134 MARCH 27-APRIL 2, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC & VENUES | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | SPORTS & RECREATION | SHOPPING & SERVICES | CONTENTS | EP. The songs have a hypnotic vibe, and it feels as though the duo is sonically seeping into your soul, pulling you into a glimmer- ing deep-space black hole, particularly on opening track “Alone.” You’re basically see- ing stars throughout this hypnotic EP, which explores themes of time and space and translates them through a unique sound. Best Album to Make You Feel Like You’re in a David Lynch Movie No Depression in Heaven Midwife heavenmetal.bandcamp.com We lost the great neo-noir fi lmmaker David Lynch this year, but we have no doubt the Mulholland Drive director would be enam- ored with No Depression in Heaven, the latest album from Midwife, a solo project of Mad- eline Johnston, who calls her music “heaven metal.” We could defi nitely see the opening track, “Rock N Roll Never Forgets,” play- ing in the background of the Black Lodge in Twin Peaks, or Johnston herself perform- ing “Vanessa” at the Roadhouse while Laura Palmer looks on, cigarette in hand. There is a Julee Cruise vibe to Johnston’s vocals, after all, and her sound maintains an overall weightiness as well as luminosity, like sun- light fi ltering through a deep forest. Best Concept Album Impendo Destructo Magic Beans magicbeansmusic.com Making a concept album is ambitious enough these days, especially when the attention span of many music listeners doesn’t care to tolerate anything longer than three minutes. But the members of Magic Beans make it worth it — and they do it with science fi ction. The Denver band constructed its latest album, Impendo De- structo, as a vehicle for an oddball, out-of- this-world saga about our dystopian world and those who seek to escape it…into outer space. It’s wacky, funky, futuristic fun. Best Vinyl Reissues The Fluid subpop.com/artists/the_fl uid Denver punk-infused rock band the Fluid existed in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and during that time it racked up quite a few accomplishments — including the honor of being the fi rst non-Seattle band signed to Sub Pop Records and sharing a split single with Nirvana just months before the lat- ter became the biggest band on Earth. The Fluid’s legacy has remained in limbo since then, though, which is why Sub Pop’s re- mastered, reissued fi ve-LP Fluid catalogue is such a welcome development. Best Goth Album Under the Sanguine Moon Plague Garden plaguegarden.bandcamp.com Goth will never die, and Plague Garden is here to prove it. The eerie band’s fourth al- bum, Under the Sanguine Moon, builds on the decay of its predecessors: shadowy post- punk that draws decadently on the bleak melodicism of vintage infl uences: Siouxsie and the Banshees, Christian Death, Sisters of Mercy, the Cure. This is classic goth, all monochrome glamour and graveyard ritual- ism. The members of Plague Garden appar- ently never got the message that Denver is one of the sunniest cities in America, and we hope they never do. Best Shoegaze Collab New Year Split 2025 Creek, Overhang, Summer of Peril creekco.bandcamp.com You can hear all the local fl avors of shoe- gaze on New Year Split 2025, the excellent collaboration of Front Range bands Creek, Overhang and Summer of Peril released on January 3. Each band contributed one song to the three-track split, with Denver band Creek’s “Retrace” setting the tone with its brand of angsty emo-gaze. Fort Collins group Overhang picks the beat up a bit with “Wings,” which nods to classic new wave and indie rock. Also from FoCo, Summer of Peril closes the split with “Poison,” a grungier take on shoegaze that evokes a little nu-metal, to boot. For the future of shoegaze in Colorado, New Year Split provides a good peek. Best Music for an Existential Mental Breakthrough Cherry Spit cherryspit.bandcamp.com Cherry Spit carries audiences away with its unique time signatures and brutal Music & Venues continued from page 132 Free Counseling for COLORADO’S MUSIC INDUSTRY — Apply now — to receive up to $1,000 of counseling sessions from licensed mental health professionals In partnership with
