In Between

For their second album, San Francisco’s Young Prisms stay the course, nurturing their Creation Records–inspired tendencies into songs that are a bit more focused and sure of themselves, and quite a bit brighter. The hint of menace is gone, and the occasional grating squall found on 2011’s *Friends for Now* may be missed by some. But it takes confidence to successfully infuse a shoegaze guitar wash with New Order–style keyboards sighing in the background, all set to a vaguely ‘60s girl-group melody (“Four Hours (Away)”). And it\'s a neat trick to weave that same glassy synth soundbeam into the dark chasms of swirling, My Bloody Valentine guitar (“Dead Flowers”). The golden gossamer of \'90s-era 4AD Records is another interesting spin here. A Lush-like glow illuminates tunes like “Floating in Blue” and “To Touch You.” It’s a lovely balancing act—a delicate, crystalline aesthetic playing yin to the yang of a bottomless pit of shoegazery—and one worthy of admiration alone. But there\'s plenty to admire about *In Between* besides Young Prisms’ skill at genre-mashing. For one thing, they’ve given melancholy a good name.

No longer smothered in fuzz, the San Franciscan shoegazers' second album makes up for what its predecessor lacked in hooks and vocal distinction.

Young Prisms 'In Between' album review on Northern Transmissions.