The Philadelphia band 22º Halo have been at it for a few years now, but they’re first crossing my radar with Lily Of The Valley, the spectacular new album they released last week. I discovered it through the new edition of Chicago music journalist Josh Terry’s excellent weekly newsletter, No Expectations, to which you should definitely subscribe if you like indie rock, indie folk, and various rootsy, jammy, meditative permutations therein.
The sound of Lily Of The Valley is what first grabbed me. 22º Halo have developed a unique, enrapturing take on indie rock. It’s on the softer, artsier side of the genre, but there’s nothing sleepy about its inventive arrangements. The music is spacious and minimal yet always overflowing with ideas — like Hovvdy putting their cozy audio gauze around bar italia’s spindly indie-pop, or maybe Alex G remixing Yo La Tengo. I hear a lot of Talk Talk in there too. Frontman Will Kennedy is a rich yet understated singer, a bit like Markus Acher from the Notwist or maybe David Bazan if his voice were a bit higher. On the whole it’s incredibly beautiful stuff, yet it’s elevated even farther when you learn the backstory.
Kennedy wrote the album in response to his partner and musical collaborator Kate Schneider’s brain cancer diagnosis. There are lots of lyrics about “waiting for results,” assurances that the hair will grow back, etc., and the prevailing plaintive mood of the music is an ideal fit for the subject matter.
https://www.stereogum.com/2287576/...-album-lily-of-the-valley/music/
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