Parannoul - To See the Next Part of the Dream

To See the Next Part of the Dream has been considered a full realization of the hypothetical "what if Fishmans made an Emo-adjacent Shoegaze record that commented on the millieu of everyday life in South Korea with the frontman being a hikkimori type character" (Quote by Disciple_of_WTF). Released February 23, 2021, it’s currently the highest rated underground album on RYM by a prominent RYM user.

For starters, the album’s artwork is perfectly encapsulating of its contents. This is some of the most pleasant shoegaze out there. It’s light, fluffy, yet wholly encapsulating and impressively deep. The fuzz can’t carry all songs, though. Outside the cathartic wall of noise, emotional screaming and reversed layers of tape decks, White Ceiling is a boring pop song poorly extended to 10 minutes. The same could be said for Age of Fluctuation. It often seems like the longer songs are extended for the sake of being long. The only noteworthy songs are the heavenly opener, Excuse and Youth Rebellion, the latter thanks to their excellent drum sections. The rest is dull, and most likely only praised due to its aesthetics.

One has to give props to To See the Next Part of the Dream. As an underground album made in collaboration over the internet, it’s quite adeptly made. Its biggest problem is it’s samey throughout - a problem for such a long album. Furthermore, while it’s sometimes enjoyable, it’s lacking substance. I could easily see the album being inserted into a shoegaze flowchart in future; one in the happy section. If you’re a huge fan of shoegaze, it’s most certainly worth getting into. But it’s 2021, and the genre needs to die already; it’s been explored to death.

Average

Listen to it here:

https://parannoul.bandcamp.com/album/to-see-the-next-part-of-the-dream

Parannoul - To See the Next Part of the Dream