Criticizing bigwigs at the apex of the music industry seemed to come naturally to Illuminati Hotties. But after a few years of relative success as an artist and in-demand engineer, Sarah Tudzin’s spot might not look half bad to those still beneath her in the power structure, treading out of breath in Los Angeles’ sublevel swamp—and the perspective change is messing with her head. A musical Swiss Army knife, she spends her third album as Illuminati Hotties, Power, grappling with the complicated reality of where she’s at these days: basking in year one of marriage, smoking anxiously at The Met at dawn, and realizing her ADHD is productive until it isn’t. Never mind that her credentials earned her an impressive list of musicians on speed dial for Power—Death Cab for Cutie’s Jason McGerr, Jay Som’s Melina Duterte, Ryan Hemsworth—when she needs to sort through life’s mixed bag of humbling privileges and recent grievances before she can go back to taking shots.
Engineering for Boygenius and Weyes Blood during the day and being a self-described “superhuman” musician by night, Tudzin’s relentless lifestyle could make you hyperventilate by proximity alone. “I triple-book my Saturdays, but I pretend my program keeps me from freaking out,” she sings, cross-eyed with stress, on the addictive lead single “Can’t Be Still.” On “The L,” Tudzin admits she can’t help the all-or-nothing grind: “I’m stubborn enough to give it up or give ’em hell.” Three years ago, that looked like cracking jokes and throwing uppercuts on Let Me Do One More to the tune of ricocheting power-pop. But with the gentler indie rock of Power, she forces herself to really, genuinely try to explore the middle ground between hiding under the covers all day and pulling wild all-nighters.
Illuminati Hotties’ knack for earworms remains unshakeable, from the shoegaze-inflected guitars in “Throw (Life Raft)” to the lovesick vocal harmonies of “Sleeping In.” Accenturing those hooks are friends in the business: Cavetown joins her ode to giving up (“Didn’t”) and Speedy Ortiz’s Sadie Dupuis helps tackle mental white noise (“What’s the Fuzz”). Tudzin’s most effortless songwriting on Power, however, cozies up in a softer blend of acoustic guitar-led indie pop reminiscent of the early works of Tegan and Sara. Nursing wounds while simultaneously trying to put her problems to scale, Tudzin writes unpretentious songs that aim straight for the heart (“I Would Like, Still Love You,” “You Are Not Who You Were”) like the enduring hits of So Jealous.
