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Maria Somerville: Luster review – a vivid and vital entry in the shoegaze revival
The Irish artist’s folk-inflected sound is both unnerving and alluring on her luxuriant second album
Maria Somerville: LusterSimple but evocative lyrics suggest an endearing curiosity about the world: “Sometimes the sky / Invites me to truly be / Myself more than it could actually be,” she sings on Trip, a curiously circular phrase that feels tentative and certain at the same time. Somerville sings in hushed tones surrounded by chilly production, but when you listen closely, these songs reveal themselves to be unusually swollen with texture and detail: harps twinkle like broken glass and baggy breakbeats reverberate widely, seemingly recorded through a bedroom wall. It was inspired by Somerville’s home of Connemara, and she occasionally luxuriates in nuanced, evocative field recordings, as on closer October Moon, when she samples the sound of waves at low tide.
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