Music Review // Weal "Night Drive"

https://open.spotify.com/track/0dWBM4bRkMSldpvqKZcSfi //

One of my favorite ways to tell if something is shoegaze or not is by comparing it with bands that I know are shoegaze and many of those sources from The Blog That Celebrates Itself.   There is an album of cover songs out there for Nirvana's "Nevermind" that I'm particularly fond of and I feel like, based on the song "Night Drive", Weal would fit in with that crowd rather well, being able to tackle really any of those songs in a similar way as the existing artists did.

This song is darkwave at its heart though, as it can feel haunted at times.   There are wild, echoing guitar parts that will make your speakers shake while at other times they just come through as a sweet guitar solo.    Weal seems to draw influence from the shoegaze bands that I've listened to and enjoyed, even most recently perhaps Whole could be a fair comparison point to be made.    There exists this scene of shoegaze bands who are older that the bands I listen to draw their influence from and I suppose if you're a fan of those bands you also would enjoy this one.

It's funny how we kind of have these different classes of shoegaze now.   Someone like My Bloody Valentine or The Jesus Mary Chain would be older, where as artists like Japan Suicide and Reduction Plan would be some of a newer class that could also have Weal in it, and yet there still is this middle ground for artists like The Sorry Shop and Rev Rev Rev-- the when the sun hits era of shoegaze for me, if you will. 

Perhaps the best part of shoegaze growing as a genre is that artists can just get it right.   There are a lot of tags on Bandcamp for "shoegaze" and many of them might not feel like they are a true fit, but when it comes to the darker side of shoegaze, Weal is a force you must get to know as I feel in time they will be into that middle class of shoegaze when a new class inevitably emerges and we'll be comparing newer artists with this sonic blast through outerspace.