When is the last time that you really dreamed? Sure, everyone experiences it as a passive action once they close their eyes and go to sleep. But Graffiti Welfare’s album “Revolving Shores” invites listeners to actively seek out their past, relive it through dreams and, potentially, find out what it all means.
This may be a tall order. But The Denver-based psych-pop artist can’t afford to have it any other way. “Revolving Shores” isn’t merely the artist’s debut album. It’s a rite of passage. It’s a way to use art as a guide toward the future.
Opener “To Be It” is built on ethereal piano arpeggios and features an Alan Watts speech meant to help listeners understand exactly where the artist is coming from with this effort. This is the search for something greater.
“Just Follow” and “DejaBlue” with their languid synth lines and laid-back vocals, sound like chanted mantras, while the shimmering “Good News” feels like the soundtrack to a post-yoga lunch.
While the past is always on the artist’s mind, soundwise this is a highly modern record. It’s obsessed with transcending the daily grind and builds on Tame Impala-style gentle psychedelia.
“Volume” proclaims that, after all, when home, everything in life is tuned to “the same frequencies.” And tunes like “Synesthesia” or “Seashell” are best appreciated when heard through headphones and with eyes closed. It’s, most likely, how the artist intended it to be heard.
There’s beauty in melancholy and in slowing down just a second to catch your breath. Both these things are ideal for dreamers. As far as Graffiti Welfare is concerned, it’s only the people that truly move forward from their pasts that are able to discover who they truly are.
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