Midrift - Silhouette
6.2
Since the shoegaze revival of the 2010s decided to veer left by following the arrow marked “grunge,” that side of the scene has increasingly become the domain of Gen Z, at times even justifying the ridiculous label “zoomergaze” bestowed upon it by certain circles on Reddit. The movement has become codified into such precise clichés that it leaves little room for genuine expectation or curiosity: extreme dynamic contrasts (you know, those moments when delicate, quiet, dreamy arpeggios suddenly give way to towering walls of distortion); a general dominance of the drums (no longer relegated to some distant chamber in the mix, as they were on Loveless); strumming that alternates between lo-fi textures, Billy Corgan-style vibrato, and headbanging-worthy distortion; and vocals that are more tearful than dreamy, spilling out teenage angst. Without breaking a sweat, the California trio Midrift deliver a concise primer on the genre: tasteful, well-executed, and not particularly surprising.
To be fair, the album opens with an arpeggio (Over Anything) that immediately reveals the trio’s musical background, evoking less shoegaze than the Sunny Day Real Estate track In Circles, while at the same time setting the dreamy (or perhaps numbed-out) head-nodding pace so characteristic of the scene. The same goes for the title track, which wears its debt to modern-day pioneers Title Fight on its sleeve. It is in the middle section, however, that the record moves more decisively into Smashing Pumpkins territory: the expansive, moody, distortion-drenched guitar work and dreamy vocals of Difference To; the more driving rhythms of Not Far Gone and All I Said. Toward the end, the band seems to return to the melodic post-hardcore template of Title Fight: Tell Me Everything (perhaps the album’s standout track), a power ballad balanced between rage and disillusionment; and Safe and Sound, with its almost mosh-pit-ready energy, recalls Narrow Head. The closing track is pure Citizen-style emo, the kind meant to be shouted at the top of one’s lungs.
Overall, Silhouette is exactly the kind of record you would expect to find upon opening a '2020s grungegaze playlist: a compendium of the stylistic elements that have come to define the generational emotional landscape of this stretch of the century. Everything is grammatically correct, everything is in its proper place, everything is neatly packaged in a form that can hardly fail to appeal to its target niche on first listen. Yet to ears less deeply immersed in the scene, it is difficult for it not to sound somewhat standardized. This trend already boasts a long list of chapters, and from the height of the wave we now seem to be slowly entering its period of decline. Perhaps it is time to move on.
