Ex-Vöid

This winter’s a windfall for fans of Joanna Gruesome-adjacent bands. Both Ex-Vöid and fellow Owen Williams-led outfit The Tubs have records on the way. Of the two, Ex-Vöid is softer at heart. Williams serves more as a sparring partner here with Lan McArdle, whose plush vocals render the band’s songs warm and inviting. On their second outing the two songwriters parry harmonies while picking apart the particulars of love and longing. Atop the fizzing churn of the band’s indie pop, peppered with just enough punk to sate those who’ve come for the fuzzed riffs over the ringing jangles, the Vöid turns personal turbulence into whirlpools of pop. It’s easy to get sucked in, lost in the band’s whoosh and whisper, listening to the guitars crash against the edges of the soul.

It’s the kind of perfect pop that stops listeners in their tracks, or at least those that have a soft spot for pockets of the ‘90s that showed a bit of vulnerability. That may be the band’s most valuable asset. For every fizzing riff and towering wave of sound that gets thrown at the listener, the band always leaves themselves unguarded. It’s an album of soft underbelly, but in an era when artifice often outweighs authenticity, it’s nice to see a band that displays their loneliness, their insecurities, their infatuations, and their regrets in bold pastel strokes. The band hooked me hard with their debut, but they show no signs of letting the barbs loose on In Love Again.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.

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