This week brings us yet another Rochester Album of the Week nod. Europa & The Great Red Spot‘s Inside Voices is a wonderfully understated LP full of fuzzy lo-fi gems. Riding mysteriously on a heavy space theme, it might as well be the sound of Europa itself spinning around Jupiter.
Album opener “Din” is an immediate highlight. Falling somewhere on the spectrum between TV on the Radio and Local Natives, “Din” is a simmering slow-burner, with beautiful lyrics that touch on love, space, tattoos, and conflicting weather patterns. It’s a fitting introduction for an album full of hazy, lo-fi beauty. Another great dowsing rod for this band is the title track, “Inside Voices” – a six-minute, almost-instrumental epic worth getting lost inside. E&TGRS specialize in songs like these – swirly synths, shy guitars, and a pleasant, washy mix.
On the other hand, “Redshift” walks the line of psychedelic – think the Beatles bolstered by an alien organ tone. It’s clear to me that Europa’s mastermind, Justin Pulver, has his game down to a science. He himself describes Inside Voices as a “loud album about being quiet,” and I can’t quite come up with a metaphor that describes it better myself.
Songs like “Supernova” channel Waxahatchee whereas “My Electric Brain” sounds like it could have been an early Death Cab for Cutie favorite from 15 years ago. The album spans a wide gamut of moods and emotions, from abstract (“Spiralformig”) to more straightforward rock (“Goodbye Lips”), but at the end of the day, Inside Voices always keeps up it’s good natured simmer. It might be the name of the first song, but Inside Voices truly is a “din…” Soft, fuzzy, and oh-so-pleasant.