Imagine if you stumbled across a mystical place, somewhere between the light and dark. Here a dense fog covers the ground but is punctured by glowing shafts of light. There are ominous beings in the shadows but also great beauty and delights.
What would the soundtrack to such a place sound like? The Morelings offer an answer with their most recent release, “Same Century”.
“The first track, “LYT” offers both a dark, deep, and pronounced synth background, and the delivery of Kedra Caroline’s vocals that are reminiscent of the Chromatics, and this whole album consists of pieces that each individually could have been selected for a performance at the Roadhouse in Twin Peaks.
The albums first single, “We were” was reviewed upon release by Estella, the captain of our ship here at Fadeawayradiate, and I couldn’t put it any better than: “It (“We were”) has an ominous pounding dark beat and insane moog underpinning and contradicting the layers of haze and shimmer that we are wont from The Morelings: it creates a nice tension and gives the otherwise elusive, ethereal character a shot of unexpected depth and melodrama.”
“Before” is an evocative track that shimmers like a city nightscape near a body of water. Here Kedra Caroline’s vocals float like the neon lights and lampposts that shine into the dark, reflecting off the track like they would against a body of water; moving slowly but purposefully off the ripples. This captures the allure of being very welcoming, but with hints of danger lying just under the surface.
The title track “Same Century” earns the namesake. The song progresses nicely and hits with its floating simple, catchy chorus, which you will be singing along to before the song is even over. The percussion has a bit of a drum machine feel, which lends to a bit of a “Cocteau Twins” vibe overall. Absolute bliss.
Later tracks like “What you Wanted” have a similar haunted feel to earlier pieces of the album, and then we dip back into the “warm bath sensations” with “To You”. “Only I Was” wraps the albums nicely hitting all the marks explored on the rest of the composition.
This album is a thing of sheer beauty, with some ephemeral moments of something darker that looms, that always gives way back to that soothing comfort that washes over you when listening to such lush dreamscapes. Those ghostly notions only aid in the overall atmosphere of the piece, and lend itself to wanting to listen over and over, to examine those shadows. We always long to see what is lurking just outside the scope of what we initially see and hear, so spend a few extra moments in the dark outliers.