NEW ALBUM: Tamaryn – Cranekiss
At the glamglare HQ, for various reasons, the country of New Zealand comes up a lot lately and it may be the destination of our next big travel project. This will be mostly about the people and landscape there, but it is good to know that there is also an excellent music scene there. Recently I picked Yumi Zouma as our song of the day and then there is also a new album by NZ native Tamaryn (even though she’s been living on both coasts of the U.S. for quite some time).
I’ve been following Tamaryn since her first album Waves, which, like its successor Tender New Signs plants her firmly in shoegaze territory: her vocals are wrapped in lush, thick guitar lines and the albums feel more like one dreamy soundscape than a collection of songs.
With her third release Cranekiss, she changes direction, which became already clear with the first single Hands All Over Me. There are synths, drum machines and more powerful, pronounced vocals. The music shifts more towards Dum Dum Girls (who she has collaborated with) or maybe Lower Dens, who did a similar transformation over the course of their last three releases.
That makes Cranekiss a more diverse listen than its predecessors and I like the arc that Tamaryn creates out of the ten tracks: from the more upbeat pop melodies in the beginning over my favorite song, the dramatic Softcore, to a more subdued ending that feels like a reminiscence of her previous work.
Cranekiss is out now on Mexican Summer. Listen on Apple Music or Spotify.
And here’s a performance video of Last:
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