Fashion Club’s new album A Love You Cannot Shake is cinematic. It’s distracting. It’s peaceful. The artist makes you sonically want to follow her every move, from first track “Faith” to final track “Deify.” From whispery vocals to electro-poppy harmonies, the encompassing sound results in captivation, leaving the listener with a surreal feeling.

Pascal Stevenson, a member of the post-punk outfit Moaning, works under the name Fashion Club as her solo project full of self-expression and artistry. A Love You Cannot Shake released October 25 as her sophomore album following 2022’s Scrutiny. In comparing the two, the more recent work evolves from the gothic, almost anxious sounds of the previous to a more sophisticated degree of soundscapes.

A Love You Cannot Shake’s character is electronic and shoegazey, touching on a noise influence at times. Overall, Fashion Club seems to be working out a craving for a subtle art pop record.

“Faith” sets up the dreamy tone that the rest of the album maintains throughout the other nine songs.

What follows are pleasantly pop-y instrumentals in “Confusion.” One wouldn’t expect the lyrics to include, “I feel useless again, another broken promise I can’t mend. Oh wait, I can pretend.” Yet, those lines fit perfectly for the indie, coming-of-age movie that is A Love You Cannot Shake.

The album has three tracks with features by Perfume Genius, Jay Som and Julie Byrne: “Forget,” “Ghost” and “Rotten Mind,” respectively. All were singles. Each collaboration fits with what the songs separately do—track 3, “Forget,” is a beautiful conversation with a younger self that remains quiet for over half of its time and, suddenly, explodes with color.

“Ghost” follows with more electronica in exciting synths. The two musicians vocally continue that self-reflection in the lyrics that “Forget” set up. The ending line leaves with, “I leave the ghost behind, knowing that I turned out fine.”

Finally, track 9, “Rotten Mind,” the very first single for this album, sounds a little more chilling compared to the rest of the greater work. Through artistic lyrics, Fashion Club powerfully challenges a cruel force in few words. Julie Byrne comes in for the final lines that each start with the repetition of “It’s not love.”

Pascal Stevenson wrote, produced, and mixed all of the songs on A Love You Cannot Shake. Each choice she made sounds so precise—the self-production is impressive. Ranging from dreamy and light to eerie and dark, the record brings the listener through a cinematic journey that we see in the artist’s evolution from her debut work.