Not content with In Water, the lovely EP they released back in February, Austin quintet Why Bonnie are back with a brand new five-song record Nightgown. The release, out now on the ever-reliable Sports Day Records, sees the band continue in their pursuit of perfect dream pop.
That said, with its relaxed and sun-dappled tone, Nightgown is more daydream pop than dream pop, as typified by the bright and breezy opener ‘Gold Rush’. Here we get the first taste of Blair Howerton’s soft and sweetly measured vocals, inflected with something wistful. The track also gets the remix treatment later on, which transforms it into a charmingly DIY electro-pop song, something reminiscent of recent Moon Racer album on Orindal Records.
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Upping the tempo, ‘Hollow Moon’ races like a hammering heart, the vocals honeyed yet mournful, before standout ‘Stereo’, where Why Bonnie get wide-screen and emotional. The exhales of an organ prep the canvas for reverb-wrapped guitar and sincere vocals, before the drums build from barely there to a steady crashing beat. The vocals follow a similar pattern, Howerton’s opening verses having a sedate, sleepy logic, before rising into a forceful and poignant crescendo.
“You could up to leave
and take the warmth in my bones
Leaving me with people in the street
and songs on the stereoDoes your family know
that you in fact did not die?
That you’re up in your apart
and you’re very much alive?”
After the glassy and digitized ‘club mix’ of Gold Rush, closer ‘In Parking Lots’ rounds off the EP on an altogether more intimate note, stark guitar and vocal harmonies creating an insular and introspective bedroom pop song. If the previous tracks emerge from a dream, then this rises from beneath the covers by torchlight, a sleepless vigil where personal hopes and doubts are aired, the oneiric soundscapes replaced by moving simplicity.
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Nightgown is out now via Sports Day Records, and you can get it from the Why Bonnie Bandcamp page.
Artwork and design by Gabrielle Guidry