Record #717: Deftones – Ohms (2020)

It took me a while to get into the Deftones. The ebbs and flow of my opinion of them are well-documented on my social media: a few years ago, I took it upon myself to figure out how I felt about them once and for all, and dove headlong into their discography, taking detailed track by track notes of each album, which shift between aggressive alternative metal and dreamy shoegaze. Their discography sometimes feels like a fight between these extremes, heavy riffs sitting uneasily against the more billowing songs on the tracklist.

But here, Deftones frontman and admitted The Cure fanboy Chino Moreno opens the record singing, “I’ve finally achieved balance.” And then the band spends an entire album proving that they’ve one just that. Over thirty years into their career, Ohms might be the most cohesive and consistent record in their catalog.

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Record #708: Blushing – Blushing (2019)

Last year, I caught the crest of the hype-wave for Blushing as it was cresting. I listened to it on Spotify, fell in love, and upon finding that the vinyl was way out of my budget, I put them away, trying to forget about them. That is until this week, when my friend Rob included it in an order of cassette tapes from his label, Friend Club Records. So now, I get to fall in love with this record all over again.

I know what you might be thinking—does this guy really need another shoegaze record? And it’s true that for many of the trend-chasing bands in the so-called shoegaze revival scene, the most important part of the genre is the aesthetic. Sometimes, it seems like these bands would rather have an excuse for guitar fuzz or reverb pedals than offer songs with any real compositional fiber.

And truth be told, I love a lot of those bands. I will gladly sit through forty-five minutes of pedalboard demonstrations put to wax, and then I’ll buy it on vinyl. I’m easy to please.

But while Blushing might often get mentioned in the same breath as a lot of the say-nothing revivalists, they don’t just hit the aesthetic of shoegaze. They have the songs to back it up.

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Record #683: Drab Majesty – Demonstration (2017)

A few weeks ago, my love of Emma Ruth Rundle’s masterpiece On Dark Horses and her post metal outfit Red Sparowes finally bade me to listen  to her psych-metal/dark-indie project Marriages (review coming in a few days).

And as I was digging in, I discovered that the drummer of Marriages has his own project—the moody, atmospheric new wave/dark wave/cold wave outfit Drab Majesty. And at my first listen to the project’s sophomore record Demonstration, it grabbed me in its painted-nailed, ruffle-shirted, androgynous arms and wrapped me up in a hold that was half hug, half Anaconda Vise.

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Record #644: Blonde Redhead – 23 (2007)

As much as I try to stay atop notable new releases, it’s inevitable that some will escape my attention for a while.  In this case, “a while” is twelve years, as the first listen I gave to Blonde Redhead’s magnificent 23 was just last week.

And what a waste it’s been, because this would have been one of my favorite records from my college years if I discovered it earlier. It’s the perfect mixture of thick My Bloody Valentine-y textures, Radioheady beat work, and grade-A pop hooks.

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Record #633: Hundredth – RARE (2017)

With all of the punk and hardcore kids starting shoegaze bands these days (see: Nothing, Turnover, Pity Sex) and bands implementing more of that lush instrumentalism into their sound (see: Touche Amore, Title Fight), it was only a matter of time until a hardcore band became a full-fledged shoegaze band.

It might seem like a massive jump for a hardcore band to shift to the gauzy, dreamy lushness of shoegaze, but Hundredth does it in a way that still captures their punk fury. Continue reading

Record #621: My Bloody Valentine – m b v (2013)

Some albums don’t need a follow up. They stand firmly upon their own two proverbial legs, singular icons that echo into eternity, transcending everything else the artist does.

Loveless is one of those albums. It cemented My Bloody Valentine’s legacy even without a follow up.

And for a long time, it finally felt like that follow up would never come. Then once it did, it was met with apprehension. After all, how do you follow up a record as sublime and transformative as Loveless? 

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