Las Vegas Critics

Asobi Seksu - Hush

By Nick Manteris · 1 Comments · Leave a Comment

Hush is the third studio album from Asobi Seksu, a New York band frequently labeled as either dream pop or shoegaze. In the bio on their website they claim that, in an effort to distance themselves from comparisons to shoegaze bands, they have focused more on the pop aspect of their music. The distortion and intensity from songs like “I’m Happy but You Don’t Like Me” does seem to be toned way down on this release, so maybe “shoegaze” no longer applies. Dream pop definitely still fits, though, as most of their songs have a floating, dreamy texture.

“Layers” starts things out a little too dreamy, but the next several songs pick up the pace and “Sing Tomorrow's Praise” is the best track on the first half of the album. The dreamy pop sounds continue on the second half until things get really crunchy at the very end of “Meh No Mae.” The only other skippable song, aside from the opening track, is “I Can't See,” but it’s followed by their first single, “Me & Mary,” which has a more aggressive sound than anything else on this release…it’s the highlight of the album and the exact type of music that works best for them.

Score

65%

By the way, did I mention that Asobi Seksu is colloquial Japanese for “playful sex”? Because it is.

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Tags: Music, Nick, Asobi Seksu, Billy Pavone, dream pop, dreamy, Hush, James Hanna, Larry Gorman, Yuki Chikudate