With an optimistic title, Wesley Eisold, a Philly native turned New Yorker, crafts synthy moodscapes with Cold Cave’s sophomore full-length release Cherish the Light Years. Satiating ravenous fans with Love Comes Close’s follow-up, today’s release via Matador opens optimistic with sputtering backbeats followed close by electrified chords and Eisold’s post-punk styled vocals. “The Great Pan is Dead” feels iconic, triumphant, and knowing, creating cohesion of deference between Eisold’s delivery and the opening track’s memorable emotional core. Within seconds of its start Cherish the Light Years grabs hold of its listener and keeps them close until its end. Such magnetism begins with “The Great Pan is Dead” and is intensified by the dancey thrill of “Pacing Around the Church”. Reminiscent of Bloc Party’s initial potential or New Wavers like Depeche Mode, Eisold’s deliberate lyricism harbors a relatable criticism on religious tradition, its flaws, shortcomings, and (at times) miss placed hopes. With the assurance that “it was easy when we were young and free,” Eisold offers a provocatively post-mod alternative: “the truth is no where near.” Existential and catchy, “Pacing Around the Church” is cerebral with hissing clicks and memorable hooks. Here, Cold Cave capitalizes on a depth prophesized by earlier tracks like “Love Comes Close” and the pulsating dread of “Youth and Lust”. An easily consumable anthem, “Confetti” opens with mesmerizing synth and drum machine beats that feel warm and tropical. Eisold’s diction rises lush and near seductive in an upbeat but brooding trance like tempo, bringing to mind a mellowed out mix of gender bender Boy George’s antics in the Culture Club’s “Miss Me Blind” mixed with the haunting swell of Soft Cell’s “Youth”. A nearly perfect track for summer, “Confetti”, with its “Blue Monday” fashioned breakdown and 80s friendly diligence is bound to become the successor to “Life Magazine” in popularity. “Underworld USA” is heated and gothy, opening with unrelenting beats, whispers, and lightly washed out riffs. Making the most of religious iconography, Eisold’s use of words like “missionary,” “confess,” and “blasphemous,” serve as thematic authenticity to a track dealing more with redemption through romance rather than redemption through Westernized forms of religious faith. Delectably dark wave, “Underworld USA” conjures the same evocative depth of Bauhaus’ performance of “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” in ‘83’s vamp thriller The Hunger. “Alchemy and You” shines with infectious riffs and swirling chords while “Burning Sage” sinks deep under the skin with percussive minimalism and morose diction. Falling somewhere between singles by New Order (“Elegia” and “Ceremony”) and the iconic gloom of Joy Division, Cold Cave’s Cherish the Light Years is a successful resurrection of dark wave at its best. – Dianca Potts
Villains of the Moon by Cold Cave