https://lilacwelles.bandcamp.com/album/sly-bay
Genre: Indie
Rating: 5/5
released on bandcamp October 22, 2021
Yesterday, I went through a surreal rabbit hole of listening to fragment after fragment of every new wave band ever looking for a song that I think I may have only heard in my dreams and might not exist at all. It’s VERY unusual for me to listen to fragments of songs. In fact, I usually listen to entire albums. Also unrelated to this review but holy cow there’s lots of really good new wave music out there. It’s crazy how many bands successfully built on what Joy Division and The Fall and The Clash did. Don’t get me wrong, none of them are as good as Joy Division or The Fall or The Clash but they’re still really very good. Anyway, to get on with my story, finally after about six hours of twenty second snippets somehow I landed on this and I was immediately transfixed. It was time to give up my search anyway but this immediately took me over and engulfed me.
The guitar is ethereal and beautifully layered. It’s really mesmerizing the way the sonic landscape is presented. Then on top of it the vocals are entirely perfectly designed hypnotic autotune. I don’t know if this comparison will be appreciated but it has this dreaminess that reminds me of certain transcendent moments from Travis Scott. It’s like that type of space vocalization on top of echoey jangle guitar like the ghost of Neutral Milk Hotel playing in a lonely canyon late at night.
Lilac Welles has a more recent release but it’s fragmented and unfinished and not a full masterpiece like this one. This is an undiscovered treasure. I mean, I’m excited to be reviewing this because this is what it’s all about for what I’m trying to do here. I’m trying to shine a light on music like this. It’s a rare experience to find something this good that’s this obscure.
Warmth Highest 