Kevin Bronson on August 2nd, 2013

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As with the Mezzanine Owls and other previous projects, singer-guitarist Jack Burnside mines a curious duality on “Glacial,” the debut from his new trio Western Lows. In the fore is a wash of noisy guitar and beneath, only occasionally surfacing, is the soft-spoken Burnside, a shoegazing bard if there ever was one. In the genteel track “Grapevine,” Burnside’s free verse is at its characteristic strongest – if you don’t feel tinge when he sings “I’m dying nightly inside recurring dreams that aren’t my own,” you ought to consider sensitivity training. The video for the song embodies its rapt approach; it was made with Western Lows bandmates Julien Bellin and Michael Orendy in producer (and ex-Mezzanine Owl) Dan Horne’s Lone Palm studio and makes a star of the solemn studio setting as much as the players. The album is out now on JAXART.

||| Live: Western Lows plays Aug. 18 on the Buzz Bands LA / White Iris Records stage at Echo Park Rising.

||| Previously: “Icicles,” “Last Known Rivers”