Hypatia

A three-man band from Birmingham, Alabama, Wray produced their first full-length album this year. Their sound is mature, polished shoegaze.

Although on the opposite end of the intensity spectrum from Rehumanizer, Hypatia has a similarly expressive guitar. It rarely has a solo, and there are long stretches of time in which it doesn’t seem to be doing anything. Nevertheless, it’s hard to pay attention to anything else. Simple riffs, and a beautiful articulated sound. For examples of great guitar work, listen to “Regular” from 1:25 to the end.

I also like the vocalist here. He has almost no range, he drones his way through most tracks, and he sounds like he’s on the verge of falling asleep; but this is shoegaze music, and the vocalist isn’t meant to be the center of our attention. He’s meant to become part of the texture, and that’s exactly what happens here.

Making good shoegaze is difficult, for much the same reason that making good pop music is difficult. The melodies and rhythm are supposed to be simple, but the music has to hold our attention anyway. A lot of shoegaze is, frankly, boring; but I was never bored listening to Hypatia. It has a wonderful, ambling pace, like a walk on a summery day. The riffs change just often enough to hold my attention, but not so often that the album feels disordered.

Everything is well in Hypatia’s world. The album has a healthy feeling. It isn’t inventive or particularly striking in any way, which is why it can’t be higher on this list. As an exemplar of its genre, however, it’s almost perfect.

Best songs: “Hypatia,” “Regular”