Never Gonna Love Again Tashaki Miyaki
Tashaki Miyaki: Castaway
Metropolis Records
DL | LP
Released on 2 July 2021
Tashaki Miyaki's second album, Castaway, provides a real means of escape through a tide of dreamy pop ballads and Ian Corbridge is very happy to be stranded on this desert island of melodic bliss.
Tashaki Mayaki first appeared as a trio in the Los Angeles scene back in 2012, quickly forging a notable presence in the globe of dreamy and hazy guitar pop among the California sunshine. Pop melodies and harmonies competed with atmospheric and sonic textures, underpinned by guitar effects and enough of reverb. However, a conscientious heed to their early more minimalist audio revealed a whole series of influences that extended well beyond their labelling, suggesting that there was much more to come up as they cut their teeth in the music industry.
It wasn't until 2017 that they finally released their debut album, The Dream, to some considerable critical acclaim. This protracted flow was attributed to many typical challenges faced past an emerging human action such as band changes, touring, festival appearances and more specially the financial challenges faced by a band who did not have the direct back up of a label. Yet, what this filibuster did let was the sound of the band to evolve and mature as they continued to perform and experiment in the studio.
Past 2014 the current band line up had go firmly established with Paige Stark on vocals and drums, Luke Paquin on guitar and Sandi Denton on bass and backing vocals. Whilst their version of dreamy, hazy melodic guitar pop has more than a nod in its origins to some of the greats from the doo-wop era, it is like shooting fish in a barrel to draw out references to bands such as The Jesus and Mary Chain, Lush, Mazzy Star, The Kinks and Big Star amongst so many others. Merely what is most important is that they announced to have created their own unique brand from this heady cocktail of influences.
Past the fourth dimension they approached their debut album in 2017, the band's sound had become synonymous with atmospheric guitars, steady rhythms, haunting vocals and sweeping lush arrangements. Whilst some of the songs had been recorded some while before, the new maturity of their audio really shone through in a captivating way.
Thankfully their second album, Castaway has non been so long in the making. It may well have been given added motivation and impetus by the frustrations of an extended period of lockdown, a factor which appears to have influenced some of the cadre themes running through the album's narrative. There is also a articulate sense that the ring have been exploring new territories in writing this album, pushing their music into different dimensions.
Opening song and title track, Castaway, immediately sets the tone for what lies ahead. From the opening bars I was immediately transported to a place that had only e'er existed in my dreams and, to be honest, from this signal on I rarely strayed from the glorious images that came into my mind throughout the elapsing of the entire album.
Paige Stark explains Castaway every bit a song "near the challenges of romantic love and how nosotros are all bad at information technology in ane way or another. The idea of a castaway in all this is that no one understands the human relationship except the people in it, so y'all really are stuck on an island lonely together there". And with an anthology whose message is focused on themes of dear, heartbreak, retentiveness and time, I certainly felt the vivid illusion of beingness stuck on a desert isle as the soothing, however melancholy tones unfolded. Even so, at that place is withal a hint of optimism inside the grooves.
Help Me has a existent 60's vibe to it, taking me back to the kind of uplifting arrangements perfected by The Byrds and The Mamas and the Papas. Nonetheless, Gone takes me directly back to an unreal level of mellow consciousness, with cute melancholy strings and sax and a real sense of loss from the narrative. Strings are also used to great effect in other songs, providing a more than uplifting tone towards the end of Babe Don't but offering a more heart-wrenching experience throughout the slow-burning U.
I Experience Fine is all fuzzy guitars over a metronomic beat and is in essence an ode to dissatisfaction. It's almost those moments we can all relate to when asked how we feel and we automatically say we are fine when really we are non. The video which pays homage to some favourite vampire films is the beginning one the band take ever appeared in.
Wasting Fourth dimension is the one song on the anthology which has a different feel and free energy. It has a more upbeat power pop vibe, albeit slightly understated with a more unnerving edge as information technology tackles the consequence of anxiety. But then Lone takes it all dorsum downward again with another slow burner which appears to search for some form of compromise, aided past those stings once more and and grungy guitar refrain equally the vocal comes to a close.
Castaway is symptomatic of a band that has grown both lyrically and musically equally it ventures into new and varied territories of sound. As a heartachingly cute and cogitating album, it provides a existent means of escape from our current confines through a tide of dreamy pop ballads.
The hypnotic, mesmerising and captivating quality of the vocals underpinned by the melodic and dreamy soundscapes really capture the overwhelming sense of longing and yearning for a brighter and happier futurity that so many of us crave. You lot really should give it a try.
You tin buy the album here.
Yous tin find Tashaki Miyaki on Facebook, Twitter, and Bandcamp.
All words past Ian Corbridge. You tin can notice more than of his writing at his author contour.
Source: https://louderthanwar.com/tashaki-miyaki-castaway-album-review/