Isobella:

Surrogate Emotions of the Silverscreen

(New Grenada Records)

Now that shoegaze is an accepted, acknowledged genre with confirmed lineage, the revolution’s many offspring have taken the promise of forefathers My Bloody Valentine and Ride and reignited it for another generation. Back are the lush, enveloping blankets of feedback bolstering ethereal vocals and hypnotic hooks in a sublime union that even the most cynical ear prays lasts forever.

On their third album, the Isobella collective of Laura Poinsette, Shane McLaughlin, and Brad Richardson tumbles like a gorgeous autumn, falls with the beauty of a welcome frost. Poinsette invokes the spirit of the Cocteau Twins with a detectable spice of Velocity Girl’s Sarah Shannon, and her keyboard work is a heavenly counterpoint to the constellation bed constructed by McLaughlin and Richardson, whose combined efforts on guitar rage, reflect, and echo with a thoughtful ferocity. Bolstered by confident, gorgeous arrangements, Surrogate moves with the languorous speed of a beautiful dream.

www.isobellamakesmusic.com

www.newgranada.com

8 Blips out of 10

By Cory Frye

8/2005