Memoryhouse's Slideshow Effect

Memoryhouse is the closest thing to being like an actual dream that I've heard in quite some time. Plenty of bands I review here are dreamy and play dreamlike music, but few, if any, sound like they ARE a dream. Memoryhouse's gauzy, lazy, partially ethereal tunes are like the state you lay in between consciousness and being out cold. It's a trippy state to be in and Memoryhouse have found a way to reside there permanently. Their latest album, The Slideshow Effect is the sound of pulling the covers over your head, fluffing your pillow, and heading back to the land of the sandman.

Absolutely beautiful, The Slideshow Effect is something like a post-shoegazing come down that never ends. The songs that make up The Slideshow Effect are cheery, unobtrusive, and genuinely pretty. It's all very fragile stuff that even at its poppiest is still wispy and delicate and sounds as though if the band isn't careful their songs might just shatter into a million pieces. This is an Ambien fueled nap and its shimmery haze sounds like the colors and sights that your mind creates as you drift off to sleep. Picture the Pale Saints with less of a noisy migraine and you kind of have where Memoryhouse are coming from.

Guitars jangle gently, vocals whisper there away across lyrics, drums sound as if their brushed or tapped, and nearly invisible basslines carry the songs along the waves of sleepiness. The whole effect is so peaceful, calming, and inconspicuous that if you're not careful most of The Slideshow Effect will slide on by. Memoryhouse are so mousey, so fragile, and so good that they're the sort of band you want to give a hug to; they're warm, inviting, and a joy to listen to.

The Slideshow Effect is a brilliant album of subdued pop music that's like a series of lullabies strung together. This is the sort of album that will lull you off to another world and leave you there forever. The Slideshow Effect is quite literally dream pop and that's why I think it's so fantastic. This is the soundtrack to the afterlife and Memoryhouse have created an album of total escapism and that's never a bad thing...especially nowadays.