Photo by Wakeeña Real

Shoegaze never really got its shot in the ’90s. Heavier aesthetics like grunge came in and literally shouted out the distortion that had drifted over to the US from England. Trends are cyclical, though, and as Lush, Ride, Slowdive, and more return to the scene, they’re finding the threads they dropped before the turn of the millenium are being picked up by a young crop of newcomers. One group who’s grabbed a fistful of those threads and wrapped it tightly around their instruments is Austin outfit Honeyrude.

Formed slowly over the last four years, the four-piece is now set to release its debut album, The Color Blue. Due out August 18th via Shifting Sounds, The Color Blue sounds like the late ’90s and early ’00s never happened, as if 1996 just skipped to today and found dream pop at a new pinnacle.

Just listen to their new single, “Flowers”, an alluring swirl of guitars and sky-ward driven riffs. Frontwoman Jess Ledbetter’s voice dances between the distortion with resolute grace, alluring even as she sings, “Lately you look like an angel praying faster than my words can fall/ Maybe you should find a way to hate me, faster than my words can fall.”

Ledbetter explained the song’s origins and meaning to Consequence of Sound:

“’Flowers’ is about falling in love with people that are “off limits”. I wanted to imagine that after death we love without bodies. Its a lovely thought and its a lovely song and there’s something Shakespearean about not being allowed to be with someone you are drawn to. [Guitarist] Ian [Lund] showed me this old loop he had recorded in the 90s and I thought it was beautiful and took it home and sat on my bed and heard this little melody right away. We all worked on it and thought surely it can’t be so simple, we need to add some strange chords or something but ultimately we all agreed it was actually just a simple, pretty song.”

Take a listen below.