RECOMMENDED RECORD: Womb: One is Always Heading Somewhere (digital outlets)

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this one. Not because it comes in a gatefold sleeve (it doesn't), not because it has a lyric sheet (no to that also) but because it comes with a download code, which Elsewhere thinks should always included with the vinyl opeion

If you pay out a wedge of money for a record like this (on transparent vinyl) your faith and loyalty should be rewarded with a download code. After all, you've already bought the album for three times as much buying a download.

Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . .

Despite these songs having been gathered over the years and in different locations, Womb have such a discreet signature sound it binds their more dream-pop material (the gentle drone of the acoustic-framed Take with Ben Woods) to almost tactile, personal pieces like the mysterious and desperate Sometimes.

As much a cohesive mood piece for quiet consideration as an album of strategically different songs, One is Always Heading Somewhere confirms that the journey they are on is one worth joining, and that “somewhere” is probably less important.

The sibling trio – singer/guitarist Charlotte “Cello” Forrester, Haz Forrester (guitars, synths), and drummer Georgette Brown – emerged out of Pōneke Wellington almost fully formed and have been consistent and productive.

This their third album since a self-titled debut EP a decade ago.

As an interpretive singer Forrester can deliver with a disarming fragility (Unto), conveys a gentle ennui and yearning (Slip and Angels) and manages to convey as much grounded imagery from the natural world as memories and dreams within an ethereal soundscape, evident on the leisurely way she draws out the lines on the hurting lyrics of Just Like Waves.

At times Womb evoke a pocket edition of Sigur Ros's cinematic scope, or the Cocteau Twins as filtered through a guitar-pop band like The Sundays, offering a warming balm of melodies and walking pace beats.

Their stately and unhurried dreamscape pop has a cloudy, effortless sense of melody which can be utterly beguiling.

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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here.