Hold Still Life [LP]

Debut album Hold Still Life by Brooklyn-based indie act Field Mouse follows the development forged over the course of several lesser releases and singer/songwriter Rachel Browne's solo work before that. The band's sound is rooted firmly in the lineage of shoegaze, as evidenced immediately by the Isn't Anything-styled rhythmic crashes that begin album opener "A Place You Return to in a Dream," but their take on the canon of gauzy '90s influences isn't only shallow enough to contain nods to My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. Browne's vocals are soft but never buried in the typical fields of reverb, giving the songs a stronger pop coherence that smacks of early indie poppers like Throwing Muses and Juliana Hatfield. When they do turn up the shoegaze settings, Field Mouse's tendencies toward melody make them sound more like lesser-known pedal-pushers like Moose, the Telescopes, and the Boo Radleys, leaning more on clear-headed pop tunes than underwater atmospherics. The album's moods shift frequently, dipping into synthy electronics on tracks like "Two Ships" before returning to the fuzzy, blissful indie rock magic of songs like "Asteroid." ~ Fred Thomas