Give Up to Failure : "COCOON"

Here is another album that was never on my radar for the year, and no clue why it was not.  I was unsure what to expect going into this album, I just pressed play and was hit by a wonderful mix of dark sounds. This Polish band takes the ambiance of shoe-gaze and pumps it full of post-sludge muscle. The vocals are a depressive moan that is more often than not swallowed by reverb and mixed behind the guitars. The second song is even darker than the first, with a rock dynamic that punches the point home when they step on the gain. The bulk of the song lays back in a Cure-like bliss. The album is really well produced with a variety of alluring guitar tones captured. As with most elements of their sound, the mix captures balance. This serves their songwriting style as things drone just enough to be hypnotic and not enough to become boring or allow the song to fade into the background.

The vocals are more breathy and shoe gaze-like going into "Wide Awake". It captures the feel of dream pop without being whisked away into whimsy. The bass goes into "Damages" giving it more of a spine. The deeper into the album you get the more it sinks into shoe-gaze. I like how they take the genre into a darker more despondent place. Their bass player leans into taking more of a post-punk role by anchoring the song from its own ambiance. 'Sleepwalk" lives up to it's name when it comes to creating a surreal dream-like quality. The vocals are once again in almost a hushed whisper.  There is more of a slow-core malaise to the song. It slowly unfolds, building with each note like a storm cloud in the distance.  It maintains a purposeful detachment.

"the Husk" has enough subtle brooding to separate itself from floating into the same haze many of the other songs are drawn to. "Weakness" lives up to its name by exposing the band's tendency to give into the delicate nature of their sound and float off. The bass returns to grant more heft to "Slow Collapse". Its slightly fuzzed-out tone provides the structure for the song to form around. The vocals are less whispered and muster a slight attitude in the manner they are moaned. The title track builds off a more epic shoe-gaze cascade and ebbs down for the verses to breathe. The lyric announcing he is falling asleep in his cocoon brings narcotic connotations.

The track fades out with piano and the last song. The vocals are more defined, and a more prominent instrument in a song that lingers in its own ambiance past the point of when the drugs should have kicked in. But it captures a raw honest mood so you can not fault them for that., I will give this album a 9.5. It is one of the year's best shoe gaze albums and I wish I discovered it earlier in the year.