Review Summary: Mind bent.
Mind Spiders and their ethereal, spacious synthwave-influenced brand of indie music went under a lot of people’s radars, even though they’ve been around for almost a decade. And their fifth studio album reflects exactly what one familiar with them could have grown to expect, but this time with a sonic, dishevelled twist. This might be their most in-your-face album and the most accessible effort yet. Not that their previous material was anything challenging, but this just seems to strike a much more fun and pleasing chord.
With that said this album still manages to hit you with quite a few unusual traits, such as the semi-shouting vocals, the tempo and tones that keep changing, and the ever-present synth-based production. Speaking of the latter, that electronic influence has been present throughout Mind Spiders’ whole career, but now I can definitely and with satisfactory tear in my eye say that they’ve actually stumbled upon a fully realised sound that shifts and strikes, bends and twists, darkens and eases out. It actually brings up something slightly new in every song. Be it building and creeping (the title track), harrowing and hellish (“No Ground”), punky and vicious (“Outside”) or vicious and savvy (“Deserve”).
But there is another particularly intriguing aspect to this album you might notice only upon repeated listens, which is that the songs described above don’t really sound as radically different in their stylistic adventures, as I’ve described. Their individual uniqueness is only apparent upon further inspection and deeper, more focused listens. It is that subtle, but evident and unmistakeable, when noticed. And that special layer of idiosyncrasy adds so much more to an album already fascinating from its sharp sonic sound side.
