Moving Panoramas - In Two (2019)

Moving Panoramas' One grappled with effects of trauma, but In Two looks at how fully life blooms in the aftermath – good and bad. The Austin trio-turned-quintet picks up where the shoegaze-imbued reverie on their 2015 debut left off. On opener "Baby Blues," frontwoman Leslie Sisson marvels at the cyclical nature of it all, but with a more ambitious, decadent fuzz. "Home Alone" recalls mid-Aughts surf rock, while the upbeat drumming and summery sheen on "On Hold" belie darker lyrics. In Two momentarily dips into a romantic Fifties groove on "Forever Gone," a sway at odds with the opening line, "What's the point of waking up?" The jangling pop on "Dance Floor" feels like the closest a Moving Panoramas song has ever come to being carefree, a rallying cry for letting loose. The final two tracks employ guest vocalists, with Nada Surf's Matthew Caws on "In Tune" and A Giant Dog's Sabrina Ellis lending her grit to "Whiskey Fight," but Sisson's voice still rings singular. Her ethereal intonation, soaked in reverb, sounds otherworldly, lending a digestible distance to Moving Panoramas' sound. In Two glides through unthinkable upheavals with a gentle ease, the interior anxieties and doubts whispering at the edges of a glimmering, haunted, pop dreaminess.