'Same Century' Debut LP Release from The Morelings

Same Century is the 2017 album debut for dream pop five-piece band The Morelings. Listeners unfamiliar with the dream pop genre, as well as seasoned adherents, will savor a refreshing environment featuring relaxed, yet deeply moving layers of jangly guitars and breathy vocals drenched in echo invoking feelings of a dream space or contemplative mood.

Since forming in the city of Philadelphia during the year 2014, co-writers Matthew William (guitars) and Kedra Caroline (vocals) have boldly established a signature sound within the dream pop genre that is perhaps more difficult than any other for establishing a fresh and distinctive identity.

The dream pop genre is typically characterized by the use of heavily effected guitars and echoing vocals. Therefore, it can be challenging for modern dream pop outfits to avoid appearing derivative of those earlier musicians who had previously blended 60’s femme-psychedelia with pre-Velvets John Cale drone noise during an inspired era spanning the late 80’s and early 90’s of the last century.

However, with Same Century, perhaps The Morelings are signaling a gesture of intent to shepherd the dream pop aesthetic into a new era with a signature voice creating emotionally rich song worlds for the benefit of listeners yearning a deeply-felt connection.

Regardless, anyone familiar with the work of Cocteau Twins, Slowdive and the lighter side of My Bloody Valentine will recognize a sense of inspiration flourishing within the songs featured on the Same Century LP. Here, The Morelings lean more toward clean tones instead of the masses of noisy bliss emblematic of Spacemen 3, The Jesus and Mary Chain and the dark side of MBV.

And if this reader has never considered concepts such as “shimmering guitar” and “breathy vocals” before reading this article, then please allow me as the writer to introduce you to an understanding of a form of music which inevitably leads toward poetic excess in any attempt to describe the lived experience of sublimity, bliss, transcendence and Heaven on Earth.

The standard introduction for anyone curious about the meaning of dream pop (shoegaze, bliss pop, noise pop) will be first assigned a complete listen of the album Loveless by My Bloody Valentine. As The Beatles’ Revolver was to the 60’s and The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St. was to the 70’s, so was Loveless the landmark album bridging western rock and psychedelia from the 80’s into the 90’s from Joy Division to Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins.

Now we have The Morelings - Thanks be to God that such bold souls continue forging challenging expressions of experience through an edgy analog spirit via circuitry dimensions opening every interpretation for each unique listener’s vibrational choice.

The recently released video for the track “Before” appears to pay homage to videos of those progenitor dream pop bands from the 90’s with a nostalgia for analog static and multi-image layering complementing drifting tones within the music inviting listeners to close their eyelids in reverie if not only for the compelling images of front-woman Kedra Caroline.

With Same Century, listeners are welcomed into psychedelic fantasies crafted from a shared sensibility comprised of each instrumentalist’s view within the shared viewfinder of The Morelings’ universe. Even as the vocals of Kedra Caroline dance over billowy cloud echos interwoven with shimmering arpeggios from Matthew William’s guitar, cymbal crashes become waves hitting the shoreline of consciousness.

Enjoy a distinctive listening experience respectfully updating the dream pop (shoegaze, bliss pop, noise pop) catalog designed in the time of a modern audience.

Available through unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, high-quality download in MP3 and FLAC as well as Limited Edition LP 12" and Cassette Tape.