WDL #051 Miserable Chillers – Chateau Gallego

‘I was an aphasia of limbs locked in failed gestures’ – Miguel Gallego

Less than a year after his solo debut project from Miserable Chillers, Miguel Gallego is back with a second set of soap operatic wonky geek rock. Power pop choruses about relationary strife abound with verby superchunk chords. CCD comes across as Pavement covered by Pond with the ping pong guitar of early Flaming Lips. But none of the stadium feel of the afore mentioned. This is ‘dude in the bedroom’ lamentation, perhaps a room within ‘Chateau Gallego’, the family home he threw parties in while his parents were gone away. Just as the album title hints, this is about reflection. Looking back on how things once were and how to process and heal from what has changed. CCD takes stock of the now, and looks forward into the ‘distant stars’. ‘They will be the death of you.’ Is it the staring into the future that stops you from finding happiness in what you have? This track is super de duper catchy too.

words:::
“somewhere, drowning in a swimming pool that stretched clear across the great eurasian steppes, and yet you are discovered. you are the same. elsewhere, i’m trying hard to pay my private debts of stupid wagers cons and debts, and yet i will recover i am the same. it’s something you believe in too. it pricks your skin, it burns right through. there was a time all lovers knew. distant stars will be the death of you. i swear it’s true: distant stars will be the death of you. nowhere, unraveled by the most distinguished crimes furnished by the great american dime, and yet we can’t take cover. we are to blame. it’s something you believe in too. it pricks your skin, it burns right through. there was a time all lovers knew. distant stars will be the death of you. i swear it’s true: distant stars will be the death of you.”

In Miguel’s words this album is about searching for the possibility of healing. Looking at the world for love when you find how delicate it is. Understanding the essence of love, not what is written on a Subaru ad or propagated as a means to solve all problems. Heavy. And the songs travel a path of discovery, stumbling into a chorus of ‘oohs’ with staggering guitar hook. Taking off like a still born Neutral Milk Hotel track with a Bends-era Radiohead reactionary chorus, ‘Bull Dozer’ crushes. (See what I did there?)

Mastered by Dan Thorn, written and performed by Miguel Gallego and produced by Jib Rider, and proudly harbored by What Doth Life, Chateau Gallego is free to download at: https://miserablechillers.bandcamp.com/album/ch-teau-gallego