The Waeve - City Lights

There’s more than a touch of the self-indulgent to ‘City Lights’, but what are side quests for if not self-indulgence? Across its ten tracks, ‘City Lights’ carefully meanders along the line between maximalism and pop nous, all the while sounding sonically full, whether in the swooping strings of dreamlike closer ‘Sunrise’ or via the early ‘80s as on industrial post-punk number ‘Moth To The Flame’. As expected, it’s the interplay between hard and soft that takes centre stage, whether via the pair’s dual vocals as on ‘You Saw’, the thematic tenderness of ‘Song For Eliza May’ and its abrasive, squalling guitar, or even through following the dreamy, melancholic ‘Simple Days’ with an enthrallingly unholy guitar sound on the deceptively pop ‘Broken Boys’. And against the full fever dream wig out that ‘Druantia’ falls into, is the opening title track, its classic songwriting accommodating a wiry (or should it be Wire-y) guitar line. Like stepping into a universe of the duo’s making, almost, it’s the kind of sonic escapism that’s akin to reading a good book.