REVIEW: BØRNS – Dopamine

I’ll admit it: the first time I heard BØRNS’ breakthrough EP Candy (and then the first 17,000 times I heard the near-perfect “Electric Love” scoring that Hulu commercial), I pictured the soaring, breathy tenor belonging to a highly Instagrammable hipster songstress; one whose modelesque looks surely placed her in the good company of electro-pop hotties like Banks and Say Lou Lou.
I actually wasn’t far off. That voice (along with the guitar) belongs instead to Garrett Borns, a highly Instagrammable hipster songster, whose modelesque looks do indeed place him in the good company of electro-pop hotties like Banks and Say Lou Lou. Yet this dude hailing from Michigan cranks out even better hooks than either of them.
Much of BØRNS' sound falls on the poppier side of Tame Impala’s psychedelia (“10,000 Emerald Pools”) while his angelic upper-register vibrato can easily summon comparisons to Jeff Buckley (“The Emotion”). Neither of these is ever a bad thing.
Dopamine takes its title from the neurotransmitter in the brain that triggers feelings of pleasure or euphoria, encouraging repeat behaviors that release more and more. It’s a wonderful occurrence, until you find yourself getting too much of the chemical—then it can prompt hallucinations and even schizophrenia. As “Electric Love” fittingly leads off: “Candy, she's sweet like candy in my veins… Baby, I'm dying for another taste.”
So is Dopamine shorthand for sex? Love? Drugs? God? On “Holy Ghost” alone, it’s all of the above: a classic pop song conflation of sacred and profane.
I was scared of being lost in love
I crave it on the daily
That sugar pill that dosed me up
It's making my heart beat so fast
In my mind, you're the angel on the painted glass
Looking for high, divine, connection
I'm a lover, in need of confession
Mirroring the subject matter, the highs and the comedowns are often paired back-to-back musically: witness the dance-inflected "Past Lives" melt into the languid “Clouds,” then back to the razor-sharp title track.
T-Swift was a BØRNS early adopter, offering her spotless imprimatur to her legions of fans back in January with a single breathless Tweet. And while a little bump from the reigning princess of pop never hurts, Dopamine surely holds enough listening pleasure to stand on its own.