Soundpool Mirrors In Your Eyes

Never has the name of a band so aptly described their sound. Soundpool creates dense, shoegazey soundscapes draped in layer upon layer of guitars, keyboards and surreal, swirling vocals. It’s a combination of disco and shoegaze, yet another combination no one thought they needed. It’s easy to nod your head too and hard not to like.

The album begins with Mirrors in Your Eyes. It’s far and away the best song of the bunch, and they never manage to reach those heights again. The song is held down by a bouncy bassline reminiscent of TV on the Radio at their funkiest. The vocals float above the murk of a thousand guitars and keyboards, making for a beautiful, surreal and incredibly infectious four minutes.

But It’s So follows, and it’s the closest they come to matching the title track. It’s unfortunate that the best two songs arrive in the first ten minutes, leaving the listener to wallow in what becomes a crippling lack of variety by the end of the record. They only have one song. Granted, they are damn good at writing that one song, but that can’t completely negate the exercise in repetition. Even the occasional tempo change can’t help, it just sounds like the same song slowed down.

The clear winners of the band are in the rhythm section. They never fail to keep the band locked into a deep disco groove. They’re incredibly accurate and the wiry basslines are always entertaining. Unfortunately, their excellence also contributes to the albums downfall. They do the same great thing with every song. The bassist gets into an octave based groove and locks with the kick. It sounds great, but doesn’t help with the already pervasive variety problem.

Soundpool has very clear potential. They have good musicians and a good sound, but Mirrors in Your Eyes is stuck in far too large of a stylistic rut to be as great as the band could be.