On Desire Path, Absolutely Yours offer consolation via mellifluous dream-pop

Last year, when Absolutely Yours released the sweetly compelling Mirror Maze, the whisper was that an even better album was not too far behind. Well, the rumours were correct. Desire Path takes everything that was great about Mirror Maze and moves it all up a notch. The title song is a mellifluous eddy of twinkling guitar with a nicely building tide of sound that hits a satisfying peak as it ends and leaves us with the loaded question, “How do I cut through the dark?” As a singer, Bridget Collins possesses the clarity and purpose to steer clear of over-emoting but still frames the emotions of the songs with heartbreaking effectiveness. The songs of Desire Path cut through in mostly subtle ways, tweaking your senses, dragging on memories buried by accident or design. But what helps set Absolutely Yours apart from empty genre copycats is the sense that their music is driven by real feeling, not by the desire to rebuild the sound of classic dream-pop or simply to pay tribute to someone’s favourite artist: this is emphatically not an AI simulation. For those wanting a shortcut to everything great that Desire Path has to offer, look no further than “Margaret” to start. A song of compass...