ALBUM REVIEW: Holy Wave – Five of Cups

Suicide Squeeze

Released: 04.08.23

In a fifteen-year career so far, Holy Wave, fronted by vocalist/guitarist Ryan Fuson, have used the psychedelic, freeform jamming that initially inspired the band’s music to more tacitly focus on the gems in an otherwise soupy mix of sounds. With the pandemic interrupting everyone’s creative mojo, Fuson in particular took the portents of tarot – the Five of Cups representing a forlorn dwelling on the past – and turned it into his muse, a way to be present despite a future uncertainty when he believed.

Although the album opens a kaleidoscopic world where Five of Cups, Bog Song and Chapparal all set wonderful aural tones, meandering genteelly, the remainder is left desperately seeking a destination, and instead references sounds from their own past as well as from influential bands they admire.