A Blend of Shoegaze, Dream-Rock and Cinematic Flow from LUCIDBLOOM
A fresh new release from LUCIDBLOOM brings together elements of pop, alternative overtone, and drifting but inviting shoegaze soundscape, mostly brought on by these thick laid atmospheres that feel dream like, reverb riddled guitars, and vocals that flow through the ether of the song delivering harmonies that wrap themselves around you and keep you right where they want to.
One of my favorite things about this record is the simple fact that it takes you for this journey. It's more of an experience than anything else. This works best by listening to the record with headphones on.
This is one of the most exciting ways to soak everything in because there is so many textures sort of coming at you at certain points that you're able to swim through them, and listening with headphones let's you soak all of that in properly.
There are certain records you hear and feel like they were meant to be listened to with headphones. This is absolutely one of them.
The EP is called COEXIST, and it doesn't waste a lot of time kicking things off and giving you this amazing atmospheric sound with its first track, "Aftermath", which comes straight in giving you these almost haunting vocal approaches,
memorable melodies and progressive, underground alternative rock style drumming that come together and start letting the song flourish into a very robust kind of soundscape that doesn't get heavy per se, but definitely gets more rock and expansive.
Guitars go from clean to slightly fuzz toned and distorted, while vocals still drift and dream, inviting you into this other worldly kind of aesthetic for a chunk of time.
The drumming is definitely the backbone to songs like this one. I feel like everything kind of pushes off of the energy that the drummer is giving off and he really provides such a liveliness to the song. These are songs that feel like they're alive and breathing and a lot of that has to do with the drummer.
It's not just sitting in the pocket. He does a lot of other stuff percussively throughout the songs that let them have a natural and forward moving flow.
The bass guitar has a great tone to it as well and also gives a little bit of a slightly postpunk element at times because of it.
Has this song unfolds, it does get a little bit heavier, a little edgier, and sort of picks up intensity. The vocals start pulling off these ghostly feels and melodies, and the whole thing just swallows you up.
So, right from the first track, you're getting the door opened to what you can expect for a lot of the rest of the record, which is to be engulfed by this semi cinematic and slightly theatrical dreamlike sound, and it feels good to get swallowed up by this thing.
Once you step into this atmosphere you don't want to leave. I feel like that's half the point.
"Fever Dream" follows that first initial song and this one has a great rhythm to it with a cool sort of time signature, again the drummer performing these little sort of ghosts like notes between the main sets of rhythms, and it creates the effect of a lot happening at once.
The vocalist really pulls off such an amazing thing by layering her harmonies the way she does, and whoever makes the track really understood the mission as well because they gave everything just the right amount of wetness so that you can hear every note, every harmony, and every nuance crystal clear, but still feel like you're getting drenched by the sound.
Something feels strangely spiritual about songs like this one. I'm not sure exactly what it is. Maybe it's the melodies that she's singing and how there are three or more harmonies for a lot of those parts.
Either way, there's something that feels like it gets inside of you somehow. You take songs like this with you even when you don't realize it.
It's tracks like this that feels super filmic or cinematic to me. You really get surrounded and sort of immersed by the simplicity of it. There's not loads of things happening here. There's not eight instruments performing things at once. It's also not stripped down by any means.
It's not overwhelming, but you feel like you're in the moment with the song. You feel like the song knows you somehow and it quickly becomes the soundtrack to whatever you're doing.
It's very cool have songs like this can connect with you on the back end like that.
"Dust" is probably one of my favorites on the records simply because it gives off a little bit of a 90s trip-hop vibe with that beat, and it also has slightly less going on in terms of vocal harmonies and lushness. A lot of the vocal harmony stuff seems to be a staple for the record so this song was a bit of a breather in terms of letting that go for a little bit.
You get a lot of that pop sensibility coming through, and this felt like probably the most radio friendly track of the bunch.
This was definitely a track that gave me a little bout to nostalgia because it felt like the kind of stuff I grew up listening to, and I like that because it also sort of showcases how this band pulls together their different influences and inspirations to create something that's their own.
This isn't steady genre. They're blending and bending genres together to create something that has its own style, without reinventing the wheel.
This whole record is something that definitely gives you the kind of depth that you want from a band like this. You're able to let your mind go free as you listen to the songs. Each listener will interpret and soak them in differently, which is part of the beauty of music like this.
There is a particular kind of elegance to this record, but there's also a particular kind of edginess and alternative backbone that it sits on as well. Like I mentioned earlier, it haunts a little bit, it has that distant and sort of Moody tone a lot of the time.
It is also incredibly beautiful and I think this is for people who want to feel something from listening to music.
For me it wasn't really about the lyrics. For others it may be. For me it was more about how the melodies made me feel when I heard them. The way the instruments and the vocals compliment each other and create those atmospheres in such a seamless fashion.
When you listen to this record from start to finish, and one shot you'll have to snap yourself back to reality in the end.
It's been quite some time since I've heard a record that let me escape into it the way this one did, and I can genuinely appreciate that.
I feel like that's what music is about in part.
It's about getting away. Getting out of your head and into someone else's. Stepping out of your world and into someone else's. Connecting with what you're hearing uniquely.
I digress. This is a record you should be listening to and once more, I heavily suggest listening to it with headphones on so you can really soak in those beautiful layers and textures.
Whatever you do don't miss this one.
Remember where you heard it first.
Comments