Sitting on the cleaner, less hazy, more electronic side of the dreampop sound, Rogue Waves is a neat collection of songs, ones full of ocean-soaked metaphors and liquid textures. And despite that genre having been with us for a long time, here Shell Pink is all about taking the sound into pastures new rather than resting on the genre’s past sonic laurels.
“Weird Fish” kicks off this quartet of songs that explore the ebbs and flows of the emotional tides that help steer us through life, or indeed hinder. It is full of the same quirky alt-alt-pop groove that you find running through Flaming Lips gorgeous back catalog, but perhaps more seductive and serene.
“The Beach” is gloriously energetic, to the point of being effervescent and euphoric – a high-octane groover built of sonic frisson and fizz, anticipation and drive, a sublime meeting of buoyant beat and mercurial melodics. “Keep It Simple” is more balladic, woven with intriguing sonics, while “Bluepoint” is languid and lovely, a spiralling instrumental layered in serene strings.
At a time when so many artists are looking backward to emulate those sure sonic bets and iconic sounds that have always worked so well, it is great to find an artist helping to define what the future might sound like. Not in too radical a way, nothing too avant-garde or indigestible, just taking the notion of fringe pop music and discovering new, perhaps even commercial realms, for it to call home.
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