There is this strain of fuzzy sound that has existed in rock music since the first guitars were plugged in, from psychedelics to shoegaze to today’s electronic effects. Seattle’s Spiral XP tap into it all on their debut full-length, I Wish I Was a Rat.
Rat has the kind of atmospheric, near-post-rock fuzz in “Wailing”, but also fuzzy jam-rock in “Horse Money”. Opener “Luna” is that uplifting brightness, like the fuzz glow of “Bright Eyes”, but also the wistful sadness of “Cruel World”. Yes, it can all blend together in some fuzzy whole, but Spiral XP are able to vary their fuzz more than you might expect.
I Wish I Was a Rat does eschew the modern ProTools-esque laptop engineering (it sounds like it was recorded in a proper studio, not a bedroom), obviously appealing to the art-rock types who once gazed at their shoes, but still have a fuzzy future.
