Eyelids
or

A group that cites as its main source of inspiration and influence the plethora of bands housed in the '80s at Flying Nun is an event to be greeted with enthusiasm.

Flying Nun is a New Zealand record label that during those years contributed significantly to the revival of a noble idea of pop, inspired by the delicate vocal harmonies and crystalline guitar melodies of the Beatles and Byrds: Chills, Verlaines, Clean, Bats were some of the most prominent names, fine craftsmen creators of paradisiacal pop hits – to paraphrase the title of a song by the Chills – that revealed another face of down-under rock, the soft and dreamy one.

The fact that those groups never actually produced a hit in the strictest sense of the term makes the current call to a scene that could have been defined as “obscure” even forty years ago even more surprising.

Today the Eyelids are trying to bring that scene to the forefront.

Put together by Chris Slusarenko and John Moen – already active in the ranks of Guided By Voices, Decemberists, and Jicks, among others – in May 2017 the band released their second album «or», twelve tracks of pure and simple pop.

The musical trajectories are those that start from the aforementioned harbors of Beatles and Byrds and, touching the shores of Big Star, reach the lands of Athens, at the moment when R.E.M. splendidly and continually reconstructed in their own way that three-letter concept: pop.

Pure and simple pop, indeed; sometimes with power accents – as in «Camelot», «My Caved in Mind» and «(I Will) Leave with You»; mostly with a quiet pace, reminiscent of certain paisley-based indolences and rainy days – such is the case with «Slow It Goes», «Tell Me You Know» or «Ghost Ghost Ghost».

Jay Gonzalez from Drive-by Truckers and Jonathan Segel from Camper Van Beethoven participate as guests; Peter Buck produces, who also appears in «Falling Eyes», finally giving a distracted applause to the band, almost as if to imply: «Not bad, they'll make it».

If, in addition to making a name for themselves, they manage to give visibility to the Flying Nun crowd, it would really be a great thing.