Craft Spells - After the Moment by The Triangle Boy published on 2011-04-08T17:32:51Z Working under the name Craft Spells, Stockton, Calif.'s Justin Vallesteros makes music for bedsitters who dream about being social. Though often addressed to a love interest either real or imagined, Idle Labor is above all a lonely album that rarely betrays its origin as a solo project. Sonically it recalls Wild Nothing it the way it mines a large swath of 1980s synth pop, but its clear emotional tenor gives it a distinguishing perspective and personality. Idle Labor exists in a time frame best described by the title of its ebullient centerpiece-- "After the Moment". These are sketches of romantic problems and solutions with the wounds still fresh and the thoughts uncensored. Taken as a whole, it could be read as a narrative following Vallesteros from heartbreak to infatuation and back, a few months' worth of romantic uncertainty boiled down to a taut and hooky album. In a maundering yearn somewhere between Jens Lekman and Ian Curtis, Vallesteros introduces himself as a lovelorn melodramatist over sunstroked, near-Balearic pop. But as the narrative begins to hint at physical contact, the music works in lockstep, and Vallestreros builds tracks more as a dance producer than a singer-songwriter. And that's where he hits his stride-- while his vocals remain a central fixture, the post-punk mordancy is softened by locomotive arrangements that stack synth pads, ringing guitar, and primitive drum programming. "Party Talk" starts a mid-album mini-suite with Vallesteros as a nebbishy Woody Allen character trying to decode a mutual romantic connection from casual conversation. But he leaps forward during the upbeat "From the Morning Heat", and by the fantastic morning-after celebration "After the Moment", something has apparently clicked; Vallesteros repeats the chorus as if he knows it's the best he's written. The emotional high is predictably short-lived, and even within its brief half-hour runtime, more than a few of the melodies take detours and left turns. "The Fog Rose High" has the feel of a gothier Beach Fossils, while the anodyne dream-pop scruff of "You Should Close the Door" could have been a Radio Dept. B-side. But as with so many bedroom auteurs' debuts, it's tough to separate the creation from the creator, and Idle Labor shows the promise of a precocious songwriter who isn't claiming to have anything totally figured out just yet. Genre Pop electro Indie Comment by user835452497 S w 2022-11-18T22:40:04Z Comment by ᓂᐸᐚᑲᐣ ᓃᒥᐤ ᒧᓭ Craft Spells is always the jam 💖❣️Their music has never aged a day 2022-07-04T16:25:37Z Comment by æïøû bye this song just radiates good vibes ✨ 2021-06-16T05:45:54Z Comment by User 758736822 This is amazing 2020-09-24T15:52:19Z Comment by YUNG LOV3 Nice Nice 2018-10-13T04:22:44Z Comment by jessyrose70 a song from another decade, amazing! <3 2014-11-21T23:23:22Z Comment by emroland UGH SO CATCHY 2014-11-05T03:24:41Z Comment by user969954698 Niiiice 2014-06-02T19:11:37Z Comment by DrmCtchr Dig your style!!! 2014-02-27T17:04:15Z Comment by seeminglytheeenjoi amazing song 2013-12-06T13:26:58Z Comment by vinay0311 nice 2013-11-02T01:48:20Z Comment by Rituals_uk top qual! 2013-08-03T20:58:59Z Comment by Shannon Dupont Cool!! Great work!! 2011-09-18T15:21:59Z Comment by 1T1D Posted on www.1track1day.com ;-) 2011-07-12T21:21:10Z