-=- SHGZ -=-
* Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal *
ARTIST..: Pia Fraus
ALBUM...: Evening Colours
GENRE...: Indie
STYLE...: Shoegaze, Indie Pop, Dream Pop, Indie Rock
YEAR....: 2023
LABEL...: SekSound
COUNTRY.: Estonia
PLACE...: Tallinn, Harju maakond
FORMED..: 1998
ENCODER.: FLAC 1.3.1 -8 -V
BITRATE.: 908 kbps avg
QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / 2 channels
SOURCE..: CD
TRACKS..: 11
SIZE....: 270.00 MB
URL..: http://piafraus.bandcamp.com
- TRACKLIST
1 French Exit 3:46
2 Fog On The Hills 3:47
3 Evening Colours 3:55
4 Sunny Afternoon 3:16
5 Who's The Envelope-Man? 4:10
6 Regret Everything 3:52
7 Confidential Information 3:19
8 Another Artichoke 3:27
9 Cloud Winterland 4:37
10 We Melt 3:40
11 Lost In Nights 3:42
Total Playtime: 41:31
Marking their twenty-fifth anniversary as a band, Estonian outfit Pia Fraus
end a short hiatus with their seventh studio album. 'Evening Colours' slips
right back into things straight away, blending their dream-pop/shoegaze
aesthetic with some beautiful synths and electronics. Featuring string
arrangements from The High Llamas' Sean O'Hagan.
*
Long-running Estonian band Pia Fraus have been playing a distinctive brand of
driving indie pop mixed with shoegaze dreaminess since the late '90s. After
celebrating more than two decades in the game by revisiting early material on
2021's Now You Know It Still Feels the Same, Evening Colours is their first
batch of fresh songs since 2020's Empty Parks. For this album, Pia Fraus
worked with two notable figures who played a major influence on the band's
sound. The record's cover art, a colorful, abstract beach scene, was designed
by Annabel Wright of Scottish legends the Pastels, and four songs feature
string arrangements by Sean O'Hagan (the High Llamas, Microdisney). The
sweeping strings and sweetly melancholic vocal harmonies of "Sunny Afternoon"
feel like an instant flashback to O'Hagan's extensive work with Stereolab
throughout the '90s and 2000s, though its particular breeziness is all Pia
Fraus' own. Another standout, "Fog on the Hills," has a rushing rhythm and
subtle layers of levitating synths, adding a cosmic atmosphere to lyrics of
intense longing and desire. The band creatively incorporate a heavy Krautrock
influence into "Regret Everything," which kicks off with a rocket-powered
motorik rhythm, then continues with unexpected melodic shifts. "Confidential
Information" has touches of reverb-y surf guitars and lounge vibes but
otherwise focuses on an urgent sense of heartache. The arrangement and sound
design on "Another Artichoke" is bewildering, with shooting star-like horns
and cloudy synth textures floating around insistent vocals ("Please hold my
hand at least one more year"). O'Hagan's lush strings return on the final two
songs, the slightly proggy "We Melt" and the mellower "Lost in Nights," which
seems to fuse traces of shoegaze and '70s soul. Pia Fraus have had an
impressive track record for over 20 years, but Evening Colours stands out as
one of their more inventive, inspired efforts.
*
About:
Pia Fraus is a Estonian dream-pop band formed in 1998. They have released six
studio albums and a handful of EPs on various record labels worldwide. Their
sound is a mixture of dream-pop, subtle shoegaze, and beautiful electronica,
topped off with shimmering layered vocalisation.
-=- SHGZ -=-
-=-=-==-=-=-
Shoegaze
is a genre of alternative rock that
originated in the late 80s. The genre is very
difficult to define, and it is even more difficult to evaluate music
within it. Generally, the genre is characterized by its
shimmering vocals, reverberating guitars, and
textural distortion that create
a tranquil, opaque
feeling.
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