Blending the
Indie Pop sparkle of the Sunday’s debut album, the more lyrically coherent
‘Heaven Or Las Vegas’ period Cocteau Twins, the ethereal sheen of the
under-rated third Slowdive album Pygmalion and the lush Gothik Pop of This
Mortal Coil and Shelleyan Orphan, Welsh trio Lights That Change have lovingly
crafted their debut album from the base materials of Shoegaze and Dream Pop.
However you can’t help feeling that they have somewhat missed the
boat………………..had Byzantium been released 25 years ago it would have been
considered a minor classic of the genre, but in 2016 with so many other bands
using the same source materials it now sounds somewhat…….err……generic.
Conceived as a studio project, Lights That Change first appeared on our radar a
few years back with a couple of very cool singles/EPs but since then, while the
band have been working hard on this album, the scene has moved on with the
“Shoegaze Revival” rapidly running out of steam and the more
interesting/creative bands that initially were influenced by the “Holy Trinity”
of the J&MC, Slowdive and MBV evolving and experimenting, whereas Lights
That Change have either taken their eye off the ball or played it safe and got
themselves stylistically stuck in 1991. Then again, if your tastes are not that
demanding and you are simply looking for a record that evokes the sound of late
80s/early 90s Rough Trade/4AD releases then Byzantium is the perfect
album…………………..it is a beautifully constructed facsimile of that era, full of
familiar somnolent sounds gently oozing out of the speakers.
We were
expecting this album to drop a couple of years ago but due to various delays it
has arrived late to the party and with loads of other Shoegaze/Dream Pop bands
releasing records in the meantime, it’s impact has been rather diminished. Nevertheless,
although a bit light on any real memorable tunes or infectious Indie Pop hooks,
Lights That Change first full album is a more than competent collection of dark
gothic tinged Dream Pop songs that mixes together layers gorgeous multi-tracked
voices, swirling guitars and supple bass lines…………………….tracks like the folky ‘Starlight’,
a previous single ‘Voices’ and ‘Union (For Louise)’ which has the vivacity of
The Sundays are particularly good……and what they lack in
originality is balanced by the amount of work spent on achieving such a full, crystalline
sound. However, Lights That Change have not really stamped their own
personality on the record and have made an album that can only be described as “Cocteau’s
Lite”, being in thrall to Robin Guthrie and far too respectful to their
influences……………we were there during the original wave of Shoegazers and don’t
really want to hear Bluebell Knoll recreated but would rather the band fuck
with the source material to be far more sonically adventurous, many of the
tracks really could do bursts of brain scrambling shards of noise just to jolt
the listener out of their reverie for a moment. If you are looking for an album
packed with the thrilling visceral, brooding power of the last Swans LP, this
is not the record for you……….although if you are after something that is atmospheric,
sounds fantastic and rekindles memories of loads of dreamy bands you liked back
in the day, you are not going to go far wrong with the latest offering from
Lights That Change…………other opinions are available.
Released by
Wrong Way Records, Byzantium is out NOW and available from the Lights That
Change Bandcamp site here https://lightsthatchange.bandcamp.com/album/byzantium
as either a CD or digital download. You can also stream the album and come to
your own conclusions about a record that may have missed the wave.
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