Holly Woodlove is the solo project of San Diego, USA-based multi-instrumentalist Alexander Dausch. The projects debut, The Most Beautiful Lie, is a vast and exciting album.

By Katie Stewart

With eighteen tracks to explore, spanning styles with skill and recorded with an Ampex 440B tape machine, it’s a feast for music-lovers, particularly those craving that old-school sound.

Clementine makes use of Dausch’s charming, vintage vocals, alongside groovy, honey-like guitar, and a laid-back, hazy drum heartbeat. It’s a track that seeps summery suaveness, with a quiet earnestness and a softer, more vulnerable core.

Into Your Eyes is a jam of a song. Groovy, sweet, and with surgically tight, locked-in percussion. Edgier, frayed vocals fit into this popped-up lo-fi style like a key into a lock.

Keep the Lights On is similarly standout for its ice-cold swagger. Addictive, syncopated jabs of guitar are relentlessly satisfying throughout. The track exists in chapters, all of which protrude in their own right; it refuses predictability despite its hooky-ness.

The title track The Most Beautiful Lie encapsulates the dreaminess of the entire album. With stacked vocals, echoey tones, and radiating horns, there’s a weightlessness to it. A gravelly guitar solo in the final quarter continues this theme of ascension, accompanied by the beautifully layered instrumental backdrop. This track is a feast for the ears.

Dausch delivers a debut with unmistakable character. The Most Beautiful Lie is refreshingly distinct and sleek, whilst pulling on the richness and warmth of close-to-the-heart retro records.

It’s out now, and you can listen to it below.

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