Rating: NNN
A big part of the charm of Still Life Still’s 2009 debut, Girls Come Too, was the urgency and rawness of the band’s youth, and what that brought to their reimagining of 90s indie rock guitar tropes. By comparison, Mourning Trance is refined and restrained, and while that doesn’t ruin their appeal, it doesn’t help either. Much of the album is about the deaths of family members, which explains the lack of party vibes. But that solemnity isn’t really the problem.
It sounds like Still Life Still spent a lot of time in the studio building layers of guitars. But cramming so many textures into each song leads to an unfortunate sameness across the album. Very little jumps out from the washes of sound, except for the occasional blast of monosynth melody (an idea they should explore more). It’s still a good shoegaze-inspired guitar rock record, but sounds like too many others boasting the same influences.
Top track: In Enemies
