Heaven's Club - Here There And Nowhere (2019)

Heaven's Club is a project fronted by Shiv Mehra of Deafheaven, but those coming to this album hoping for similarities to that project will be mostly disappointed.

Here There and Nowhere, as a piece of work, feels unfocussed. "Dreamboat" has solid shoegaze riffs and dreamy vocals from Nadia Kury, but is too close to My Bloody Valentine. "Alone in Dresden" is a well-crafted song that blends krautrock-tinged verses with a shoegaze hook. It is also an example of Shiv Mehra's weakness as a vocalist; Mehra has a baritone that goes out of tune in higher side of his range. This, paired with boring lyrics like "I want to take you for a ride on the coast / and then we could just chill" leads to the major dynamic for this album: There are talented musicians involved and interesting ideas, but no central creative energy to turn them into something memorable.

As a result, this feels like a side project. There isn't enough of a thread through different songs, Mehra's voice is not up to the task of anchoring an album and while there are interesting moments, Here There and Nowhere is forgettable.