Review Summary: equidistant / equilibrium
Bedlocked feels simultaneously explicitly detached while being firmly embedded in whatever ‘real life’ may comprise. Its reverb-soaked melodies feel distant, yet inch closer with each passing verse as the record’s textures unfold themselves. In spite of being rooted in nugaze-isms, aided by Corey Coffman’s excellent production, Bedlocked’s second full length is anything but one-dimensional. The album knows its dissonance intimately, yet is unafraid to incorporate genuinely catchy and uplifting moments while never losing sight of its fuzzy, warm, and sometimes secluded atmosphere.
This equilibrium is best exemplified through the duality of ‘Always’ and ‘Sleeping Giant’. Where the former shines brightly as a highly distorted indie banger, the latter encompasses the glow of delicate slowcore. However, both songs are equally memorable: ‘Always’ may beam while ‘Sleeping Giant’ sways, but neither lack catchy qualities. Their melodies intertwine throughout the songs, constructing pieces of music that are inherently incomplex yet so much more than their individual parts. Similarly, the standout cut ‘Pictures’ isn’t merely an incredible concoction of fuzzed out instruments and equally fuzzed out vocals: instead, it is a gaze opus that succeeds through its interlacing and layering of understated melodies and nostalgic lyrics, while affording each element ample breathing room. This exhale is completed through the song’s final two minutes feeling like a shimmering reminiscence on what came before; a moment of tranquillity among the peace of
Bedlocked.
This serenity feels equal parts omnipresent and wistfully unachievable all throughout the record. Bedlocked makes music that is as interlocked with reality as it is detached from anything impure - a paradox that can only be deemed a paradox until the album soundtracks your current activity. It’s uplifting in its transparency; gloomy in its impenetrability.
