Cloakroom : " Dissolution Wave"

It's been a minute since I listened to this project, but this has a more organic 90s rock feel than I remember coming from them. Where their shoe gazing from 10 years ago might have been more abstract, this finds the vocals with more form and function and adhering somewhat to more conventional song structuring, all while not selling out. There is more of a dreamy glaze to the second song. It is more focused on a sound than the song, but the sound is pretty cool so that is ok. They bounce bounce back with more of an indie rock on " a Force at Play" which works really well, so despite loving the first song, I am not tied down to them having to rock like that. 

It is on "Dottie Back Thrush" that they come to a dynamic compromise between the atmosphere of shoegazing and a more rocking for of post- hard core indie rock. It also does not pigeonhole them into sounding 90s either. The claiming of their identity might be one of the album's high lights. They crank up a fuzzed-out bass done to provide a contrast to the airy space left by the vocals that float around the song like a ghost cloud. It might not stick in your head like the previous song but works really well for what they are going for. 

They return to a breezier version of their jangle indie sound on "Lambspring" there is the undercurrent of more distorted guitar that fades in and out which reminds me of sounds My Bloody Valentine played with. They are not as experimental as MBV , just similar tones in places. "Doubts" finds them drifting even further out, but it is a very cool melodic place they venture off to that has more in common with Pink Floyd. "Dissembler" is another song that blends the varied aspects of what they do to their full effect, allowing sedate vocals so sit along the wavering guitar driving the song. I will give this album a 9.5 as it is an infectious listen that grows on me and can just be allowed to play on a loop. It comes out Jaunary 28th on Relapse Records.