Album Details

• Artist: The Butterfly Explosion
• Album: Lost Trails
• Label: Killing Pop
• Year of Release: 2010
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: archelon on 2010-03-11

Media

Shoegaze fantasy. Alt-dream-pop. I hate to cheat and begin a review with some ridiculous compound adjectives that reviewers so much love, but this kind of fuzzy, I-think-I-get-that-but-not-really description suits 'Lost Trails' down to the ground. It's a sort of fuzzy album, wafting you through Butterfly Explosion's private world on a gentle wave of distortion and Ride-esque layering. If in real life exploding insects would be messy and unpleasant, Butterfly Explosion's sound is more magical, in a sort of natural shampoo advert kind of way.

There's a surprising amount of instrumental tracks on this LP, surprising purely for the reason that the breathy vocals are, well, breath-taking. They add immeasurable depth to the gloriously expansive soundscape and can turn the mood every which way, from the chord-y, Big Bad rock 'n roll 'Chemistry' to the dreamier, more emotional 'Closer'. The guitars range from crashy and scuzzy to delicate and twinkling and on tracks like 'Sophia' everything really comes together and sinks it's claws in.

It's not all sunshine and roses (or rain and hailstones, for that matter) - songs like 'Insulate Dreams' sort of pass you by in a haze, not standing out and not sinking down below your consciousness either. Butterfly Explosion have maybe stuck a little too closely to their sound, resulting in moments of meh-ness, but there are minutes of magic here too and they're very much worth buying this album for. Those along with the acid-drop headfunk feeling, but that's not a bad thing either.

User Reviews and Comments

on 2010-04-08 dscanland Said:

I really enjoyed Lost Trails. It reminds me of the hey-day of shoegaze, a genre that was never fully realized in potential. Check out The Butterfly Explosion if you miss bands like Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine.
Not Rated