonely pause in space and time and it feels like you are the only person experiencing reality". Press-Reynolds also mentioned how after each loud noise, there is a calm moment that follows.
Songs
Census Designated opening track is "Cage Girl / Camgirl", a bedroom pop and drone track that begins with a buzzing and throaty croaking sound that expands into a backing guitar, building into a crescendo. The guitars are "detuned to a death metal gurgle" and the track feels cinematic and fictional, according to Cohen. It is followed by four post-rock tracks; "Lips" is also an indie ballad that begins with gentle vocals discussing the unpredictability of young love, and being someone's "nervous wreck". Its looping guitar strumming fizzles out until the track becomes distorted with drums that reach a climax of purging noise. Press-Reynolds perceived it as a combination between My Bloody Valentine and Fatal Attraction. "Fling" starts out with rough static that transitions into a gentler soundscape. Fantano described it as having "super righteous riffs" and "screaming walls of distorted chords laced with some glossy vocal harmonies" and "stuttering noise". "Holding a Leech" is also a shoegaze track that increasingly intensifies as it picks up in pace. "Backseat Girl" is about how Remover felt like they ignored others people's feelings, even when they were aware of their own.With "Idling Somewhere", its loud moments and "destructive" feedback were described as "more punishing than harsh noise albums" by Fantano. Ondarock Michele Corrado wrote that the track "breaks out with lacerating screamo". The shoegaze "Always Have Always Will" begins with an "ahhh" sound that was likened to an extending infinity mirror by Press-Reynolds. It is a softer and more apologetic track that climaxes with a rush of static; according to Press-Reynolds, it feels more joyful than sorrowful compared to the album's other songs. "Census Designated" discusses struggling with the present and being anxious about what is next in their life. The track was written about the fear of being deceived and exploited because of their age; it also mentions numerous mental states and different geographic locations. They also sing about liking the idea of being "young blood, fresh meat", and the track sonically ends with chaos and noise. Writing for Pitchfork, Hattie Lindert felt it had a more minimalist sound when compared to Frailty. Fantano called it "one of the most multifaceted songs" on the album, and that it "hits some epic and noisy highs". The penultimate track "Video" tells the story of a woman who becomes infatuated with a man she watched touch himself online, before he exploits her when the two eventually meet outside of the Internet. Its guitar strums for six minutes until the track bursts with a powerful scream. The final track, "Contingency Song", contains dissonant drones, and Press-Reynolds described it as containing a "sparse winter horizon" and that "you can almost feel the chill of its malign fog".