Marriages - Salome

What an outstanding record. I am so glad I gave this one some time to sink in as it’s definitely a grower much like their mini-album debut , 2012’s ‘Kitsune’. The key moment here is the title track, the ethereal guitar manipulated sounds swell around a hushed vocal that itself builds over the son’s six minute running time. When the chorus hits it doesn’t belt you over the head either. It sweeps you off your feet, spinning the song into a somewhat dusty and distant whirl of wind. The reverb soaked drums and guitars may well fit nicely into the current shoegaze revival but, damn,those bands don’t have these hooks. The majority of the current crop don’t delivery on the majesty found within what can be unearthed here with these repeated listens. They just don’t. Marriages have that something, that magic that so many of their ilk simply lack. Don’t let the monochrome front cover of the album put you off either. The record is not as barren and as witchy as that artwork would have you believe;they are Californian after all. There is a full wash of textures and colour in each song on this, plus the shoegaze referencing only grates a little on the intro to ‘Skin’ which may as well have been lifted directly from a Swervedriver flipside from back in the day. Songs such as ‘Binge’ and the album closer ‘Contender’ will keep me coming back again and again. In fact I’m going to give it another spin now.

Track Listing:-

1 The Liar
2 Skin
3 Santa Sangre
4 Southern Eye
5 Binge
6 Salome
7 Less Than
8 Love Texas
9 Contender

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/MarriagesBand
https://twitter.com/marriagesband
http://marriagesmusic.bandcamp.com/

Label Links:-

http://sargenthouse.com/
https://www.facebook.com/sargenthouse
https://twitter.com/sargenthouse
http://www.last.fm/user/SargentHouse
https://instagram.com/sargenthouse/