Cold Body Radiation : " the Orphean Lyre"

For post-whatever the songs are written in a very condensed format and get to the point without boring you with the drone. They have more in common with Slow dive on this one than Alcest. What could be the album's strongest song follows the dreamy opener. It is almost black metal despite the melodic core. One second listen I could hear the bass player wandering under the guitar to create another layer. The vocals create a very depressing mood.This is contrasted by the more shimmering splendor of "All the Little Things you Forgot are Stored in Heaven". It is heavily accented like the golden years of Explosions in the Sky. The pace picks up for the more metallic rock of "At Sea". The title track which holds a similar metallic influence, doesn't stray far from the mood they establish on "At Sea". The vocals and guitar and both more interesting to me on "Spiral Clouds" which makes me think of what My Blood Valentine might have sounded like if they had been more committed to making atmospheric rock rather than the weirdness that they ending up spewing forth at such high volumes. It's not that I don't like My Bloody Valentine it's just that now that I don't do drugs, I need more of the skeleton of a song that is presented here. I am not sure if it is the version I download or not, but there is a muted hush to "You Were Missing" and it's not available to play on their Bandcamp page so I am just working off of what I am getting here. The vocals are breathy and linger in the haze. The sound issue is not something I found on the more synth driven, "the Forever Sun". There is a more narcotic lethargy on this song that finds it coasting on a snooze cruise control. This feels mood-wise more along the lines of kraut rock as it operates off of a trippy throb. Overall this album gives you everything you could want from shoe-glazed rock, the stronger songs alone earned it a spot on the iPod so I will round this one up to an 8.5.