Slow Crush - Thirst

Thankfully, the '90s revival that is slowly creeping back is not comprised of pop-punk and grunge, but genres that did not get their full appreciation first time around. Slow Crush, then, continues to give their brand of heavy shoegaze a return to the spotlight with new album Thirst. On this album, they've added more emotional layers to the hovering croon of Bassist Isa Holliday's dream-laden delivery and the album sounds great as it balances out the dynamics you want from this type of 90's inspired affair. As such they've given her voice plenty of room to haunt the songs, while the Drums and Bass maintain a driving backbone of fuzzed-out heft to come at you. This is the Belgian band's third full-length and they have clearly gotten comfortable enough in the studio to play around and add things like a sax at the end of 'Covet' to create another layer of sound. 

They bang their instruments with a great deal of grace on the woozier 'Cherry', creating a hazy cloud of guitars over the faint, breathy melody of the vocals that shine from within its tempestuous whirlwind of effected chords. 'Leap' finds her voice pushed to the front of the mix and the atmosphere dialed up. This drapes the dynamic contrast of the verse and the more overdriven chorus riff to create one hypnotic pulse with shifting frequencies within to paint the nuance. At almost three minutes long, 'Hollow' is an instrumental interlude that sets the stage for the more shimmering mod of 'Haven' which ebbs and flows from a more fragile ringing of the guitar. It is both bright and sonically dense, and at high volumes, very powerful. 

'While You Dream Vividly' starts at a very low volume, minimal tones swelling into a searing burst of shimmering sharpness. It is however also more about the song than the story which the song is telling, the patter of drums holds everything together. 'Bloodmoon' wanders off into a more opaque twilight of sound, vocals obscured in the waves of reverb-heavy guitar, indulging in another ambient interlude before the final song. It opens with a light ringing of guitar and a hushed vocal in the distance and almost like something from Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation; without the punk counterpoint and just the Northern Lights swirls of sound.

This album starts as a rocker with more heft, then rides off on its own ambiance, the key to its success being how well it curates these sounds to pull it off. Fans of both the band and the shoegaze genre will find they are given the narcotic soundscape they are looking for from this sort of thing, performed in a manner that requires a few listens to fully comprehend all the layers comprising this album.

Review by Wil Cifer