(2023) Holy Wave - Five of Cups
Review:
Almost every band worth their salt artistically comes to a point where they aren't sure whether to keep going, whether they have anything new to say or meaningful to contribute. Spurred by the catastrophic upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, Holy Wave hit that point and considered packing it in. After some deep thought, they decided to rededicate themselves, and their 2023 album Five of Cups sounds like the work of a revamped, reinvigorated band. In the past, they were driven by clanging guitars and garage rock fumes, delivering rippling good-time rock & roll and lazily nocturnal psychedelia in equal amounts. Their previous release Interloper gave this formula a slight jostle by adding more vintage keys to the mix; here, the balance is tipped definitely in favor of the synths and arrangements where the guitars are an important piece, not the main focus. That means that the album feels a little muted at first, drifting past peacefully without making much of an impression. The layering of keys, the laid-back drums, string instruments that feel caressed as much as played, and vocals that hover in the middle distance all combine to create a gentle feel and fit that only begins to take effect about halfway through. When the shoegaze guitars start to fill in the gaps on "Path of Least Resistance," acceptance that this is a different kind of Holy Wave album sets in and the narcotic breeze the music kicks up starts to envelop the listener. Once that happens, it's easier to pick up on the minute differences in dynamics that shift discretely or the fun little tricks in the arrangements, like the backing vocals that bounce from speaker to speaker on "Nothing Is Real" or the oddly chopped-up vibraphone on "Chaparral." The album mostly sticks to this underwater feel and subdued mood, but there are a couple of tracks that up the energy a little to great effect. On "The Darkest Timeline," they bring in Lorena Quintanilla and Alberto Gonzalez from Lorelle Meets the Obsolete to sprinkle in some dubby echo and insistent vocals, ending up with a surging psychedelic pop song that has all the drama and spirit the rest of the album downplays so deftly. "Happier" is another track that breaks the haze with a drastically increased tempo, very fuzzy walls of guitar, glitchy electronics, and lovely vocals from Mint Field's Estrella del Sol. Coming near the end of the album, those songs feel like a postscript of sorts, like the band have awakened from a satisfying nap and want to do something more exciting to get the blood flowing. It works that way for the listener too, those two songs snapping them to attention after a long spell of somnambulantly lovely dream-psych. It may not be the most coherent album Holy Wave could have made, but it does show them growing and evolving in a manner interesting enough that anyone who was a fan should be glad they didn't call it a day. — allmusic
Track List:
01 - Five of Cups
02 - Bog Song
03 - Chaparral
04 - Path of Least Resistance
05 - Nothing Is Real
06 - Hypervigilance
07 - The Darkest Timeline
08 - Nothing in the Dark
09 - Happier
Media Report:
Genre:
Country: Austin, Texas, United States of America
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)
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