Well I finally have some free time here and I finally got around to listening to the new Flower Crown album Glow. For those people who do not know, Flower Crown is a dream-pop duo (based in Pittsburgh) consisting of Richie Colosimo and Aaron Mook.Flower Crown is the duo's second release and it sounds pretty damn amazing. Although I usually associate dream-pop with shoegaze, this is definately not that (at least my definition I tend to fin shoegaze and louder). However, it definately has that dreamy atmosphere that comes with shoegaze. The type of dream-pop on this album is more like a guitar driven chillwave, and the over all sound can get you lost within the over all sound. My proof of this was me having a conversation with someone on facebook messenger and completely forgetting that I was even having one while listening to this album for a review.
The album not only seems to have a chillwave influence, but also some sounds typical in post rock since there's a drone to it typical in a lot of early post rock groups such as Angels of Light (although unlike Angels of Light, Flower Crown isn't really folky, probably a bad example, I do these things off the top of my head).
Anyway let's get into some detail here the album starts off with the track True Blue, and definately sets the mellow and hypnotic tone of the album, then the second track Web comes in and kinda sort of has a tropical vibe to it. The tropical vibe continues with the third track How's Yr Head (my favorite track so far) which definately has that tropical vibe of the though of just chilling by the beach.
The fourth track is Bloodshade and it is the best REM song not by REM. I'm not joking and I'm not the only one who thinks it sounds like REM since there's a comment on their Bandcamp that even makes reference to at least this album sounding like REM, but although I so far it's just this one track that I pick up REM.
The song Moonwater then goes back to the tropical vibe and acts as a transition track to Frame by Frame a really nice and jangly type of song, and yeah now i'm definately picking up the similarities between the vocals in this and Micheal Stipes vocals, same with the song Pls (probably now cuz i'm looking for it) In the song Plz you can kind of pick up some effects that have been put on the vocals, which add a nice touch to the sound of the album over all (assuming it's done threw out the album).
The next song Rearview (Sept) reminds me a lot of the beginning part of great gig in the sky and also some slower version of a Johnny Marr riff.
To end the album there's the song Lady of the Lake. For this song, take the later stuff from the band Earth, and soften it up. There you'll have a basic idea of this song. Possibly also one of the most head in the clouds dreamy song on the album, the song is like a journey inside every neuron in your brain. It is a solid song to end the album with.
I really like this album. I'm definately going to check out their first release right after this. The guitar, keys, vocals, and everything else meshes super well and sets the mood to just sit back calm down and let your anxiety drain away until everything is ok. In short I am checking my account balances, hoping I have enough money in the bank to get a cassette before they sell out.
As usual check this band out.
Facebook (all pictures come from their facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/flowercrownmusic/
Bandcamp
https://flowercrownmusic.bandcamp.com/
