This album seems to be a kind of turning point for this band as they emerge from the less focused (yet no less appealing) material of their preceding releases. Their material here sounds more focused and consistent, while at the same time demonstrating their ability to write good songs. In spite of the ethereal, reverbed vocals and keyboards, there are strong melodies throughout. Even the B-side of the \u201cTotally True\u201d single (\u201cSomething Falling\u201d) is moody and beautiful, leading one to wonder why it was left off the album. It hints at the magnitude of the creative outburst from which this release was born. <\/p>\n
Violens <\/i>begins with \u201cTotally True,\u201d an up-tempo track that layers oscillating guitar figures over the washed-out vocal harmonies, but to a wistful and melancholy melody. A similar approach is used on \u201cWhen To Let Go,\u201d another one of the album\u2019s highlights, although this song employs a stronger but more complex melody. The disc does take some interesting turns with its instrumentals, such as on the brooding drone of \u201cLavender Forces\u201d and the odd harmonic turns on \u201cLucent Carries\u201d that seem like confusion before dissolving into waves of white noise. The rest of the tracks hold faithfully to the sound and aesthetic of the album, making it feel like an \u201calbum\u201d in the classic sense. <\/p>\n
The prospect of reviving the sound of shoegaze bands from the late \u201880s and \u201890s may seem threadbare at first, but this band also succeeds in deploying the droning and reverb with some restraint, adding just enough to create the desired atmosphere without being too indulgent. At times, the vocals seem to be lost in the mix a bit. Whether to say this is due to a lack of confidence in the singing or just a stylistic affectation can be a tough call. More likely, it is probably regarded as a necessity to achieve the kind of sound they are after. In a way, it draws attention to one\u2019s assumptions as a listener about what their expectations are about where vocal should<\/i> be in the mix. Nonetheless, the balance works here. <\/p>\n
As it seems to be the case with most bands that were pigeonholed as \u201cshoegaze\u201d or \u201cdream pop,\u201d very few have managed to sustain that sound for more than about two albums before moving on to other musical pastures. Until a follow-up release comes out, there is the hope that this band will continue to evolve and mature along this trajectory, and hopefully the songwriting will prevail over the ambient haze and fashionable nods to their predecessors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":31121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8940],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-44125","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-violens","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44125"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44125"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}