On Oso Oso's third album, Basking in the Glow, Jade Lilitri channels his uneasiness into composed, spacious melodies tracing themselves though a warm flux of clean, mid-tempo tenacity. It's somewhat of a far cry from the more assertive pop punk hooks of their debut, Real Stories of True People Who Kind of Looked Like Monsters…, with Lilitri's ear for crisp emo-driven melodies diffusing fastidiously, and is highlighted by Basking in the Glow's more gallant pace.
The album begins in a lullaby-like cadence on "Intro" with Lilitri tenderly singing, "laying in the grass we were dragging on loud, got my hand in your hand and my head in the clouds," setting up Basking in the Glow within a misty reverie, foreshadowing a sparklingly dynamic listen. With ringing daybreak, "The View" pushes on with warm, galvanic guitar tones and Lilitri's sentimental voice glossed over with nectar, dryly cracked in the sticky sun. The song effortlessly drifts into a bounding anthemic chorus that reels back the urgency in favour of coy self-reflection.
Oso Oso's lovingly charred harmonies are strewn throughout Basking in the Glow. "A Morning Song" surges with a punchy guitar interjections and Lilitri's lovingly dewy-eyed vocals, dispersing slightly and subsiding in near-perfect timing. Both "Impossible Game" and "Wake Up Next to God" feature lightning-in-a-bottle melodies without feeling forced, with tiny shards burrowing into a plump bed of swelling euphoria. Midway, the crackling "One Sick Plan," is an acoustic ballad, breaking up Basking in the Glow's aural quality with a static charge.
Like Oso Oso's similarly minded previous album, The Yunahon Mixtape, Basking in the Glow is an album for fans of the courteous yet invigorating style of emo that Death Cab for Cutie and Jimmy Eat World made popular. Oso Oso's latest is a brisk invitation to savour the small stuff, to embrace insecurities, and to hang on to those head-rushing moments.
(Triple Crown)The album begins in a lullaby-like cadence on "Intro" with Lilitri tenderly singing, "laying in the grass we were dragging on loud, got my hand in your hand and my head in the clouds," setting up Basking in the Glow within a misty reverie, foreshadowing a sparklingly dynamic listen. With ringing daybreak, "The View" pushes on with warm, galvanic guitar tones and Lilitri's sentimental voice glossed over with nectar, dryly cracked in the sticky sun. The song effortlessly drifts into a bounding anthemic chorus that reels back the urgency in favour of coy self-reflection.
Oso Oso's lovingly charred harmonies are strewn throughout Basking in the Glow. "A Morning Song" surges with a punchy guitar interjections and Lilitri's lovingly dewy-eyed vocals, dispersing slightly and subsiding in near-perfect timing. Both "Impossible Game" and "Wake Up Next to God" feature lightning-in-a-bottle melodies without feeling forced, with tiny shards burrowing into a plump bed of swelling euphoria. Midway, the crackling "One Sick Plan," is an acoustic ballad, breaking up Basking in the Glow's aural quality with a static charge.
Like Oso Oso's similarly minded previous album, The Yunahon Mixtape, Basking in the Glow is an album for fans of the courteous yet invigorating style of emo that Death Cab for Cutie and Jimmy Eat World made popular. Oso Oso's latest is a brisk invitation to savour the small stuff, to embrace insecurities, and to hang on to those head-rushing moments.
