Featuring a drum machine and a set of synthesizers, Laughing Gas, the latest Wild Nothing EP is as synth pop as Jack Tatum can get. On January 1st of this year, the Virginian band released the first single “Foyer,” announcing the complete EP release for today.
“Foyer” kicks off with a gated reverb drum, so distinctively representative of 80s synth. As the first single, it is the perfect introduction to what the EP holds but as the middle song of the EP it serves as the climax. However, this does not mean that the rest of the songs are inferior, but rather serve as the buildup and descent from the REM cycle this playlist is.
In a statement, Tatum commented on the EP’s title as representing “a kind of manufactured bliss and loss of control,” and it does feel like that dream you want to recall the moment you wake up.
Laughing Gas is a reverie. The songs are carried by the distinct Wild Nothing dream pop-ness but the lyrics ask you to remember a memory you cannot quite get. Alluded by mentions of sent like orange, ice cream numb fingers and to “memorize the taste of it… recall the taste of it.”
The songs were produced along with their latest album, Indigo, but the band decided to set these five tracks apart. Tatum has never shied away from his 80s influences. While the 2018 LP features more upbeat dream pop melodies, Laughing Gas contains a nostalgic uneasiness to it. This sets apart the EP from the previous work.
By Veronica Martinez