Fade in. It’s one o’clock in the morning, and you’ve just closed your tab at your favorite dive. You take one last look around, catching blurred faces in the crowd as the indigo lights cast a dreamlike hue over the whole room. There’s so much going on, and you wish you had the energy to stay, but all you can think about is getting home and collapsing on your bed. You’re halfway out the door when somebody gently brushes past you on their way inside. Your eyes lock with theirs, and they give you a smile. You watch them disappear into the blue-tinted crowd, and a guitar chord rings out, dripping with reverb and a deep sense of longing. Suddenly, you aren’t so eager to get home.
Parallel’s “Flooded” instantly transports you to a place and a feeling that one typically only finds in dreams or drunken walks home in the dead of night. In a sea of bands that overuse reverb and other effects to try to find that “dream pop” sound, Parallel balances everything perfectly. Every voice and instrument is crisp and easily found if you know where to look, and together, they capture a feeling of cool loneliness and a vibrant sense of sadness that never falters throughout the album. With harmonizing guitars that poke around in your memory banks, subdued singing that conjures ghostly visions of old friends and lovers, and a rhythm section that firmly keeps everything glued together, “Flooded” is a perfect showing of dream pop in every sense.
The album opens strong with “Death or Oblivion.” This track takes little time to get things started with slow-paced but pointed rhythms and haunting guitar tones. It lets you know exactly what you’re in for on this journey. Its driving rhythm and haunting forefront carry through and keep a stalwart pace throughout “Flooded.” Before you even realize it, you’re halfway through the album, and “Painkiller” begins to play. The energy has picked up slightly, but it’s effective. You notice that the guitars have gotten ever so crunchier, and the drum fills are more deliberate and hard-hitting. There are lyrics that begin to stick out, like “we never hear from you” and “make me believe it,” all couched between well-timed stops in the music. “Painkiller” is a perfect climactic peak for this excellent album.
It’s clear that Parallel has a great chemistry that lets every player shine without sacrificing the integrity of their overall sound. They give time for the small but important background vocals to carry you from one verse to the next. They give time for the guitars to make their point and build on one another until they reach mesmerizing crescendos. They give time to spotlight the unsung basslines and drum fills that have been humbly carrying the weight of every song. And while all this is going on, they never once miss a step in providing a perfect, excitingly somber sound when it all comes together.
“Flooded” guides you down a river of rippling vibes and smoked-out melancholia. Sometimes, the flow speeds up and splashes up in your face, and sometimes, it slows to a crawl, threatening to lull you into a peaceful slumber, but it never once makes you feel unsafe, unwelcome, or uninterested. Very quickly into this album, you realize you’re in the presence of people who understand those lonely feelings that don’t often get talked about. If you’ve ever felt isolated in a room full of friends, if you’ve ever had your heart broken by someone you didn’t expect, or if you enjoy listening to a band that is fully locked in on their sound, then this album will make you feel right at home.
Written by Rob Rinaldi
