With 2024 already proving to be a momentous year for the revivals of grunge and shoegaze—and the VHS and Y2K aesthetics that fuel them—Brooklyn-based trio Nara’s Room will be adding to the noise this fall with the release of their new LP Glassy star. Leaning into the same realm of tough-as-nails shoegaze explored by peers like MX Lonely or the less-emo factions of the New Morality Zine roster, lead singles “Holden” and the more experimental “Waiting for the z” blaze a fascinating trail for the seven tracks that will follow.
“Inspired by elements of trip hop, ‘Holden’ is a diasporic meditation on belonging, alienation, and isolation,” shares the group’s frontperson and namesake Nara Avakian of the more upbeat yet equally zoned-out first track. “How can we dream in a world we’re persistently being pushed out of?” Regarding the sub-two-minute “z,” Avakian doubles down on the theme of alienation: “Scrawled on a receipt years before the realization of ‘Holden’ during a slow shift behind the counter of a comic shop, ‘Waiting for the z’ ruminates on an alternative for diasporic tensions of alienation. Waiting for the elusive Z train to arrive and take us elsewhere, we wonder if the angels will really help you.”
Both tracks come paired with VHS-quality music videos created by Avakian—the former they cryptically note “seems to occur in an alternate temporal space, trapped in the memory of a TV,” while the latter takes plenty of inspiration from Eraserhead’s Lady in the Radiator scene. Check out both clips below, and pre-order the record here.
