The Austin, Texas quartet
She Sir had been a band for almost a decade by the time their first full-length album,
Go Guitars, was released in 2014 by Shelflife Records. The time spent refining and perfecting their exquisitely layered, melodically rich shoegaze meets dream pop sound paid off nicely, and the album is a fully realized, meticulously crafted work that flows peacefully from song to song like a particularly pleasant dream. Taking inspiration from all the usual places (
Ride,
My Bloody Valentine,
the Pale Saints, any band that had backwards reverb in 1991 and knew how to use it), the group doesn't take any steps that haven't already been cast in stone, yet manages to keep from sounding like a well-made nostalgia trip thanks to the care the bandmembers put into the music and the strength of the songs. Mixing uptempo tracks that have some bounce ("Kissing Can Wait") and swing ("Bitter Bazaar"), midtempo songs that feel like they were dipped in melancholy ("Winter Skirt," "Continually Meeting on the Sidewalk of My Door") and add a nice bit of post-punk gloom to the record, plus the occasional slow-building song that grows and grows through repetition and more noise ("Mania Mantle"),
Go Guitars is truly a treat for lovers of guitars and guitar pedals. It's also a nice addition to the catalog of anyone who has been keeping up with the best of noisy pop since 1988, or anyone who's new to the charms of dreamgaze and wants to hear something classic feeling and still totally up to date.
She Sir have a firm grasp on how to make a great-sounding shoegaze album, and even if they could have broken loose more and made some real noise, there is more than enough muted emotion, hazy sound, and inspired songwriting here to make this worth checking out. ~ Tim Sendra