If shoegaze has a fatal flaw, it’s that both artists and fans of the genre often value aesthetic above substance. Scores of albums come out every year that are marked with lazy arrangements and poor songwriting, but because the guitarists run their Jazzmasters through the right stomp boxes from Old Blood Noise or Earthquaker Devices, fans buy the records up. And I’d know: I’ve bought my fair share of mediocre shoegaze albums because of it sounded good, even if the songwriting itself wasn’t up to snuff.

But luckily, Blushing has plenty of both. On their sophomore release, the dreamy Texas quartet stretches textbook-perfect shoegaze tones over a frame of solid writing. These songs could stand on their own with an acoustic guitar and the rich harmonies of guitarist Michelle Soto and bassist Christina Carmona—but I’m not sure you’d even want to strip away the massive guitars and energetic drums (provided by their respective husbands, Jacob and Noe). The combination of the writing and arrangements is too good to want to give up either.

Possessions is everything good shoegaze is supposed to be: heavy yet dreamy, noisy yet beautiful, loud yet subdued. It feels like kissing in the eye of a hurricane. Much of that peace-in-disaster comes from the literal disasters that shaped the formation of the album: they were in the studio as the world locked down. The writing process became an act of survival, the walls of sound sheltering them from the calamity around them. At times, the noise isn’t just a convention of the genre: it’s weaponized to keep them safe.

As archetypal as Possessions feels, it doesn’t feel like a warmed-over shoegaze mixtape. They’re definitely speaking the language formed by bands like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, and Lush, but they’re totally fluent, telling their own stories authentically and without accent. Much of that authenticity came from some of the help outside help they received: Lush vocalist Miki Berenyi sings on “Blame,” and Mark Gardener of Ride mixed and mastered the record. While their parts in the album are greatly effective, I’m not sure if the band totally needed them. While their self-titled debut record already showed them as a band to watch, Possessions sounds like the band has passed through the fire. They’ve come out of the crucible of pandemic and chaos purified and stronger than ever.

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