[Repost from If It's Too Loud; by Ken Sears, April 4, 2024]
Usually I wait for the vocals to kick in before deciding I love a song, but I fell in love with "Severance" from Female Gaze about twenty seconds before Nelene DeGuzman's vocals started. The song starts off with this killer bass line, and then at roughly the seventeen second mark the guitar kicks in, and I was completely won over. The song has this gorgeous blend of psychedelia meets shoegaze that is irresistible. I know I would have balked at "trippy shoegaze," but Female Gaze make it work. All of "Severance" has this warm quality that just draws you in, and you just never want this sound to end. With it's six minute length, there are plenty of times it feels like it's just about to end, and then it just keeps going, and going, and each time you become more and more invested in its beauty.
