Ever hear the interstitial music VH1 Classic used during commercial breaks for 120 Minutes? It was just a few seconds of dreamy, jangly guitar over a steady rhythm section, the melody building toward something promising but never delivered. On Ladida, the second album from Austin quartet Single Lash, it sounds like bandleader Nicolas Nadeau heard that snippet and decided it was a damn shame there wasn’t an actual song growing out of it. The tracks evoke early evening skies, when the sun streaks muted colors as it cedes the day to twilight, and thoughts turn to old sorrows and nervous beginnings. Sublimating the shoegaze fireworks of their 2018 debut Providence, Nadeau and co-guitarist Neil Lord (Future Museums) smoothly braid smoke and mirrors, reflecting bright tones and murky beauty off the surfaces of elegant melodies like “Sorry We Missed You” and “Clinging to Life.” The band flexes some crunchy muscle on “Possessor” and “Approaching the Point,” but mostly sticks to shimmer rather than shake. Ladida culminates in the ardent whorl of “Cicada” and the frothing churn of “To Laugh,” mini epics that field the tension of an uncertain world, but let us down gently with the promise of a new dawn.
This article appears in October 20 • 2023.
