Mundy’s Bay - Lonesome Valley (2020) Hi-Res

Incubated within Montreal's hardcore punk scene, formed through a collective embrace of '80s music, Mundy's Bay hail from the cheapest big city to live in Canada, yet offer some of the richest, dreamiest soundscapes Canadian music has to offer.

Lonesome Valley, their debut full-length, is informed by vocalist/keyboardist Esther Mulder's poetry, but is also part introspective character study, dream interpretation, narratives of aging through your 20s and falling in and out of love.

The project is a compromise of expansive '80s new wave, sweet dream pop and noisy guitar strums heard in a fuzzy grunge act or the cutting room floor of a hardcore record. Their shared expression is best heard on second single "Visions of You," the longest but soundest cut of the bunch; it never overstays its warm welcome through airy synth, hi-hat cymbal grooves and swaying guitar leads.