These Dreams Close To Me

Sales “Moving By Backwards”

Sales’ aesthetic template is essentially the same as that of Beach House – a generally drowsy sound built around the combination of drum machine, spare lead guitar lines that get a lot out of lovely tones, and a female vocalist who tends towards understated phrasing. The key difference, particularly on “Moving By Backwards,” is that Lauren Morgan comes across as a warmer presence in the music than Beach House’s Victoria Legrand, who has more of regal quality of elegant standoffishness. Sales is less dreamy and more overtly sensitive, with the minimalism of the track leaving Morgan’s vulnerable performance sounding particularly exposed. It sounds a bit like taking the core of a shoegaze song and removing all the sound that would normally bury it, but instead of shrinking in shyness Morgan just commits to singing it like she’s staring you right in the eyes.

Buy it from Bandcamp.