Chicago-based shoegaze/dream pop band Lightfoils, have announced their new album ‘Chambers’, which is coming out on November 16th (Bandcamp pre-order). To coincide with the announcement, the band have shared the radio edit of the album’s lead single Summer Nights, a densely layered, reverb-laden track with a calculated build-up full of alternately chiming and blanketing guitars, while Lightfoils’ lead singer Jane Zabeth Nicholson’s sublime vocals float longingly above. You can stream the track via Soundcloud below.
Formed in 2010, Lightfoils’ sound subtly stretches the auditory boundaries of shoegaze, honing in on a more cosmopolitan and ethereal sound. Clocking in at just over 30 minutes, their new album ‘Chambers’ (their first since 2014) represents a band that has mastered the atmospheric tone they’ve become synonymous with and continue to occupy, almost a decade after formation.
The band is self-releasing the album, both for the autonomy and for the ability to be intimately involved in all aspects of the album’s production and subsequent roll-out. Songs like Duende sound like a surf rock wave rolling onto darker shores, with the rhythm section keeping an upbeat tempo, keeping one grounded, while the vocals and guitars provide a loss of gravitational control. This Time is Up speeds things up with a faster tempo and swirling, distorted guitars, and rattling bass. Zabeth’s vocal melodies are reminiscent of classic 90s rock that has a touch of grunge, and channels the softness of their shoegaze predecessors.
