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😄 vivian / dodger review

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genre: pop / indie
release date: 19/08/24
runtime: 3:41
video: yes :)

contents

• 😄 vivian / dodger review

  • what i liked! :)

  • what i didn’t like :(

  • my drunk opinion :S

  • for fans of

  • should you listen to more?

• more i’ve been listening to

• next edition out next tuesday!

another reminder of our first in person get togetheraroonie! it’s happening in london this octobr which is soonnnnnnn also! i forgot to add a free option to this which is my bad, i promised it’d have a free option and now it does! tickets are starting to shift so guaruntee your spot and chance to take part by rsvp’ing!

i love shoegaze so much. i really really do, ever since i was like 14 / 15 years old going to like little punk gigs in shitty pubs we weren’t allowed into or youth clubs with metal bands and shoegaze bands playing, man. this was the shit i’d be listening to and going nuts over. there was this one youth club that used to put on free shows for bands to play, and it was such an incredibly way to get exposed to tons of great (and not so great) stuff. i miss that place i really do. tell you what i don’t miss however, is the absolute ton of great shoegaze out there, and this weeks song sent in by a subscriber is no exception. meet vivian, a brand new project out of new york city with their debut, dodger! it’s got jangly guitars, a couple of oh shit moments and some melody that gets in your head, and refuses to leave.

click the picture up above to give it a listen!

what i liked! :)

i make a bit of a point on this here lil newsletter to always write more about what i like than what i don’t. partly, that’s because there’s usually a lot more to say about what there is that i enjoy than what there isn’t that i miss, or that i don’t like because things that i don’t like will probably feel and seem a bit obvious. what i really really really like about this song however, is as much in what it does as in what it does behind closed doors. see, this song does something incredibly clever; those intro riffs and beginning moments of calm and set up are really well executed. the sparkly and bright lead riffs contrasting and bouncing off the beginning growl of the wider wash of guitar. the moments of stuck together rhythmn and melodic imagery that work their way into your brain. they’re there as a set up. it’s a trap, see? a stick up, because, when the song gets going. when the real energy comes in like a waterfall coming down on a small car to absolutely crush it, all of that stuff is still there. on the first run through, it’s still detectible and concrete but on the second? the wash has been dialled up a notch, and all of a sudden it’s not anywhere near as visible or detectible. instead, the shapes of those things still hang out but your brain does the heavy lifting, filling those melody’s and moments in for you. or at least it did for me maybe i’m built different idk.

what i didn’t like :(

i think the only thing i didn’t like about this, in stark contrast to what i just said, is that i really enjoyed in the beginning of this song how some of the melodic elements were able to cut through the mix super cleanly, which i felt gave the rest of the fuzzy mushy goodness a bit of form to it. i wish somerthing like that could’ve found a place in the latter more noisy sections of the song, but alas, they did not.

my drunk opinion :S

when i was at that youth club once with my first band, the other band we were playing with were there before us and their drummer came up to me and was like where’s your drummer i’m a way better drummer than him i need to tell him, and then when i pointed our drummer out (tall, broad, very cool and excellent drummer now touring the world and crushing it) he then didn’t say anything and i think about that all the time. what a guy. this has nothign to do with the song btw.

for fans of

my mind went straight to first album fightstar, who i adore, and paint your target, a song of theirs i adore also.

should you listen to more?

okay gonna let you in on a little secret, this project is from an artist featured on here years and years and years ago. yes, idk if you know this but this newsletter is like 5 years old it’s crazyyyyy but! this artist has been whipping up amazing shoegaze-y-nois-y-heav-y goodness longer than i’ve been writing. what does that show you. shows you i know what i’m talking about when i tell you to like share and subscribe to vivian for whatever else they’ve got coming down the pipe because this song rules, and what’s coming next will rule alongside. like a sort of, roman empire tripartite kinda thing, they’ll have like a council. in your brain. this metaphor seemed better on the on-ramp, anywho, stream vivian

or better yet, reply to this email! what did you think of this song? have you been listening to anything good lately? any gems i’ve missed?

more i’ve been listening to

bad sounds / sympathetic vibrations

this song is super catchy and fun, but crucially, it has a gorilla on the cover, which i think is very important

the bird, blue beetle / truest of blues

i once fell out with someone over a shade of pink, but never a shade of blue

benee / sad boiiii

you see the thing is, i just, adore benee. like, well and truly, i do it must be said

or just reply to this email! what did you think? what would you change? how are you?

next edition out next tuesday!