What's with kids and shoegaze these days? Am I old? Am I so out of touch?
No, no, actually this smashing of shoegaze with chamber-dream-pop is the right speed for me. More approachable than an Inlet and other such more intense gazes. Opening "shanty" is a sea-star shanty that accurately describes the rest of the album: driving synthesizer, unrecognizable lyrics. Fast-moving guitar shows up and layers part way in to build the full stack. This three-parter forms the liver, kidneys, and intestines of very in your bowels feeling 42 minutes.
Producer/lyricist/guitarist Halstead almost pulled "kisses" because it's too pop. He's right, it's a stand-out pop track amongst a wash of, uh, sound. I like the palette cleanse, personally, especially when the synthesizers themselves elsewhere aren't -so- revolutionary, and the pop drive of "kisses" isn't half bad. "shanty," "the slab" are more "in the wheelhouse," I guess, and pretty good. But see on the flip, I bet Halstead loves "andalucia plays," which I find kinda boring; they can go play elsewhere.
So all that's to say, generally, it's pretty good, if not amazing. It sets a mood. "shanty" reminds me of the Dr. House song, it could be the theme to Space Dr. House (which was Avenue 5? disappointing show). What I'd be remiss to not notice, coincidence-wise, is this "everything is alive" is an interesting juxtaposition to "everything is plastic," I mean "everything is death," I mean "plastic death," another ambitious full-soundscape album. Is this more alive? Was that more dead? Or is that just the aesthetic signifiers of downstream variations of indie rock? I have no idea what the kids are into these days.
No, no, actually this smashing of shoegaze with chamber-dream-pop is the right speed for me. More approachable than an Inlet and other such more intense gazes. Opening "shanty" is a sea-star shanty that accurately describes the rest of the album: driving synthesizer, unrecognizable lyrics. Fast-moving guitar shows up and layers part way in to build the full stack. This three-parter forms the liver, kidneys, and intestines of very in your bowels feeling 42 minutes.
Producer/lyricist/guitarist Halstead almost pulled "kisses" because it's too pop. He's right, it's a stand-out pop track amongst a wash of, uh, sound. I like the palette cleanse, personally, especially when the synthesizers themselves elsewhere aren't -so- revolutionary, and the pop drive of "kisses" isn't half bad. "shanty," "the slab" are more "in the wheelhouse," I guess, and pretty good. But see on the flip, I bet Halstead loves "andalucia plays," which I find kinda boring; they can go play elsewhere.
So all that's to say, generally, it's pretty good, if not amazing. It sets a mood. "shanty" reminds me of the Dr. House song, it could be the theme to Space Dr. House (which was Avenue 5? disappointing show). What I'd be remiss to not notice, coincidence-wise, is this "everything is alive" is an interesting juxtaposition to "everything is plastic," I mean "everything is death," I mean "plastic death," another ambitious full-soundscape album. Is this more alive? Was that more dead? Or is that just the aesthetic signifiers of downstream variations of indie rock? I have no idea what the kids are into these days.
No comments:
Post a Comment