Making new age cool again

Though proliferation of 80‰’s everything currently pervades a fair amount of music today, it‰’s not very often we see an artist openly embrace the styling‰’s of the often-mocked genre of new age, yet that is exactly what Mark McGuire, former guitarist of now-defunct drone-pop stars Emeralds, does on his solo debut, Along the Way. Despite the embarrassing source of inspiration, McGuire manages to (mostly) only draw from the ethereal, legitimately intriguing aspects of the genre, creating guitar based soundscapes that glisten and shine from every detail. The songs all start simple, generally with a highly delayed guitar line, eventually developing into a multi-instrumental atmosphere of calming, yet engaging noise, with only every now and again a singular guitar line taking clear focus out of the din. Unfortunately, it is at times perhaps too easy to listen too, leaning too heavily on atmosphere and not heavily enough on capturing the listener, though this only happens on a handful of tracks. This is drone and atmospheric music for the casual listener, and although the outright sincerity of the tracks may repel some more “serious‰” fans of this genre, the gentle builds and stratospheres created byMark McGuire are unquestionably well crafted and among the easiest listens in recent memory.

RIYL: Dustin Wong, Enya, Ducktails
Recommended Tracks: 3, 7 (12 minutes long but great), 13