Click here for photos of Asobi Seksu at South Street Seaport in New York, NY on July 15th, 2011 in the QRO Concert Photo Gallery
Click here for photos of Asobi Seksu at SXSW 2011 in Austin, TX in the QRO Concert Photo Gallery
While shoegaze never took off the way some people thought it might when it broke through in the nineties, it never went away, either, and is even mounting something of a ‘comeback’ these days (albeit strictly as an indie-phenomenon). One of those ‘bringing it back’ is New York’s Asobi Seksu. Fluorescence, their fourth original LP, doesn’t change their game that much, a problem that does plague shoegaze, but stays sweet and expansive.
While sophomore Asobi record Citrus had energy, 2009’s Polyvinyl debut Hush (QRO review) dialed it back a great deal; for Fluorescence, the band is somewhere in the middle, with pieces that could fit on either. Interestingly, neither side comes out dominant, with strong numbers in both – openers "Coming Up" and "Trails" bring the airy, charming shoegaze one would expect after Hush, while the following "My Baby" and later number "Sighs" have the Citrus impetus. And there’s even a Jap-pop catchy track, "Trance Out".
All of the fuzzy expanse to shoegaze doesn’t lend itself to a great deal of variety, and that does plague Asobi Seksu and Fluorescence. Four albums in, they’ve certainly established their sound, but it does leave one wanting to see them grow from there more. Still, shoegaze doesn’t come much sweeter.
MP3 Stream: "Sighs"
