The Literary Pop of Gordi’s “Reservoir”

File this under concerts I regret missing: a couple of weeks ago, Gordi played a show at Archestratus, a terrific cookbook store and cafe a few blocks from where I live. (Note: this was originally published in 2017.) Footage I’ve seen from it features Sophie Payten–the Australian musician for whom Gordi is her preferred name for performance–energetically playing a keyboard and singing to the gathered crowd. I’ve been listening to Reservoir, Gordi’s debut, a lot over the past few months, and seeing footage of a show at what could accurately be called an intimate venue is almost surprising. But then, that seeming imbalance settled out inside my head: the scale of this record is, after all, an ambiguous one, equally suited to spaces small and massive. It’s an album that repeatedly riffs on other creative disciplines, a pop record that sounds massive at times and surreally specific in others.

Reservoir is a record that frequently booms, with drumming that rattles the low end and seems designed to confer a touch of the majestic to a home stereo system. That can be heard near the end of “Bitter End” and “Something Like This,” the song that closes out Reservoir. But, like much of the album, that scale is utilized to knowingly contradictory ends. “On My Side,” for instance, falls into the time-honored tradition of wedding an anthemic backbeat to lyrics that explore contradiction…