The latest newcomers to the helm of the shoegaze revival deliver a debut LP heavy in lush atmospheres but lacking in depth.
Has there ever been a better time to be releasing ethereal indie-rock? The revitalised interest in the shoegaze genre has opened the gates for a swathe of new bands who probably first heard When The Sun Hits on TikTok and felt inspired to try and capture the same feelings of deep-rooted nostalgia which Gen-Z yearns for. If you’re looking for a sound which captures the mood of this emotionally-fraught zeitgeist, then this is it. No wonder Slowdive have found themselves propelled to the top of the bill at festivals worldwide. The dreamy ambience, the swirling dissonance of the guitars, the hushed vocals, and of course, the copious use of delay pedals; it’s a perfect recipe for conjuring up feelings of spiritual longing and emotional reminiscence for days gone by.
Minneapolis quintet she’s green emerged in 2022 and quickly established themselves as one of the most promising new groups in the scene. Their early sound was heavily influenced by shoegaze’ dreamiest behemoths, and following the release of their excellent 2023 EP Wisteria, they were name-dropped by Andrew Bailey of indie-rock legends DIIV as one of the most exciting newcomers to the genre. The formula for creating shoegaze in 2026 is pretty clear; go grungey and lean into the rougher, heavier crunch pioneered by mbv and now typified by Deftones and Nothing, or go dream-pop and let the shimmering guitars do the heavy lifting, a la Slowdive and Beach House. On swallowtail, she’s green go in the latter direction; the end product is a genre typically ethereal, if at times disappointing record. There’s no shortage in objectively lush instrumentals, but shoegaze’ appeals relies on its ability for these sounds to metamorphose into something which carries its own emotional weight; when it fails to translate, what’s left is a musical vacuum of vapid ethereality.
Swallowtail does avoid this cliché for the most part, even if they are doing a very accurate audio-visual impression of Slowdive (the vocalist is a dead-ringer for a young Rachel Goswell). As a whole, it feels so heavily derivative of their predecessor’s production formulas that it sometimes sacrifices its own originality; it doesn’t feel like we’re listening to something which hasn’t already been done, many times over. Too many of the tracks are pretty forgettable; whilst they float with the ambient warmth which makes the quintet an easy listen, there’s nothing which draws the listener back in, rewarding repeated listens. The album’s mid-section is held together by a three track run (dear ivy, empty house, paper thin) which glides without any real purpose along across ten minutes of barely discernable differences in melodies.
Some tracks do fair better; the album’s opener locket is an archetypal shoegaze track executed with the sort of precision that shows the group aren’t totally in over their heads at the top of the pile. Lead single mettle is structurally reminiscent of Souvlaki and is one of (if not the only) tracks which showcases the same droning guitar work which made their debut EP a standout release of 2023. The albums closer, the seven minute close your eyes starts promisingly, before descending into a conclusion which feels gratuitous in its elongated crescendo; but still, it’s hard not be sucked into the gravitational pull of vocalist Zofia Smith’s celestial voice, as it spins out into a void of twinkling lights.
As a product of the burgeoning shoegaze-revival, it’s a fairly straightforward collection of tracks which honour the genre’s clear formula. Given she’s green’s promising early releases, this was a chance to make the step up. But instead of using their debut album to expand their sound into the wider territories of this increasingly malleable genre, swallowtail feels overly risk-averse, as if they’re retreated into a safe-zone wherein the experimentation is minimal, but it’s difficult to fuck it up. What’s left is a cautious LP from a band who we know can do better than this; provided they’re willing to throw some caution to the wind on their next outing.
