The rapid rise of Pale Blue Eyes seems to have come as no greater surprise than to the band themselves. This was apparent when I saw them live late last year: rarely have I witnessed a band so happy to simply be on stage, and so buzzed to be playing to a larger audience. But rarely has a band been more deserving.
Pale Blue Eyes may be young in the scheme of things, and be considered up-and-comers, but they have mastered that wall of sound shoegaze thing to perfection, and ‘New Place’ is in fact their third album. And it’s a corker.
‘How Long is Now’ creeps in on a wave of a hypnotic, mesmeric, Krautrock groove, propelled by the piston-pump of a vintage drum machine and very little else: it’s sparse, and in its minimalism, it’s utterly captivating.
While the swirls of guitar and easy, dreamy vocals are clearly reminiscent of early Ride, the synths being pitched up in the mix sets their sound apart from so many twenty-first century exponents of shoegaze, and they probably owe more to Stereolab than to Slowdive. ‘Scrolling’ is both representative and an instant classic: it’s not only uptempo, but the vibe s upbeat, too, with layers of synth flying in all directions, from soft washes to blippy laser-like blasts.
‘Pieces of You’ breaks from the motorik slab approach to composition to serve up a slice of dreamy indie pop with a feel that straddles both 80s jangle and the sound of early 90s John Peel shows – something they repeat with ‘The Dreamer’. But while the sound is steeped in nostalgia, something about the delivery makes it feel fresh.
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Most of the songs are relatively short – under four minutes – but manage to convey the experience of much longer tracks by locking into hypnotic grooves from the off and sticking with that insistent pulsation. ‘Our Lost Words’ is airy, summery, with a smooth shimmering groove, firing up the engines in the last minute for a rush of a finish.
As a whole, ‘New Place’ has a lightness to it which is extremely pleasant. If ‘New Place’ was a beer, it would be a slightly fizzy, lightly hopped pale ale – not too challenging or demanding, easy on the palette, and goes down nicely.
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