Pearl Diver
by Malory

From MadhattanJack 12/17/2025 00:10 | #312165

From Berlin, Germany, Malory made four albums from 1999 to 2010, this being the last. Their first album was a kind of "shoegaze lite," and on the subsequent three albums they only became lighter, adding more electronics, dreampop/new age/trip-hop influences, and a very, very breathy female singer who also speaks French and wants you to know right off the bat for some reason. But they didn't jettison the classic-shoegaze approach completely here, as it appears in bursts and jabs throughout all three albums, making the listening experience a bit like cotton candy laced with bits of meat. "Tasty, but what is it doing here," you might ask. (Spoiler Alert: On track 10, "Ajar Door," they almost use this for humor value, seeming to fade the song out twice only to blast the listener awake again each time.) Still, it's a nice album, maybe even better than the previous two, especially if you prefer the more pleasant and less-demanding side of electro-dreampop. And while I wouldn't call it "sleep-inducing," you probably shouldn't listen to it while operating heavy machinery.