In a landscape of hyper-curated aesthetics, Joseph Harder’s debut as Babe Lewis stands as a magnificent anomaly. ‘Sunspot’ is an album that refuses to remain static, yet it never loses its internal compass. It is a work defined by bold maneuvers, but its brilliance lies in its impact; Harder strikes his targets with total precision, delivering a collection of songs that feel as mathematically calculated as they are emotionally volatile.
Experience the record is like witnessing a head-on collision between the lo-fi urgency of the Elephant 6 collective and the shimmering, expansive textures of ‘Halcyon Digest’-era Deerhunter. There is a palpable post-grunge DNA at work here; a throwback to that fertile era when garage rock, shoegaze, and indie-pop merged under a unified desire to simply play louder. On the standout track “Royal,” Harder achieves a rare equilibrium, offering the weightless grace of dream-pop anchored by the grit of industrial rock. Rather than burying the vocals under a typical shoegaze haze, he allows them to ride atop Danny Gibney’s propulsive bass lines with a clarity that feels almost defiant. Notably, the most fascinating element of the album’s makeup is its reliance on pure chance. Harder and Gibney reportedly determined their equipment choices by drawing slips of paper from a hat. This commitment to stochastic decision-making could have easily fractured the album’s flow. Instead, it stripped away the self-consciousness often found in the genre. By letting the gear dictate the surface texture, Harder allowed the core songwriting, anchored by harmonies reminiscent of Crosby, Stills & Nash and the laconic energy of Helvetia, to serve as the true north. The result is a project that ventures in a dozen directions simultaneously without ever feeling like a digression. Its cohesion isn’t born from sonic repetition, but from an unwavering sense of intent.
While ‘Sunspot’ is largely a monument to Harder’s prowess as a multi-instrumentalist and the project’s primary architect, specific contributions provide its local, Virginia-bred spirit. Gibney builds the structural foundation through both his bass performance and meticulous engineering, while Jason Summer and Perry Blosser inject the songs with a mystic Americana soul via pedal steel and fiddle. Even the felines Ridley and Todd find their way into the mix, contributing a layer of domestic psychedelic chaos through well-timed meows. “Hello” gained some traction on European indie blogs and college radio. It serves as a perfect example of the “ecotone” Harder describes, the meeting point between different musical ecosystems. It captures that “unassuming” start that blooms into a saturated soundscape. Perhaps no track better illustrates Gibney’s and Harder’s instrumentation decisions that influenced the guitar tones here, with their buzzing, unpredictable edge that feels both retro and futuristic.
While originally released as a single, “New Growth” reinforces the theme of “emerging from hibernation. This is perhaps the most pop and effervescent moment on the record. It leans into the vocal harmonies, providing a lush, vocal-forward contrast to the grittier tracks. The barbed synth puncture leading into the guitar solo adds textural friction to an otherwise sweet indie-pop song. “Around” is where the Virginia-bred soul of the record truly shines. Like a fast-paced, caffeinated journey through a foggy landscape, the track likely features the most prominent contributions from Summer and Blosser. The pedal steel and fiddle create an arcane Americana glaze that separates Babe Lewis from standard bedroom-pop projects.
‘Sunspot’ is a triumph of radiant energy. It manages to feel massive—bursting at the seams of the speakers—while remaining as intimate as a secret whispered in the Harrisonburg woods. It is a record that balances an ethereal spirit with hardened edges, marking Babe Lewis as a vital and fearless new voice in the psychedelic-pop landscape. It is lightning in a bottle, captured by an artist who is clearly unafraid of the heat.
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