Menaura ‘Suburbia’ gives you the feeling of being lifted up, sending you whirling above fields and suburbs along with the power of a high-speed train routinely rushing from one metro station to another.
Menaura ‘Suburbia’
The London-based Menaura quintet, formed at the beginning of damned 2020 absorb many influences from metal to drone and acoustic ballads. They combine heavenly vocals with walls of guitars and bulky synthesizers. At the moment, they have only three singles to their name, each revealing different sides and moods of their atmospheric and dreamy shoegaze. However, the most recent one, Suburbia is the most wide and mature work that inspires admiration and trust.
Being a very extensive work of six and a half minutes, the single does not feel like one song, but rather connected from different parts of the EP or even a full story. And if you look contemptuously at the duration, then don’t let yourself be fooled – thanks to the liveliness, optimism and moderate pace of events, the song does not feel long, moreover, you will want to listen to it again and again until you will be completely satisfied with it. Conventionally, the composition can be divided into the main part, which develops after modulation and key change into the first climax, and then, after another change of mood and lyrical and ethereal bridge, Suburbia finishes you off with the second epic finale-breakdown, an explosion of colours and emotions, skillfully achieved by the group.
Suburbia is an ode to teenage restlessness while growing up in a suburban reality, filled with routine and big dreams.
With its mood, Suburbia embodies a carefree and joyful life, as if smiling and trembling walk through the industrial area, captured on a vintage 16mm camera. The characters are like teenagers, running and filming their native streets through the lattice fences at railway stations, climbing the roofs of abandoned factory buildings and enjoying the views of space, inhaling the smoky air full of chemicals and dreaming of leaving this city and reaching other countries with their eyes, until again starting missing their beloved landscapes, which they dreamed of leaving.
In their songs, lyrical heroes are constantly running from somewhere or rushing with the wind, not knowing the direction, but expecting better changes in their lives. And the music of Menaura seems to fly after them, directing these confused heroes and piercing them with their flower arrows.
All in all, Suburbia gives you the feeling of being lifted up, sending you whirling above fields and suburbs along with the power of a high-speed train routinely rushing from one metro station to another in the morning. This is a long, strong, varied and enchanting composition, made by hands who have given themselves completely to the magic of sound and achieved great results with it.
Suburbia demonstrates the very fine qualities of shoegaze and dream pop that make people love to immerse themselves in these genres, in its reverbs, delays and lingering melodies, at the same time positively attuning to the confidence in the future of Menaura. Who knows, maybe we are now facing the future classics of shoegaze and the proud heirs of the craft of Slowdive, Ride and My Bloody Valentine? I would like to believe it.
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