Loma - Don't Shy Away (2020) EN

Loma is a trio established in Belgium and making their music in Texas, their music meaning a unique mix of dream pop vibes with somewhat exotic inspirations, something like dreamier Still Corners. No wonder that their albums are released by Sub Pop themselves. And since the last one was so great, the new one, entitled Don't Shy Away, had to appear on the blog even more so.

Extremely airy vocals by Emily Cross make the basis of the music. Within there's both the mystery of dream pop and the catchiness of art pop. And when it's not enough, there are backing vocals that bring on such quantities of ethereality that it can be swum in. What's less obvious is the music - it sounds more like exotically inspired indie pop in some parts while somewhere else more like intimate blues-ish tunes rather than more traditional guitar-oriented dream pop/shoegaze. It's so good that the band got back together to record the second album, as the legend says, after their music became of interest by Brian Eno himself.

This style is present in the fantastic Half Silences, probably the most catchy one on the album. Still, the artists can easily make this jazzy, a bit old-school mixture turn into some really mesmerizing passages as in Given a Sign or Breaking Waves Like a Stone. And the spoken word in Thorn is something that brings goosebumps which is especially wierd while listening to such a hot album.

Don't Shy Away costs 10 USD.

Check: Given a Sign

Country: Texas, US

Genre: jazzy dream pop

Label: Sub pop

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