Spanning from bursting electro-pop color to moody rock and post-punk precision, Wasting Time is the impressive new album from ARENTUMINE, the project of Portland, OR-based artist Justin Alvarez. Drawing from personal tumult — including a breakup, job change, and being kicked out of his home — the release encompasses a wide range of emotions, with their release ultimately being cathartic. “I had so much on my mind through that, the anger, the frustration, the longing, the loss,” Alvarez explains. “Feeling lost through it all drove me to make something as a release of these emotions.”
“The Pact (Intro)” commences the album with dynamic appeal, swelling from hospital-like ambience into quaint piano melancholy and then a whirring, ardent electro-pop realm with neon-lit appeal. Soaring guitars and “sweet days in the summer grass” lyrical affections further bolster the production, which is magnetic in its anthemic rock and electro-pop fusing. The ensuing “Daylight” channels a lusher pop charm, infusing serene vocal reassurances — “it’ll be alright” — into a resonating title-touting “need you by my side” yearning in the main hook. The album’s opening one-two punch wastes no time in showcasing an album that succeeds with both memorable soundscapes and hook-filled structural maneuvers.
A wide range of highlights shows thereafter, ranging from the moody post-punk glimpses within “Alleyway” to the hazy guitar-led psychedelia of “Lostboy.” A particular standout arises in the album’s concluding title track. Also the album’s lengthiest effort, “Wasting Time” eases in with hypnotic guitar trickles and dreamy vocal introspection, gradually swelling into an elongated “keep wasting time” vocal layering as electronic textures and pulsing rhythms join into a solemn piano-touched chilliness at the two-minute turn, where Elliana Torson’s haunting vocals emerge; the production is riveting in its palpable emotion and sense of momentum. Wasting Time is an enveloping overall success from ARENTUMINE.
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“Wasting Time” 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.
