Pennsylvania's SOARS (album cover)
As a sucker for sad and mopey shoegaze SOARS grabbed my attention several months ago while breezing through the outstanding Shuffler website. The dark, ambient tones of the music seem to carry the distant and forlorn vocals of Briana Edwards on a dreary and mystifying fog. “Throw Yourself Apart” haunted me with the dark intro, the simple beat with the bass and snare drum’s overblown volume, piercing and melodic riff, and that sad, sad vocal treatment. The album continues in the same manner; each song delicate and brooding in its own right with a blend of shoegaze and noisy dream pop swirling around a fragile and echo-y female vocal lead. The eternal David Fricke described them as a “less assaultive My Bloody Valentine” and he’s pretty much right-on. The album does anything but soar, but that is the point and if gloomy makes you happy then check this band out.
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