Music Review // Evelyn Gray "Let the Flower Grow [demos]"

https://howtobealone.bandcamp.com/album/let-the-flower-grow-demos //

Now, I've been writing about music for way too long (don't ask how long) and it always confuses me when I see music labeled as "demos" that- to me- doesn't sound like a demo.    To me, a demo is like a rough draft.   I've heard various demos throughout the years but it seems like a lot of them come out after the final version, right?  Like if you buy that box set you can listen to a bunch of Nirvana demos and you can tell how they sound versus how the songs you know and love sound.

So can someone please explain to me why these songs are "demos" because they sound perfect the way that they are.   I have been submitted music which has a rougher quality to it than this and it has not been labeled as a demo but I also just don't know what steps you would take to improve upon these songs, which is not a bad thing.    If this was presented to me as an album, as a finished piece of music, that would make sense to me.   This being called "demos"... not as much.

Moving past that one word which has made two paragraphs for me somehow, if you've ever wanted to hear guitars and powerful vocals then you have come to the right place.   The guitars sound dark and can go from notes to chords.    "Catching Feelings" is a good example of how there can be these notes like The Cure and then they crash into some heavy chords.    For some reason I can't quite explain, this also reminds me of Thursday and in that way maybe it's post punk. 

These vocals just belt out the lyrics and sometimes it can feel like an operatic stage show.   The lyrics have a dark, somewhat sad feeling to them and it just adds to the overall mood of the way they come out as well as the music which accompanies them.    If you're going to make music like this and have a voice like this, your songs really can't be about happy things- I think- because it all just sets the tone and you have to stick with it, so the way this all just comes together fits very well.

There is an ambient sound, one of post rock, which comes with the guitar, especially during a song like "Take With Food".    At times I feel like this can remind me most of The Lyndsay Diaries but that was such a quieter sound, more reserved and soft spoken in ways whereas Evelyn Gray could fill a stadium and you would still hear these sounds ringing outside and down the block.    It's just one of those times I can't put my finger on how this sounds because I've never heard anything like it before but I am definitely here for it and here to hear more of it.