Gospel Gossip “Drift” EP Review
In the music community where people are looking high and low for the “next big thing,” it has been cool watching a band that was initially tagged with that label continue to grow and never really rest on their laurels. Buzz has surrounded Gospel Gossip ever since they dropped their stellar debut album Sing Into My Mouth back in 2007, and since then the group has continued to grow artistically and continue to develop their sound. The band, made up of Sarah Neinaber on guitar and vocals, Ollie Moltaji on drums and Justin Plank on bass, have taken the fuzzed out dream pop which they started out with and sharpened the edges quite a bit on their subsequent singles and EPs. The latest example is the commanding four song EP titled Drift, which will be released later this month on the Minneapolis based Guilt Ridden Pop label. They have been playing most of the songs on the EP live for a while now, but each sounds excellent on record and really draws out the strengths of this young band.
Starting off with the tense “Sippy Cup,” the band’s sound is immediately massive, but still remains clean and well produced. Neinaber sings that she “Never knew her dreams could get so far away,” with her dissonant guitar laying the fuzzy groundwork for her vocals. The drums are violent and forceful and push the song forward with the pulsing bassline. “Ponds” starts out a but slower and is less tightly wound, featuring less wall of sound guitars and some sweet, echoed vocals that are less isotonic than Neinaber’s usual impassioned wail. Things really pick up with the epic “Chores,” which might be the best song the band has recorded yet. Starting out with stadium-sized drums and sprawling guitars, the track is like a tender punch to the gut. Neinaber’s vocals are deceptive in that the crushing words are sung in an innocent and unobtrusive way. The song, which spans some six minutes, spends its back half washed in waves of noise while Neinaber sings “I don’t know and you don’t know and they don’t know and we don’t know.” The track has been a live highlight for awhile and really stands out on the new disc. Drift ends with the drawn out “Blazin’,” which is a shape shifting track that is a striking achievement for the band. Starting out with snapping snare shots and and some hazy guitar and vocals, the song shifts about halfway through as Plank produces an infectious bass line that veers the song into another direction. The track shows a band that is both confident and creative and ends the record on a very high note.
With Drift, we hear resoundingly that Gospel Gossip is a group that is increasingly willing to take chances with their sound. They have played live shows incessantly since their inception and have become a powerful and tight band. Lucky for us they didn’t just buy the hype of being the next big thing and start to coast, because it would have been a shame to have missed watching them continue to evolve in such an exciting way.
I really wanted to make it to the EP release show at Sauce but I figured it would simply be too damn busy. I’ll have to catch one of their upcoming shows and grab a copy. The songs that I’ve heard live stuck in my head for weeks – a feat accomplished by only a handful of of the dozens bands I’ve seen/shot in the last six months. It’s been great to watch them evolve, the future can only hold great things for them if they keep it up.