Teenage Wrist - Earth Is A Black Hole (2021) [Hi-Res]

The world may seem like a pretty strange place right now, but if nothing else that's forced us into realizing that being human is a shared experience. That sentiment lies at the core of Earth Is A Black Hole, the second full-length from the Los Angeles rock act Teenage Wrist. The album also marks the group's first release since the departure of former bassist/vocalist Kamtin Mohager last year and sees the duo of guitarist Marshall Gallagher stepping up as frontman, with longtime drummer Anthony Salazar backing him up in spectacular fashion. "As soon as we found out Kam was exiting, I just started writing," Gallagher explains. "I wanted to keep this band going and we didn't know exactly what that would look like, so I wrote two songs and demoed them myself to see if everyone was still on board." Those songs turned out to be the jangly power ballad "Yellowbelly" and spacey rocker "Wear U Down"-and with that, a new era of Teenage Wrist was born.The artistic liberation of this lineup change, coupled with the past two years the band spent touring alongside genre-smashing acts such as Thrice, allowed Teenage Wrist to expand on the shoegazing sound that helped establish them as one of the most exciting rock bands around today. In order to capture this sound, the band enlisted Colin Brittain (Basement, A Day to Remember), whose production style merged perfectly with what Teenage Wrist were trying to accomplish with this album. From lush, guitar-driven songs like "Taste Of Gasoline" and "High Again" to the atmospheric ambience of "Stella" and syncopated aggression of "Earth Is A Black Hole," any of these songs could crossover into the mainstream without alienating Teenage Wrist's fervent fanbase. While they are still influenced by bands like Swervedriver and My Bloody Valentine-most evidently on the swirling anthem "Silverspoon,"- Earth Is A Black Hole sees the band shifting their songwriting focus to a more modern sound that showcases the limitless potential of the band.