No Era by Stealing Beauty

After hours of living in a dreamscape and convincing ourselves that we’re experiencing the real world, a jarringly unrealistic glitch in our subconscious jolts us back into suspicion. Such a feeling features heavily in the new album No Era by Stealing Beauty, a shoegaze record with nostalgic synth pop influences. Above the waterline of this musical iceberg, a collection of vintage synth sounds create mellow melodies that sound like a video game soundtrack. Meanwhile, the underbelly of the iceberg broods in the background, with countless layers of guitars absolutely losing their minds behind the foggy glass of heavy audio effects. At first glance, this album feels like a found, forgotten old recording with a bit of lo-fi grit, but further observation reveals a chaotic, dense core that stirs us awake from our nostalgic slumber. All at once, a stampede of harsh realizations trample us, awakening dark memories from the good old days that remind us of the deception caused by nostalgic rose-tinted glasses, of the dark, unfamiliar forces that bring uncomfortably random misfortune to the world.