Dead Gaze is a genre-blending, experimental rock group that is led by indie mastermind Cole Furlow. Reigning from Mississippi, Furlow has been independently making music under the name of Dead Gaze since 2009, releasing a limited-edition 7” in 2011 and a self-titled, full-length album in 2012.
With recent expansion to a five-piece live band, Furlow and company are now on tour performing their newest masterpiece, Brain Holiday, which was released on Tuesday.
Beginning with “Yuppies Are Flowers” and “Rowdy Jungle,” Dead Gaze shows off the dominant sound of this album, bringing the listener back to the late 90s, early 2000s pop-rock era with whiny pop lyrics about dropping out of school and growing up. The guitar feedback and heavy drums instantly compare Dead Gaze to bands like Weezer and Blink-182.
Brain Holiday begins venturing out of the grunge niche with “Stay, Don’t Say,” by exploring a larger realm of production and ambience, introducing us to the psychedelic side of Dead Gaze. The ghostly wandering of the vocals in the chorus embrace your ears and float you through the sky as if you were in the orange spaceships that grace the cover of Brain Holiday.
“Runnin’ on the Moon” abruptly knocks you out of the sky with the presence of a melancholy horns section and lyrics that approach being a little too whiny. “Runnin’ on the Moon” is the low point of the surprisingly entertaining pop-rock album.
Brain Holiday begins winding down with “Breathing Creatures” and “Possible Embrace.” The former brings us back to the floating feeling of “Stay, Don’t Say” very effectively using horns and a keyboard to make you reminisce of a warm summer day; the latter continues the cliche pop-rock sounds heard earlier in the album with an added hint of airy synth and Weezer-like guitar riffs.
Dead Gaze ends this LP in great fashion with the title track “Brain Holiday.” Not only are the lyrics in this song mysterious and thought-provoking, the instrumentals compliment the mystery, creating a perfect end to Brain Holiday and accurately summing up everything this post-grunge band is all about. “Brain Holiday” is the most memorable track on this album.
Take a Brain Holiday and have a great weekend.
Rating: B+
