pinkshinyultrablast – Everything Else Matters

★★★

There’s nothing new here, but when it comes to shoegaze in 2015 what do you really expect?  All the usual signifiers are here:  the reverb-soaked, wistful vocals, the guitar work that is made heavy through judicious use of delay pedals, the rocket-fuelled leaps in dynamics, the general sense that someone has taken amped-up C86 songs and applied a smudge tool to them.  So, if you’re looking for originality, you’re looking in the wrong place.  That said, as far as shoegazer bands go, pinkshinyultrablast is one of the better ones; Everything Else Matters is a lot of fun, derivativeness notwithstanding, and it’s sugar-rush vibe will surely catch more than a few people.