by Jonah Evans (@jonahinthesnow)
Bleary Eyed’s third full-length album, Easy, is here. Released July 25th on Born Losers Records, the band has pulled the sound of shoegaze even closer. Easy dawns a broad range of intergalactic sounds, bending, stretching, and exploring the proverbial space dust of the far-reaching universe.
The intro track, “Susan,” sets this space-like tone with a bubble pop electronic soundscape of synth and digital tones and notes that feel like kind raindrops trickling on the skin. There are bell-sounding instruments playfully integrating in and out of the song. And though there isn’t as much crunchy guitar on this track like the rest, “Susan” sets the tone of this journey.
The title track “Easy” contains Nathaniel Salfi’s wispy yet low-toned, spacey vocals, with a synth sound that mirrors and harmonizes with them, amplifying this sense of floating. The main guitar is crunchy, while soft, and dances easily on a melody with limited power chords throughout the song, which provides a strong and sturdy base for Easy. The chorus hits as Margot Whipps comes in with vocals that pair with Salfi, and the guitars drop in notes, wring out, and play fewer notes that gives the section of the song this dragging sensation. The song is so spacey, and it sounds like there are so many ambient layers under the bass, a second guitar, and dueling vocals, exemplifying how much they played with layering on this track and album.
In “Heaven Year,” the vocals sound like they have a sort of short delay effect with a slightly robotic tinge, embodying a digitization of an aura. The voice is not so distinguishable from the singers in “Easy” because it doesn't sound the same as either of them, an indicator of how Bleary Eyed desired to play with different sounds. The song starts with vocals and a sludgy guitar, integrated with a waning synth sounding note that creeps in. When the drums and the rest of the band come in on the verse, there is also this wild, trilling high-pitched sound that feels like looking into the colors of a kaleidoscope. The chorus hits with thick drums, excavating the low end of bellowing marching toms, giving a contrast to the rest of the song while the vocals marry another synth sound again, building upon a theme.
“Special” starts off with this disgusting, grungy guitar riff that wains and stretches and feels lonely. More electronic sounds assist the verse in “Susan” as it enters, and they feel like something lost, sad, holloween-ish, where they lighten up during the chorus. This song continues to waver in and out of some kind of beautiful uneasiness. The guitars again play these crunchy but soft chords, and the song escalates in a distorted guitar breakdown and a cacophony of digital sounds mixing and weaving through the surface of analog sensations.
This spacelike sensation pulls back the most on the penultimate, “Everything, Everything.” An acoustic guitar picks at this driving melody that’s delicate, but persistent. Whipps sings almost like they are slightly breathless, which creates a light tread. The drums come in softly, and beat steadily. Backing vocals eventually integrate with distorted echoes. The song slowly and softly builds, but you can feel the escalation, and its so nice.
Easy is a shoegaze album that carries a explorative vibe while the guitars keep the album grounded with their dirty, wonderful, scrunchy guitars that help contrast all the colors of the sounds that Bleary Eyed made on this album.