Rating: NNN
Although none of its nine tracks goes over the four-minute mark, this debut album from Brooklyn-based trio Celestial Shore seems strangely long-lasting. Perhaps it’s the winding route each song travels, a journey of Odyssean proportions that meanders through jazzy guitar lines, spastic breakdowns, sunny harmonies and epic – in the non-ironic sense of the word – drum rolls and fills.
The impressive debut blurs the lines between math and indie rock, with Celestial Shore at the centre of the Venn diagram. The products of a Boston art school education, the three members have jazz backgrounds that they say they attempted to forget when writing this album. They succeeded: 10x is more Dirty Projectors than improvisational jazz jams.
It’s also a touch overplayed, blustery and tiring at times. But that’s the point. The band thrives on unpredictability and the short attention span of the internet generation.
Top track: Valerie
