Torrey – Torrey (2024)      


Review:
The second, self-titled album from Bay Area band Torrey finds them going deeper into a dream pop direction than their earlier output, merging the washed-out beauty of shoegaze with some rougher-edged sounds descended from the best (and strangest) '90s alt-rock reference points. Torrey finds the median point between My Bloody Valentine's dizzyingly sweet distortion and the Breeders' dissonant charm on tracks like the tremolo-heavy "Moving" and the blurry pop bounce of "No Matter How." The vocal melodies drift without vanishing completely into the waves of noise, keeping the songs anchored and memorable even as they blast off repeatedly. Different colors of shoegaze sounds get explored on the various tracks, with the especially charged "Hawaii" sounding more lo-fi and evoking the Swirlies' homespun production and the clipping vocal sound Kim Deal leaned into on her work with the Amps. There's some residual jangle pop brightness carried over from the band's 2019 EP Sister and 2021 debut LP Something Happy, but it's joined by obscured, Cocteau Twins-esque vocalizations on opening track "Rain" and distant, delay-soaked coos on the rudimentary electronics-driven track "July (And I'm)." This early 4AD influence comes through once more on the infectiously syrupy track "Slow Blues," an aptly titled midtempo swoon that begins somewhere lush and slowly grows into unexpected guitar-solo melodrama, understated synths, and vocal hooks that sound like they're coming from under sheets of glistening ice. Torrey's sophomore effort is dynamic and curious, moving through different territories and experiments without ever losing the thread that connects the songs. — by Fred Thomas on allmusic


             


Track List:
01. Rain
02. No Matter How
03. Moving
04. Bounce
05. Hawaii
06. Garage Intermission
07. Slow Blues
08. Pop Song
09. July (And I'm)
10. Happy You Exist
11. Really AM
12. We're Dancing (End)


Media Report:
Genre: indie-pop, shoegaze,
Origin: Oakland, California, USA  
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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