TVAM : Ruins
The subterranean sound of goth and post-punk has rarely wanted for inspiration when drawing almost exclusively from a palette of gray and black. Strictly speaking, gothic rock has never had a particular need for shades of orange, purple and blue, especially when new bands are still finding new ground to uncover along the spectrum of morose to horny. When TVAM’s Joseph Oxley dared allow such prismatic refractions to underscore the darkness on debut album Psychic Data in 2018, it made visible new possibilities in a sound defined by its shadows, yet he did so without abandoning those haunted overtones either, finding a curious harmony between vivid highs and grimy lows.
Ruins, TVAM’s third album and first full-length in four years, still showcases shades of the tangerine dreaming and melting synth mutations of the UK-based artist’s debut album, but rendered with greater clarity and immediacy. These songs are tighter, bigger, brighter—Oxley delivering his most dazzling set of post-punk anthems to date, albeit ones weighed down by the anchor of grief and the reflection that comes in its aftermath.
Suffice it to say, Ruins still lurks in the shadows, even when highlighted by Oxley’s brightest and most idiosyncratic tones. Yet he never seems content to be mired in it, often taking a playful tone in its curiously eerie moments, like how the warbly intro of “Comfort Collar” approximates shoegaze through a cassette player with a sticking belt. The warping, wow and flutter explodes into a booming synth-bolstered anthem on “The Gloom,” melancholy and romantic, infectious and somber. It’s a gloriously majestic gothic anthem, one not beholden to a muted palette.
Ruins is an album of rich textures and subtly enchanting layers, exploring different stylistic variations on a taut and melodic approach to post-punk while uncovering fascinating depths therein, whether via shimmering post-punk jangle on “The Words,” escalating from mid-tempo goth dance pulse to grand harmonies in “Real Life,” or offering the album’s most gloriously catchy slice of hook-driven new wave on “Powder Blue.” The reverb on Oxley’s vocals obscure the literal meaning at times, but even when simply turning the titles of “Real Life” or “Follow Me Home,” there’s a sense of anguish and yearning that’s inescapable, made more palpable through his intoxicating melodies and arrangements.
Even beyond the varied flavors of haunted beauty throughout the album, Oxley showcases a penchant for sequencing that favors a slow build toward a handful of mesmerizing climaxes toward the album’s end, first with “Love Like Glue,” a spiritual homage to Killing Joke that juxtaposes dreamy and weightless synthesizers against the heaviest rhythmic material here, and then with the album’s closer, “The Haunted,” a grand and stunning dirge that echoes The Cure’s most melancholically ornate moments. The neon glow that surrounds the material on Ruins is an alluring beacon, but there’s no mistaking the stunning shade of darkness that lies within.
Label: Invada
Year: 2026
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TVAM : Ruins
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