Healees is a band from Paris, formed by musicians from different parts of the world: the U.S., Belgium, France, and Sweden, and this is their debut LP. The band was started in 2015, in Paris, when the singer and guitarist met the other guitarist and found out that they both shared the same interests. That wasn’t an easy time, as I found out from the band’s interview from 2022: it was hard to find proper gear and a place to play (I can relate!), but somehow we can now listen to this interesting record with classic shoegaze: power pop melodies all drown in the sea of hazy guitar sound, quite a solid thing. Also, a good old days shoegaze with many different sound and harmony layers.
“Coin de l’Oeil” means “The corner of the eye”, and the album is released on vinyl. Can imagine how great it would sound on vinyl, considering all its sound richness. And one more thing: I personally can’t help but adore the happy bird with a worm in its beak on the album cover.
Speaking of music, “The Big Takeover” described the band as “21st-century shoegazers amazingly as great as 1988-1995’s originals”, and yes, I can hear that. Sometimes the tunes resemble My Bloody Valentine, and sometimes – Sonic Youth (e.g., track 2 or guitars on track 4, so that “Teenage Riot” comes to mind). By the way, it seems that the musicians don’t like the idea of turning up the vocals in the music – this is what they mentioned in their interview. However, this sounds, to be honest, like an interesting idea, and let me explain why: the vocals sound really smooth, ethereal, and with several different harmonies to them — this could be a beaut to enjoy!
What about the tracks? I enjoyed the guitar ambient at the end of track 1 and on track 5, which is a full ambient guitar track, something like a sunlit airy ballad. Track 3, “White Room”, is a song with interesting, wide vocal parts. Track 4 has some “exotic” guitar melody to it. The album also has some power pop shoegaze songs, with buzzing guitars and energetic sound to them. The closing track is a beautiful noisy tune, with some uplifting melodies and a nostalgic mood.
One of my favorite tracks is “Secret Moon”, which is vast and spacious and could probably be used in some movies, in that scene where filmmakers play “Heroes” by David Bowie: moving, full of emotions, hope, and light. And the track “Tiny Head” could probably also be played in some bitter-happy and sad but true movie scene.
So that’s the album. What’s great is that I find this music quite inspirational – it sounds pretty simple and could encourage one to go out and play too or do some other great things and enjoy it. Why not.
Written by Natalia Es
