Artist: Prism Shores, the four-piece of vocalist and guitarist Jack MacKenzie, vocalist and bassist Ben Goss, guitarist Finn Dalbeth, and drummer Luke Pound

Location: Montreal, Quebec

Buzz: Young adult friction is right. With the the 15th anniversary of the Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s jangle-pop classic debut right around the corner, it’s fitting that Prism Shores’ sophomore effort, Out From Underneath, arrives to remind us and celebrate an undying influence of the C86 sound with their own ever-so-slightly sweet spin on it. Though their influences within that scene’s lore are evident — touchstones of Creation, Flying Nuns, and Sarah Records abound alongside the dreamy college rock of Galaxie 500, Teenage Fanclub, and Velocity Girls running through shoegaze-punk waveforms of nascent My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, and Dinosaur Jr. material — the four-piece’s latest listen expands on the foundational elements of all those influences laid bare on their 2019 debut full-length, Youth In Abstract, with their own subtle experimentation. Guitars sparkle and spangle purely beneath out-of-focus verse and harmony, all the while pulling synthetic atmospheres and overdubbed distortion into the fold. Its smudges their canvas with a very specific warm, fuzzy-feeling joyous melancholia that comes with growing up — happy to have experienced something, but already looking back on the days that just passed by as if they’re golden ones long gone.

Sound: Stepping over snow-dusted city sidewalks in the late night hours of a January weekend after spending your evening in the close, cozy company of friends and lovers, right as those nagging thoughts on perpetual loneliness and inevitable doom begin to join you on that walk home.

Recommended: “Overplayed My Heart”, “Southpaw”, and “Weightless”” from their newly-released sophomore effort, Out From Underneath

Prism Shores’ Out From Underneath is available now on Meritorio Records.