Black Marble has always had a core of melodic brilliance, and each album has peeled away another layer of glum obfuscation. The earliest releases were cavernous and lo-fi, their harsh sound showing reverence to the coldwave revival of the 2010s that helped inspire Black Marble mastermind Chris Stewart to launch the project. Fifth studio album Life in Small Spaces still has smudges of the tape hiss and analog glow of the project’s roots, but there’s a new vibrancy which has been creeping slowly into the sound for years and seems to fully arrive with these songs.
Opening track “It Always Comes to Me” is almost shockingly unlike the Black Marble of the past, with snappy, live-sounding drums and bright, chorus-coated guitars front and center.