Ampersand is a duo hailing from Chicago that recently released an EP entitled My Vices. They mention “Our music is alternative/indie rock. Some of the influences on this record come from mainly Arctic Monkeys, The Neighbourhood, Boy Pablo. First two tracks are clearly inspired by Arctic Monkeys from their older album Humbug.”
The EP gets going with “Hazed Up” which is a reverb laced and dreamy song. It revolves around a steady but slow beat, a syncopated bass line and clean guitars. The vocals sound good and there’s plenty of space for them in the mix. There are some very well done lyrics are well. The chorus pops when the vocalist sings “They fancy you, oh well they looked pretty (Pretty, pretty high) / The lights came up, now she is leading to.” I liked that the song ended with a guitar solo. “Momentary Bliss” is a highlight. The song sounds like a mix between spaghetti western and surf. I loved the guitar work on this song. There’s a sense of danger and mystery to the song that I appreciated. On that note the song is also quite fun. Once the chorus hits, the vocalist goes into falsetto mode and works well. They sing “And if you like to see me crying / You will enjoy smoke my ashes / I see you feeling overzealous / Down in the corner eating fellas.” The best part of the song is around the two-and-a-half minute mark where the snare starts to roll with sixteenth notes from the guitar and leads to an explosive outro. Next up is “Baby Blue” which reminded me a bit of Mac DeMarco in terms of the production but also the vocal delivery to a certain extent. The music sounds great. It’s vibrant and clean but also sounds quite chill and relaxed. It’s a combo that works and is the arguable highlight in the batch. Last up is “Memento Mori” and is sung in Spanish which switches things up. The mood of the song is a little more melancholy. They sound good with this energy. The vocals sounded especially good and I thought the faint organ mixed well with the guitar. I also thought the very light percussion worked well in the song. It’s a great closer. I liked all four of these songs and thought this was a solid release from beginning to end. The duo hasn’t been making music for long so this is hopefully just a taste of what else is to come from the duo. Take a listen.
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