Stream: NGELS, ‘Consequences’

Kevin Bronson on October 31st, 2020

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“Consequences,” the debut album from NGELS, is a kaleidoscopic psych-pop/electro record with layered production, a veritable fountain of melodies and more than a little bit of regret to offset its bright countenance.

Or, as Tyler Godfrey sings in the opening track, “Love, drugs, sex / Maybe that’s the way it is / What comes next / When you’re already over it?”

Godfrey’s solo project, three years in the works, was made with songwriter-producer-engineer Clint Holgate. The Salt Lake City artist, whose spent time in L.A. helming his psych-pop project James Allen Spirit, called up some L.A.-based musicians in making the album: Drew Beck (Mondo Cozmo) plays bass on some tracks; Andrew Tolman (The Moth & the Flame, Mondo Cozmo, Imagine Dragons) drums on a few; and Brittany Tolman (Mount Saint, Imagine Dragons) contributes vocals on “Inbetween.”

Amid the shimmering, lush production, “Consequences” finds Godfrey self-examining in his high-register vocals, and what he finds isn’t always pretty, though the music is. “I gotta get away / falling prey to all my habits,” he sings in “Habits,” and on “Everything,” the album’s last single before its release, he concludes “Everything, everything is broken / everything ends with ends open.”

NGELS’ debut album, which came out today, is one of those under-the-radar releases that might appeal to fans of MGMT, Foster the People, Passion Pit and any number of chillwavers. Certainly, anyone who questions their “Bad Choices” could find some truth in “Consequences.”

||| Stream: “Everything”