Soft Blue Shimmer
Nothing
Happens Here ep
(Disposable
America)
I’ve been procrastinating writing
this forever. I think it’s because of my
constant self-doubt about why I write about my favorite music. It all feels so useless, especially since I’m
not very eloquent, and as has been said before “writing about music is like
dancing about architecture.” In other
words, it’s difficult to explain the sound of a song, especially without relying
too much on pigeonholing artists by comparing them to others. I generally attempt to describe the music’s
impact on me personally, in hopes of enticing the one person who might read far
enough to think “hey, this seems like something worth listening to!” Unfortunately, despite being really excited
about a lot of the new music I’ve been encountering, it has not translated into
words that I feel do these fine artists justice. But, I can’t seem to help myself. As I’ve said elsewhere, when I hear great
music, I want to shout out my love of it to the world! I want to play it loud enough for everyone to
hear and get the same kind of magic out of it that I do. Sometimes I think that perhaps I should
simply write my record synopses with simple phrases like: “This rocks!” and
leave it at that.
Nothing Happens Here is the debut EP from the L.A. band Soft
Blue Shimmer and I absolutely love it!!
There you go. This is where I
should stop, but I won’t. These five
songs are so magically tuneful and enticing that I cannot stop listening to
them. Like the chorus from the wonderful
“Fruitcake,” my advice is to let each song dreamily work its way into your
subconscious – “crushing like a wave.”
Lyrically, the songs all tie together with a theme of missing a partner
who has departed and our narrator pining over their memory. The languid “Dream Beam Supreme” presents the
battle to fall asleep when the mind won’t stop ruminating over that certain lost
someone, so, vocalist Meredith
invites that person to join her in her evasive dreams to dance. Next up is the upbeat blast of energy that is
“Shinji.” This song really gets me
going. There’s something about Meredith’s
calm vocals (I’ve been deliberately repeating “I’ve been feeling more” over and
over in my head lately during stressful parts of the day), juxtaposed with the
crashing cymbals and twin guitar drive of the music that is stunning. Back on the unbelievably perfect pop song
that is “Fruitcake,” we find Meredith in fear of dwelling on the sadness of
losing her former partner and trying to avoid being alone with those thoughts. A feeling I’m sure a lot of us can relate
with – at least I sure can. In this case
though, it all goes down easier with such a spectacularly hummable song. “Chamoy” also mines this territory
beautifully, as the memories linger (like chamoy sauce?) dangerously and with a
healthy bit of bitterness (“I thought I would miss that / the feeling of
missing / of something I thought I knew / but I’ll never miss that / the
feeling of leaving / or the scent of you in my room”). The dramatic closing song, “Happier Than
Mitsuru,” finds us getting a little fed up with these memories, and possibly
ready to try to move forward (“try to remember / but I / often forget that / I
can’t / keep seeking people from the past”).
These five songs are loaded with
sadness, but are so damn enjoyable to listen to! I cannot decide which song is my favorite, so
I have to play the entire thing from start to finish, and then, I have to play
them all over again. This young band has
completely caught my attention. I cannot
wait to hear more!
Soft Blue Shimmer "Fruitcake"
