“We Are Forever” is a record that was largely written in the weeks following last year’s US elections as Cate was processing her feelings as a disabled, mixed-race, queer woman. The record explores the timelessness of marginalized experiences—despite being erased from most histories—the pain of abuse and rejection, and the hope that can be found in community. While rooted in the Shoegaze scene, the album incorporates an eclectic blend of influences—including doom, goth, and grunge inspirations—and instrumentation that includes electronic textures, string sections, and piano.
“We Are Forever” is an album that I’ve returned to several times since it came out last October. In many ways, it is an amalgam of musical styles that I enjoy; on the surface, the listener is hit with the emotional density and vulnerability of Shoegaze, with the drive and energy that Punk- and Gothic Rock can provide.
Something that surprised and intrigued me on my first listen, however, are small moments – a lead piece on the guitar here, a chosen bass tone there – that hint at significantly heavier styles. This approach, that hides the heaviness under the dreamy surface, works incidentally beautifully with the themes of the album.
The lyrics are full of fear and, as the text of the description tells us, pain and rejection. Just listening to the music, the audience would probably not get this; the vocals are too light, the atmosphere too relaxed and dreamy. However, combined with these lighter touches, the vocals and the heavier choices in the instrumentation tell a much more complete picture and everything falls into place.
It’s this exceptional storytelling that makes this album as a whole so enjoyable to me; it almost feels like a snapshot of life with all of it’s contradictions and complexities.This is definitively an album that I would recommend to everyone interested in Rock and adjacent genres. It sounds great, the emotion comes through loud and clear for those willing to really listen, and the songs have a calm but driving energy that’s simply infectious. And despite all the darkness, it even ends on a brighter, more hopeful note.
And luckily Kallai achieves this with ease. The first two tracks alone already offer two completely different vibes from a more upbeat opener to a slightly more morose jangly follow up. It kinda feels like the aural equivalent of laying at the ocean’s shore letting the waves softly push and pull along your body and hair. It ebbs and it flows, it moves, it pulsates, it feels alive.
And this sets the tone for the rest of the album to come, not necessarily in its sound but rather its breadth of sounds. It continues to shift between gloomy, upbeat, melancholic to poppy all the while still sharing an aural uniformity that makes an album an album.
And most importantly, they all feel like proper songs that each have their own vibe and sound rather than just some basic chords drenched in tons of reverb. Which is sadly an all too familiar trapping for the genre. But luckily, it’s a trap that Kallai deftly manages to avoid.
Always give something a second listen if you are not sure, mood is an important factor for me. Because, you will almost likely miss out on something that the next listen opens up and reveals itself to you.
“We Are Forever” is such a throwback for me to a time before Indie acquired that label. Dense, soupy, smoky, cloying, beautifully shoegaze with an emphasis on soundscaping and layering. Solid, busy bassines and danceable drum beats surrounded by ever shifting heavily processed guitar lines. It washes over you and the ethereal vocals sit in the mix just audible enough but not forward enough to distract, they are part of the fabric of the music and it works. It works really well. It feels at one, each track developing into the next. A melody, a hook always at the fingertips, usually in the guitar, a trick that allows the vocals to relax and become almost ghostlike.
That repeat listen was so worth it.
*Start from track one. I think it is important to get this album as a whole. For me that is.
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