Wisp
If Not Winter
Release Date: Aug 1, 2025
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Shoegaze
Record label: Music Soup/Interscope Records
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Album Review: If Not Winter by Wisp
Very Good, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 7/10
Natalie Lu aka Wisp, transforms from mere viral social media sensation and turns in an album that luxuriates in its genre and sound. It's replete with turbulent and emotive drones, layers of fuzz and sticks firmly to the shoegaze sound you'd expect from previous releases. Tonally it can't help but nod to Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, Nothing, and Mazzy Star as it anchors itself within the swirling noise.
Opinion: Excellent
In one fell swoop Wisp went from being comparatively unknown, to being championed as leading the newgen shoegaze generation . Still in her teens - she's only 20-years-old now - the San Francisco songwriter has to grow up quickly. Viral breakout 'Your Face' and subsequent EP 'Pandora' was assured, but debut album 'If Not Winter' is surely her most evolved statement - in turns beauteous and bleak, it's fusion of airy light and crushing, metal-adjacent dark neatly summarises a potent creative force.
'If Not Winter'
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