by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Just when you thought you'd heard all the great new albums 2017 had to offer (and there has been a lot of them for those who have been paying attention), Philadelphia-via-DC's Bleary Eyed are set to release their full length debut, Zach, on December 15th via Citrus City Records (Crumb, Night Idea, Pallas). Following the March release of their latest EP, Zeeke, the band's original line-up set to work on finishing their debut, a record that's been about a year in the making. The band's lo-fi punk clamor and emotive vocals combine together to create something both immediate and ragged, with their brightest melodic moments peaking up just enough from the distorted sludge pop. There's a great deal of blistering guitar noise and haphazard pummeling, but Bleary Eyed sound focused, bringing the beauty out of cavernous fuzz and simplistic recording.
Zach pulls the band in different directions, at times furious ("Andy") and others coyly removed ("Walks You Along"), but the band are at their best when residing somewhere in between. "Glowing White Room," the record's first single is a radiant example, the verses washed out and complacent and the hook soaring deep into stratospheric glory. Nathaniel Salfi's vocals trail a winding guitar line, snaking in and out of the hard cracked rhythms, dripping slowly into the song's shoegazy atmosphere. They dip into a disorienting drift with "Dog Days," another song with an explosive hook and infectious vocal melody soldered to the floaty guitars. Bleary Eyed sound buried on "Paint Chips," a song that rips with "slacker rock" indifference, winding their way into a power-pop chorus and a massive leap in dynamics. Closing on the ramshackle ballad "13" and the soaring tour-de-force "Pool," Bleary Eyed's new record ends as strong as it began.
Bleary Eyed's Zach is out December 15th via Citrus City Records.