Rating: NNNN
Wish is the brainchild of 24-year-old Torontonian Kyle Connolly, better known to locals as the bassist in Beliefs. You might also know him from Breeze, or Elk or another brewing basement project. Clearly, he’s a busy guy. He seems to have really found his groove, however, with Wish.
With long-time friend and collaborator Josh Korody (also of Beliefs) on guitar, Emily Bitze of Milk Lines on bass and Decades’ Peter Gosling on drums, this 37-minute self-titled debut perfectly balances psych, pop and shoegaze. It’s dramatic and spacey (the fade in and out of instrumental track Frances In Space sounds like Spiritualized), while Connolly’s vocals are paradoxically crisp and lo-fi, like Bradford Cox’s in Deerhunter. Even when a track is less than two and a half minutes long, there’s enough meat (i.e., lush harmonies, ambling guitars, swaths of distortion) to sink your teeth into. Yes, it might seem a touch derivative, but it’s only borrowing the best.
Top track: The Days
Wish play the Horseshoe on September 11.
