Naarm (Melbourne) duo Wishlist today release debut EP Big Sign.
The EP drifts from being a grungey, shoegazey release at times to electronic at others, and it’s unsurprising to learn that Wishlist initially emerged from Stella Farnan and Soren M
Wishlist explains, “We kept making demos, loops, writing words, talking about our favourite music, talked about making art. We would write little philosophies about why we wanted to be making art. About how it made us feel like kids. It made us feel free. We reminisced about driving down the freeway blasting ‘Immaterial’ by SOPHIE on the way home from recording sessions when we were 19 – we wanted to find a way to capture that feeling.”
And I think it’s clinging onto that freedom through the writing process that makes this EP work. The weaving in and out of genres, the broad influences, and songs starting as one thing and bursting into something else captivates your attention and builds that slightly out of the box sound that I hope Wishlist were going for with Big Sign.
One of the two brand new tracks on the EP Counting On You is a perfect illustration of this. Ostensibly a pop song centred around a repeated ‘counting on you’ mantra-like chorus, synth layers drift in and out of the track at different points and then just when you think the track is building to something it abruptly switches – the drums disappear, the vocal effects change, the once busy track suddenly becomes sparse and spacious and your expectations are reset, until you begin to realise that expecting the unexpected is the best way to enjoy this record.
Where Counting on You shows the more pop influenced side of the EP, opening track I’m Sorry is the one that highlights its grungier aspect. While it still has those lighter more processed elements, the driving drum beat that forms the backbone of this song is definitely bringing a rockier energy.
Popular single Ceilings, while a softer tune, also has that same driving pulse running through it that is such a feature of indie-rock, before breaking into this noisy instrumental section that again showcases the melee of influences that go into each individual track.
The second new track on the EP, If I Met You is probably my favourite on the whole record. I love the way the vocals just hang a little too long and the pauses between lines are just a touch too big sometimes. Where other tracks are busy this one feels empty, sadder – it’s like the rush you hear in the rest of the album is over and now they’re taking time to pause, and with that all these feelings come rushing in. While not the final track on the EP (I feel it probably should be) it does feel like the book end to the project, like they’re looking back to now look forward and you can hear this both in the storytelling and the tone of the song.
While at points I feel it’s a release Wishlist will look back on in the future and want to tweak and tighten, overall I think the free-flowing and slightly chaotic edge of the EP are what make it work. There’s something in that, a sort of naïve exuberance that you can probably only truly create on a debut record and making it more technically ‘perfect’ would take away that special sort of energy and magic that Big Sign captures. It’s an excellent debut release and one that leaves you eager to know what they’ll do next.
Alongside the release the band have announced headline shows in Sydney and Melbourne this August. Details and tickets here.