This is a review of the album Haunted (2013), by Another Green World, and the third review here on Track-By-Track.
I don’t remember exactly how I found Another Green World’s music. It might have been that I was searching for Brian Eno's album of the same name, or I might have been just randomly searching for glo-fi bands. Whatever the case, I found the album In Dreams by Another Green World, which turned out to be the first album by Memphis-based solo-artist Alec West.
Haunted marks a slight yet significant change in style for West’s project; a glo-fi/dream pop release, with some acoustic guitars, a more sparse sound, and a lighter equalization. Though at times I miss the old pleasantly-muddled and nearly-stonewalled sound of Another Green World, this solidifies West’s progression towards a kind of high-end production that is at once addictive and more accessible to listeners. Though not every track is catchy, the ones that are, are extremely repeatable. It goes beyond In Dreams, if not as a concept, as a more etherial and genre-defying album.
Here’s my TBT:
“Glowing” is an instrumental intro track. Dream pop synths, and some lo-fi drums make it sound like a portable video-game’s title screen music.
“Moment” is a slight break in style for Another Green World. This time, some acoustic guitars, and surf-style riffs, along with the classic analogue noises and reverb-cushioned vocals that West developed his sound with. It’s upbeat, and placed perfectly as a second track. The lyrics (what I can hear of them) are sweet and dreamy. It’s a chillwave/dream pop combo that’s upbeat from the start. The drums are light, and in that just right addictive equalization, and the ending is filled with a kind of nostalgic analogue atmosphere, only describable if you’ve heard old-school synth modulation, like West’s previous work.
“Mosiac” comes next, with a darker tone more like In Dreams. It feels a little long, but it’s in a very dreamy lo-fi/chillwave genre-rift, and the arcade-game noises are pleasing to the ear. I still prefer the original heavily-compressed version on West’s Vision Quest EP, but it’s great as a sparser alternate version. Synths abounds.
The 4th track, “Blood”, starts with a sound like leftover brostep, and then pleasantly surprises with a totally surf/chillwave pastiche of upbeat acoustic guitars, catchy drums, and insanely catchy digital tones, all in mono (though the streaming version seems to be slightly stereo). The vocals, as we of the shoegaze ilk are used to, are obscured; loads of reverb and delays make the track suitably and lovingly alternative. It’s very Summery, and reminds me of Observer Drift’s Fjords (the first album reviewed here on Track-By-Track). Oddly, what I think is the refrain: “Take my blood”, is in sharp contrast to the happy and optimistic tone of the music. This is the hit on the album, despite the good quality of the whole album.
“Memory” is a short instrumental. It’s something I’ve found mainly with smaller and independent bands, that they still value (and rightly so) the instrumental and experimental songs, as well as the more-traditional ones with words. This song is short enough to remember, and long enough to define somewhere in dream pop or glo-fi (which is what I regard as a slightly less upbeat and muddier chillwave, despite the standard definition which has them as the same sub-genre).
“When” is the 6th track; gladly another Summery dream pop one. The beat is very catchy, and it ends way too soon for my liking. It’s addictive, and sounds like a Spring day, erupting with loads of atmosphere; loads of good ‘80s sounds, and a great ending. The guitars are very slightly shoegazey, and the bass is definite dream pop. It’s that song you hear on the radio in the old days, that you never knew the name of, and never did catch who did it. Extremely etherial.
“Scientific” is a chorus-pedal-driven song, and the beat, as usual with West’s work, draws the listener in immediately. This one could do better with slightly less reverb on the verses’ vocals, but only from a lyrical point of view. They create an atmosphere of uncertainty, within an otherwise grounding, certain, track. It’s unusual for most bands to have reverb almost exclusively on the vocals, which is definitely a plus for anyone (like me) looking for originality.
“Passion” starts off with old-school toms, and the vocals are at the forefront of this one. It, like the rest of the album, is refreshingly non-pitch-corrected. The lyrics are great, especially for a kind of love song, and really work with this style. The chorus could have more elaboration, but it’s definitely a hook. Classic new-wave guitars and synths make it a little nostalgic.
“Forest”, the 9th track, is another instrumental, with more of that chillwave sound. Loads of pitch modulation covered by reverb, or perhaps vice-versa.
“Skyscraper” is slower, and a bit like Nexus Nooka from Another Green World’s earlier Nexus Nooka/Game Genie release. This one has the clearest vocals, and more great textured drums. The guitars make a great shoegaze-ish backing to the track, and when they are at the forefront, it’s like listening to a pool of guitar.
As the penultimate track, “Geologist” is a return to that super-reverb sound. This one sounds a bit like Yung Life (the second album reviewed on this blog). It’s very 80s, and the synths are complimented by more surf-guitar. It’s always refreshing to hear surf done right, and this fast-paced song is in that crossover between old and faux-old, in a good way.
“Spectre” is the final track, oddly a darker instrumental in the glo-fi subgenre. Imagine The Killers, with a dark-ambient producer. It doesn’t quite feel like an end to the album, though it lives up the album’s name, unlike the album’s general optimistic yet otherworldly tone.
Overall, this album has some pretty sweet chillwave/dream pop sounds, and some tracks pleasantly defy categorization in either of these sub-genres. This is an experience in both sparse and textured sounds, and West is well on his way to amassing a new audience, at the same time as keeping older fans satisfied. You can stream this album for free at http://synthrecords.bandcamp.com, and buy it in CD quality at that link; and for older Another Green World releases, you can check out http://anothergreenworld.bandcamp.com. And for the full experience, play some old VHS tapes in the background, on a heavily magnetized tv.
