White Poppy - The Pink Haze of Love (2017)

Aside from a 55-minute live improvised piece with Gretchen Snakes, it’s been two years since the release of White Poppy’s previous record, 2015’s stunning ‘Natural Phenomena‘ LP, a record which itself followed a period of time away from the musical world for Crystal Dorval; the gleaming heart and mind behind this project which continues to grow and flourish in a myriad of enchanting ways.

Released on Friday, new album The Pink Haze Of Love has been billed as “a concept piece relating to matters of the heart” but however it was derived or delivered it stands as another mesmerising effort from the Canadian artist. And so many of Dorval’s mainstays remain front-and-centre; those layered waves of guitar, the hazy, shimmering vocals that swim around it all, the meticulous way in which she pieces her songs together, like a fabric we’ve never felt before.

Mesmerising in the glow that exudes from within – whether that be viewed with searing clarity or through small gaps in the fog – the record does indeed take on the feel of a concept record, playing out like a soundtrack to specific time, place, and people. Which means that many of the tracks blend in to one another throughout, with just subtle shifts in the temperature or tone indicating the passing of one movement in to the next; see the tempered drum-beat that underpins the beautiful “Love Potion”, or the static, prickly cloudiness of “Hypnotized” that lingers with a spellbinding weight.

Still somewhat under the radar, given the consistent beauty of her craft, White Poppy remains one of the true gems of the Canadian alternative scene and The Pink Haze Of Love only furthers such sentiments; a record that is a dense and delightful dance; stirred by matters of the heart because it knows just how much the heart matters.