WL Moves Between Darkness and Something Brighter on "Light Years"

By Cris Lankenau

WL, Light Years (XRAY)

[LIGHT-AND-DARK DREAM POP] WL's new record, Light Years, is a bit of a grower. Not only does it improve with repeated listens, but it actually evolves from start to finish and blossoms with ever-increasing complexity. Coupling shimmery guitars and thick, synthetic keys with a dreamy feminine moan earned WL a Best New Band nod in 2014, when it was tagged as a shoegaze act. But the group has since shed some of that genre's tropes of volume and distortion to focus on technique and composition. "Pink Cloud" sets the slow-build tone with multiple looping melodies and tap-shoe percussion that slowly expand and overlap to create a textured, kaleidoscopic haze. Contrary to its title, "Feeling Down" shakes the somber tone with a busy, math rock-gone-disco drum pattern, framing the dense synth notes in a breezier light. By penultimate track "Mercury," WL has incorporated an almost smooth-jazz horn section into its foggy landscape. The brighter mode suits WL substantially better than its ponderous, melancholic default, but that's not to say the band's indoor, gloomy side doesn't have merit. The charm is how it moves with a slow fluidity between the two polarities.

SEE IT: WL plays the Spare Room, 4830 NE 42nd Ave., with Brysoncone666, Dubais and Vexations, on Friday, Nov. 11. 9 pm. $5. 21+.

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