Kestrels - Better Wonder (2025)

Coming from Nova Scotia, Canada, Kestrels is a love child of one Chad Peck. For some reason, I've never heard of the band although they play my kind of music and they do it for well over a decade now. Better Wonder is their fifth album so far and its catchy melodies and non-overwhelming noise-filled arrangements caught my attention with a fuzzy grip.

The release is filled with songs that are so memorable perhaps because they had been brewing for years. As the band mentions, the good amount of them comes from Peck's never released solo album. This time around, time helped the material grow to shine with this shoegazey/noise rocky shine that involves a soothing vocal, hearty lyrics and comforting fuzz in the backgrounds. It does feel a bit as if it was a solo album, making me appreciate the small scale beauty of the songs. It's fun, it's sunny, it's easily approachable. It's surf rock if it was possible to surf in Nova Scotia (which, I had to google, is in fact possible. But probably a bit cold).

The only thing I don't like on the album are those accentuated rock-like solo riffs taking the lead from time to time. But it's just a personal preference. What I like is certainly Dream of You in Black, as it is described, "a synthed-out Robert Smith-style love song to a fictional goth girl". I'm not an expert on The Cure, but I can hear that.

Better Wonder costs 10 USD.

Check: Dream of You in Black

Country: Nova Scotia, Canada

Genre: noise (surf-)rock

Label: Darla Records

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