Some bands make miserable a business and some make it there business to escape into misery. This album has an undeniably sad sound to it, but it’s almost as though they’re taking solace in their sadness rather than using music as a means of escape. However, there isn’t a single tearjerker on this album, thank the gods for that. It’s a sad album, but it isn’t cheesy and it is almost cheery at the same time.
The dreamy, druggy atmospherics of My Bloody Valentine and Radiohead are certainly to be had on this release, but to say that it’s just Radiohead meets My Bloody Valentine wouldn’t grasp the totality of this release. This is an epic and dramatic album in ways that the aforementioned bands never really attempted. The slow drama of the music clashes and careens off of the subtle happiness it creates. It’s indescribably blissful, yet hyper aware of the dark energy beneath it.
The vocals almost function as suggestions of melody or sound rather than the way in which many bands use vocals—it’s quite eerie. Sacha Lucashenko’s voice lilts and flies at random intervals much like the music he sings over. The guitar work is slow, thoughtful and insidiously catchy. This is memorable release, but it has a subtle depth to it that really pushes it above the hoards boring pop bands out there.
In A Word: Dolorous
