Sour Cherry Bell

MJ Guiders first two releases, the 2014 EP Green Plastic and 2016 full-length Precious Systems, were gorgeous fusions of ethereal dream pop and ambient techno that dipped into goth/post-punk-influenced waters. Her second album, 2020s Sour Cherry Bell, arrived after the New Orleans-based artist had toured with Baton Rouge sludge/doom metal group Thou and performed at the 2019 edition of the esteemed Dutch heavy music festival Roadburn. The album immediately takes on a darker tone than its predecessor, as Melissa Guions weightless vocals float along with waves of shoegazey distortion on opener Lowlight. The Steelyard appropriately features heavy, clanging drum machines resisting the gale-like force of echo-drenched guitars, sounding like a more industrialized version of prime Seefeel. The more sensuous, yearning Cherry Bell Blacktop is somewhere between early Cocteau Twins and Insides Euphoria, while Quiet Time has a dubby bass line lurking beneath its crashing, goth club-ready beats and cyclical waves of haze-shrouded vocals. The piano-driven Perfect Interference seems placid enough until grinding noise throbs its way closer to the head of the mix. Penultimate track Sourbell is perhaps Guions most powerful darkwave pop moment to date, as her lovelorn voice calls out from behind a veil of mist while upfront drum machines pound out an anxious heartbeat. Though Sour Cherry Bell delves into gloomier, more despairing moods than Precious Systems, it maintains a balance through radiant energy and never descends into overpowering hopelessness. ~ Paul Simpson