The Simi Valley, California-based musician, Josh Herren, wrote, recorded, mixed, and mastered every single song on the album, helping to create a space-y atmosphere and taking us on an emotional journey with his soulful writing, with psychedelic washed-out melodies that we could relate to one or more of them. He managed to professionally produce fascinating original work that charms the ears, mind, heart, and soul.
The miraculous journey begins with “Free Fall” and its spacelike melodies, as you’re about to fly high. Just when you reach the higher point of space, he sings with his warm, sorrowful voice the sad lyrical facts about being alone while everyone around you is getting married and has someone by their side, and you’re living on the memories of your last relationship. With passionate vocals and pitching Alternative Rock vibes, in “I Guess It’s Time” we not only dive into space, but also into a hesitated mind that doesn’t know if it’s time to take a step and get out of the friendzone or do nothing. I really digged the lyrics in this one, Herren’s writing ability is amazing, as I found some lines are applicable to everything we need to take a leap in, not just relationships, such as “What could go wrong except everything?” “Live Without” differs from “I Guess It’s Time” in that there is a certainty this time that the love isn’t mutual, as evidenced by lyrics full of hopeless romantics and dreamy vibes in the melodies that give the feeling of floating in space, picturing your loved one’s face, remembering their voice, and knowing they will never be yours.
Sit tight as the journey is taking another course in the mind-blowing “Launch Sequence-Re Entry”, transports us into another magical destination in space where you can soothe your mind with seven minutes of psychedelic instrumental with a cinematic feeling to it that lets you forget about everything and just live in the moment. A flawless single with a different musical structure than the other tracks, “Another Day” delivers a gloomy feeling that hits you out of the blue with the idea that your whole life is wasted and going nowhere. When you question everything you’re doing and what the point of it is, or blame yourself for not doing anything at all. The lyrics couldn’t be more relatable as we all sat with ourselves due to the pandemic and had a lot of time to think and analyze everything. The slow-tempo music and passionate, sincere vocals perfectly personify every word.
With light hypnotic rhythms and the washed out melodies, fading, hazy, breathy vocals in “Sphallolalia”, they tell another story, this time about the need to move on from a relationship where it was casual for one and meaningful for the other. The feelings Herren puts into his honest lyrics and emotional vocals are just impressive, and “Sphallolalia” is another great example of that. Creating a new layer in space with the psychedelic, dreamy atmosphere and the rock vibes in the incredible guitar hooks, in “What Once Was And Still Could Be”, the heartfelt piece, sharing the sensations of a pitiful one, looking at his ended relationship and how their partner moved on so easily.
Sometimes we choose to let some feelings sink deep so that we don’t deal with them, but as we delay dealing with them, they grow strong and find their way to the surface. Galaxy Shores had their own one-of-a-kind way of scratching the layers of these feelings with their unique sound.
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Viola Karmy
