• News

• All

Nov 14, 2022 By Caleb Campbell

Today, Brooklyn-via-Chicago indie duo Silver Liz are back with their sophomore record, It Is Lighter Than You Think. The band formed in Chicago as the musical collaboration between husband and wife duo Carrie and Matt Wagner and they first debuted in 2017 with their self-released full-length effort, I Can Feel The Weight.

Their debut record introduced the pair via a gauzy combination of dream pop and shoegaze, but their follow-up explodes their horizons outward, encompassing a constantly-shifting expanse of genres and showcasing an impressive refusal to limit their sound to any one direction. The full album is out now, premiering with Under the Radar.

The band’s eclectic instincts see them constantly shifting gears, moving from the twinkling keys and chiming guitars of “Until Lately” straight into the dark lyrical meditations and knotted guitar-laden climax of “Thousand.” Elsewhere, “L.I.F” takes on a winding country feel, complete with keening pedal steel and sighing melodies, following just after the charming jangle pop stylings of “Unlikely Girl.”

In contrast, the latter half of the album brings out more raw and experimental edges, opening on the machine-gun percussion, psychedelic guitars, and hazy spoken-word lyricism of “Missing The Party.” These later tracks rip through with layers of noise and distortion, although the pair are careful not to dull their talent for pop melodicism. In fact, some of the record’s catchiest moments appear among the fuzzy guitars of “High at The Gym” or the grunge balladry of “Try To Follow.” Finally, the record closes out on a gorgeous meditative note, weaving ambient bird song between Carrie’s silken vocals on “Terrapin.”

Carrie says of the record, “We want to make music we would enjoy listening to, and in the Spotify-core streaming era, we are bored by a lot of indie rock we are hearing. The popularity of chill mood playlists is encouraging artists to make music that is made for the background. Indie rock is becoming more homogenized and increasingly risk averse. We don’t want to just be background music. We want it to be impossible to ignore”.

Check out the full album below. It Is Lighter Than You Think is out everywhere now.