Aawks
(((((Heavy on the Cosmic)))))

I think that you can look at the cover art on the debut album from Canadian quartet Aawks and accurately guess how it will sound, they make it how it looks. The quartet was formed in 2019 and released a debut EP in 2020, since then they got a new bassist and worked on this debut album that came in vinyl format in December 2022, the digital issue was released in June. I think Aawks is a rather funny name for a band, good way to end up early in the album lists, wouldn’t be fantastic if reviews were bad though. They make the album title amusing as well, but what about the album? Is it amusing?

It is psychedelic, and fuzzy, quite powerful and well performed. Not an album that breaks very much new ground, it will sound familiar to anyone who has listened to this kind of music before. It is a well-produced album with enough variation to keep you listening for the entire playing time, not everyone manages that. The singer is decent, but also rather typical of the style of music. That is an impression I have overall, that the album doesn’t feel particularly fresh or novel, it doesn’t explore anything that haven’t already been explored. Some may say that it lacks excitement, and they wouldn’t be wrong.

Still, despite not being very exciting it is still a good album with good songs, I like the atmosphere it conveys, it is an album that is rather heavy on the cosmic. Perhaps influence by some of the hallucinogens presented in the opening spoken-word part of the opening track. But while it is a good album to listen to, a bit dreamy and so, it is not one that stands out. It feels familiar, not like a debuting band coming up with their first album that happens to be a collection of ideas and inspirations bottled up from birth until that album, it is rather quite derivative and maybe impersonal.

Fans of the psychedelic and fuzzy stuff will most likely find this to be a rather interesting and exciting album. Personally I think it has been rather fun to listen to, but it is hardly an album that I will feel drawn back to, more like one of many good impressions that ends up never heard again. The problem for Aawks is that they don’t stand out, and if you don’t stand out from the masses you will just end up one in those faceless masses, a fuzz album of many.

HHHHHHH