Wasting May Are Back With A New EP
A new EP release from Wasting May brings out a wonderful blend of pop rock, folk, singer-songwriter, and contemporary pop, but ends up feeling like a dream pop project simply because of how the songs flow and feel aesthetically.
A lot of the songs on this release have honesty just oozing out of them, and between the guitar tones and how the vocals come across so smooth and flowing, it just feels airy and invites you to drift alongside it almost the entire time.
Having said that, this is an acoustic style project complete with all natural instrumentation, including live percussion, adding a bit of drive to certain tracks, bringing on the whole pop-rock aspect, but even though songs still have this sort of elegance to them, and how they are performed.
The record is called I Watched The Seasons Change, and it starts with a song called "Angel", which is quite beautifully performed and starts to give you some of the staples that the EP will boast.
You have that live drum and percussion aspect, but the song still has this swing time rhythm and floaty feel, which just wraps itself around you somehow.
A lot of these songs do that. They let you sort of swim through them, and at times can trigger memories of your own simply because of some of the cinematic undertone and emotional backbone that a lot of the tracks deliver.
Even though the first track does an amazing job of introducing the record and what you might expect, listening to this EP in full is the only real way to soak it all in properly.
You will not get the full spectrum just by listening to a few songs.
Songs like "Between The Eyes" manage to push a little bit of an edgy feel. Almost like a 90s underground alternative style, but still clean. The guitars are not distorted, but there's still that edginess there. It does have an alternative feel to it, and I love this.
You can hear that some of their influences come from all over the place, including a bit of that '90s rock era shining through.
The vocals are absolutely gorgeous and really let the record build into something gorgeous. They're tracked a little bit differently each time, but sometimes you have beautiful harmonies or just simply double-tracked vocals that are singing the same thing, but even then, you get this thickness to the song, and the way that she double-tracks her vocals adds extra layers of texture somehow.
A song like "You Lost It All" serves as a damn near perfect example of exactly that.
This EP is quite a journey. It does get personal, lyrics can be drifting but still descriptive at times, the blend of textures and tones between the singing and the guitars is always outstanding, and let this record create and build an atmosphere that is unique and can really swallow you up.
I don't mean this in a bad way whatsoever. I mean, you put on headphones, and you fall into their world, and it's a great experience, which is another reason to listen to the full EP.
The closing track is one of my favorites simply because it does such a good job of actually closing the record itself.
It is a song that isn't entirely instrumental but leans more in that direction with spoken word that feels like it's called in the moment, blended in.
The guitar work here is great because you finally get to hear some more electric lead guitar stuff going on, which happens throughout the record in small sections at certain points.
For example, "Between The Eyes" has both this electric guitar slide lead section that builds the intensity of the song towards the end of it.
The last track on the record is called "Sincerely Sarah", and it just had a great way of buttoning up this release and just letting you sit in it.
This is certainly a record that you ruminate on and kind of reflect on.
It has a lot of that personality dripping from all angles, and you can tell lyrically, this was all very authentic.
I love hearing a personal record on this level, and having heard their previous release, I would say this is much more experimental.
I feel like they've opened up a little bit and started branching out in different directions, but still sticking to their core sound at the same time.
This was beautifully done from start to finish, and I definitely would urge you to listen to the record again, with headphones, and once more, from start to finish. This way, you can experience it as it was meant to be heard.
Dive right in and you won't soon be disappointed.
