Loud and heavy in a dreamy, summery way. These three pop songs are driven by pedal-heavy guitar that ebbs and swells in slow, shoegazey washes. But it’s the melodies that keep this from fading into the faceless background fuzz that unadulterated shoegaze can turn into (at least for those of us who don’t live and die by rare My Bloody Valentine singles). Frontwoman Lauren’s breathy vocals are mixed just right—buried too deep to be fully intelligible, but somehow still soaring over the instrumentals. Everything about this release is elegant, from the clean production to the minimalist labels. I could see this on a soundtrack for an indie movie with a lot of lens flares.
–Indiana Laub (Photobooth, [email protected], photoboothrecords.com)