Those Looks - Passing Through [EP]
“Imaginative Lambertville four-piece Those Looks released a stellar album called Cults Near Me late last year on Mint 400 Records, reflecting on personal connections and crowd psychology to cinematic indie rock arrangements.” – WXPN
“sounds like a hit song written by a group like Fleetwood Mac and The Pretenders meet Soccer Mommy and Phoebe Bridgers. You know how some bands take a few records to figure out their sound and other bands come out right from the start with their own original sound that makes them hard to compare to any one band. This is that band.” – Blood Makes Noise
“Those Looks are a New Jersey-based band that effortlessly taps into a dreamy sound influenced by classic 4Ad and dream pop bands, which is ever-present on their lovely single “Hymnal”… The song features a melancholic tone in its atmosphere, with some warm lush guitar work, an oddly catchy guitar lick, and vocals that will take you to the dreamy heavens. Imagine a collaboration between Weyes Blood and Alvvays, and you come close to finding the spirit of ‘Hymnal’.” – We All Want Someone to Shout For
“Hailing from Lambertville, New Jersey, Those Looks are a self-described “velvet wave slow jams” kind of rock band. I got to see them live in their hometown at a show in a converted firehouse last year, and I can guarantee that they are one of the most promising indie acts coming out of the western Jersey/PA scene.” – WMSC
“From out of Lambertville, Those Looks is a band that has everyone at shows talking and asking where did this breath of fresh air come from…the album overall album feels like a group of seasoned songwriters creating one of the most cohesive indie rock records that has come across the BMN desk.” – Blood Makes Noise
Passing Through (Mint 400 Records) is the latest offering from Those Looks, an indie rock four-piece based out of Lambertville, New Jersey. The band includes Kelly Bolding on lead vocals and guitar, Sylvia Barrantes on lead guitar, Randall Newman on bass, and Shaun Ellison drums, all of whom contribute to the lush vocal harmonies that are a throughline across the band’s songs. Fans of Alvvays and The Beths will enjoy the band’s shapeshifting style of velvet wave dream pop, which blends surfy, retro rock, alt-country, and a hint of psychedelia.
Times like these call for “apocalyptic pop,” an aesthetic that can embody the paradoxical sweetness and deep unease inherent in living through an era that feels increasingly dystopian by the day. Passing Through is the perfect soundtrack for the last summer on earth. Propelled by Newman’s new wave-worthy bass line, the title track features otherworldly pedal steel licks from Jeff Van Newkirk (The Capitol Years), which weave around Barrantes’s nimble guitar work and Bolding’s catchy vocal melodies that draw inspiration from the likes of Fleetwood Mac, The Velvet Underground, and Belle and Sebastian. “In Tongues” is a breezy bossa nova-influenced bop with crystal clear vocals reminiscent of Clairo and Julia Jacklin, while “All This Room” takes advantage of its radio-ready, soft-rock love song trappings to deliver a stowaway critique of the scarcity mindset under late capitalism. “Palace of Depression” and “Anti-Muse” are solid rockers that round out the EP’s heavier side, leveraging distorted guitars and soaring vocals reminiscent of Squirrel Flower and Sharon Van Etten.
Passing Through was recorded, mixed, and co-produced by Those Looks and accomplished Bucks County engineer and producer Brian Dale Allen Strouse, also known for his work as a solo artist and the frontman of the popular Philadelphia-based band, The Lawsuits. The sonically eclectic five-song EP follows Cults Near Me, the band’s well-received 2022 debut LP on Mint 400 Records. Cults Near Me caught the attention of legendary Philadelphia producer Brian McTear who invited the band to record their song “Laundry and Taxes,” which was released in 2023 via Weathervane Open Sessions, a follow-up to the long-running Shaking Through series.