REVIEW: Spiral XP - It’s Been a While

Shoegaze is bad when it’s bad, but when it’s great it’s the only music I ever need.

Spiral XP’s new release, It’s Been a While, is great. It comes courtesy of a five-piece led by Max Keyes, drummer of Seattle band Versing, whose retro-90’s indie shines through here. The EP has the classic elements that define shoegaze - namely, a deluge of guitars filling the mix and smeared vocals buried inside it - but those elements are done up in vintage fashion, like it’s taking Dinosaur Jr. one step further, or Glifted one step back. More notably, it comes across almost like a pop record, especially in tracks like the fluttery bounce of brief opener “Deja Vu” or the Loaded-like “The End.” If the heavy distortion wasn’t filling in the cracks between the strums, these would still be solid pop-rock songs with tight melodies.

The whole thing, actually, feels like a scholar’s thesis in classic shoegaze. “The Hunger” is a highlight, hitting the sweet spot in that interim period when My Bloody Valentine were releasing EPs before Loveless. I love the way it develops itself over time: the Trojan horse of “Soon”-ish drums; the swooping melody crashing in on the chorus that could be guitar or vocals or anything capable of making “oohs”; the guitar solo layering its bent notes brilliantly over the original verse; not a moment wasted or wanting. “Big Sky’s” sludgy stomp is similarly thoughtful, Lena Farr-Morrissey echoing Belinda Butcher’s blissful high notes on the outro. Even “My Personal Hell,” which ends the EP on a rather muted resolution, still makes room for harmonized guitars a la Thin Lizzy played at 45 rpm.

Raucous and comforting in its familiarity, It’s Been a While demonstrates both a clear vision and a deft hand at executing it. At just under twenty minutes it’s frankly impossible for anybody with a proclivity for shoegaze to be remotely disappointed by it.