Pinkshinyultrablast - Everything Else Matters (Album Review)

The buzz word now is "revival". I say it, they say it, we say it, and pretty much everyone else is on full on revival mode pretty much all the time. Websites, blogs, and tastemakers are starting to press hard for a "shoegaze" revival to be the buzz of early 2015. Just think of all the articles we could all write about bands influenced by bands like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Astrobrite (the band I'm reviewing now is even named after an Astrobrite album), and the countless other shoegaze classic artists. Well that's all good. I have no problem with revivals. What I'm most interested in is the music. The emo-revival of 2014 brought You Blew It!'s phenomenal new album at the start of 2014 and the ball kept rolling hard all the way through 2014 (or at least really strongly for the first 6-8 months). I think Pinkshinyultrablast's new album Everything Else Matters is the start of some really good music this year for shoegaze enthusiasts.

Everything Else Matters is full of those familiar sounds you've heard from bands like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. Everything sounds so well done on this album and it rivals some of the great songs of this style from the past. The Russian band has a knack for taking the style and making it sound as fresh as it's heyday. "Glitter" has such an enthralling and catchy guitar riff mixed with some great dreamy and wandering vocals. It's so instantly catchy and fun in a really cool way. The song "Umi" starts with a guitar riff that just waves in and sounds so much like wind chimes that it just evokes emotions of spring and summer. The album creates an awesome and unique vibe for the listener as it buzzes and washes in waves of sounds and vocals. It has an immediate thoughtfulness while still sounding really ear pleasing. There are moments when things blend in and out. As the main elements in the song weave in and out burying one thing slightly in the mix while pushing another thing to the forefront it allows all of the elements of the songs to maintain a unique cohesive bond to one another in a really cool way that really good shoegaze has a knack for doing.

The album is an early contender for my top 10 albums of this year list. Yeah, we'll have ton of albums and it's really too early to judge, but my initial feeling is that this is something really special. If there really is a steam engine racing towards a full on shoegaze revival happening and 2015 is going to be it's big year then this band should easily be at the forefront or at least brought up in any discussion involving new bands doing the sound justice. It's a fantastic album. Do yourself a favor and jump on and check this out; it is great!