North Carolina’s Cor de Lux make something pretty out of pandemic anxiety on Media

Formed in 2018 in Kill Devil Hills, a town in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Cor de Lux put out their debut album, Dream Life, in September 2020, six months after COVID hit the United States. The band’s four members had become closer during the pandemic, relying on one another for support and finding a much-needed outlet for their frustrations and uncertainties in their mutual work. Their new record, Media, channels those emotions into a mix of postpunk, indie pop, and shoegaze. There are a few dark and gothy slivers: the foreboding moods of “Whose Side” portend growing divisions between people, while “Rumors” ruminates on closed-mindedness and a media industry that manipulates rather than informs. But much of Media sounds so pretty on the surface that it’s easy to overlook the anxieties at its core (it also makes me wonder if my anxieties would sound prettier if I lived in a more picturesque corner of the country, like maybe the Outer Banks). Even when you listen deeper, the record contains plenty of hope amid the melancholy. “Futures” sparkles with lush atmospheres, while “Syncopated” radiates propulsive energy—its guitar hooks could stick in your head for weeks, and they energize its lyrics about personal freedom in a world that expects us to keep our heads down. Through all the record’s twists and turns, Cor de Lux save the smoothest moment of catharsis for last, closing out Media with the cool, shimmery postpunk gem “Ships.”

Cor de Lux’s Media is available through Bandcamp.

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