“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.

With the singles from their new album Come Back Down, Total Wife have been pulling off a neat trick: The music calls back directly to Loveless in a way some shoegazers wouldn’t dare, yet it’s woozy and hallucinatory enough to unmoor listeners and undermine any allegations of pure pastiche. Luna Kupper and Ash Richter impressed me with “second spring” and “make it last,” and today’s final preview “peaches” keeps the run of quality unbroken.

Nashville’s Luna Kupper and Ash Richter, who make music as Total Wife, are releasing their forthcoming album Come Back Down on Philadelphia label Julia’s War next month. Today, they’ve shared another peek at the project, following up lead single “second spring” with the off-kilter “make it last.”

Meet Total Wife, an experimental-pop duo who’ve been doing this shit since 2016. Luna Kupper and Ash Richter were high school friends and now they’re shredding on shoegaze rippers released by the great Philly label Julia’s War. Today the crew is announcing their new album Come Back Down, and the lead single “second spring” is a hypnotic preview.