London quintet The History of Apple Pie has been seeing the hype pile on for a while. After a stretch of live performances, during which they have been experimenting with and perfecting their brand of fuzz rock, comes the release their debut album, Out of View. Of the two core members, Stephanie Min was a self-ascribed lover of “cheesy pop,” and Jerome Watson’s father managed a record store, exposing him to more esoteric forms of music while growing up. These influences shine a light on the nature of their sound, which adopts as its edifice modes of shoegaze and noisy fuzz/grunge, and then drapes this with sugary, pop-esque vocals and hooks. The result is a solid work of music that for most will likely match the hype. But there is also a sense of untapped potential here—of sounds that could have exceeded expectations but fell short.
“Tug” is the album’s opener and the core foundation of its structure. Like most the tracks that follow, it crashes you through a wall of distorted, noisy sound and lifts you into an immersive world of dreamy, hazy, soaring thrills. It builds upon a repeated refrain little by little, slowly elevating each iteration with a new layer of heavenly riffs or distorted wails while Min’s airy vocals hold you listlessly half-awake. In “Mallory” and “Glitch” the vocals and recalcitrant guitar melodies move upfront to shake off the sleep-spell; here pop and rock take turns with one another vying for refrains. It’s a fun style but it uses up all its material too soon—the second half drags on repetitively without seeming purposeful. The sweetly yearning “See You” is the poppiest of the bunch, with catchy hooks and classic “I miss you” lyrics. There’s a sense of mischievousness to Min’s airy, cooing vocals here that aren’t present much elsewhere, and it left me feeling like there was more her intriguing voice could do—if it weren’t contriving to constrain itself to the shoegaze lull.
“The Warrior” wields wild grooves and chaotic, striking guitars, while “I Want More” spins spiritually through crystalline hazes. “Before You Reach the End” is the closer, taking us on a six-minute odyssey of heavy bass grooves, see-saw riffs, and high driving guitar lines that rise to whine gloriously. But by the time I’ve reached the end, though I’ve indeed had an enjoyable listening experience, I am left a little unsatiated. It is as though the group has not quite finished finding their style; it is still missing that inexplicable something. But there’s certainly a lot of cool places this music could go—hence I will be keeping my eye out for their next album.
