Star

Devastator

(Lovely Rebel)

Record Review by Marcel Feldmar

I’m hoping I love this, ‘cause from what I hear it’s supposed to be something I’d really like. Something Shoegazed and glamorous. Well… I wanna be devastated. First the fuzzed out guitars hit, moving like some Jesus & Mary Chain blur into Bloody Valentine noise, and then Shannon Roberts' vocals move in and over. She soars over the guitars like some Throwing Muse Breeder Belly, pushing the star closer to 4AD. The guitars start to freak out, losing the shoegazed melodics and crushing into some more experimental Medicine-reminiscent noise growl, but still the vocals keep everything together and moving, almost floating.

Noisy and discordant blessed out lullabies for the space-eyed set. Dreamgazing pop that cuts sharp and makes no apologies for the nightmares that slide around. Sometimes the dream gets caught, and the band moves towards something that starts to sound a little more like rock, but with that Garbage type of alternative sound. A nice attempt, but the vocals don’t shift into the aggressiveness of the music, so you’re left feeling like something is missing. There are moments when the vocals touch upon beauty, but when the music is going towards lo-fi and gritty, there’s a conflict that doesn’t seem to get worked out. It’s kinda like if you got Boss Hogg meeting the Cranes or if you did a mash-up with some early Pavement demo and the Cocteau Twins. It might sound great in theory, but actually pulling it off is something totally different. Kids, don’t try this at home. Then by the 6th song we start getting back to the cohesive noise meets beauty vibe, and that’s good. It fluctuates a few more times, but here’s hoping they find the right direction and stick to it. We like that slightly smoothed out Psychocandy sound that melts into a little Loveless noise while being iced by enchanting vocals that slide like a velvet heartbeat across the notes and waves of sound.