This album hits with an outer space echoing call that feels like something off an Angels & Airwaves release, but that quickly fades into a different direction. A different vision. The intro slides into “Love Is Only What We Are” as if it were a lost Pulsars song. It shimmers in a soft Eighties glow. New waved but now. Managing to make a very uplifting and simultaneously contemplative pop album, Matthew Nowhere creates what feels like a future version of the past. Yesterday’s sounds tomorrow, which happens to be today. Bringing in the dream wave duo of vocalist Bryce Boudreau and multi-instrumentalist Christopher Murphy (aka Lunar Twin) on a couple of tracks only adds to the magic of this release.
“Echoes Still Remain” holds a strange mix of Washed Out chilled melodics drifting under a Peter Gabriel reminiscent vocal line, while the title track plays exactly as it should, crystalline and solid within a shining and delicate structure. These songs pull you back into memory and a warm haze of youth (probably more so if that youth was in the 80’s). Sonorous and satisfying sense filling flashbacks.
There are obvious hints and sonic references, floating about in various shades of inspiration, and slowly they all blend together to help center Nowhere’s sound in the world he’s creating around him. “Transforming” moves like some Peter Murphy / Animotion hybrid, while “Ruby Shards” hits with a nice upbeat Cure / New Order jangle moving under slight Elvis Costello vocals. There are darker moments hidden within these gleaming gems, like the sad synth mood floating through “Everything’s True” and the heart broken melodics of “Silver Glass”, but these shadows allow the other moments to rise higher into the light.
Ending with the solid goth-pop dancefloor drive of “Persist3nce”, featuring Lunar Twin and The Antonio Family Singers, and a sharp radio edit of the first track, Crystal Heights is a great debut from an artist that’s managing to bring a fresh sparkle into some familiar tones.
