Punk- and drone-influenced shoegaze with strong cues from garage rock and contemporary gazers like Nothing and No Joy. Both luxuriously heavy and sweetly delicate, the atmosphere of Pure Mood flows between fury and fragility, often dictated by the guitarwork. Many tracks rely heavily on texture and not as much on melody as can often happen in shoegaze. Both male and female vox that sound similar to the gods in MBV. Lyrics are generally simple and about being in love, free.

RIYL Astrobrite, Whirr, Nothing, No Joy
Favorites: 2, 3, 7, 8, 11, 12
FCC: 5, 10

1. (2:00) Dream Again—Pensive guitars, dreamy vocals. Very direct, no reverb.
2. (3:40) **Heavy Metal Suicide—Shoegaze heavy metal / where Deafheaven could have gone? Bleeding guitars, fast percussion, fiery vocals. Like “When You Sleep” by MBV but more brutal.
3. (4:20) *Stare at the Sun—Slower. Dreamy female vocals. Brooding chord progression. Explodes into the percussion and more guitars at 0:58, builds in more reverb. Alternates between these quieter and louder passages throughout. Reminiscent of “God’s Dream”, an excellent, older song of theirs.
4. (3:54) Show Me the Truth of Your Love—Rich, womblike, Disintegration by The Cure atmosphere. Also very Whirr.
5. (2:42) Big Bopper—FCC: fuck. Slacker-pop gaze. Heavy bass. Reminds me a lot of another guitarcore band from Texas called Purple. Becomes more gaze at 1:02. Multiple “Even Flow” references towards the end. RIYL shoegaze Pearl Jam?
6. (3:00) Guilt—Another pretty shoegaze track with dreamy vocals.
7. (3:31) ***California Car Collection—Slow, languorous. Lyrics about wasting away. “I am waving goodbye.” Builds in some satisfying screechy electric guitar and distortion at 1:45. Sounds like early Tamaryn. Melancholic. Reminds me of how I felt the first time I listened to the song “California Nights” by Best Coast.
8. (3:27) *Frisbee—Female vocals over a wirelike guitar line, male vocals over heavy distortion and faster percussion. Sort of a back-and-forth structure.
9. (5:01) Boys in Heat—Plodding. A bit boring for five minutes. I feel like this song could have been more engaging if it weren’t as slow.
10. (3:15) Never—FCC: fuck. Uptempo. Pure mood/pure love. “Come on and drown with me.”
11. (3:24) *Old Again—Contemplative, churning. Silvery bass.
12. (3:52) *Acid Tongue—Guitars sound a lot like the guitars in “What You Want” by MBV. Alternates between brief levity and blistering guitars and percussion. “Come down and we’ll be free.”