Beige Dreams is anything but beige. It’s a glorious 15 minutes of distressed melodies, wonky rhythms and vocals that make you feel warm and fuzzy.
Sometimes you hear something and it clicks immediately. You remember exactly where you were when you heard it, what you were wearing and what band you chided yourself for liking.
Beige Dreams by
Ead Wood is one of those moments. I was sitting in my kitchen drinking a cup of tea about to start working on another review. It was clear and concise in my mind what I was going to say. Why it was a good album and how much fun it was. After I heard
Beige Dreams I had to reassess this.
‘Cold Hearted’ kicks
Beige Dreams off with a catchy but woozy guitar riff before laconic vocals give us a comforting hug. At times it feels like a mellow Pavement, but the walls of feedback and distressed guitar have been removed and we’re left with that flawless riff. Again and again and again, until that elongated outro kicks in, and we float away with it.
‘Ignored’ is more upbeat and jaunty. Jangling Stone Roses riffs cascade around us, as Ed’s vocals soar and swell, whilst remaining understated.
‘Oceans’ slows things down again. Shoegaze flourishes ebb and flow during the chorus, however, the star of the show is the bass. The EP closes with the achingly beautiful
‘Those Hands’. At first it feels out of place, next to the jangle fest of the previous three songs, but it fits perfectly next to them. It shows another side to Ead Wood. It shows that he is capable of making you cry as he is making you grin.
One thing is certain,
Beige Dreams is anything but beige. It’s a glorious 15 minutes of distressed melodies, wonky rhythms and vocals that make you feel warm and fuzzy. Rumour has it a long player is in the works, and if it retains the quality of
Beige Dreams, 2019 will be the year of grunge-surf!
Photo: Dominika Scheibinger
