The softest attack can feel like a caress in the hands of Montreal-based Prism Shores, a jangling, white-noise sheening, power-pop-into-shoegaze outfit that recalls Teenage Fanclub, the Clean, Ride and Slowdive, depending on where you put the needle down. This third album beefs up the sound considerably from the already radiant levels reached on Out from Underneath (“a remarkably enjoyable bit of guitar pop,” according to yours truly). This one ups the ante and puts on the muscle. Compared to the last album, it’s like that scene in the Wizard of Oz where suddenly everything is in color.
It’s more or less the same crew—that is, Jack MacKenzie and Ben Goss switching off on guitar/bass and vocals, Luke Pound on drums and Finn Dalbeth on guitar. This time out, they’ve added a fifth member in Scott Munro, who adds keyboards, effects, string bass and more vocals.
But can you really attribute a denser, more visceral sound to one extra guy on synths and organs? It seems dubious, especially since the extra oomph comes from layers of guitars, as on the TFC-redolent opener “Kid Gloves” or the shoegaze wail of “Gossamer.” Everyone in the band is just playing harder, raising a solid wall of amplified sound that washes over you like a wave. And yet while there’s volume and force to spare, Prism Shores never backs off of the melody. The very Bandwagonesque “Magical Thinking” careens and thunders, but in service to the graceful curve of tunefulness. Even the rough distortions of “Faster Gun” (yes, MBV is a reference) surge around a hooky vulnerability.
This is a very good record, deeper and more visceral than the last one. If Out from Underneath was a treat for people who spent too much of the 1990s with Teenage Fanclub, the Softest Attack is a substantial meal, a record that roars and splinters into rainbow colors without ever abandoning its hummable tunes.
