Clock Hands Strangle – Redshift/Blueshift

Team Grizzly Records

If you love to walk in the rain without an umbrella and look for a long-lost lover, sit at a riverbank and watch leaves float by, or ponder the overwhelming sadness of existence, this is the album for you.

Upon first listen, it crossed my mind that I could perform the Veronese waltz to every song on the album. No chance to “get low” or “slap that,” if you know what I mean. And since I was in a booty-shaking mood, I had to give it another chance a few days later. Although the tempo still didn’t grab me, the existential lyrics started to. Lines like “we were born the same way that the universe began/and as we form, the tiny galaxies in our minds expand” made the tiny galaxies in my mind contort uncomfortably as I mulled over the concepts.

This is definitely a lyrics-focused album, but overall the music threatened to lullaby me to sleep, even when I listened during the hustle and bustle of my work day. The keyboard imprints on my face? Oh, that’s from Clock Hands Strangle. So grab your flannel pj’s and warm tea, snuggle under the covers with a good book, and drift off to dreamland with this tranquilizer of an album.

Review by Adrianne Munkacsy