Strangers In My House: Album Review

When it comes to the kind of music I listen to, I wouldn’t necessarily consider myself someone who seeks out unknown bands or looks to uncover the next big thing before they get big. I don’t have the motivation to go sifting through dozens of artists, listening for something that piques my interest. Luckily, I didn’t have to do any of that to find Strangers In My House. I saw someone suggest the band and on a whim, gave them a listen. Immediately, I was blown away.

For background, Strangers In My House describe themselves as a “dreamy shoegaze band from Kraków, Poland” that formed in 2019. When I first listened to them, I admittedly had no idea what shoegaze was. However, I enjoyed their music so much that it made me want to look into the genre more and I found plenty of great songs that way.

Briefly, shoegaze is music that is “characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volume.” I’ve mentioned before how much I love the “wall of sound” effect in music and shoegaze takes that to a completely new level. I might end up making a separate post just about shoegaze as a genre, but I’ll end this tangent here and get back to the point.

Currently, Strangers In My House has released one album, a self-titled debut EP from August of 2020, which claims to “take their listeners on a both dreamlike and psychedelic music journey.” “Journey” can be an overused term when describing an album, but I think it’s quite fitting in this case.

The album begins with “Rays Of Sun,” a song with calming verses, a soaring chorus, and plenty of beautiful guitar parts spread throughout it. I think it's my favorite from the album. It has this relaxing quality to it that makes it my go-to song when I am stressed out. “The Other Home” comes next and is also my second favorite song off of the EP. This one is more upbeat and perfectly displays lead singer Magdalena Radecka’s vocal abilities. The best way I can think of to describe it is that she doesn’t allow herself to be lost within the instrumental, but instead, she rests lightly on the surface of it, adding an additional dimension to the band’s music.

The album kicks off with this extremely effective one-two punch. From there, “Circles” builds on the atmosphere introduced by “Rays Of Sun,” while the instrumental “Introspections” seems to provide a transition, dragging us into “Stalker” and “Satin,” which cause the album to take an eerier turn. Finally, “Storm” provides a dizzying, chaotic ending to it all.

The album has noticeable shifts throughout it. It begins lightly, almost cheerily. It then becomes a bit darker, ending on the aptly named “Storm” to complete the experience.

Like I mentioned before, I don't often seek out or find "under the radar" bands, but I'm really glad I found Strangers In My House (there are plenty of wordplays I could do with the name, but I'll just leave it at this one). I couldn't recommend them highly enough, especially to fans of shoegaze or dream pop.

According to their Facebook page, they will be releasing a new album sometime in the upcoming months and needless to say, I’m very much looking forward to listening to it.