Album Review: Vows, ‘Soon Enough Love’

Along with significant life changes like moving into a new living situation, changing jobs, and taking a trip, nothing marks the change of seasons quite like coming across a new album. But the funny thing is that albums typically see release in different seasons than when they're created. So, for instance, an album that the artist associates with their own experience of making or finishing the music in winter might not surface publicly until summer, when it ends up accompanying the audience on camping outings and trips to the beach.

An exception to the rule, Vows' Soon Enough Love is being unveiled during the same season (summer) in which it was written. Core members Jeff Pupa and James Hencken point out via press release that the first two Vows full-lengths were made in winter. The pair (not to be confused with this electronic duo) acknowledge that the change has definitely had an impact on the music. Where 2012's appropriately-titled Winter's Grave saw Hencken and Pupa conjure a melancholic vibe that sounds drenched in cough syrup, this time around, Vows came up with what they describe as a "fuzzy summer jam."

As always, Hencken and Pupa recorded at their separate homes in New Jersey and Vermont, trading files and working at a leisurely pace with Pupa supplying vocals, bass and guitar while Hencken played drums and keyboards. (Longtime collaborator Sabeel Azam provided additional electric guitar.) Since they used essentially the same working method, Soon Enough Love still sounds very much like the bedroom/home recording that it is. But it comes across as way less insular and more open to the outside world. As such, it makes for a rather fitting soundtrack for getting out of the house – even if its chipper, unhurried psychedelia encourages you to do so at a lollygagging pace.