6. Asobi Seksu, Hush (‘Gliss’)

“A glissando (plural: glissandi, abbreviated gliss.) is a glide from one pitch to another. It is an Italianized musical term derived from the French glisser, to glide.”

Pitchfork calls this song “paint-by-numbers preciousness”, part of the reason why the album gets a low 5.5 score (or low for a band that did Citrus). Of course, Hush isn’t Citrus, primarily for the lack of shoegazing guitar, a deliberate choice to be replaced by more airy, delicate forms of ambient sound; Hush is the ethereal punch of shoegaze’s atmosphere stripped of its usual weapon, guitar distortion. The underlying structure of retro-pop, 60s girl vocals is still there - Yuki Chikudate’s performance really the main element of continuity with Citrus and before - but in an adapted form, seen in a somewhat different light. In fact the sound is best described by the album art - the ivory white of the cover, and the silver text on white or black (of the LP label) with its curlicued design - which is equally precious, in this sense of exquisiteness, as the music.

I saw Asobi Seksu play live early in the year, performing a suitably incredible shoegaze set with songs from both Hush and Citrus; there was also an ex-hardcore drummer who was as loud as the wall of sound coming from James Hanna’s guitar. Hush as a recording is a different experience, and although you can turn it up to full volume and feel the aural textures envelop you, that’s not necessarily the point. This album is less about beauty in disintegration, than it is about art in the integration of various elements of pop/dream-pop, shoegaze, and indie rock/electro into a sublimely pleasant record.