“I wanted it to feel like it was swallowing itself whole.” In a recent interview, Luna Kupper of the Nashville shoegaze duo Total Wife was explaining her approach to producing “rest,” a song from the band’s 2023 album in/out. Inspired by bandmate Ash Richter’s lyrics, Kupper attempted to make the song “a steady linear incline,” a procession toward the heavens in which the listener’s perspective gradually blurs together with their environment. On that track, Total Wife build a hypnotic foundation out of an acoustic guitar loop that sounds like the intro to “Cherub Rock” reframed as a Microphones track — a one-chord sonic mantra that slowly, and then quite suddenly, is consumed by a visceral inferno. It’s the kind of sequence that takes your breath away, inspires visions, adjusts the temperature in the room.
Total Wife’s new album is full of these moments. For come back down, the band signed to Julia’s War, run by They Are Gutting A Body Of Water’s Doug Dulgarian, which has become a library of some of the most exciting music on shoegaze and indie rock’s experimental fringe. The album is among the label’s finest releases to date, combining disparate sonic elements with the unmistakable influence of My Bloody Valentine in a way that consistently feels fresh and vital. Even if you’re sick of the shoegaze revival, come back down might take you aback.
There’s no grunge in it. No nu-metal either. That’s crucially important here. So many bands have spent the past decade and change doing the heavy shoegaze thing in the wake of groups like Whirr and Nothing, and by now the sponge has been wrung completely dry. I recoil at those bands the way I recoiled at post-grunge aftershocks like Puddle Of Mudd or nu-metal also-rans like Trapt, and sometimes I can’t tell the difference. So much of it plays like churning, bellowing slop — reheated Nirvana chords and “depressed on leg day” vocals with an Instagram filter slapped on. Some of my co-workers enjoy these grungegaze and nu-gaze bands, but to me they represent some of the least compelling, most unsatisfying music the rock underground has to offer. Turn that shit off.
Nor is this pure vibes music, the sort of shoegaze-by-numbers that became a big deal on TikTok a few years back. It makes sense that acts who have extracted the beauty from the shoegaze tradition while setting aside most of the grit would thrive in a consumer environment that prioritizes passive listening. I like Wisp well enough — I thought her recent cover of Coldplay’s “Yellow” was startlingly pretty — but given that her music sometimes feels like it was assembled from a kit you can buy off the shelf in the dream-pop aisle, it makes sense that more adventurous listeners wouldn’t find artists like her very exciting.
Some parts of come back down are more accessible than others, but it rarely goes down smoothly. There’s friction in the music, and that friction is deployed strategically, to dynamic effect. The songs take surprise turns, but never in a way that undermines their momentum. Yes, Total Wife sidestep a lot of the recent ‘gaze cliches, but it would be missing the point to merely celebrate what they aren’t. What’s more exciting is where they do connect with the genre’s traditions — and where they take it from here.
What stands out most are those Kevin Shields guitars. All throughout come back down, Total Wife conjure the squealing, screaming, time-bending textures that made Loveless such a game-changer all those decades ago. Those guitars that sound like they’re roaring and yawning at the same time? The high-pitched wails that sound like the weeping of a wounded ethereal creature? The layers of smeared elegance that evoke an otherworldly rainfall? Kupper and Richter have harnessed all of those powers and put them to work in service of their own twisted visions.
Despite the obvious MBV worship, come back down is more than cosplay. Following the example of TAGABOW and other recent shoegaze trailblazers, Total Wife splice, dice, and defile their gorgeous creations, hybridizing noise-pop with everything from slowcore to breakbeats. By the end of its nearly five-minute runtime, the crawling post-rock intro track “in my head” has become a monolith, the duo’s soft indie-pop vocals bombarded by drum fills and slathered in tidal waves of distortion. Later, the surprisingly chipper “still asleep” pulls off a similar slow build then lets the bottom fall out, crossing over into intentionally messy lo-fi demo mode. The percolating keyboards of “naoisa” quickly unfold into frantic jungle drum programming and eerie soprano vocals, like a PinkPantheress song in a haunted house, while “chloe” opts for downtempo splendor, like a blurry memory of the greatest Moby song never made.
There are parts of come back down that feel like something you’d hear from a mad scientist pressing play on their rig of devices at a noise show, like the hard techno excursion “ofersi3.” And there are also parts where Total Wife sound like a proper rock band, ready to annihilate your eardrums, like when they go absolutely nuts at the end of “second spring.” The album feels constantly in flux, yet not at the expense of a coherent identity. As with so many shoegaze bands, the lyrics are often obscured or manipulated to the point that I have no idea what these two are singing about, but that doesn’t stop Kupper and Richter from making a statement. To these ears, come back down is a blaring reminder that participating in a tradition does not have to mean locking into a template; that inspiration can strike anywhere — like a brilliant shoegaze band emerging from the global capital of country music; and that not only can you be anything, you can be many things all at once.
come back down is out 9/19 via Julia’s War.
Other albums of note out this week:
• Wednesday’s Bleeds
• Nine Inch Nails’ TRON: Ares soundtrack
• Nation Of Language’s Dance Called Memory
• Cardi B’s AM I THE DRAMA?
• Joan Shelley’s Real Warmth
• Kieran Hebden & William Tyler’s 41 Longfield Street Late ’80s
• múm’s History Of Silence
• Frog’s The Count
• Wicca Phase Springs Eternal’s Mossy Oak Shadow
• Cappadonna’s Solar Eclipse
• Biffy Clyro’s Futique
• Lola Young’s I’m Only Fucking Myself
• Lawn’s God Made The Highway
• Patrick Shiroishi’s Forgetting Is Violent
• Atmosphere’s Jestures
• Rich Amiri’s Grit & Grace
• The Divine Comedy’s Rainy Sunday Afternoon
• Golden Apples’ Shooting Star
• Eades’ Final Sirens Call
• Jordan Patterson’s The Hermit
• Robin Richards’ Taproots
• Yasmine Hamdan’s I Remember I Forget بنسى وبتذكر
• Drink The Sea’s Drink The Sea I
• SANAM’s Sametou Sawtan
• GANS’ GOOD FOR THE SOUL
• The Favors’ The Dream
• Bones Owens’ Best Western
• Bones Shredder’s Morbid Little Thing
• The Happy Fits’ Lovesick
Leith Ross’ I Can See The Future
• JASSS’ Eager Buyers
• Winter McQuinn’s Where Are We Now?
• Briscoe’s Heat Of July
• Wilder Maker’s The Streets Like Beds Still Warm
• Black Lips’ Season Of The Peach
• Sammy Virji’s Same Day Cleaning
• Boo Boos’ Young Love
• Motion City Soundtrack’s The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World
• Shapednoise’s Absurd Matter 2
• pôt-pot’s Warsaw 480km
• Evan Greer’s AMAB/ACAB
• Evan Honer’s Everything I Wanted
• Halima’s SWEET TOOTH
• Babes In Canyon’s The New Loud
• Lawrence Matthews’ Between Mortal Reach & Posthumous Grip
• Sarah McLachlan’s Better Broken
• Ocean Alley’s Love Balloon
• Deaf Club’s We Demand A Permanent State Of Happiness
• RIPE’s Play The Game
• Stella And The Very Messed’s Big Familiar
• The Pink Stones’ Thank The Lord…It’s The Pink Stones
• Former Champ’s i saw you in paradise
• NewDad’s Altar
• Dylan Earl’s Level-Headed Even Smile
• 38 Special’s Milestone
• Cécile McLorin Salvant’s Oh Snap
• ALA.NI’s Sunshine Music
• Mappe Of’s Afterglades
• Igorrr’s AMEN
• Native Sun’s Concrete Language
• MICROCORPS’ CLEAR VORTEX CHAMBER
• Joanne Robertson’s Blurrr
• Cuddle Magic’s Underwater
• I Prevail’s Violent Nature
• Josh Ross’ Later Tonight
• DD VERNI & THE CADILLAC BAND’s Buckle Up
• Vincent Lima’s To Love A Thing That Fades
• Doe Paoro’s Living Through Collapse
• Kitba’s Hold The Edges
• MIRADOR’s MIRADOR
• Chase McDaniel’s Lost Ones
• Maura Weaver’s Strange Devotion
• Photo Ops’ Opening Up To Strangers
• Lutalo’s The Academy (Deluxe)
• Scorpion Milk’s Slime Of The Times
• Oruã & Reverse Death’s Reflectors Vol. 1 split
• The Prize’s In The Red
• TRSH’s String Theory
• Dug’s Have At It!
• Sam Shackleton’s Scottish Cowboy Ballads & Early American Folk Songs
• JÁNA’s Orbit
• Joy Crookes’ Juniper
• Pompey’s I’m Scared
• Hotel Pools & Brothertiger’s Paradigms
• cktrl’s spirit
• Paradise Lost’s Ascension
• Thelma & James’ Starting Over
• Chloe Navarre’s Periwinkle
• Yumi Ito’s Lonely Island
• Los Straitjackets’ Somos Los Straitjackets
• Benjamin Elgar’s Make It Through The Night
• Castle Rat’s The Bestiary
• Dying Remains’ Merciless Suffering
• Evilcult’s Triumph Of Evil
• Waverly Drive’s Decadence
• Johnny Marr’s Look Out Live! live album
• Toro y Moi’s Unerthed: Hole Erth Unplugged
• clipping.’s Dead Channel Sky Plus
• Skylar Spence’s Prom King (10 Year Anniversary Deluxe Edition)
• Bad Wolves’ DIE ABOUT IT (DELUXE)
• Various Artists’ HIM – The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
• Heartworms’ Glutton For Punishment: The Poetry Edition
• Yonny’s Everywhere, But Always (Deluxe Edition)
• Lenny Kravitz’s Circus (Digital Deluxe Edition)
• Caroline Kingsbury’s Shock Treatment EP
• Man With A Mission’s XV EP Across The Globe EP
• Many Eyes’ Combust EP
• Public Opinion’s Perpetual Motion Machine EP
• ilham’s uhm…ok? EP
• Aly & AJ’s More Silver EP
• American Television’s You’re Not Alone EP
• Looms’ Big Dream EP
• Soulkeeper’s Join Us In Creating Excellence EP
• Scarlet Rae’s No Heavy Goodbyes EP
• MAN WITH A MISSION’s XV EP Across The Globe
• Kittie’s Spit XXV EP
• Missing Link’s Miracle Smile EP
• praise.’s Lost EP
• Chatterton’s Tiny Empire EP
• Kadhja Bonet’s Battlewear EP
• Cosmorat’s POOSHKA EP
• Nikita’s Suspend EP
