If the title were any indication, Choux’s new EP took me places. Choux (US-CAN) is an indie dream pop duo led by lead vocalist Lizzie Carolan based in Montreal, and multi-instrumentalist Jordan Gatesmith based in Minneapolis, who just released their EP Super Moon on November 20. The EP had been an idea for years now, and Lizzie and Jordan were given the push they needed to finish it up over lockdown. The entire project was done from a distance, with Lizzie in Montreal and Jordan in Minneapolis, in true pandemic fashion.

For many songs, especially “Super Moon,” “Red,” and Fallen,” I felt like I was walking through a credit scene of The Breakfast Club, but a little more witchy; all of the effortlessness and unstoppable cool, with none of the awkward, gangly teen moments. These tracks help create a moment of escape to another time and space, a brief experience of movement that I have been yearning for since I’ve been stuck at home on lockdown.

The angst of a coming-of-age movie definitely comes out to play in tracks “Thirteen” and “On a Sunday,” which offer more of an indie-rock vibe. “Thirteen” really feels like howling at the moon and a total release of emotion, while “On a Sunday” elicits feelings of young love and yearning.

Final track “Underwater Dreams,” which truly feels like floating on water, beautifully concludes the project and brought me out of the movie in my mind, and back down to Earth, enveloping me in a sea of calm.

Lizzie’s lyrics are influenced by Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a true ode to the late 80s/early 90s, which brings the sound together and accounts for the consistency in the vibe of the whole EP. Lizzie’s vocals were eerie and operatic, telling a story and setting the tone, even while the lyrics were delivered in classic shoegaze fashion and sometimes a little more difficult to discern. The energy of each song was clearly communicated through the musicality of the instruments and vocals, as well as the masterful production, executed by Ian Nygaard (Howler) and Phillip Shaw Bova, an award winning engineer behind recent albums by Bahamas, Andy Shauf, Land of Talk and Devendra Banhart.

Overall, this EP is a beautiful blend of elements: instrumental and vocal, airy and grounded, water and earth, planetary and human. By track titles alone, it is clear that there is powerful intention driving the project. This mystic intention definitely hits the mark, and offers us a project perfect for daydreaming and for manifesting.

Choux

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Simone is a Montreal-based dancer, educator, and writer.

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