Wishy
Planet Popstar
It’s the morning after for Wishy, as the young shoegazers have landed on Planet Popstar, an utterly beguiling six-song EP of mostly mellow gold coming down from the wildly effervescent Triple Seven. Now seeing the light of day as a companion piece to last year’s stunning supernova of a debut LP, a gusher of warped, flowing melody and whirling, big-hearted euphoria, the life-affirming Planet Popstar eases off a bit on that album’s deliriously catchy and crunchy ear candy to get lost in intoxicating, dreamy swoons and distorted indie-pop mirrors.
Enjoying almost universal acclaim, Triple Seven remains a hook-filled rush, occasionally wistful – the gorgeously grungy “Love on the Outside” touching a nerve, like its bittersweet title track – and gloriously transcendent, which makes it a tough act to follow. Produced as a nostalgic playground for headphone immersion, Planet Popstar, a whimsical reference to the home of Nintendo character Kirby, smartly doesn’t take the bait, choosing instead to revel in carefree, summery bliss and fading memories on breezy and buoyant, yet reflective, sentimental journeys “Chaser,” “Fly,” and “Slide,” as well as the lightly cascading “Over and Over.” Forget about anxiety and Wishy fulfillment and just live for today.
In effortlessly constructing a delicately plucked, complex network of textures and fluid stop-and-go motions within songs, suffusing it all with the affecting emotional ebbs and flows of transitory heartache and joy, they somehow make everything seem both inconsequential and crucial at once. That’s a neat trick, as is the breathtaking title track, with its fuzzed-out, solar-powered surges and fountains of sonic sparks, which bear some resemblance to the beautifully blurred turbulence of “Donut,” the My Bloody Valentine-inspired centerpiece of their heavenly Paradise EP. That there will be a Planet Popstar vinyl offering that includes Paradise – called Paradise on Planet Popstar, Paradise never having had a physical release before – should be welcome news. It’s impossible to have enough Wishy.
