Aeon Station
Observatory
Release Date: Dec 10, 2021
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Rock
Record label: Sub Pop
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Album Review: Observatory by Aeon Station
Great, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 7.6/10
The Wrens' final album now exists only as a broken promise. For years, the New Jersey band pledged a follow-up to their 2003 masterpiece The Meadowlands, periodically even claiming the record was all but complete, only to blow through whatever deadline they'd set for it. The holdup, by most accounts, was the band's de facto leader Charles Bissell, a notorious perfectionist who always found more work to be done on songs he may never be satisfied with.
Opinion: Fantastic
As backstories go, the one behind Aeon Station is a messy one. You can add 'frustrating' and perhaps even 'tragic' to that list too, with Kevin Whelan's new project having emerged from the fragmenting of a friendship spanning three decades, not to mention the slow demise of beloved New Jersey band The Wrens. Nonetheless, it's also a story that culminates in 'Observatory', already referred to as 'the greatest indie rock record of 2021' - and with good cause.
'Observatory'
is available now