Delve into the Sonic Scenery of New Constellations' 'It Comes In Waves'
- Dive In Magazine
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Review by Allie LaRoe
By the time the album announcement for New Constellations hit the Dive In inbox, I had already been listening to their breakout single “Hot Blooded” on repeat for months. The band’s sound is both retro and fresh, like an audio cocktail: part Mazzy Star, part Phantogram, and part something completely their own. I suspected It Comes In Waves would border on decadent, and I was not disappointed.
The Portland-based duo, made up of collaborators Harlee Case and Josh Smith, first met as children, recording a song together at 14. That early creative connection planted the seed, but it took a decade for New Constellations to coalesce. Their debut album, It Comes In Waves, features 13 tracks written over the course of three years and recorded between Portland and Los Angeles. The title references the fleeting nature of moments, with each song serving as an emotional tide that pulls listeners through the highs and lows of various relationships and experiences. As Case puts it in the promotional material:
In general, life comes in waves. Grief comes in waves. Happiness comes in waves. If you live long enough, you know you’re going to experience all these different types of things.
Smith adds:
There’s an ebb and a flow, and life is not what’s ahead of you. Life is what is happening to you at that moment.
The album opens with a short intro, “Nothing Stays the Same.” It serves as a mantra, a reminder, and a shifting of timelines. The layered vocals build into a crescendo that draws you into “Secret Safe,” a blushing love song that revels in the joy of connection without getting caught up in the possessiveness that is too often mistaken for passion. It’s an effervescent track that starts the album on a high note before crashing into a new layer of experience.
The album jumps through eras and influences. Songs like “I’m Waiting Now” and “I Disappear” contain an alternative edge that would fit comfortably alongside Luscious Jackson on a 90s mixtape. Meanwhile, “Sun Chasing the Rain,” “Say That You Will,” and “Edge of the World” wouldn’t be out of place on the soundtrack for an 80s movie featuring the Brat Pack.
A few songs stand out, aside from “Hot Blooded,” the sultry and synthy pop track that has made its way onto several of my playlists. “Believe Again” is a hopeful song about starting over that evokes memories of Venus Hum and the high school relationship that introduced me to them. “Do What You Want” brings the album to a close with an oscillating synth that supports airy vocals and a hushed, reverb-drenched guitar line. It’s a tender conclusion, wrapping the different threads of the album together before fading out.
New Constellations’ talent is clear, with each song contributing something unique, though not always cohesively. While there are songs I enjoy greatly and there is definitely the beginning of a clear style, at times the album feels weighed down by its variety—as if the duo is experimenting with different sounds without fully embodying any of them. Still, the result is a phantasmagoric whirlwind: the kind of pop music that works just as well over your morning commute as it does a tottering trek home, euphoric and covered in glitter.
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