by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
A lot has happened for Maya Stoner and Floating Room since the release of their last album, False Baptism, back in the summer of 2018. That album crept up as a personal favorite, but change can be a good thing and sometimes shedding the excess weight of people that offer more harm than good can be just the breath of fresh air that’s needed. For Stoner, that came while writing and recording the band’s upcoming album, Tired and True, as the project became Stoner’s alone, void of previous bandmates and her participation with her former label. Due out in October, the new record is Floating Room distilled to it’s core, picking up the same magic as before but with a clearer vision, one less buried in the shoegaze fog.
“Held Open Door” is the album’s first single, a song that reintroduces Maya Stoner’s project with a vibrant and radiant force. Opening with an immediately detached guitar progression reminiscent of both Television and Palm, the guitar is dreamy and dissonant, the perfect art-pop mirage for the impossibly catchy vocals. Stoner’s voice sound confident as the fractured vocals slowly come out in couplets before the amazing chorus, “I know I am strong, but strength don’t get me high. I get so bored and I want to be alive.” Addressing the desire for something more as a preference and not a need, it’s a heavily relatable feeling for anyone whose felt the days dragging forward. The jagged instrumentation works without being too rattled, leaving the pop essence in place while dazzling with shifted tempos, truly great guitar leads, and a dynamic crescendo that is so good you immediately want to start the song over again.