Customer Reviews

Gemini

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is great if you are in to Shoegaze/DreamPop/80's indie pop revival.. The vocals are haunting and melancholy, creating an atmosphere of teenage emptiness reminisent of the Smiths or Joy Division.. If you are a fan of the Radio Dept. or The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, you will love this!

Wild Nothing have an innocent, heart-rendering uplifting sound. They remind me of the best of the Clientele, sometimes the wishing bell sound of The Smiths and their biggest inspiration is The Cure. But let me talk about the songs on the album.

I can't stop listening to Chinatown. What a classic. I first heard them on Pandora, I was listening to the Arcade Fire station and they played "Lips won't last forever (live in dreams)" and I was instantly hooked. Arguably the best song, also the track 1. I can see Bon Iver fans loving Wild Nothing.

Other songs I love include "Drifter" "Confirmation" and My Angel Lonely. The sound is also a little reminiscent of the Cranberries strangely.

I love music because it takes me places without travelling. Gemini is one such album which keeps me entertained even if I'm drinking just water and coffee.

Every song does it's own spin. It's been less than a week but I'm hooked.

Much adoration,

a Gemini

Virginia band release a quietly stunning debut of hazy, oneiric, reverb-drenched, jangly indie

guitar pop that draws creative inspiration from 80's bands. Similarities to The The, New Order,

The Smiths, Radio Dept., The Cure, Orange Juice, Tears For Fears, Factory label bands, etc.

This is the kind of pop music you want to sleep with. It's sublime, fresh, sexy and lonely; with an

earnestly and insistently throbbing urgency that somehow manages to put you at ease while

constructing a bewitching aura of hypnotic pop beauty. Former members of Jack and the Whale,

Facepaint.

Wild Nothing revitalizes what you loved about groups like The Cure. Catchy, airy guitar riffs, perfectly placed synthesizers, great retro drum sounds paired up with dreamy, floating vocals are what makes "Gemini" a pleasure to listen to. Originally an import only, I have had this album for a quite a while now. It instantly hit me with songs like "Summer Holiday", "Chinatown", and "Bored Games", which are all songs that could wear out the repeat button on your stereo with their engrossing melodies and engaging lyrics.

It's a great driving album, summer album, pretty much year round this album has been playing in my headphones. I also had the chance to see them in NYC. They put on a great show. I really like how they've taken aspects of the retro 80's rock style and transformed it into their own brand of shoe-gaze.

I think this has become one of my favorite albums this year for the reason that there is nothing out there today quite like it. There isn't anything this catchy that is also this pure and genuine sounding throughout. It's filled with a variety of songs, more laid back than upbeat, but nothing that falls short of the overall consistency and sound that the group has created. For fans of The Cure and the dreamier side of indie rock, this album is probably right up your alley.

Been waited for you guys for 15++ years!!!!... Bumped into your CD by accident - after I uttered to the young chap at my local CD shop - "I dont think they produce music like the stone roses, smiths, cure, new order anymore these days, eh?!!"

Darn I thought I gave up indie music of this genre long time ago... boasted it to me son, look the music you listening now is re-hash, re-juvenated, re-recorded, re-tributed, re-retro, etc..

Thank you thank you.. (wifey !! - where did you last saw or stashed away my pointed shoes...)

With tracks entitled "Summer holiday", "Bored Games" and "Golden Haze" you don't need to be Lieutenant Columbo to work out the central theme of this album. "Wild Nothing" is essentially a vehicle for Jack Tatum from Blacksburg, Virginia and described by the Guardian as a "tortured boy wonder". Tatum's influences hark back to the 1980s but to the slightly darker side of jangly pop and bedsit angst. The sounds on Gemini will delight anyone who dearly loves Swedish wonders Radio Dept because Tatum tends to place himself in the ball park of dreamy fuzzed vocals, combined with waves of synths and a light ethereal quality to his music. As a starting point check out the albums clear highlight the gorgeous "Chinatown". The review in Dusted nailed this down when it stated that it "blows in like a summer breeze through cotton curtains, billowing, translucent and utterly, lullingly pretty".

And yes you knew we would reach this point since like the debut by fellow Americans "Pains of being pure at heart" this album does owe a rather large debt to the famous/infamous C86 tape released by New Musical Express (NME)in the UK, capturing a perfect snapshot of bands or more precisely musical under achievers with its soundtrack of "jangly" guitars and fey melodies. Check out the blissful "Summer Holiday" on Gemini and you will instantly recognise the sound and the source. Other highlights include the Smiths like "Golden Haze" with uncanny like Johnny Marr accompanying riffs. "Confirmation" is alternatively more in the territory of the the Cure (an influence probably most prevalent on the title track) or even New Order with a bass driven shoegazing song full of whispery chorus's accompanied by synths that float in and out. "Drifter" falls into the same category and yes there are some problems here with repetition, a tendency for songs "to drift into one another" and a general lack of earth shaking originality.

So is this just an exercise in genre hopping, an affectionate tribute/pastiche or an album with huge potential and chock full of great songs? On balance the later judgement holds way since a four star rating on Amazon means "I like it" and in truth I like it alot.

Creative and well-crafted debut. Perfect for a mellow summer evening. Bit of a Smiths/Cure sound washed out via Memory Tapes with plenty of gorgeous melodies and memorable riffs.

...at least I have. The '80s vibe is apparent and fans of the Smiths, New Order, the melodic side of R.E.M. and dream pop bands of that decade will probably love this collection of songs. Fans of current indie pop/rock The Pains of Being Pure At Heart should also check this out. This seems to be available only as an import through Amazon, not sure why. I scored a domestic copy at a local record shop. Wild Nothing is the latest project by Jack Tatum, from Virginia, who recorded this by himself, but added a few guys for live shows.

Anyway, the music on _Gemini_ is fantastic. There are two tracks that are worth the price of the album alone. "Confirmation" starts out with some icy, seascape keyboards and twinkling guitars that goes into a great bassline and a steady beat that could have you nodding your head for days. The closing, title track reveals some wonderful jangly/ghostly guitars and some heartfelt singing by Tatum. It also has one of the best musical outros you'll hear anywhere. With wonderful synths weaving along with a melodic guitar, the last two and a half minutes of this song sounds like it could be the soundtrack to your first crush when you were thirteen. First single "Summer Holiday" is an upbeat number that has everything you could expect from a dream pop band: catchy guitar riffs, amusing lyrics, and a wordless chorus. "My Angel Lonely" is another of my favorites, though the lyrics are not clearly decipherable. There are washes of sound that resemble waves on a beach hidden behind the chorus (or is it the bridge?) and a poignant melody over a steady mid tempo beat.

It's going to take a long time for me to get tired of this album. It deserves to be heard by the masses. One of the albums of the year.

**** 1/2 stars.

Why people stopped making music like this ten years ago, I'll never know. Very glad The Wild Nothings have arrived.

I cannot stop listening to this album. Its been on my iphone rotation list for now 8 weeks. Great group/cd.