It was poetic as much as it was a crime that Abe Vigoda came to an end following the 2010 release of their acclaimed third studio effort, Crush. With that album, the band completed their evolution of being a staple within Los Angeles’ burgeoning DIY noise-pop scene alongside the likes of No Age and Mika Miko into gothically-inclined post-punks who found their own fragments of light within the coldwave spectrum which began shimmering shortly after the static residue of shitgaze began to wear off. 13 years passing has only brightened the corners of what the band accomplished in short time, and for those who were left wondering what could have been, the return of two of its formidable members in Michael Vidal and Juan Velasquez as Cupid & Psyche on their debut album, Romantic Music, makes for a more than satisfying epilogue-new chapter from the duo. Whereas Crush heard their sound veiled in darkness, Romantic Music isn’t fearful of sunlight, although it does inhabit its vampiric creature of the night tendencies naturally. Vidal’s vocals haunt themes of love and lust with forlorn desires and long sighs to be closer to another, as many a goth does, with deep-plunging guitar-pop, tripped out rhythms, and speckles of synthetic air swirling a euphoric spell around those emotions. The heavenly dour merges the past life of Vidal and Velasquez’s brooding post-punk into a different kind of gaze for those who prophetically dream up their downfalls in masochistic ways. There’s no need for black mascara here. The dark blue saturation akin to the album’s background artwork best encapsulates what’s born from Romantic Music: A beautiful hue fit for tragedy that begins where the story ends.

Highlights: “Romantic Music”, “Angels On the Phone”, “Serenity’s Pit”

Cupid & Psyche’s Romantic Music is available now on Felte Records.

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