Words matter. Even those that we never say out loud. They linger as feelings and regrets, memories and “what ifs,” once potential keys to paths not taken, powerful enough to change the direction life takes, or might have taken had they not remained unuttered. It is a powerful and poignant thought, and such ideas need equally powerful and poignant music; “Words We Couldn’t Say” is just such a sound.
In the Afterglow has created music caught in the pincer movement of dream-pop ethereality and shoegaze intensity, sometimes erring on the side of one or the other, and other times managing to make those two opposites so attractive that they merge together seamlessly. The dreamier, gossamer sonics balance the more abrasive edges, and the more energetic walls of sound lift the song out of ambient understatement.
There are obvious past points of reference, Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine spring to mind most readily, but we don’t need to look to the past as music made in such sonic realms has never really gone away. Always a fringe and underground sound since its early nineties heyday, it is music that seems to have followed its own parallel path, rarely buffeted by the fickle winds of fad or fashion—underground music for the discerning music fan. Timely and timeless.
So, this is neither retrospective nor foretelling a revival, it is music that just is, music that seems to have always been – at least in my lifetime – music that will carry on being. “Words We Couldn’t Say” sits at the cutting edge of that thread. And that is something that I am eternally grateful for.
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