by Julian Rosen
Bleary Eyed is a shoegaze band. I don’t know what shoegaze means in 2020 but if I had to classify them that's what I'd pick. Their latest EP, Spectre Run, is packed with droned out vocals, thoughtful and dizzying melodies, and handfuls of effects to give each song their own unique identity. The result might be their strongest release yet.
“Come Back Home” sounds like the best Weezer song never made, meant in the best way possible. It’s punchy and poppy and after what seems to be a standard verse/chorus the song slowly turns into a grungy build up packed with fuzz, distortion, feedback, heavy drums. Everything you want and everything you need to get the led out. “Ooh I Made it Back Home Again” sounds like an acid induced dream straight from the 80’s. The music is super poppy while the vocals bring an eery dragging melody to counter it all with lyrics like “Stuck in my head too, yeah I’m alone too”. It’s the perfect blend of elements: bright, melancholic, hoppy, synthy, dreamy, unbelievably catchy. It’s kind of horrifying how good this song is.
“Jerry’s Fate” features a meandering guitar riff accompanied throughout by sluggish drawn out vocals that turn into a dizzying chorus. The snap back into the verse brings you back to reality and makes you realize how much your brain was trying to catch up with what was just happening to you. It ends with a fuzzed out guitar solo and some luscious synth sounds and its over before you know it. “Thank You Sister” starts off as a slacking, mesmerizing, hypnotic, almost sleepy song and halfway through cranks it the hell up. It gets loud and heavy and it takes you there. It really feels like the world around you might possibly be melting when this song plays.
The album ends with “Bonus Track,” a washed out, reverb centric come down to the trip you were just on. The vocals are loud, distorted, incoherent and act as their own instrument to cut through the softly pulsing drums and constantly strumming guitars. It’s the least constructed song on the album but a really cool way to leave it off.
Spectre Run will make you feel stoned when you’re sober, and who knows how it would make you feel if you were stoned. No song overstays its welcome, they each get to their point when they should and end when they’ve made it. The album is short and the songs are short, but they’re so full of substance it seems much longer than reality which is funny because it might make you question reality. You can listen to this over and over and find something new each time. Bleary Eyed are a very special band and one that everyone should have on their radar for the future because they just keep getting better and better.