As most long time Res readers know, Shaun and I have a rather vitriolic public relationship. He ribs me about being spastic as a cheerleader high on Pixie stix when it comes to nu-rave, I rib him about being emo and crying into his French vanilla coffee over anyone who screeches with a frown over a pedal board. But behind closed HTML tags, we are actually best friends in that cloying, no-one-understands-me-like-you-do way.
The other morning, whilst discussing what some are calling the shoegaze revival (and others are calling, horrifyingly, electrogaze), we sent grinning emoticons and “I love yous” back and forth over IM, and Shaun coined the term “cuddlegaze.”
Why the distinction from shoegaze? First of all, shoegaze never really went away– there are lots of neogaze bands who are doing quite well and selling out massive audiences (see Explosions in the Sky). The difference is in the way the two make you feel. Shoegaze is for standing alone, hands shoved in pockets, staring at the tops of your Chuck Tailors; cuddlegaze is for sitting in the corner, your arm looped at the elbow through someone else’s, your head on their sweatered shoulder, staring at their Chuck Tailors instead of yours. Cuddlegaze is for sharing, not for retreating.
Leading the pack with the soundtrack to the rushy first weeks of falling in love are Canada’s Stars and the UK’s Maps. Stars have been around for awhile with a few from their last album featured on The OC and Degrassi. Their new record feels less coy and cute and more like the Lovemakers must sound when they’re snuggling in bed rather than chatting people up in bars. Sweet, yes, but sexy and grown-up.
Maps, the name for the adorably dreamy work of a British boy named James, is short listed for the Mercury Prize this year (and personally has my vote, even over my darling Klaxons). While other people are calling this “electro-gaze” because he uses a lot of electronic elements in his music, that genre title makes me think of something much edgier and dirtier. Listening to a Maps song is like feeling an emotion again for the first time: it is naive and hopeful and full of youth and sunrises. Even on the kiss-off anthem “When You Leave,” he can evoke the end of a relationship without bitterness and anger while still maintaining the resignation and sadness.
Stars’ In Our Bedroom After the War is available for pre-release on eMusic and you can pre-order it if you don’t do the eMusic thing.
Maps’ We Can Create is available now.
Pick them up, find a cute boy or girl with glasses and a sweater, and get your trembly make-out on. Or grab your best friend, a head-phone splitter, and hit a roof or a park on your back watching the clouds change shapes.
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