Mimicking Birds soars on Layers Of Us LP

The Portland rock band Mimicking Birds is back with their newest LP, Layers Of Us, which The FADER is premiering in full today ahead of the official release date on January 26 via Glacial Pace Recordings. A stream of the record can be found below.

Layers Of Us is full of shimmering, cosmic rock that draws on themes ranging from tour life to climate change, but always framing the contemplation in an expansive, bird's eye view. As such, the music feels like topography: the guitars in "Another Time" can stretch into jagged peaks or roll into hills, and the glittering synths in "Lumens" settle into an intangible atmospheric layer.

My favorite selection from the project is the thunderously synth-y "Great Waves," which was apparently inspired by "The Really Big One," The New Yorker's well-written but extremely anxiety-inducing feature story about a monstrous earthquake-turned-tsunami that's destined to pretty much demolish most of the West and Pacific Northwest coast. There is a moment towards the end of the track that I interpret as the moment the great wave breaks, where ocean water comes rushing down and it becomes a race to get as far away as fast as you can. There is an exhilaration to it, something that probably won't characterize the event if it were to ever happen — but for this song, it works.