Singapore-based Blush understand the nuances of dream-pop. With a sound that's like Lush in 1992, the band's here with Beauty Fades, Pain Lasts Forever, their new album on Kanine Records. It's out digitally this week and on physical forms soon, and it's absolutely something that anyone who reads this site is likely going to gravitate to.
The group -- Soffi Peters (vocals), Daniel Pei (bass), Darrell Laser (guitar) and Jared Lim (production, guitar) -- manages to find new ways to make this sort of material invigorating. While "X My Heart" is a rush of guitars, the more languid "Poison the Well" is full of emotions stretched into new spaces. Lyrical, dreamy, and precise in its ebbs and flows, it's a marvelous piece of work. Lots of Beauty Fades, Pain Lasts Forever provides similar pleasures. "T.V. Mind", to use another example, has wonderful production, with Peters' vocals seemingly all around a listener, as the guitars chime and crunch in waves as the tune surges with direct melodic intent. It's shoegaze, sure, but the hooks are sharp, and track construction strong.
Terms like shoegaze and dream-pop are reductive and sometimes useless. There are certainly elements here in the music of Blush which suggest that those labels would apply, just as they did in years past for bands like Cranes, Curve, Lush, and Slowdive. Still, there's a sharp edge to the songcraft with Blush that warrants respect. The tunes are woozily seductive, sure, but they're also pretty catchy in spots, and full of a sense that these players are doing more than just plugging in and turning things up to "11", you know? Beauty Fades Pain Last Forever is highly recommended, and it's time to start following Blush now if you weren't already.
Blush will be playing here in D.C. on August 31. Details here.
Beauty Fades, Pain Lasts Forever by Blush is out digitally today, and physical very soon via Kanine Records.
[Photo: Nick Oei]