Memory Tapes: Grace/Confusion

Grace/Confusion, the third album by Memory Tapes (Dayve Hawk), has that signature chillwave varnish, like a cassette tape fading on a dashboard. This 39-minute album is short yet sprawling, and not as dance floor–friendly, even though synths remain prominent. Hawk abandons traditional song structures for a pastiche of samples that are sometimes washed-out, and at other times, emotionally urgent. The standout track “Sheila” truly showcases Hawk’s falsetto, evoking pre-disco era Bee Gees. Elsewhere throughout the album his voice - bell-clear and harmonized - could just as easily be drifting from choir stalls. Vintage in feel, the most memorable parts of this blurry dream pop maze hint at old pop songs you’d love to find, if only you knew in which crate to start digging. (4 out of 5 stars)