You no longer need to imagine what it would sound like if someone gave a synthesis of shoegaze, art rock and neo-pop with chamber strings the Broadway treatment and an ELO-esque sonic lift; Alfonso Velez has already done it on his new LP, Flamingos at Eclipse. The New York-based Cuban-American singer-songwriter, pianist and indie-pop auteur carried an expansively imaginative sensibility into the album’s standout single, Never Blue, and reached his creative zenith.
Never Blue is a clarion call to anyone who has drenched themselves in the weathered romanticism of The Walkmen and the transcendent sanctity of Father John Misty. As one of the only new releases you could genuinely space out to without picking up your phone and feel every part of you sated, the single proves Velez has nailed the art of the cine-epic.
Stardust refracts between the pulls of glassy strings as he chameleonically drifts through a plethora of vocal guises, giving Never Blue a sense of emotional mettle strong enough to build a new foundation of indie art-pop upon, if we can even call it that. His sound shifts like an enigmatic force, shrugging away the artifices of easy categorisation in exchange for ornately interstellar intimacy that swells through the soul.
With Flamingos at Eclipse, Velez expands his theatrical, piano-led songwriting into something strangely lush and fully immersive. If a Victorian woman heard this, she’d swoon so hard she’d never get back up again.
Never Blue is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.
Review by Amelia Vandergast
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