On ‘Better Wonder,’ Kestrels sound like a band finally trusting the strange weather systems they’ve always circled. The album doesn’t just lean into shoegaze’s familiar pleasures of volume and blur; it uses them as tools to map a restless inner life. This is music that feels lived in after midnight, when thoughts stretch and warp, and certainty becomes something you remember rather than possess.
What immediately distinguishes ‘Better Wonder’ from earlier releases is its sense of control. The guitars still bloom in thick, distorted sheets, but they are sculpted rather than stacked, revealing an album that understands when to overwhelm and when to pull back. Chad Peck’s production favors depth over density, letting negative space do as much emotional work as the fuzz. The result is immersive without being claustrophobic, a nocturnal atmosphere that hums with unease but never collapses into murk.
Lyrically, the record is preoccupied with uncertainty: romantic, existential, and moral. Peck writes as someone pacing through the same thought from multiple angles, testing it against memory and fear. His vocals, often submerged or doubled into soft-focus harmonies, sound less like declarations than confessions you weren’t meant to overhear. That restraint makes the emotional peaks hit harder, particularly when the band pivots from introspection into release.
“Dream of You in Black” is a prime example of this tension. It moves with a slow, coiled confidence, its melodies glowing even as the arrangement suggests something unresolved beneath the surface. The song feels suspended between longing and projection, a haze of desire shaped by imagination rather than fact. “Free Forever,” by contrast, opens outward. Built on buoyant harmonies and a subtle power-pop backbone, it embraces uncertainty not as a threat but as a strange kind of freedom, offering one of the album’s most generous moments without breaking the spell.
Throughout the record, Kestrels balance their heavier impulses with an unexpected melodic sweetness. Echoes of classic harmony-driven pop surface in the chord choices and vocal stacks, giving the songs a sunlit core even when the guitars are snarling. This contrast is central to the record’s appeal. It’s not simply loud-quiet dynamics at play, but a philosophical one: comfort and dread coexisting, neither fully canceling the other out.
There are moments where the album’s intensity risks flattening into sameness, especially for listeners craving sharp stylistic pivots. Yet the consistency ultimately works in its favor. ‘Better Wonder’ feels cohesive in the way nights do, where hours blur together but emotions deepen. By the time it reaches its closing stretch, the album doesn’t so much resolve as it exhales, leaving you in the dark with a sense that something honest has been shared.
‘Better Wonder’ isn’t a reinvention, and it doesn’t need to be. It’s the sound of Kestrels refining their instincts and allowing anxiety, melody, and noise to coexist without apology. In doing so, they’ve made a record that doesn’t just reference shoegaze’s past but quietly argues for its continued emotional relevance.
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