Album Review: Spaceships, Cool Breeze Over The Mountains

Break-up albums are supposed to be sad, right? They’re supposed to be an outlet for the pained musician to spill his/her guts to the masses and ask “Why, oh why?” to the world. Right? Well Jessie Waite and Kevin LaRose don’t quite see it that way. Unbeknownst to them at the time of conception, the duo’s debut LP via Mock Records, Cool Breeze Over The Mountains, ended up being about the couple’s breakup, but you would never know.

Self-described as “noise-pop-bedroom-garage-punk,” the Los Angeles-based two-piece known as Spaceships has released in-your-face 7”s and EPs in the past, and Cool Breeze Over The Mountains is just as bratty, noisy, and strangely melodic as its predecessors. From the moment the album starts with “Little,” its clear what you’re getting yourself into. Pulling influences from the likes of Times New Viking and Guided By Voices, the ex-lovers bombard you with super lo-fi, static laden guitar and drums as Waite wails in an endearing slacker cadence that would make Kim Deal proud. She doesn’t sing of heartache and loss, but rather opts to use her dreams a lyrical storyboards, and of course, her fascination with outer space.

But this isn’t some obnoxious, amateur DIY record. Yes, Waite and LaRose personally mixed and produced the album (along with creating album art and merch themselves), but they know what they’re doing and successfully teeter on the brink of “too much” without toppling over. The album’s single, “Ghost,” demonstrates this talent. LaRose keeps the beat while Waite slashes at her reverb-affected guitar to create a sound that’s much larger than the two of them. Her equally lo-fi vocals pierce the wall of sound as she sings about wanting to be less crazy and hoping to have support, and though the song clocks in at a little over four minutes, there’s not one second where it sounds too long.It can be difficult to create a cohesive, accessible album in a genre as gritty as lo-fi garage punk (especially as a debut), but Spaceships seem to pull it off. Do they still have room to grow? Sure, all bands do, but this is an impressive freshman effort. Who knows, maybe breaking up was the best thing to ever happen to Waite and LaRose (musically, at least).