album by Wyldest
The Universe Is Loading seems to live in the space where people may no longer be part of your life, but they’re still tangled up in who you are.
Wyldest spends much of the album looking at relationships that have ended, changed or become distant, but still have some kind of hold. Sometimes they’re romantic. Sometimes they’re connected by family and blood. Sometimes they’re friendships that have diverged down different paths.
And I think the album tries to discover what happens when you’re ready to become someone different while realizing how much of you was shaped by everything that came before.
The music throughout The Universe Is Loading moves between singer-songwriter intimacy and indie pop without ever becoming overly dramatic. There’s dream pop, alternative rock, acoustic music and occasional fuzz, but everything feels remarkably restrained.
A lot of that comes from Zoë Mead’s vocals. She can begin low and conversational, drift upward into something almost ethereal or push a song toward a huge pop chorus, but it never feels like she’s singing simply to show what she can do. Her voice always seems to be serving whatever emotion the song needs at that moment. The same is true of the arrangements. Songs build and expand, but they rarely explode.
“Collide” is built on guitar and dreamy, hazy vocals with just enough distortion around the edges to evoke a surreal atmosphere. The way the vocals contrast with the guitar gives me the feeling of being awake in bed in the middle of the night, exhausted while your thoughts continue racing.
The drums and guitar in “After the Ending” initially remind me of some of The Cure’s brighter early pop songs before everything opens up around a fantastic bassline. It has the irresistible momentum of a hit song, even as it imagines something much stranger: a relationship may be over now, but perhaps when the world ends, they’ll somehow find each other again.
“All It Would Take Is a Phone Call” feels like it could be about an absent parent or family member—someone who is no longer part of your life even though some fundamental piece of you remains connected to them. Musically, it starts small but gradually sounds almost like a psychedelic Beatles song playing from an old music box that has begun to warp. The melody remains beautiful, but it warbles slightly, like it’s been damaged along with the relationship.
“Old Flame” uses images of time and decay as metaphors for what has happened to the relationship. Fading colors, flaking paint and changing seasons all reflect a love that seems to have faded even though the relationship itself hasn’t quite ended.
Musically, it reminds me of the cinematic way Aimee Mann constructs a song. It starts softly before reaching this full, beautifully sung chorus, then keeps adding layers of sound and a little fuzz. It builds almost like a house of cards, with each new piece carefully placed on top of what came before. “Old Flame” is a real gem.
“Foolish World” pushes further toward alternative rock, with a 90s guitar riff and vocal tracking that occasionally reminds me of Elliott Smith. Here, though, there’s more melody than melancholy. The song seems to reach the point where leaving something behind might finally be possible.
“Dolgoch” is an atmospheric shift for the album. It starts out almost like morning fog before gradually adding wordless vocals and layers of sound, allowing some brightness to creep through.
“The Whole World Cries” stays in that softer, dreamier atmosphere while introducing some imagery that begins to change the way I hear the album.
Flowers, rain and shared blood appear as the songs become increasingly interested not just in what we leave behind, but what might grow in its place.
“Tongue Tied” is a perfect song. There’s something slightly Siouxsie and the Banshees about it, but it moves between pop, indie and modern rock with this huge cinematic quality. It’s the kind of song where every element feels perfectly placed without ever sounding overly constructed.
There’s also a sense of a connection that cannot be severed. Shared blood. Skin. Being “tongue tied” begins to feel less like an inability to communicate and more like a visceral, uncomfortable way of being tethered to another person.
“Wax Museum” is one of the album’s prettiest songs, and it feels like the centerpiece of the album. Musically, it’s gorgeous pop that simply glides along, bright and effortless.
The wax metaphor is a brilliant way to illustrate how relationships can reshape us or melt us down. Or worse, hold us in place. You can change shape because of another person, but you can also become frozen in something that no longer allows you to grow.
“Enough For Me” strips away most of the album’s haze, fuzz and dreaminess. It gradually swells and retreats while capturing that moment when you know a relationship is temporary but don’t want the other person to speak that into existence.
“Foxglove Will Grow” closes the album with an almost old-Hollywood quality, stripped largely to what sounds like Spanish guitar and a more classic vocal style. It seems to look at a friendship where two people have taken different paths. There’s loss in that, but also love and an understanding that remaining important to someone doesn’t necessarily mean your relationship will always remain the same.
And I think that’s where The Universe Is Loading starts to become something different from the album I thought I was listening to at the beginning.
Maybe this isn’t really an album about looking backward at all the relationships that made you who you are. Maybe it’s about accepting that who you are doesn’t have to remain fixed.
People leave. Friendships change. Families become distant. Relationships end. All of them can remain tangled up in who you are without determining who you have to become.
That’s why all the rain and flower imagery starts to feel so important. A flower can emerge somewhere unexpected, even among weeds. You can pluck it because you want to preserve something beautiful, but doing so cuts short what it might have become. Rain can wash things away, but it can also nourish whatever comes next.
The Universe Is Loading seems to capture that beautiful transformation between who you were, who you are, and who you may yet become.
And it sounds really damn good while doing it.
Verdict: Great
Explore more from Wyldest
Leave a Reply