Spectreview: Floating Rooms – Tired and True [EP]

Released: October 30, 2020

Indie Rock
(Dream Pop)
(Art Pop)

-MAGENTA-

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“I have darkness
and I have light
I am whole
so I can’t deny
any side
of myself“

The title really says it all. Floating Rooms’ new EP features an exhausted Maya Stoner speaking directly from the uncomfortable parts of the brain, the ones bound by barriers self-erected from a lifetime of social pressure. She, like many of us, has a lot to air out. Unlike many of us, her issues stem from constantly projecting strength in a specifically-unfriendly territory, and the enervation that emerges from that struggle. It’s a succinct concept that’s expressed over five stellar songs in the lineage of Deerhunter’s textural latent-pop and Melody’s Echo Chamber’s hi-fi swirl, with Stoner’s vocals pointedly out front in the mix.

It’s hard to pick out a clear highlight, but early single “Held Open Door” might just do the job as an Omnichord flourishes lean against a disco-like rhythm section while Stoner comes to grips with a hard-fought life. But “Freakshow,” with its sighing chords and repudiative vocal delivery, comes close. As does the post-punk-adjacent “Gun,” which closes the collection on a precipitous edge with lyrics so palpably emo they approach camp. Without an obvious zenith, Tired and True is instead a wholly-enjoyable outing that accomplishes, to this listener’s ears, the best thing an EP can do: leave you wanting more as soon as it’s over.

Recommended for staying off of social media.