RECORD REVIEW: Baldleaf, The world is not against you (demo collection) (2024)

 

RECORD REVIEW: Baldleaf, The world is not against you (demo collection) (2024)

 

truly, we are living in a golden age of shoegaze music. we haven’t seen such a strong surge of guys in desperate need of haircuts with offset guitars and big pedalboards paid for by their parents since the nineties, and at least then, those guys didn’t have their unfinished tracks thrown up on the internet thanks to the home recording equipment that’s become standard for all the new bands by now (if Kurt Cobain was 18 today he’d have a soundcloud and you’d hate him). it’s not uncommon to find bands putting out records before they’ve made any connections, before they’ve played any shows, or even, before they’ve finished the songs, as is the case here. normally the demo compilation is reserved for artists who’s raw songcraft and compelling personality lend these releases an anthropological sense of view, or artists who have a fanbase so rabid they’re desperate for any scrap of information about their creative process, but here, we have a demo release from a completely unknown act, with no prior releases. 

Baldleaf are one of the many latest shoegaze-by-the-numbers bands that are starting to outnumber the pigeons in our fine capital city 5:1. drifting between a series of curiously derivative emulations (early My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive and, curiously, wellington’s own Bleeding Star) Baldleaf are admirable for their ambition if nothing else. fortunately, emulating good bands often leads to palatable music, and Baldleaf can manage that. underneath all of the uninspired guitar smear and put-upon low fidelity aesthetic i can hear a genuine songwriting talent that i’d love to hear developed. i have it on good authority that they’re good live, and i understand the desire to have your music present and accounted for in the world, but i definitely feel like, by releasing demos, we’re hearing the worst quality versions of these songs. if the intention was to make a DIY statement, you’re over 40 years too late for that to be interesting. i feel like i shouldn’t be taking this seriously as a release, but by making this your debut statement we’re stuck getting off on the wrong foot. 

to be positive, there’s some absolutely infectious earworms on this thing. i dont have nothing especially strikes me as the kind of single most bands would kill for, along with tracks like next to you and In the dark that leave me in the perfect, tranquil, over doing the cough syrup melty mood that i love to lull my self into after nights out and long days. and, at 20 minutes in length, it lasts long enough to say what it has to say but doesn’t linger to leave a bad taste in your mouth like most independent albums. without someone telling you to cut the chaff, a lot of releases end up coming out with pointless, throwaway b-sides, but Baldleaf seem to have picked up a copy of the pop song rule book here because i think any of these songs, with some neater production, could be spun into singles.

and, to give Baldleaf credit, they’re clearly willing to experiment when they’re in the mood for it. the use of a drum machine adds a lovely sepia tone veneer that sits over everything. maybe it says something about me more than the music, but the “one microphone hung over a drum kit, badly played” aesthetic that a lot of bands are emulating doesn’t always work for me. it works for some artists, and it completely denudes a lot of potentially great recordings. this demo collection veers into that territory from time to time, but it’s more forgivable on this, a demo collection, then on a real release. but until Tame Impala can be put on trial and held accountable for his crimes in the indie home recording world, i’m gonna have to just get over it.

i’m gonna go ahead and give this album a tentative recommendation (if you’re looking for a copy, it’s on all the big streaming sites, but, curiously, not on bandcamp, forcing me to find a really horrible low resolution image of the album cover from google. nice going, guys.), but i’ll understand if you come back from it unsure of your opinion. even as i type this i debate being harsher, or stuffing more compliments into the last two paragraphs, but i’ve got to stand by what i say, so make of this what you will. i’m sure i’ll have a different opinion next week, which i’d be happy to inform you of. i’m not exactly inconspicuous, just look for the guy who’s getting his glasses broken by a member of Baldleaf. 

i’m hooked, but i’m not 100% sure. i’ll be looking out for the next album, which i hope will be named Greatest Hits or, alternatively, Deluxe Remastered Edition. the world isn’t against you, Baldleaf, it just wants to meet you halfway.

final score: ****/5