Letting Up Despite Great Faults Leans Into Fulfillment Over Comfort on Indiepop Shoegaze Single “Powder”

Letting Up Despite Great Faults, photo courtesy the artists

Letting Up Despite Great Faults delivers its follow up to 2022’s entrancing album IV with Reveries with mixing by Melina Duterte (Jay Som) and mastering by Simon Scott (Slowdive). Lead single “Powder” dips a little into the band’s early days with some playful synth sounds like something one might more hear coming from a reprogrammed Famicom and fans of the long defunct The Depreciation Guild will appreciate the vulnerable sounds and delicacy of orchestration in the song’s melodies and rhythms. Guitar notes linger, electronic motes hit with a percussive quality over the rush of spare percussion. The vocals intone like fragments from a diary placed expertly together to comment on the unease of being in a liminal space in one’s life where you think about how people tell you to give up on anything fun and creative in order to “grow up.” But what about what’s in your heart to do and who would want you to give up what brings more than a fleeting shred of joy into your life? The line “You only love the things pinned to the ground” perfectly expresses how some people relate to those they would aim and profess to love—by controlling them and make them into a static entity. A museum piece of life. The song is about resisting that but also the hint of thinking of succumbing to that spirit diminishing but comfortable status yet in the end leaning heavily toward uncertainty in some areas of life over giving it all up for someone that doesn’t truly value your deep happiness. It’s a lot to pack into two minutes twenty seconds with a rare level of emotional and psychological nuance but Mike Lee and the band have a knack for saying meaningful things with great economy in songs that have great forward and outward momentum. Listen to “Powder” Spotify and follow Austin, TX-based Letting Up Despite Great Faults at the links below. Reveries will become available for streaming, download and on vinyl October 11, 2024.