Kestrels' self-titled album from 2016 was made under trying circumstances that included all the band's gear being stolen. The turmoil didn't make it into their sound much; instead it gave them a newfound focus as they streamlined their hazy shoegaze approach into something more powerful. 2020's
Dream or Don't Dream also began under something of a cloud as founding member
Chad Peck found himself the only member, then drifted away from making music. Some time spent with his friend
Tim Wheeler of
Ash jumped his creative spark and soon he had a batch of songs. With the help of longtime
Dinosaur Jr. producer
John Agnello and drummer
Michael Catano,
Peck turned those songs into grungy dreamgaze gold. They dial the shoegaze portion of the proceedings down to the occasional flanged wave of distortion, while coating the guitars with mammoth amounts of pedals, often in the same configuration
J Mascis utilizes.
Agnello's
Dino connections also helped the band score a free
Mascis solo, and he rambles his way through one of the album's highlights, "Grey and Blue," in his usual swashbuckling manner.
Peck's no slouch at the game either, and some of his six-string maneuvers stack up nicely with his hero's. His work on "Everything Is New" sounds like it could be one of
Mascis' more inspired solos from the
Green Mind era, for example. The songs themselves show the influence of his buddy
Wheeler's band quite strongly. Tracks like the romping "Keep It Close" or the insanely hooky "Vanishing Point" show that like
Ash,
Kestrels have fully absorbed how to make huge-sounding pop music where the crunch of the guitars matches the sweetness of the vocals perfectly and the arena-sized production techniques are applied with a warmth that most bands from the era they are referencing couldn't match. Along the way, they balance the ceiling-scraping, up-tempo tracks with swaying ballads ("A Way Out") and melancholy pop songs ("Don't Dream") that bring down -- a little -- the almost giddy mood the rest of the album creates. The band have refined their attack to the point where any aficionado of this kind of overdriven, carefully sculpted, and always hooky guitar rock might on first listen think they had uncovered a lost classic from the early '90s. It's not just a trip on a time machine, though;
Kestrels manage the balancing act between heartfelt nostalgia and bracing modernity as easily as a Wallenda walks between buildings.