Minnesota based three-piece Spaceport have just released Cut the Lake, their sophomore album through the Aura Vortex label. This is an album of songs that explore gentle sounds and vulnerable lyrics alongside bursts of heavier experimentation.
The opening track ‘More like you’ eases you into the album with a catchy riff and crisp drums, the vocals are hazy and nostalgic. There is obviously some celestial intent with this band, as their name suggests, and this song captures that, before descending into a heavy finish.
This transitions into the second song ‘Lungs’ quite nicely with it being a much softer track. It evokes thoughts around mortality, it’s wistful, but has a melody almost uplifting with its use of trumpet.
The band describe themselves as ‘earthbound space music, spacebound earth music’ and that idea is really prominent through listening to this album. ‘Make things right’ focuses on very earthly realities, with its nostalgic lyrics providing a dreamy Americana depiction of the referenced mid-West.
It’s a heavily vulnerable album, ‘One More Step’ is a yearning and bittersweet depiction of love, with lyrics like ‘it’s still jump down a dragon’s throat for you’ . It is sincere and unabashed in its romance yet leaves you feeling somewhat hopeless.
Heartbreak is explored in the exceptional ‘Sugar Moon’, its emotional repetition of ‘I’m still in love’ paired with the doomy guitar creates a really raw and powerful track.
This an album that I’ve really enjoyed listening to, if you like Alex G, Mitski, Men I Trust then it’s definitely worth checking out. It’s dreamy, it’s poppy, but simultaneously it’s a great alt-rock experience that makes me excited to see what Spacebound do next.
Spaceport: Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Facebook
Review by Owen Russell
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