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- Summary: The debut full-length release from California artist Wisp features production by Aldn, Colin Brittain, Gabriel Greenland, and Stint.
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- Record Label: Music Soup/Interscope Records
- Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Shoegaze
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Score distribution:
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Positive: 6 out of 7
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Mixed: 1 out of 7
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Negative: 0 out of 7
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Aug 1, 2025If Not Winter is the work of an artist who thinks and dreams big, and it secures Wisp's place as one of the acts defining the sound of shoegaze in the 2020s.
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Aug 1, 2025This a confident debut album, one fuelled by a palpable sense of intentionality. If this is the next wave of shoegaze, then the legacy of my bloody valentine, Slowdive et al is in creative hands.
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Aug 1, 2025Though the emotional details can get swept up in the wall of sound, ‘If Not Winter’ is still a triumphant debut – and more than anything, the sound of a young artist who’s still growing into herself.
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Aug 1, 2025At its best, it’s pure, soul-soothing escapism. And yet, this is only the start – as she grows, she'll evolve and mould everything she’s absorbed into an even more individual sound.
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Aug 1, 2025Lu expands upon the interesting pieces of Pandora and creates a surprising first record, packed with her distinctive, beloved heavy distortion, but now featuring some poppier influences and unique genre blending.
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Aug 7, 2025You do have to dig at times though, to forage and find your own touchstones. Without that effort you may be left wandering around the realm she inhabits admiring the craft without feeling its warm embrace.
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Aug 1, 2025Lu’s vocal delivery hovers between a coo and a stage whisper, though it rarely delivers the sort of blissful incoherence that shoegaze and dream pop are known for. The softness makes sense on a raw acoustic ballad like “All i need,” but it feels more like rote theatrics on “Black swan,” where the raging noise practically begs her to snap out of her feathery stupor.