The Bay Area sextet Whirr's Distressor EP was an underrated highlight from 2011's so-called "shoegaze revival revival," where they and like-minded bands No Joy, Weekend, and Young Prisms packed enough volume to blow the doors off venues too tiny to accommodate their overwhelming sound. While Distressor was focused and enjoyable, the seven-song EP was pretty uniform in terms of sonics and songwriting. The group's new LP, Pipe Dreams, finds the band, formerly called "Whirl", not only broadening and improving its old sound but also nudging the margins of it, establishing an identity in a style that so often relies on blurry facelessness.
For starters, few shoegaze albums would have the moxie to include a song like "Formulas and Frequencies", which explores texture with an adventurousness that goes beyond tweaking effects pedals. Built around acoustic guitar, piano, and singer Alexandra Morte's floaty soprano, the song is melancholy almost to the point of being a dirge, a slow drift that inches toward the six-minute mark. Pipe Dreams revels in more downtempo fare, from the colossal build of opener "Reverse" to the slowcore of "Wait", while adding a bit of heft to songs like "Hide" and "Flashback". (Guitarist Nick Bassett also plays in Deafheaven, and the violent guitar textures on some of the songs here aren't incredibly far removed from those of his other band.) The autumnal, downcast spirit that inhabits the album might come as a surprise to those who wore out the comparatively bright Distressor and last year's June 7".
The languid pace is broken up by a handful of uptempo tunes, including songs like "Junebouvier" and "Home Is Where My Head Is", which will inevitably draw comparisons to shoegaze's Big Three (Ride, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine) due to the overdriven rush of layered guitars. But this is indicative of the limited frame of reference a lot of people have when it comes to shoegaze. Although Whirr share some similarities with the aforementioned bands, the songwriting on Pipe Dreams' more propulsive offerings has more in common with the genre's lesser-known predecessors, such as Velocity Girl and Pale Saints. Songs like "Bogus" and "Toss" are closer to a glossy, widescreen version of noise-pop. But even during its faster, punchier moments, the album never brightens all the way, maintaining an overcast tone from start to finish.
Pipe Dreams ends with the pillowy effects and minor-key guitars of "Reverie", bringing the dolorous feel of the album around full-circle. However, its sadness manifests itself in a variety of ways. It's dense and powerful one minute and spacious and quiet the next, never settling into one mood long enough to become stale or seem one-note. With the broadening of their sound and the maturation of their songwriting, the album marks a pretty vast evolution to go with Whirr's subtle name change.
