It is hard not to talk about a band without referencing the past. Everything is built on something else, little is new under the sun, and creativity isn’t isolated from outside influence and inspiration. But, whilst you can easily find elements and sounds in Waves Crashing’s music that you might already find in any discerning music fan’s record collection, and you can say that about any music worth its salt, Effection, is nothing if not forward thinking.
This is music made somewhere between those twin bastions of dream-pop and shoegaze, pitched perfectly so that, although from song to song, they may lean more one way or the other, generally, the sublime textures and heavenly haze that you associate with the former is balanced by the wall of sound and cavernous tones of the latter.
“Comatose” blends in some darker, gothic shade and, given the treatment of the drums, their cooler production and clinical patterns bring to mind that oft-overlooked band Rose of Avalanche, a band I haven’t thought about in a long time, so thanks for the memories. This is followed by another single from the album, “Parts of Me,” and it is easy to hear why this was chosen: the perfect blend of groove and grandeur and grace, Beatrix Sky adding exquisite vocal texture, guitars delivering a dark jangle – infectious and sonically edifying.
“Treading Water” is built on a squalling metal-gaze sound (is that such a thing?), yet one still full of danceable grooves and dreamy soundscapes. “Coda, which rounds off the album, takes us out as we came in, with billowing ebbs and flows of instrumental sonics and dreamscape reverie.
And there is just room for remixes of the two singles I mentioned—“Parts of Me” is now lo-fi and spacious, atmospheric rather than energetic, and the Lulu Lewis remix of “Comatose” is almost a new take on the New Romantic sound, shimmering with pop sheens, buoyant, danceable, and delicious.
Effection builds on and advances the band’s already impressive sonic reputation. It gently pushes their own creative boundaries and gives us a suite of cool songs that echo with the familiarity of the past yet have their sights set on the future. This is not about where those succulent sounds have been before ; it is all about where they are going next.
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