Peel Dream Magazine – “Emotional Devotion Creator”

Peel Dream Magazine – “Emotional Devotion Creator”

Peel Dream Magazine are a New York-based band carving out their own sound within a long lineage of psychedelic traditions. Led by Joe Stevens, you can hear shoegaze and classic Velvet Underground-style zone-outs and krautrock-indebted art-pop all colliding in the band’s songs. They’ve been moving at a pretty good clip so far, too: Their debut Modern Meta Physic arrived in 2018, quickly followed by an EP last year, and now the band is gearing up to release their sophomore outing Agitprop Alterna.

We’ve already heard one track from the album, its opener “Pill.” (It ranked amongst our favorite songs that week.) And today, they’re back with another one called “Emotional Devotion Creator.”

While “Pill” leaned into the heavier, shoegaze-tinged end of Peel Dream Magazine’s sound, “Emotional Devotion Creator” taps into that urbane, chic kind of psychedelia. The whole thing rides along an endless keyboard drone, and you could just picture this band playing in a loft, looking cooler than everyone else. But it’s also a really pretty and sneakily catchy thing, chirping then cooed vocals weaving a little sing-song incantation.

Also, can we take a minute to talk about how good this band is at naming things? Peel Dream Magazine not only sounds like a long-last classic ’80s or ’90s underground band, but it takes inspiration from John Peel; “Emotional Devotion Creator” is the kind of gibberish that rolls off your tongue but also sounds like some kind of LA cult business. This band knows their aesthetic, and they use it well. Check out “Emotional Devotion Creator” below.

Agitprop Alternaa is out 4/3 via Slumberland. Pre-order it here.

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