DEAD GAZE

DEAD GAZE (Palmist)

14/20

Under the Dead Gaze moniker, Mississippi resident Cole Furlow creates happy-go-lucky distortion-pop which sounds like fuzzy, toothy smiles. He drowns his simple but lush pop songs in a swamp of muddy, lo-fidelity nastiness – imagine a kitten playing with a ball of white noise and you’re halfway there. The mood is immediately set with the festival-sized indie vocals of opener Remember What Brought Us Here, and Furlow later proves a knack for penning a bona-fide pop hook on the addictive I Found The Ending. The heavier tracks are amongst the album’s biggest highlights and the punky You’ll Carry On Real Nice could be straight out of a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater soundtrack, while There’s a Time to be Stupid commands at least a mild measure of head-banging. The omnipresent haze of the record never quite clears, and as such, the limited palette of sound does become pretty exhausting. Fortunately, the quality of song-writing beneath will make you feel compelled to return to these songs again and again.

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Words: James Balmont