Brooklyn quartet Looms’ newest LP, The Way Up, is informed by band spearhead Sharif Mekawy’s breakup with a summer romance. The finality of the separation only became evident upon Sharif returning to the nest after a prolonged 2017 tour, making the transition back to domesticity all the more shocking.
Themes of lost love pervade the lush, ten-song set, which finds itself mainly concerned with how rose-colored memories warp after the exposure to hard truths. This is most prominently communicated through the albums lovely single “Eclipse,” a jangly piece of Beatle-esque folk rock that oscillates beautifully between its major and minor chord progression.
Mekawy paints a solemn picture of the time he spent internalizing the split, producing a delicately distorted, love-lorn vocal that rides above the mix alongside an Eastern-tinged electric guitar lead—a guest performance from guitar legend Nels Cline.
The Way Up arrives in stores on May 3, and the band will be playing a showcase at SXSW this week.
