Glacial Pace

SoCal musician Brian Collins started recording under the moniker Hurt Valley following an encounter on a road trip to Death Valley in the early 2010s. The living-room project gained momentum after he settled in Los Angeles in 2014, though it remained a part-time endeavor, capturing the thoughts and emotions of moments over a period of several years. The resulting debut album, Glacial Pace, is populated by dreamy, melancholy reflections and a gentle twang, a combination that drew the interest of esteemed indie label Woodsist (Woods, Anna St. Louis, Bonny Doon). Its headspace and leisurely pace are established on opening track Geology Dreamer with relaxed drums, fat strummed guitar, and harmonic detailing on an electric. A little over a minute in, Collins calm, craggy vocals note Stuck at a glacial pace/Frozen in a memory just before the song shifts through a wistful chord progression while presenting a way forward. Later, the easygoing, head-bobbing Live in to It mixes bittersweet melodicism with moments of dissonant distortion and anxious recollection. The livelier Be the Lighthouse has more active drums and syncopated rhythms alongside further references to being stuck. Over the course of the album, Hurt Valley evokes names like Neil Young and George Harrison as well as the softly psychedelic haze of the Byrds while sounding lost in time much more than of another era. The idea of being lost is underscored by song titles like No Meaning and Immaterial Worlds. Lyrics aside, its Collins knack for warm, low-key melodies and immersive bittersweetness that will return listeners to Glacial Pace, at least when in a ruminative frame of mind. ~ Marcy Donelson