Ex:Re: Save As (Clear Vinyl) (LP)

The album opener begins with acoustic guitars and evolves into a hypnotic song about an endless road trip through California. The title serves as a metaphor for Tonra’s own state of mind. “The changing radio station is something I experience a lot—the push and pull of different feelings, and I end up getting stuck because I can’t make decisions,” she explains. The song is composed of fragments of personal memories and snippets of overheard conversations. Over a dense wall of sound made up of guitars, floating synthesizers, and Fabian Prynn’s relentlessly driving drums, she sings: “I’ve ordered your coffee / Let’s fry all our money.” Elena Tonra never actually intended to record a second Ex:Re album. After the self-titled debut in 2018, she viewed the project as a one-time creative venture. But in 2023, when she took some song sketches she’d been carrying around for years and developed them further in the studio with producer Fabian Prynn, the special musical connection between the two reignited. This ultimately resulted in “Save As.” In addition to Fabian Prynn, the album features Josephine Stephenson on cello, Hinako Omori on synthesizers, Ben Reed on bass, and Jethro Fox on electric guitar. “Save As” deliberately does not follow a grand, overarching narrative. Instead, the album fits seamlessly into Tonra’s body of work, which impressively captures the small, often agonizing details of human consciousness: the rumination that consumes us, and the places we flee to in order to escape ourselves. At the heart of it all is the question of how we remember such moments. “My memory isn’t always very good,” Tonra openly admits. By capturing images and memories in songs, she creates a way to preserve these moments. For her, listening to the songs or playing them live is “like traveling back in time.” Tonra’s honest solo songs feel like letters to herself and others that were never sent. On “Save As,” she once again combines her characteristic blend of emotional immediacy and profound reflection. The album marks her most recent return to that intensely felt, atmospheric alternative pop style that makes her music so distinctive.