Blushing: Weak (Austin Town Hall Records, 2018)

Blushing: Weak (Austin Town Hall Records, 2018)

by Daylily Alvarez

Blushing’s inclinations toward nineties dreampop/shoegaze are brilliantly balanced with ethereal psychedelic rock in the recently release of their EP Weak (January 2018, ATH Records). The opening track, title track Weak, begins with the beautiful beckoning of Christina Carmona’s vocals. It follows with the cascading guitars of Michelle Soto and Noe Carmona and as Jake Soto’s drums crash the song into a nostalgic nineties pseudo-march beat.

Speaking of nostalgia, much of the EP is very much reminiscent of something The Cranberries—no better, The Sundays, would have released back in the day.  Bound has the dreampop sounds of a Cranberries song, with the subtle heaviness of a Chapterhouse song, while the rest of the album recalls other sounds of the nineties. Love You Twice sounds off with a familiar bassline (hint: it’s a Pixies song), and, yeah this album is essentially post-rock in all of its forms. The entire EP is wonderful mix of familiarity and reinvention.

Production-wise, the EP is a perfect craft of audio engineering. Having listened to it with headphones, through the car speakers, on a Bose speaker…The bass is balanced and not overpowering while the vocals are crystal clear. The drums stand alone (which is always super-satisfying when you just want to tune out and only follow a snare or a crash or ride cymbals) and the guitars definitely get the EQ attention they deserve, with strategic crescendos and fades.

We are still in the mid-40 degrees Fahrenheit here in the Midwest, but Blushing’s Weak is already kicking me into a summer headspace. The romantic guitars and dreamy vocals are definitely going to float me right through summer, especially the track Bliss.


 

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