Glacier

Album review

The artistic growth of Jamison, the producer behind Teen Daze, has been faster than the title of his third album implies. In fact, he has been quite prolific, releasing three albums that are significantly different from each other over the course of two years. While a more conventional artist might have focused on the chillwavey pop of his first album All of Us, Together or The Inner Mansions' confessional songwriting, Jamison dives deeper into the restful atmospheres that surrounded those albums' beats and words, and the results are some of his most accomplished music yet. Glacier finds Teen Daze sounding more ambient than ever, stripping away most of the drums that gave his earlier work a pulse in favor of vast expanses of washy synths. Not surprisingly, Brian Eno's influence is particularly strong. Even if Jamison doesn't provide the logical heir to Ambient 1: Music for Airports with Glacier, dreamy electronics and limpid melodies are almost always soothing and pretty. Those terms describe songs such as the luminous album closer "Walk," which feels like the point where chillwave meets new age, perfectly. Aptly enough, Jamison's sound has a crisper edge on Glacier than in the past, even on poppier tracks such as the highlights "Ice on the Windowsill" and "Listen." Throughout the album, he finds ways to expand on the intimacy he hinted at on The Inner Mansions, delivering one of Teen Daze's best balances of atmosphere and songwriting in the process.

© Heather Phares /TiVo