Having first emerged somewhat tentatively with 2024’s unwieldily titled Night-bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day debut, London-based shoegaze adherents Whitelands return on their second full-length sounding like a band refreshingly upping their youthful ante.
Dialling down prior murkier and less direct tendencies to markedly push guitarist and lyricist Etienne Quartey-Papafio’s now-more-assured vocals much further to the fore, the sophomore Sunlight Echoes is a substantial and soulful step forward for the foursome, rounded out by drummer Jagun Meseorisa, guitarist Michael Adelaja and bassist Vanessa Govinden.
Although addressing some weighty themes, for the most part these ten largely short songs possess a sense of uplift and comfort. Opener “Heat Of The Summer” acts a satisfyingly strong scene-setter, with its rippling hooky guitar motifs and lush layered voicings. In its wake, the Iskra Strings-bolstered “Songbird (Forever)” adds in a symphonic widescreen dimension, before blurring into the ethereal ambient interlude of “Shibuya Crossing” to broaden out the quartet’s sonic range at both ends of their spectrum.
Whilst it’s arguable that some focus is lost towards the end — through the less memorable “Dark Horse” and “Mirrors” — the tension-building and -releasing “Golden Daze” concludes proceedings with soaring elegance. Indubitably proof that patient independent label nurturing and internal group self-motivation can pay dividends over time, Sunlight Echoes is an honourable display of creative progression.
-Adrian-
