Recommended Album: Knifeplay – ‘Animal Drowning’

Animal Drowning opens up with “Nothing”, a song with a celestial-struck instrumental intro that sounds somewhat like a string and keyboard-gazing interlude off Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and that’s probably the best way to describe the scope at which the debut album from the Philly experimental rock quintet lead listeners into from that point onward. Like early Smashing Pumpkins, their sound is nothing concrete beyond being oddly beautiful in a certain heavy light. They’re not outright dream-pop, slocore, or shoegaze, though there are plenty of moments throughout the listen drenched in distortion, an eerie peak into Americana and its murky reveries, nor are they grunge revivalists, even if “Lonely Sun” piles sludge over something ascendant. The only certain thing is that vocalist and guitarist Tj Strohmer, guitarist John Klein, bassist Alex Stackhouse, keyboardist and string composer Max Black, and drummer John Sciortino have bound light and darkness into their own singular prism of alternative rock in a way that breathes a new life into it, and ponders it all deeply.

Highlights: “Nobody”, “Promise”, “Cold Rain”

Knifeplay’s Animal Drowning will be released October 19th on Topshelf Records.

Buy | Stream