Can we send Dresses’ “Sun Shy EP” cover art as our Christmas card this year? Is that OK?
Maybe you’re like us right now, dealing with the demise of summer and onset of fall by trying to shut the blinds, grab the comforter, and just curl up into a blanket burrito ball. One thing we recommend to help with the regretful rocking is Portland, Ore.-based indie-pop duo Dresses‘ Sun Shy EP, which they released today.
Or, perhaps you took full advantage of summer and already have a supercute collection of fall layers raring to go — in which case, may we present the coldest of shoulders. (#BitterBetties)
Watch Dresses’ “Blew My Mind” and “Sun Shy” videos after the jump.
From the opening track “Back To Life” to the closing “Sticks And Stones,” Dresses’ debut effort plays with those ideas that you engage with when you’re in the most intimate of spaces: your bedroom. (At least that’s how we’re reading it.) Sometimes, these thoughts are adorable and vulnerable, and other times they’re kinda weird-yet-troubling-yet-hilarious (“If all my friends are dead, and I don’t give a s***/ Does that make me f***ed up?”). Dresses taps into these bizarre impulses in a way that’s equal parts relatable and intriguing.
Comprising IRL boyfriend/girlfriend Timothy (not the boyfriend) and Jared, the band also touches on the different kinds of one-on-one interactions that happen behind closed doors.
On “Blew My Mind,” Timothy’s trickling Joanna Newsom-y vocals try to tell a lover how comforting his presence is when she wakes. It’s like an awesomely neurotic version of Rihanna‘s “Stay,” where the singer declares what basically amounts to “I have these upsetting dreams where I run after you, lose you, end up at a creek, and kids laugh at me, and so anyway I like it when I wake up next to you.” You know, the twee translation of “I want you to stay.”
Meanwhile, the title track takes a turn for the (indie) poppier. While still as light and ethereal as the rest of the record, the unexpectedly ’80s synth drums straight outta New Order‘s “Bizarre Light Triangle” on “Sun Shy” definitely make it a track worth kicking off your “We Guess We’re OK With Summer Ending” indoor house party this weekend.
NGL, we’re kinda taking notes on the video for the song below. So that gives us… three or four days to grab some silvery glitter eyeliner and a dachshund that doesn’t mind getting picked up? On it.
