The self-titled album from Seattle-based trio Fluung delivers an immersive rock sound, steeped in fuzzy nostalgia that recalls the likes of Built to Spill and Dinosaur Jr. Throughout, the band showcases impressive structural versatility, balancing expansive, slow-burning passages with bursts of distortion-laden intensity. As the band explains: “We wanted to write a record that encapsulates getting older as musicians, the endless trudge of the songwriting process, and all the little interactions in between that make a piece of music what it is.”
Opening the album, “Tuning” showcases the band’s gripping tonal versatility in instrumental form — evolving seamlessly from sporadic doses of distortion and free-flowing percussive pit-pattering, into a thunderous rock arsenal with a perpetual sense of soaring. The finale — an extended version of the track — is also fantastic. “Puzzle Pieces” touts a more immediate melodic prowess, weaving pulsing alt-rock guitar nostalgia as the vocals beckon for renewal in the form of rain washing it all away. Shades of Pavement and Dinosaur Jr. show fondly in the confident vocal drive and bursting rises in guitar-forward intensity.
Also impressing in its evolution is “The Whistleblower,” where introspective vocal questioning melds with twanging guitar spurts in the climactic arrival to an impassioned second half, featuring whirring guitar tones and feelings of catharsis. Amongst the album’s heavier efforts, “Creeper” infuses a shout-y vocal precision alongside a steady onslaught of guitar distortion. Fluung boasts a multitude of fervent rock successes.
—
“Puzzle Piece” and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
We discovered this release via MusoSoup.
