| Slantmagazine |
 Arriving only a week after Charles Cooper's mysterious death at 31, Telefon Tel Aviv's third album, Immolate Yourself, finds itself appearing in starkly different circumstances than would have been expected. With the group effectively defunct after losing one of its two members, the record now takes on a heavy mantle, not only that of a final album, but as the last direct expression of a tragically silenced artist. This can have a tremendous effect, skewing perception and cushioning criticism, which is doubly unfortunate, because to call Immolate Yourself an excellent album is not simply a matter of respect or deference or polite decorum; it's the rare electronic work that feels entirely alive, exhibiting shocking versatility and a strong feel for creating vibrant, engaging environments. From one song to the next, the album hops around the spacey confines of the electronic spectrum, never settling in one place for long, while tying these explorations together under a uniformly polished sheen: "Birds" builds itself from ambient into straight techno, lacing a constant, resonant kick drum with a layer of ghostly vocals; "Helen of Troy," the album's first single, is arguably the best track here, copping a simplistic '80s feel and heavily padding it with a drum machine beat and a synth line with vacillating sections of noise; "Mostly Translucent" creeps along atop a pile of synthesized waves, following the path of dozens of arpeggios that radiate out into the distance; and the title track returns to its opening tone with an ambient atmosphere, all chilly synths splayed out against a quiet, desolate background. All these differing sounds arc together to form a consistent mood, cold and synthetic but edged into a realm of real feeling by lively hooks and the constant use of human vocals. Immolate Yourself does a lot and does it all well, creating an album that adds explicit punctuation to an already shocking loss....full text |
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| Allmusic |
| Charlie Cooper and Josh Eustis' second and third Telefon Tel Aviv albums are as different from one another as their first and second albums. Fahrenheit Fair Enough's fractured, melodic instrumentals morphed into crisp song form on Map of What Is Effortless, with vocalists and string arrangements helping to shape alternately jagged and sweeping productions into tense glitch/R&B torch songs. Following Map, Immolate Yourself -- released on Ellen Allien's Bpitch Control label -- increases the pensive energy and tension, with both conveyed through snapping beats, taut sequencer patterns, sheet upon sheet of textural elements, and vocals that come across as desperate and/or pained, even when barely audible beneath all the consuming sounds. These are chilling sounds from a dark place that, nonetheless, shelter the listener. Between the European and stateside physical releases of the album, Cooper passed away. Knowledge of that could only intensify the album's most passive spins....full text |
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| Dustedmagazine |
This is a sad place for the story to end. Charlie Cooper, half of the New Orleans-via-Chicago duo Telefon Tel Aviv, died at age 31 in late January, less than two weeks before the domestic release of the group’s most gratifying record yet. Where their first two studio albums were polished but shadowy and a little bit obstinate, Immolate Yourself displays a band making peace with the idea of the pop song, learning to build grand, ambitious structures without neglecting the dark nuances hidden in every corner. It’s a confident outing from an outfit with all the right reasons to be confident, a unified and often arresting record with few qualms about what it’s supposed to be.
Highlights: opener “The Birds,” a flawless dance track with a lovely, shapeshifting one-sentence lyric; “Helen of Troy,” a darkly enticing and shockingly efficient ballad that makes the Kraftwerk thing feel exciting again; anguished neo-soul jam “You Are the Worst Thing in the World,” complete with rumbling prelude (“Your Every Idol”) of nearly identical length. These are bangers first, thinkpieces second, but every moment therein is accounted for – vocal texture, phantom percussion, ominous ambience. Cooper and partner Joshua Eustis marry jagged intricacy and big simplistic appeal with far greater ease than before.
The rest of the record is made up of the same kind of glitchy parano-IDM bristle that lurked throughout TTA’s debut, Fahrenheit Fair Enough, and its follow-up, Map of What is Effortless: slithery rhythmic ornamentation, obsessive melodic layering, measured words buried under sonic shear. The elements coalesce more sharply here, though, without the nu-jazz cocoon that used to overlay the cold hard details. Immolate gives off a Depeche Mode-style gloom, and pretty unabashedly at that, such that even the weaker individual tracks feel better grounded in a distinct frame of mind....full text |
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