New : Wild Nothing - 'Nocturne'

Ding ding! It's officially round two for the cluster of dream-pop outfits who dropped their débuts back in 2010 during the heady days of the slightly irritatingly-named 'chillwave' phenomenon. This should be good news for a man like myself who creamed himself over Beach House, Best Coast and School of Seven Bells back then but I had to admit that I've been slightly worried about the follow-up releases from all these bands - shimmering guitars and lysergic vocals were all in vogue back when shoegaze originally peaked twenty years ago but it didn't take long for the original crop of bands to start sounding like they'd run out of ideas. Line up the 1991 débuts of scene stalwarts like Curve and Chapterhouse with their lukewarm follow-ups from two years later and you'll see what I'm getting at. My Beachbest Coasthouse double-header from earlier this year voiced my relief that neither band had worn out their welcome and so I was hoping the follow-up release from Wild Nothing would match the mellow sleeper-hit charm of their début 'Gemini' which was one of my highlights of 2010. As it turns out they've actually bettered it, filling out to a full band of hipster session dudes and bringing the bedroom atmospherics of their first album into a more visceral, full-bodied end product ready to be taken on the road. Band mastermind Jack Tatum has made the wise decision to draft in reinforcements to flesh out his sound a bit which gives the record a bit more balance - if 'Gemini' was the sound of one dude floating on a lilo in a sea of pink clouds and reverb, 'Nocturne' sees him now facing the crowd flanked by a bunch of like-minded souls ready to deliver one serious chill pill. He keeps it retro here without becoming fetishist, channelling the stick microphone and hoop earring vibe of British pop circa 1985 - this stuff reminds me of the 'Hits' compilation tapes my mum bought for me when I was a kid, it brings back memories of A-ha and Eurythmics on Top of the Pops, moody synths humming in the air as raincoat-clad romantics worked their mystique in a cloud of dry ice. Tatum's penchant for period revivalism stays the right side of tokenism though, he's obviously more attached to the era's enchanting song structures and wide-angle atmospherics than its fancy dress elements of retro chic and he busts out the marimbas and drum echo to craft tunes that wouldn't have sounded out of place on a Dream Academy or Thompson Twins record back in the day. 'Nocturne' benefits not only from a fuller sound but also from a more consistent track listing than his début, filling each of its eleven cuts with enough subtle hooks and echoic melodies to bring you back for repeated listens - as good as 'Gemini' was I always found myself cherry picking tracks from its stronger segments rather than running through the record as a whole, whereas 'Nocturne' is better suited to one uninterrupted soak. Tatum and his cohorts may not be the beefiest bunch out there in terms of frontal delivery - indeed, you could say they should have called themselves 'Mild Nothing' instead (Hahahahaha!!! Oh I crack myself up sometimes, I really do) but they mellow it up better than anyone else I can think of right now and they can perhaps count themselves somewhat unfortunate that their gorgeous daydream indie hasn't been picked up on by the mainstream to the same extent as the equally accessible Beach House who cracked the top ten earlier this year with 'Bloom'. Gliding under the radar probably suits them better for now in any case and 'Nocturne' is one big snuggly duvet looking for an owner so if you're stoked on the prospect of a Tears for Fears reunion then bag this one in the meantime and let the boys take you off somewhere reeeeeeeeally nice.

Check out : 'Disappear Always', but drop the needle in anywhere and you'll hit mellow gold.