The Arms Of Someone New – Promise (Re-up)

My body nearly went numb when a local college radio station first made me acutely aware of this gem, and quickly called them to find out who had just elegantly wasted me so wonderfully. Promise delivers in a spacey understated manner, its calm and reserved, all played out in the lower ranges, filled with a foreboding sense of sedation, darkness and longing; yet without the heartfelt pain that one would expect to have been implied. The production is masterful and comprehensive, slowly ebbing its way from your speakers, while warmly and gently wrapping around you like a warm atmospheric blanket, almost as if you’re having one of those dreams from which you cannot wake yourself. Filled with longing lyrics, though without a sense of desperation, the band seems more than happy to sit quietly in the darkness pouring out these flawless flowering tunes that swirl up and outward, like the blue smoke of a half forgotten cigarette, that begins to make up and redefine the air around you, giving that air nearly physical weight. The pace never quickens on Promise, it simply moves on at a heartbeat level, filling your pockets and shoes with sand, weighing you down with sleepy comfort, and inspiring you to just sit calmly and experience what’s being played out in your head and on the stereo… all in a nearly hallucinatory fashion.

*** You'll notice on the jacket that the letter S in the word Someone has been confined within a circle, this S stands for Susan, a name and person which was manifested on a previous outing.

By Streetmouse

The Arms Of Someone New - Every Seventh Wave 12”

The Arms of Someone New formed in Champaign, Illinois in 1983, releasing their first 7” the following year. At first, their sound had a biting, synth-driven edge to it, which eventually gave way to the growing ethereal / darkwave scene into the late 1980s. It’s remarkable that a 2014 re-release of a song from 1988 on the C'est la Mort label can still compete with releases of today. Is it the lack of progress in dark wave music or is it a ‘sign of the times’ in which all dark wave is hip again? Fact is that ‘Every Seventh Wave’ is a bitingly danceable song with lovely 80’s synths and an equally screaming electric guitar. A slightly distorted voice completes the picture. The two semi-ballads ‘The Sense Of An Ending’ and ‘Everything At Once’ sound too much alike, but no less stellar tracks, proves that The Arms Of Someone New still had a lot of quality in reserve. The re-release this single fits perfectly in the current period in which late 80’s ethereal /dark wave is more and more seen as an important inspiration.