Category: Review

Band: Crooked Ghost

Label: Crooked Ghost Records

Home Base: Asheville, NC

Website: https://crookedghost.bandcamp.com/

I listened through this album over and over trying to think of what to say about it and it truly left me speechless. It’s incredible. I think it is beautiful. To say that it’s dreamy is an understatement. It’s absolutely mesmerizing.

The first time I listened through this album, I simply listened to it. I thought it was great! The album sounds upbeat with really pretty vocals. There are lots of layers and lots of reverb. The album has a lot of post-rock and shoegaze elements splashed in, but it was really hard to pinpoint genre-wise. The vocals are huge and captivating with lots of harmonies and layers. I got lost in them. I couldn’t shake that I was missing something bigger about this album though, so I checked out their Bandcamp page to see if they had lyrics posted. They do!

These songs are heartbreaking, sometimes even kind of creepy. The second time I listened through I read along. I realized the depth of each song and the intensity of each word. Where minutes before I was dancing around my bedroom thinking how awesome this album would probably be to run to, I was suddenly fixed to my futon, listening intently trying not to miss anything.

By the time I got to the white noise at the end, I was floored. How is it possible to write so well? How is it possible to put something out there that’s probably so specific and yet so relatable? It’s difficult to write about this without creating blurriness around their incredibly crafted sound.

Some favorite tracks

Sinew In Red– Remember earlier how I said that some of the lyrics were a little creepy? Sinew In Red starts with a twangy guitar solo. When the keys and drums kick in, the song starts sounding like a dreamy desert night. The lyrics are hard to understand, but they’re the darkest on this album. In order to really understand without giving it all away, a sinew is a piece of tough fibrous tissue uniting muscle to bone or bone to bone. It faintly reminded me of Nick Cave and the Bad Seed’s, Do You Love Me (part 2).

Golden Blue– This is probably my favorite track on this album. The story that’s happening lyrically is one of despair and heartache, but you don’t need to know the lyrics for the emotions to come through. The instrumentation never seems to stop building until it suddenly resolves. I can’t listen to it without having a level of excitement form in my chest while simultaneously wanting to cry.

Bright White Noise– This song made me feel very sad and lonely. For that, I love it! When the guitars and vocals come in, they convey such emptiness. The guitar plays a melancholic riff throughout that made me feel like a lost little kid looking for someone who wasn’t there. As the song progresses, the instrumentation becomes more chaotic as the singer sings, “big static bright white noise”. Then it dissolves into the guitar and then into static. It is perfect.

When I listened through this album the first time, I loved it. When I listened to it again, I felt really connected. It’s not every day that you hear something new and it almost brings you to tears the more you hear it. Yet I am trying to fill a hole in my heart I never knew I had.

I’d recommend this album to anyone who likes dream-pop, indie-shoegaze, post-rock, or post-punk. Heck, I’d recommend this to anyone. It left me feeling like I wanted more and I’m sure it will do the same for anyone who gives it a listen!

Band: Mesa Luna

Album: Lash

Label: Afterlife Music ltd.

Website: https://mesaluna.bandcamp.com/

When I listened through, Lash, the debut album by Mesa Luna, I fell in love. It has pretty much everything that I need to be obsessed with an album. Lash is the perfect union of chillwave and shoegaze. The lyrics are relatable and impactful in such a soul-crushing way it will skyrocket you to the love you lost when your heart had never been shattered so badly.

Mesa Luna is a duo from Vancouver, BC consisting of Justice McLellan and Jason Corbett. This album has a central theme of trauma and definitely feels at points like you’re reading over their shoulders while he writes a deep and thoughtful journal entry.

Like every great shoegaze album, Lust, has great hooks throughout both lyrically and instrumentally. This is one of those albums that is psychologically soothing on a few different levels. Beyond it being a very pretty and listenable album, it delivers on what’s expected out of each song without being predictable. It’s definably interesting without being indigestible.

Some favorite tracks

Woronoco– This was one of the singles released right before the albums release, so you may have already heard this one. I love it! There isn’t much to not like about this somber breakup song. It’s blunt and beautiful as a story of empty promises and heartache unfolds. Though the message of the song is sad, the build-up and resolve is exciting. It kept me captivated the whole time.

Sarve– This song is absolutely gorgeous. It starts out really gentle with a soft guitar and keyboard creating a really warm atmospheric vibe. When the dual vocals kick in, it’s like they’re in an endless room. The beat is really relaxed, but still a head bopper.

Never Steady– This song is heartbreaking from the beginning. Though it starts out with a catchy beat and hypnotic synth, the lyrics spell out a sad scene of someone trying to move past something difficult. The builds in this song make your heart swell, but also leaves you feeling forlorn. Right when you think you get the flow of the song, all the instruments fade out and you can clearly hear what Justice is saying and it’s so god damn relatable. I would quote the line, but you just have to hear it yourself. When everything else kicks back in, it gave me goosebumps. This song stood out to me after listening to the whole album because it was one of the songs with less going on instrumentally, but still hit me just as hard as the walls of sound I’ve been expressing through this review.

I had a hard time writing this review because I found myself listening to this album over and over again finding new things that I loved and didn’t know how to explain. This album is definitely worth listening to if you’re into dream-pop, shoegaze, chillwave, or good music. I’d highly recommend if you like the artists: Jack Stauber, Primitive Radio Gods, and/or Youth Lagoon.