REVIEW: Medicine and 'To The Happy Few' Put The 'Noise Pop' in 'Shoegaze'

The '90s ended a long time ago, and critics saw fit to toss out the decade's spent genre terms with it. No more bands playing grunge, no more bands playing Britpop, no more bands playing shoegaze. Of course those styles still existed; they just assumed new monikers. Grunge became post-grunge (clever) and shoegaze became noise pop, among many other things. My Bloody Valentine, the most respected of the shoegazers, managed to keep its label when it returned with a new album in 2013, 22 years following its last. Medicine, the American group most compared to MBV, was not so lucky with "To the Happy Few." Or wasn't it?

The shoegaze label suited the band's wall-of-sound approach and guitarist Brad Laner's onslaught of feedback and FX pedal chicanery, but the term didn't acknowledge the group's talent for crafting melodies, grooves and all things that are fun. Beth Thompson's vocals rarely emerge from behind the instrumentals enough to provide a message, much less a hook, to justify labeling Medicine as pure "pop," but considering the band's music from the popular angle lends a new line of credit to Medicine's output.

In truth, there's little from Medicine's instrumental approach that would offend a pop listener's ear. Laner's waves of pleasantry during "It's Not Enough" and drummer Jim Goodall's drum rolls on "Butterfly's Out Tonight" put the "pop" in "noise pop." When "Butterfly" shifts dramatically midway, throwing the song's previous structure to the wind, Medicine doesn't rebel so much as borrow a page from The Beatles or the Beach Boys' days of experimentation. "Burn It" follows a groove so streamlined, shoegaze exclusivists are sure to hate it.

Medicine throws a bone to the aforementioned agoraphobic with tracks such as "Long As The Sun" and "Daylight." Laner's guitar is Montresor, building a wall of sound to smother the sounds of the vocals' Fortunato. Effects and an organ plug all the holes, and Goodall hammers his skins relentlessly and rigidly. Still, even these tracks give way eventually to more melodic movements.

Laner doesn't appear to want a spot on "popular alternative" radio. His and Thompson's voices melt together during "Long As The Sun," the album's single, and sound as clear as the intercom in a cheap apartment building. If there was a message, it was lost in translation, intentionally. No pressure for Medicine to shoot for the mainstream, but this band could if it wanted to.