Encounters

Album review

Moscow's Life on Venus play the sort of hazy, swirling dream pop/shoegaze that seemingly never goes out of style. Their songs are generally midtempo and contain vast pools of atmospheric guitars and blended male/female vocals soaked in reverb, and they strike a balance between enraptured bliss and devastating sadness. While their sound is spacious and open, their tunes are actually quite focused and considered, rarely exceeding the four-minute mark. Two of the songs appeared on the band's self-released 2016 demo, and here they're significantly less noisy and rough, but other than that, they haven't been altered too much. The slow, blustery "Kingdom of the Day" surprisingly hasn't been expanded from its original running time of less than two minutes. The more energetic "Pale" is a highlight, starting with a brief, levitating guitar bit before launching into a brisk, jangly rhythm, and also topping out at two minutes. "Her Hands Are Weak" is a slower, expansive Cocteau Twins-like waltz that finds the band in a state of heavy anguish, and "Secrets" is similar but even deeper, darker, and more despondent. The Slowdive-ish "Shine" has a bit more jangle to its gloom, and finale "Rosetta" is the band's most heart-on-sleeve moment, with a haunting chorus begging "Come closer, stay by my side." The band might seem shy and quite sad, but the music isn't quite as overwhelmingly melancholy as one might expect, and Encounters ends up being relaxing and comforting as well as quietly heartbreaking.

© Paul Simpson /TiVo