WL//WH Review WELL ADJUSTED
EP artwork by Mia Maria Johanssom
Stockholm-based Guitar Pop band Well Adjusted, fronted by singer and songwriter Emma Pettersson alongside guitarist Aron Lange, guitarist Oscar Krantz, bassist Fernando Hermida and drummer Emil Petersson, have finally dropped their long anticipated 5-track debut EP “High Functioning.”
Pulling late 80s/90s bits and pieces from noisy Indie Rock, twinkly Psych/Jangle Pop and shimmering Shoegaze, the Swedish five-piece serves up an immersive and kaleidoscopic captivating melodic wandering as a means to heal the shadowy side of the human condition, both in relationships and on a personal level.
Beautiful, tragic, mainly ethereal female vocals rise and fall in airy yet piercing harmonies to evoke an array of gloomy and angsty emotions, for the most part, spiced up by a vibrant outpouring of bright sparkling guitar sounds, gentle and bouncy rhythmic flows, and enveloping melancholic atmospheres, starting from the Slowdive-tinged stirring “So Sick” shrouded in reflective reverb and lysergic gleams, to the Americana pedal-steel-laced, hazy and poignant ballad “Falling”, and the elegant sweetened male/female vocal interplay delight of “Blooming,” nestled in crystalline arpeggiated cascades with an endearing Mac DeMarco’s sophisti-pop/soft-rock flair.
All the songs are strained by a subtle underlying vein of romantic despair and disillusionment, at times brazenly squeezed out by urgent cathartic bursts of blazing riffs as in the crispy college rock vibe of “Hang The Sound Guy” and especially in the churning garage-y rollercoaster ride closer “Oh Honey.”
The band doesn’t invent anything, yet little more than 16 minutes of fine-crafted, catchy, nostalgic and buzzing multifaceted guitar pop, heightened with expressive vocal swoons and thought-provoking lyrics, worthy enough of an enticing listening time.
Keep with Well Adjusted:
photo by Farhang Hamed
