It politely demands your attention; it wants to transport you elsewhere, to a place in which to daydream and reflect.
There are scores of beautiful tangents and engrossing digressions within the album, with Hindman and Versprille weaving ribbons of sound with captivating lyrics.
These songs are cool and refreshing, and ultimately exhilarating. Moon Tides is a tease – I can’t wait to see what comes after these nine tracks – and I wonder if the group will still be hitching itself to Beach House’s sonic wagon by the time the next release comes around.
Pure Bathing Culture borrows only the best elements from the Twins, then adds more than enough of their own style and vision to make Moon Tides a dreamy triumph that is both a great debut album and a tantalizing promise for the future.
Whether it is a sense of longing or nostalgia at stake, Moon Tides is a solid, inebriating listen that will guide you through your personal transitions and leave you wanting for more.
Moon Tides is a daydream, not a rollercoaster ride, and if you’re not enchanted with the album from its earliest moments you’re unlikely to find anything that will catch your attention down the line.
The underlying songs are so fetching and statuesque that you wonder why Pure Bathing Culture feels the need to play thrift store dress up.
If no particular tracks pop out from the others, it's as much a testament to the record's consistency as its limited range. Still, it's compellingly listenable; their sound is so pristinely pleasant it sometimes borders on heavenly.
The main problem with ‘Moon Tides’ lies in its complete lack of lunar pull. It wafts around directionless, as Versprille’s voice flobs around like a helpless jellyfish trapped in a slowly revolving gyre.
By the end of the album, the technical ability of Hindman and the lyricism of Versprille feel exhausted, gargled, and outsized by the very same influences that they try to honor in their thoroughly hackneyed attention to 80s Cocteau Twins-inspired rock.
Unrefined dream pop from a duo that, one half plays his part with the back turned to the other.
#12 | / | Gorilla vs. Bear |
#39 | / | Stereogum |
#59 | / | musicOMH |