In the case of Adult Romantix, this simultaneously highlights frontwoman Samira Winter’s Brazilian background and brings listeners into the band’s world. Winter uses language as a tool to intimately connect with their listeners without ever having met them. Not only that, but like most other things hidden underneath Adult Romantix’s surface, the language barrier pushes listeners to further engage with the music, fighting against passive listening.

It doesn’t take much to tell that this isn’t the band’s first album. As their fifth release in ten years, Adult Romantix progresses with the suave confidence that can only be earned, not imitated. Winter moves from childlike yearning to fully bloomed adoration and ends with heartbroken acceptance, taking the listener on a skillfully crafted journey well worth the 45-minute playtime.

(mxdwn)

MAGIC OF THE SALE zeigt vielmehr, dass viele ihrer Songs anschlussfähig für Americana und Indie-Rock sind. „Holy Water“ scheppert sogar richtig, hier klingt der Noise-Rock alles andere als kraftlos. „Anywhere“ hingegen weist eine müde und fragile Note auf.

Andere Stücke sind wiederum gelöster, manche erinnern an Bright Eyes, zumindest was die Instrumentierung angeht. Während Conor Oberst (auf dessen Label die Band 2023 schon eine Single veröffentlichte) früher lauthals jammerte, gehört zu den Markenzeichen von Teethe eher ein dezidiert leiser und demonstrativ zurückhaltender Gesang: Madeline Dowd und die drei Männer flüstern mehr, als dass sie singen. Ihre neuen Lieder deklinieren Schmerz, widmen sich aber auch dessen Linderung.

(musikexpress)

It’s a kaleidoscopic album, with each song almost a symphony in its own right; the music swirling through tempo changes and instruments cascading through the canopy of the rhythmic foliage, and the vocals drifting, seeping into the mind of the listener. It’s to the credit of both writer and producer that all these elements are controlled and the mash up of musical styles never becomes dissonant; it’s always perfectly together and cohesive. (…)

Bugland is an album that plays like the day in the life of chaotic, beautiful nature. It’s an all-enveloping music that swarms over you and embraces you in a cocoon of mesmerising swirling styles. Turn on, tune in, chill out with the bugs.

(Louder Than War)

White Gluz’s venture into trip-hop and drum machines on 2020’s Motherland is fully realized on Bugland. Serving as the lead single, the title track opens up with a sequence of punchy drums. Meanwhile, Bather in the Bloodcells employs a crisp and rewarding drum pattern throughout its duration. No Joy never gets stuck in the past; instead, White Gluz builds upon her past work, propelling the trip-hop influences forward. (…)

One thing is clear: No Joy’s effortless genre-hops are fantastic. Boundaries are meant to be broken, and Bugland is the product of their vision: bold, ethereal, and no less mesmerizing in its uncanniness.

(Northern Transmissions)

To be fair, drawing from styles as diverse as shoegaze, dream pop, psychedelia, experimental noise and lo-fi, the sound was always going to be kaleidoscopic; making sure it stays cohesive throughout the entire album is the real feat. And it does, despite a wide range of tempos from the mellow drift of ‘Fragrance Net’ to the fast-paced ‘Memory Cube’. At times, the guitars jangle like Johnny Marr’s (‘Violets & Honey’) then screech like those of fellow Californian band Whirr on their Distressor EP (‘Like a Tulip’). The vocals are soft and airy by default, but sometimes, like on ‘Simplesyrup’, they shift to barely discernible, or are entirely absent (‘Nursery Loop’).

(…) And yet, in spite of being just as eclectic as the band’s previous output, Desperate Flower is a more harmonious collage, pulling their influences together into what feels like a vision. One that will not drift.

(Joyzine)