Exitmusic - Passage (2012)

Glistening, ethereal post/indie rock for sad lovers. Sigur Rós by way of Brooklyn. Everything I'm listening to right now sounds like it was made to be played in stadiums. I believe that a lot of the hype around this band revolved around the fact that its two members were/are married, and one of them (Aleska Palladino) was Angela on Boardwalk Empire, but none of that has anything to do with Passage's ability to make you feel like you're levitating.

Track listing:

1. Passage

2. The Night

3. The City

4. White Noise

5. Storms

6. The Wanting

7. Stars

8. The Modern Age

9. The Cold

10. Sparks of Light

I'll vacuum the spaces

Used to separate me from you

You from me

Death from birth

If you like this, try:

Auburn Lull - Cast from the Platform (2004)

Air Formation - Nothing to Wish For (Nothing to Lose) (2010)

Prolapse - Ghosts of Dead Aeroplanes (1999)

Psychedelic, abstract indie drawing from post-punk, post-rock, shoegaze, and Sonic Youth-ish noise rock. Easily the most experimental and my favorite of what I've heard of this band’s catalogue. One of this band's defining characteristics is the push-and-pull between their two vastly different vocalists; on one hand, Linda Steelyard has the kind of angelic, weightless voice that makes you think 4AD or Slowdive or something, while Mick Derrick pretty much just shouts in a thick Scottish accent. On previous Prolapse records, I've honestly found it kinda off-putting -- to be fair, it's probably supposed to be -- whereas here, both vocalists take on a more dreamlike, atmospheric quality.

Track listing:

1. Essence of Cessna

2. Fob.com

3. Adiabatic

4. Cylinders V12 Beats Cylinders 8

5. One Illness

6. After After

7. Government of Spain

8. Planned Obsolescence

What did the letter say?

You should also listen to:

Paradise Motel - Left Over Life to Kill (1996)

dEUS - The Ideal Crash (1999)

SOM - The Shape of Everything (2022)

Absolutely beautiful doom-gaze. While so many of their shoegaze-infused post-metal peers still lean heavily on the drawn-out crescendos of mid-aughts post-rock, SOM keeps their songwriting concise while allowing their sound to remain proudly, passionately outsized. Like a more muscular, reinvigorated Jesu, or Deftones if they allowed their dreamiest impulses to reign. (I know there are a lot of Deftones haters out there, so please don't let that last part stop you from checking this out.) Free/name your price via the SOM bandcamp.

Track listing:

1. Moment

2. Animals

3. Center

4. Shape

5. Clocks

6. Wrong

7. Heart Attack

8. Son of Winter

Nothing can stop me now

You're right, you're right

You should also hear:

Year of the Rabbit - Year of the Rabbit (2003)

Coaltar of the Deepers - Yukari Telepath (2007)

All in the Golden Afternoon - Magic Lighthouse on the Infinite Sea (2011)

Generally laid-back psych/dream pop/shoegaze. The kind of album that reminds me how much I, contradictory as it may seem, loathe music-writing, as it forces the lazier writers among us to trot out, over and over again, the same list of tired adjectives (see: "laid-back", also could have been "hazy", "heavy-lidded", etc.) to stand in for that beautiful, rejuvenating, and possibly indescribable feeling that we all get when we hear a great record. Or I could say something dumb like: this sounds like a really nice, lazy summer day spent laying on blankets in the sun, high on mushrooms. But that doesn't capture the emotional nuances at work here, as it's certainly not all sunshine, smiles, and highs. Don't listen to me, listen to this record.

Track listing:

1. Advice from a Caterpillar

2. Tidal Wave

3. Symphonies of Spirits

4. 30th and Sanchez

5. Gulf Coast Highway

6. Up All Night

7. In the Sky

8. Less and Less

9. The Pool of Tears

10. In a Box

11. Beneath the Setting Sun

12. Up All Night - Western Arms Remix [bonus]

The sun is up, the sky is blue

It's beautiful and so are you

If you like this, listen to:

Spectrum - Soul Kiss (Glide Divine) (1992)

Astrobrite - All the Stars Will Fall (2012)

Monoland - Cooning (2001)

A top-tier obscurity of German shoegaze bliss. Starts out sounding like it's gonna be some really great Loveless-worship, then quickly dives into a deep, shimmering pool of ambient dub.

Track listing:

1. De Pale

2. Cooning

3. Motel Fumatore

4. MC Cann

5. Orcin

6. Moon

7. Voodoo

8. Embrace

9. Honolulu

Cupid come

If you like this, you should hear:

Swallow - Blow + Blowback (1992)

Guitar - Sunkissed (2002)

Flesh World - Flesh World (2013)

Deathrock/dream pop hybrid from SF. Echoing drums, reverb-washed guitars, creepy keyboards, and vocal melodies/guitar leads/overall songwriting approach right out of the punk rock playbook. Dream punk, maybe? I really thought this band was gonna take off, but haven't heard anything from them since 2017. And since I always hate on Pitchfork, I'm thinking it's only fair to mention that, regardless of how wrong they are sometimes, I have found a lot of great music through that site, including Flesh World.

Track listing:

1. Sturdy Swiss Hiker

2. A Trip to the Living Ice Age

3. Church of Flesh

4. Reckon and Know

5. Lost My Heart in Transit Thru the Post

6. Are We Saved Or Are We Damned?

To hell with your purity

You should also listen to:

The KVB - Subjection/Subordination (2011)

Wildhoney - Wildhoney (2013) + Seventeen Forever (2014)

Amp - Sirènes (1999)

Related:

Light - Turning (1996)

Just remembered I told someone I'd post some Amp. Here's their second full-length. Much like that Light record, it's a hazy, somewhat lo-fi take on ambient shoegaze/psych that's probably best listened to while high, late at night.

Track listing:

1. Souvenir

2. Frieze

3. Perdu

4. Merry Go Down

5. November

6. Rave Mantra

7. Matilda's Short Wave

8. Soft Stone Soul

9. Eternity

10. So Be It

Tracing of sparrow on snow-crested ground

More like this:

Jessamine - Jessamine (1994)

Bowery Electric - Bowery Electric (1995)

Light - Turning (1996)

Ambient, shoegaze-informed space rock. Echoing, shimmering clouds of guitars, droning feedback, minimal drums, and distorted vocals. Definitely FFO Flying Saucer Attack.

Track listing:

1. Trailer

2. Tale of White Passage

3. Nature Man

4. Bird

5. Passing

6. Unknown Song

7. Mind Crossing

8. End of the River

Lightdripglow

Similar listening:

Landing - Oceanless (2001)

Clear Horizon - Clear Horizon (2003)

St Johnny - High as a Kite (1993)

Great American indie rock. Fuzzed-out guitars and straining vocals that are more than a little reminiscent of Dinosaur Jr., or Pavement's harder-edged moments, but there's a clear shoegaze influence at work as well. Honestly, I thought that I had posted either this or Speed Is Dreaming within the first year of starting this blog, but apparently not.

Track listing:

1. Go to Sleep

2. God in My Head

3. Highway

4. Velocity

5. My Father's Father

6. Matador

7. Black

8. Stupid

9. High as a Kite

10. Ashes and Slashes

11. Unclean

I still can see some light

You should also hear:

Majesty Crush - Love 15 (1993)

Rollerskate Skinny - Shoulder Voices (1993)

Mahogany - The Dream of a Modern Day (2000)

One of the great slept-on dream pop/shoegaze records. An airy wall-of-sound composed of cello, guitars, synths, miscellaneous electronics, and more, with gentle vocals that kinda remind me of Lætitia Sadier.

Track listing:

1. Movement I

2. Chance

3. Optimism

4. The Mystique of the Locomotive

5. Soleil Radieux

6. Anaïs No. 4

7. Movement II

8. Vista-Dome

9. Anaïs No. 3

10. Red Marrow, His Sorrow

11. On the Threshold of the Absolute

12. Synchromie No. 1

My bed is my castle

If you like this, listen to:

Pram - The Stars Are So Big, the Earth Is So Small... Stay as You Are (1993)

Moscow Olympics - Cut the World (2008)

Scarling. - Sweet Heart Dealer (2004)

This one goes out to the person on my followers list with Marilyn Manson as their profile pic -- I see you and I'm with you. Dark alt rock with sharp-edged, shoegaze-y guitars and the beguiling vocals of Jessicka Fodera, formerly of Manson affiliates Jack Off Jill. On Sweet Heart Dealer, Scarling. almost comes off as a grownup version of Jack Off Jill; in fact, the thick, distorted bass that opens the record directly recalls "American Made", the first track on JOJ's first album. The bitterness, heartbreak, and spookiness are still in place, along with the aggressive instrumentation and Fodera's willingness to shred her vocal cords. But it's altogether way more complex, more ethereal, and less angsty.

Track listing:
1. The Last Day I Was Happy
2. Band Aid Covers the Bullet Hole
3. Crispin Glover
4. Alexander the Burn Victim
5. Baby Dracula
6. Black Horse Riding Star
7. Can't (Halloween Valentine)

And I can't have fun
Makes me feel like nothing

If you like this, try:

Medicine -
Her Highness (1995)

Year of the Rabbit -
Year of the Rabbit (2003)

Moscow Olympics - Cut the World (2008)

Melancholic dream pop/shoegaze with more than a hint of New Order-y post-punk/new wave swoon. All chiming guitars, gauzy synths, wiry rhythms, and whispery vocals. FFO: Beach Fossils, DIIV, Wild Nothing, and all those other new-wave-on-heroin bands.

Track listing:
1. What Is Left Unsaid
2. No Winter, No Autumn
3. Second Trace
4. Safe
5. Carolyn
6. Ocean Sign
7. Cut the World

I think you are a pig
Should be in a zoo

If you like this, try:

Sleep ∞ Over -
Forever (2011)

Au.Ra -
Jane's Lament (2015)

The Third Eye Foundation - Semtex (1996)

A genre-defying masterpiece that touches equally on shoegaze/psych, drum n bass, and trip-hop. Densely-layered walls of guitars, piercing feedback, angelic voices, distorted drum loops, and samples. Apocalyptic, hypnotic, sorrowful, and all-out awe-inspiring.

Track listing:
1. Sleep
2. Still Life
3. Dreams on His Fingers
4. Next of Kin
5. Once When I Was an Indian
6. Rain

The day the wind blew out the light

You should also listen to:

Flying Saucer Attack -
Flying Saucer Attack (1993)

The Angelic Process -
Coma Waering (2003)

Bright - Bright (1996)

Blissed-out, kraut-indebted indie/post-rock from a Boston duo. Echoing guitars, understated vocals, insistent drumming, and a few saxophone cameos for good measure. Bright does remind me of some other, great bands -- Stereolab, Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, and Duster, primarily -- but their sound is their own.

Track listing:
1. Canal
2. The Res
3. Enthusiasm
4. Off
5. Merrimack
6. Point
7. Lake Killala
8. Elting 1901
9. Switch
10. Mugged
11. Redefine
12. All the Wheels Go
13. Pannonica
14. Perennials
15. Boham and Pribram

Forever more or less

You'd also like:

Flying Saucer Attack -
Flying Saucer Attack (1993)

Pram - The Stars Are So Big, the Earth
Is So Small... Stay as You Are (1993)

Medicine - Her Highness (1995)

Medicine's absurdly underrated third album. Heavenly, pop-leaning shoegaze. It's like, I get it, y'all, it's less abrasive than their first two records, and we're all supposed to pretend that that's inherently bad, but come on -- taken on its own terms, this album's great. Sure, it's super 90s, but I refuse to hold that against it.

Track listing:
1. All Good Things
2. Wash Me Out
3. Candy Candy
4. I Feel Nothing at All
5. A Fractured Smile
6. Farther Dub
7. Farther Down
8. Aarhus
9. Seen the Light Alone
10. Heads

I tell you lies
I sympathize
With your demon
When he turns you inside out

You'd also like:

Curve -
Open Day at the Hate Fest (2001)

Guitar -
Sunkissed (2002)

Ester Drang - Goldenwest (2001)

A forgotten gem of hazy, shoegaze- and emo-indebted Oklahoman post-rock. I've always gotten vaguely Christian vibes from this band, but as far as I'm aware, their lyrics are cryptic enough to elude specifically religious interpretations.

Track listing:
1. Goldenwest
2. Song for Jonathan
3. Is Nothing New
4. Repeating the Procedure
5. That's When He Turns Us Golden
6. Words That Cure, Part 1
7. Words That Cure, Part 2
8. How Good Is Good Enough?
9. Felicity, Darling

Everything you do
Becomes a part of you

You should also hear:

Aereogramme -
Sleep and Release (2003)

Piano Magic - The Troubled
Sleep of Piano Magic (2003)

Erik Blood - Lost in Slow Motion (2016)

Hazy, synth-saturated dream pop from another slept-on Seattle artist. He apparently works with Shabazz Palaces and THEESatisfaction -- pretty sure that's Shabazz on the intro cut -- but Blood's sound hews much closer to the laid-back psychedelia of Tame Impala and Beach House's elegant, shimmering melancholy.

Track listing:
1. (when they are loving)
2. The Attic System
3. Chase the Clouds
4. Bloused Up
5. Covered in a Color
6. Quiet
7. Remove Control
8. Hold for Laughs
9. Ostrich
10. Out This Way

I hear you calling

More along these lines:

Sleep ∞ Over -
Forever (2011)

Au.Ra -
Jane's Lament (2015)

Belong - October Language (2006)

Jaw-dropping debut LP from this New Orleans duo. Beautifully fractured, intricately layered sounds consisting entirely of heavily processed guitars. Could be heard as an extremely deconstructed take on shoegaze. (If you want to hear their not-deconstructed take on it, check out their next full-length, Common Era.) Fans of Harmony in Ultraviolet, here's something for your sad asses to be happy about.

Track listing:
1. I Never Lose. Never Really
2. Red Velvet or Nothing
3. October Language
4. I'm Too Sleepy...Shall We Swim?
5. Remove the Inside
6. Who Told You This Room Exists?
7. All Equal Now
8. The Door Opens the Other Way

Perfect life

Similar listening:

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma -
Shining Skull Breath (2007)

Wrath of the Weak -
Solace (2010)

Sloan - Smeared (1993)

First album by Canadian power pop greats Sloan. Extremely 90s-sounding, with plenty of richly layered vocal harmonies and warm, shoegaze-y guitars.

Track listing:
1. Underwhelmed
2. Raspberry
3. I Am the Cancer
4. Median Strip
5. Take It In
6. 500 Up
7. Marcus Said
8. Sugartune
9. Left of Centre
10. Lemon Zinger
11. Two Seater
12. What's There to Decide?

Kiss me, kiss me
I can't wait 'til you kiss me

You'll also like:

The Boo Radleys -
Kaleidoscope (1990) + Boo Up! (1991)

Tripping Daisy -
Tripping Daisy (2000)

Sleep ∞ Over - Forever (2011)

Gorgeous, hazily melancholic dream pop with a lo-fi sheen. Angelic vocals, shimmering synths, gauzy guitars, and simple drum machines, all drenched in reverb, with a few pitstops in full-on abstract ambient territory along the way. If I end up making a best-of-the-decade list next year, this'll be on it.

Track listing:
1. Behind Closed Doors
2. Romantics Streams
3. Porcelain Hands
4. The Heavens Turn by Themselves
5. Casual Diamond
6. Cryingame
7. Flying Saucers Are Real
8. Stickers
9. Untitled
10. Don't Poison Everything

I want to be alone

You might also enjoy:

Pure X -
Pleasure (2011)

MMOTHS -
EP (2012)