The friends catch up about band admin work, living in the Singles building, subconscious lyricism, and I Wish I Was a Rat.

The band—Max Keyes, Lena Farr-Morrissey, Daniel Byington, Kyle McCollum, Jordan Mang—pull no punches on the track, as Farr-Morrissey’s vocal swirls in the eye of Mang and McCollum’s heavy, groaning riffs. Busting out of its slowcore margins and ascending into brightened hues of gazing, augmented distortion, “Window Room” hams up the emotional collateral of previous single “Sinner” and swells into a knotty thesis on patience, capitalism and cultural pleasure. “How long until we revel in something new?” Farr-Morrissey sings. “Too late, too soon.” The instruments crush inward, and the meaning turns euphoric.

It’s only natural that the Pacific Northwest would become one of the largest suppliers of shoegaze bands amidst the genre’s recent revival, given that so much of the alt-rock scene which brought these sounds to America was born in and around Seattle. The latest band to help carry that torch is Spiral XP, who’ll be following up their series of recent EPs with a debut album titled I Wish I Was a Rat this October. The first single, “Luna,” is an apt follow-up to those releases as it balances errantly wailing riffs with hushed verses and awe-struck lyrics.

“Free Thinking” is the second single from the upcoming record, a song that opens with classic shoegaze crunch reminiscent of the greats (Swirlies, My Bloody Valentine, Broken Water… take your pick). The feeling as though you’ve stepped outside yourself is immediate, as distortion blooms and bursts over a repetitive structure, easy to digest at surface level but fun to explore the further you dissociate. There’s a hypnotic quality to the song, ringing in cycles with guitars providing the hooks as vocals add textural presence and intrigue, the focus becomes the staccato roar of the band’s shoegaze soaked psychedelic pop.