My Dead Girlfriend - Underdrawing for Three Forms of Unhappiness at the State of Existence

I've been searching for shoegaze that I like for a while now. Some things work and some don't. Loveless isn't what my heart desires, but the harshest parts at the center of Deathconsciousness are basically my dreams come true. Some of my favorite garage rock bands have released amazing shoegaze albums. Jesu aren't bad, and last year three real great albums came out under the genre title: one of them, Iroha's self titled debut LP, was a side project of Jesu front man. The other two were Yuck's debut, a 90's throwback album with some shoegazing and some punk rocking and some real generic shitting about, and The Joy Formidable's first album, which was also a lot alike to Yuck's.

Here's something though. After a few pandering releases (Looking at you, Whirr), the pedal heavy, melody light genre has welcomed me back home with My Dead Girlfriend's debut mini-LP. The title and band concept seems depressing, but the music behind it is hopeful and inspiring, and the vocals are twinkly as fuck. This is about as close as I've gotten to real hard punk shoegaze, you know, the type I really want. Each track punches hard, not despite but because there are only six of them. The band members took all of their energy and shoved it into making six thick, amazing tracks.

It feels like everything leads from the strong opener/title track, as if it was a delta, straight into the tip of the river, which ends up being a split between Nasty Mayor's Daughter - the strongest track here by miles, and one which I promise will have tears down your cheeks - and closing track Aki no Hachiouji, which shuts the book with a real positive note.
This album is basically a fizzy anime. I foresee it staying with me for a long while.
Tier: 2 [Playlist]
[fork on plate]