I recently saw an article about how indie pop was morphing into actual pop. This would appear to suggest that there's no middle ground, or perhaps that there hasn't been until now, which is a load of nonsense. The lines between genres have been blurred for years, and the list of alternative pop artists is endless and stretches back decades. Avaleya and The GlitterHawks neither fit completely into the "indie" bracket, and nor are they mainstream pop, but they do know how to write a cracking tune and can spot a catchy hook a mile away. Avaleya Kelly has previously released music as a solo artist, but here she teams up with The GlitterHawks (Jim Rivas and Andrew Newbold) for a trip through some dreamy retro sounds that are full of contagious melodies.
'Blue Dream' could be described as an indiepop song that's all misty around the edges and not far from the fine alt-pop tunes of Hazel English. It's sweet, yearning and really quite beautiful. There's a dreampop element to the ace 'Chain Of Lakes' which combines a more dance-oriented beat with breezy guitars, as if C86 somehow collided with Donna Summer and the Cocteau Twins. Mixing up the styles even more if the '50-influenced pop of 'Mary Girl' where the sugary tones of Tennis meet jaunty doo-wop vibes. Once more the production could be from a classic lost '80s guitar-pop song. A lo-fi sound is brought in for 'The Sea Witch', but not in a scratchy or muffled way, it's actually a style that fits their hybrid sound very well. Closing track 'Sounds Like This' is a real foot-tapper with a galloping tempo and pretty vocals that come close to a country twang at some points. Avaleya and The GlitterHawks inhabit that mid-point that's apparently new, so if we rewrite the past and pretend that alternative and mainstream genres have never been merged before, then these guys are pioneers in that respect. But whichever way you choose to look at it, it's hard not to agree that this is a stunning EP.
Avaleya and The GlitterHawks' website
Buy: 'Glitter Feather'
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