Loveliescrushing has impressively reached a career that now spans twenty years! I only just found out about this band though and so admit to being utterly uninitiated to their previous sounds. Shiny Tiny Stars is therefore my first and only exposure to them, so this review does not speak to anything outside of this album. However, this seven track release sounds anything but out of date or washed up. Knowing that they’ve been releasing material for so long, it’s tough to believe that this album could sound as fresh as it does. But, it sure does! Perhaps they were way ahead of their time. Regardless, their niche has been described as “dream pop,” “ambient,” and “noise.” I don’t know how much noise I really hear on this record, but “dream” and “ambient” are definitely good descriptors. From start to finish, this is a beautifully ethereal display that liberates your soul to roam free uninhibitedly. It’s like you’re looking up at an expansive sky laid out just for you that rolls on and on for miles. So many possibilities, so much potential. Exciting. Freeing. Promising. There’s a dark bliss to be found here. Magical, yet peaceful all at the same time. Any comparisons to My Bloody Valentine that I’ve read really fail to capture the essence of loveliescrushing. The similarity ends at the shoegaziness of their idyllic textures. The structure of their tracks and the lucidity of their projection are much more formless in nature. This isn’t just some variation on rock ‘n roll like MBV was. No, this is post-rock fine art. This is bent on elevating you ontologically to a new horizon of being. A mystifying metaphysical flight from the normalcy of everyday life to something more intellectual and philosophically grandiose. A wonderful journey that every lost soul should take. A pilgrimage to other realms of the mind. Handmade Birds even tops it all off with a touch of class by pressing it to 180 gram vinyl for durability and listening quality. Novel enough, the first 100 orders get a limited edition 5.25″ Floppy Disk with an exclusive lovesliescrushing track.
