Review Summary: "I'll just sit here and wait for some change."
While listening to Elemantra's second album, I can't help thinking how easily Justin Woodmancy and his band would've fit in the early 90s. He could've really been up there competing with Billy Corgan and everybody else all the time for the top charts spots. But this is 2016, and instead he has to put up with comments such as "these guys are basically like if sdre and sdre had a baby". Oh well. But this band thrives in their ability to combine all things alt rock, shoegaze, dream pop and emo, and avoid sounding dated. Instead, they sound fresh, and their songwriting abilities have only been growing since their debut.
Foreign Breath is, as said by Justin himself, a band "going into a more pop influenced direction", but maintaining their roots, combining for probably their best release yet.
The cleaner production heard here is more readily apparent than before. Vocals are less distorted and clearer most of the time, the songs have a clear and cohesive structure, and the carefully constructed lush guitar and organ tones add great texture to the songs. But the reverb and feedback-based shoegazey guitar sound is present as ever. The layers of guitars add to the catchiness of the songs, combining the best bits of Smashing Pumpkins, Built To Spill and Sunny Day Real Estate. This grants the album an undeniable charm. "Peach Fuzz" is an instantly memorable opener and has a delicious melody, "My Friends" and "Skin Walker" go together perfectly and stand out as two of the highlights, tracks such as the lovely "Prendergast" utilize the dream pop influence pretty well, and the multitracked guitars allow "On Dry Land" and "Flower Bored" to be instant earworms. Then closer "If God One Day Struck Me Blind" pretty much brings it all together, almost like a sad lullaby. It gives this bittersweet feeling, as does the entire album, and I suppose it's all the better for it.
