FROTH - Outside (Briefly)

Among the new breed of 2010s shoegaze acts, you now have a new name to jot down: though not exactly a newcomer, since these four Californian musicians have reached their third studio album with "Outside (Briefly)", and there's certainly no shortage of reasons to give it a listen rather than let it slip into oblivion.

The ingredients at work here are undoubtedly compelling: it moves nimbly from the light psychedelia of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club on "Shut The Window" to My Bloody Valentine crossed with Jesus & Mary Chain on "Passing Thing", the album's key track, which around its midpoint opens up into a motorik passage that explicitly recalls War On Drugs or, if you prefer, Wilco's "Spiders (Kidsmoke)".

The soft, deeply evocative dream-pop of "Petals" and the top-shelf indie sentimentalism of "Romance Distractions" alternate with a "New Machine" that folds in wave elements, grafting them onto an innate pop sensibility without ever skimping on the right dose of oblique guitars, and with a "Shatter" that instead retains a dark edge capable of recalling both Cranes and the most decadent Cure.

The second half of the record feels more uniform compared to the pleasantly disorienting shifts of the opening tracks (also worth noting is the synth-pop of opener "Contact", chosen as the single), though it still maintains an extremely high level of compositional quality, proving not far removed from the recent - excellent - work put out by DIIV and Nothing.

Feedback and melodies, noise and tightly calibrated choruses, disruptive elements placed with real craft, fine songwriting, ideas to spare, resembling plenty of others while still carving out a personality of its own, with a shoegaze stance that is, yes, gentle enough to win over even those who don't usually go for overly extreme sounds.

Yes, "Outside (Briefly)" really does risk ending up among this year's finest, and not only for those who live on late-nineties nostalgia, cheering the return of Slowdive and Ride...

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

13/04/2017