My Anti-Aircraft Friend - Julie Full Review

Album on Apple Music

My anti-aircraft friend is a 10 track shoegaze album by julie. This album is a great example of shoegaze and in my opinion a great debut album for Julie. The great vocals between the two main vocalists and the strong riffs and drums the band treads a line of not stepping on each other or making their sound muddy, perfectly. The only problem is that some songs don’t do anything different from bands like sonic youth or Mbv. On top of that a lot of the male vocalist songs feel the same and the lyrics from some of those songs are pretty underwhelming. But when a song from this album is good ITS REALLY good so that’s why it gets a 7.7/10!

Catalogue - First off the bass line slaps and the song really has a wilder more impromptu beat and it works so well. Like there’s a part in the chorus that’s addictively catchy and like it makes me want to listen to this multiple times to here that lil part pop out. But when it comes to lyrics it kinda feels like the singer made it to where she wants to be and now she doesn’t feel anything. Like buying something from a catalog and it didn’t match your expectations. But in general I love the vibe of this song. It makes for a strong start to the album. 8/10

Tenebrist - is tenebrist a word someone search that up! But past that this song feels like gloomy especially the vocals there like masked behind a soft voice and a lot of instruments but it genuinely does add to the esthetic and the ending of the song genuinely shreds so much like I was lowk ascending if I could judge a song based on it ending this would be a ten but I can’t do that so this is another 8/10

Very little effort - this is a slower song but it definitely kicks into a higher gear . It serves as a good point to decompress and hear a quieter song. But by no means does it seem boring or less compared to the songs before it. It still gives that raw noisy rock feeling just in a slower, more heavy way. 7/10

Clairbourne Practice - The alternating patterns between the thrash rock and the slower harmonic parts are like going through whiplash on a roller coaster but it makes you feel better instead of puking. Like it honestly was such a great vibe and energetic song and none of the slower parts subtract from it. It's honestly impressive how they managed to execute it so well. This son was like very little effort but to the extreme 9/10

Knob - Ok the song isn’t as melodic or like really attention grabbing as the last ones. It's more depressing and slower. I think this would’ve worked if we had like some raw vocals or like more stripped down guitar but this doesn’t feel like a song in this album. It’s out of place and I feel like this slows down the album too much. Also on top of that it feels super repetitive there’s nothing in this song that screams listen to me I’m important. 5/10

Thread stitch - I honestly don't like the loud slow songs. The lyrics feel void of light there’s like nothing catchy there and it just feels like so much but the vocals hold it back from not feeling empty the song isn’t bad but it’s the vocals lacking the energy that everything else brings. So I can only give this a 6/10

Feminine adornments - THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT after the disappointment that I got from knob and thread stitch this is what was missing like honestly I really love how this song sounds. The bass riff at the beginning was so strong the light guitar behind the loud drums into the soft and vocally pleasing lyrics this song takes the slow and loud approach but the vocals having emotion and energy in them help so much. Like the nonchalant approach wasn’t doing it for me and this song is so chalant and it’s such a vibe this honestly turns the album around for me and for that it’s a 10/10!!! 

I’ll cook my own meals - ok this song brings back the same vibe as knob but it improves on it so much. Now I can’t really understand what the lyrics are tryna go for in the beginning I was confused but I like how this song flows in a way the vocals feel so deep when he performs with the loud shoegaze in the back and I feel like the lack of energy adds so much especially when the track quiets down at the end of the chorus 8/10

Piano instrumental - The lyrics for this song are heavenly like this is the song that resonates a lot with me and it’s definitely my favorite song on the track. The lil riffs in the bridge are so amazing and it has such a great vibe it flows so well together and despite the vocals being slower and lower it picks up speed so fast and it’s amazing this is a great and amazing song in this album. 9/10

Stuck in a car with angels - this is a really good end to this album the vocals are pretty good this is a really good example of great shoegaze. This song has the album end off on such a great note. This song is def a 7/10