Chicago-based shoegaze outfit Airiel’s website says about the band’s music: “It’s loud. It’s pretty. You can dance to it.” This is the principle that has guided the group’s music all along, including this second full-length album.
In a lot of ways, the band’s music is exactly what you’d expect based on their description. It has colossal guitars making lots of noise and creating shimmery effects, and has drums that are bursting with life. This is to say, the music is meant to follow a specific formula (and the band might even attest to this). However, what’s absolutely genuine about Airiel—and Molten Young Lovers in particular—is that they celebrate this music that they love with unbridled enthusiasm; and this enthusiasm is infectious.
Take the absolute banger of a song, the opening track, “This Is Permanent.” Yes, it is dancy and loud. But the energy that the group puts into performing this song is what ultimately wins the heart.
Even the slower songs like “Molten Young Lovers,” “Your Lips, My Mouth,” and “Keep You,” where the focus is creating placid cinematic Slowdive-like soundscapes, the drumming pounds vigorously, true to the spirit of the band to make music that you can dance to.
Airiel can really make noise that will please any shoegaze-head’s ears. On “The Painkillers” and “Red Car,” the guitars are gnarly and psychedelic, and suck the listener into a vortex of pure noise (and bliss) similar to the later tracks on Radiohead’s Pablo Honey, “Lurgee” and “Blow Out.” On “Cloudburst” and “Inside Out,” the group mix wistful melodiousness with satisfyingly noisy guitars resulting in a kind of beauty that’s both ethereal and discordant.
Of their two albums and numerous EPs, Airiel haven’t sounded better than they have on Molten Young Lovers. Formulaic or not, for its era, this record is a shoegaze gem.
