Photo by Luke Ivanovich

They already told us they were tired of tomorrow, and now that tomorrow is here, it couldn’t carry any more of the exhausting weight of trying to walk through these times’ artificial daze. Nothing’s “purple strings” — the second preview from the Philly outsider shoegaze purveyors’ new album, a short history of decay — makes cinema out of that creeping sensation nonetheless, with the listen (alongside its Kevin Haus-directed visuals) peering straight into a dystopic black mirror of our increased societal reliance on algorithms, generative AI, and “smart” computer technology that only seems to be adding to our own soul rot starting with the brain.

This goes far beyond the lull of the Philly band’s white flag anthem “Guilty of Everything”, however. Avant garde harpist extraordinaire Mary Lattimore, violinist Camille Getz, and cellist Jason Adams’ strings captivate an unsettling feeling in strings ornate and delicately heavy swirling hypnotically into Domenic Palermo’s blank stare. “I’m getting to know myself / In spite of the bend.” This all begs the question: in the end, what version of reality of ourselves will be the true one we remember?

Directed by: Kevin Haus

Nothing’s a short history of decay will be released February 27th on Run for Cover Records.