Imitation Life is the debut album by Lauds who come from Wilmington North Carolina, that sounds like it's a hotbed for dream pop. Lauds are McKay Glasgow and J.Holt Evans III and friends.
The album opens with "Parallel" a quite laid-back fey dreamscape of whose guitars will slowly open your mind up ready for the rest of Imitation Life as they give their best for you.
"Somehow" is gauzy dream pop with crystalline guitars to envelop you in its warm embrace to help you through winter while making sure you don't look back as you focus on the only things that really matter.
"24" feels like it's 24 bars of insistent bass with guitars sparkling over the top of that bassline, Gossamer vocals whisper in your ears, it's very relaxed and yet rather persistent as it repeats and evolves over the course of those 24 minutes hours and days.
"Cee Dee Lamb" feels like you are broiling that lamb on skewers of delicate guitar lines that build as the Lamb begins to char slightly is it rotates and enervates. The vocals make for an oblique background texture diving in and out of the music.
"Don't Mind" sounds rather sun dappled and laid back with a gentle psychedelic edge to it. The vocals have a sense of regret even as they tell you they Don't Mind it still feels like they really do care.
"Wasted Hours" feels like a song for all the time we wasted in lockdown, as well as all the time they've wasted waiting around for someone to show up, the super steady drumming allows the guitars to swell and rise and go off a little as they sound like Postal Blue or Orange Juice.
"Rust" has the vocals cocooned in reverb and echo set against the dreamy guitars that makes this almost feel like an anorak anthem.
"Distant Images (Ft Dulce Hombre)" has the hardest guitar line of the album as it cuts across the speaker's rapier style before the dreamier laid-back guitars come back like they have overdosed on early Soup Dragons singles while they try to comfort you in this gossamer cocoon.
"Wait Forever" could be about waiting for answers to the questions about your love as they are so intent on making sure the guitars mesh perfectly and the drums are spatially just how they ought to be that they forgot to tell us any relevant answers as we carry on waiting.
The album closes with "Misplace A Night" that I assume is about, getting so totally mashed that you haven't a clue what day of the week it is, let alone where you are, or what you were meant to be doing, as this gently intoxicating piece of Pastel shaded dreaminess leaves you coming down wondering what happened to your Cardigans during that night.
