Cindy Hernandez/ Contributing Writer
Sound of Ceres, formerly Candy Claws, a boy-girl psych/dream/lounge/honestly magic duo from Fort Collins, Colorado have done it again on their new album “Nostalgia for Infinity.” Three years after the release of their second full length debut Ceres and Calypso in The Deep Time, Sound of Ceres encompasses a mature, enthusiastic, and dramatic fascination for nature and the universe and its never ending wonders.
The opening track “Pursuer” sets us up for the many “orbits” the album takes, placing a listener firmly in the world of a planetarium. “World where I’ve been…Standing without standing still/So light,” are the lyrics that cement the group’s fascination with space.
On their lead single and second track “Bryn Marina,” the group brings back their favorite sounds: 60s space age lounge, 70s nature documentaries and a pop oriented guitar chord progression, to a song that thematically throws us back to their first full length debut, “In The Dream of The Sea Life.”
Ryan Hover’s background vocals, singing “Something real can’t feel this real,” along with Karen Hover’s singing of “Turns inside of me, universe” couples nicely with the married couples effortlessly supplementary vocals. Pushing two wispy vocalists like this together against themes of unity and magic really expresses both the love they have for each other and on this album.
On “Ember Age,” spacey reverb with slight analog synthesizers and a spooky piano rhythm entertain the idea of a monster living beyond our moral, human lives. “Creature face, hiding eyes/Slow, huge size,” impress on us this monster towards nature, but the real monster, that of a “Human-shaped and named/I know it/Silent Morning,” brings us a gentle pleading on the state of our ever warming planet.
On the track “My Spiral Arm,” we get this same descriptive song of a creature but at the bottom of the sea, calling out to Karen Hover.
It’s worth pointing out that each track finds a fascination with the planet that hit so many emotional notes, along with the clash of emotions on this album: seamless, natural and much like the maturation of this band in terms of production and exploration of sound.
My favorite track, “Hand of Winter,” goes into a more shoegaze territory, with lyrics about the winter and the scarcity of warmth in a cold climate, yet small details like “The back of her hair/The gleam at her throat,” striking a nerve on romance in the face of a crumbling infrastructure. The fascination with outer space on “Side A” is just as adorable, referring to a “Dark eyed star child,” as “Side A on both sides,” with a synth pop influence and a sassy salsa guitar that really lends itself to an optimistic turn for the rest of the album.
On “You’re Me,” we’re taken back to a more traditional dream pop sound, reminding me a lot of earlier Slowdive and Rachel Goswell in general. The lyrics “Your eyes search for me, and I am always there,” are poignant and accompanied with the cutesy bleep bloop sounds of a MIDI keyboard along with a gentle percussion. A duet from both Karen and Ryan are just extremely adorable, but never saccharine. If anything, the love songs here sound pure and excitable.
On “Kingfisher,” we get the most obvious lounge inspiration, with lyrics about jet setting across the solar system like, “East in the morning/South in the afternoon/See Solar starling/Hiding behind the Earth on my right in my mind.”
The Instrumental track “Antiprism” is an intense bridge that blends gospel and synth into our final track “Dagger Only Run,” inspired by, of all things, a course in the video game “Dark Souls 2,” recognizing Sound of Ceres playful nature. Ending the album with the lyrics “All time was there in one place” is powerful and attests to the groups theory of love and imagination blending all at once.