Listening to Skull’s Speculum EP is like listening to the audio that soundtracks your dreams. It’s synonymous to that hazy state between consciousness and blissful sleep, as the sound is not intrusively loud, but not so nondescript that it floats about aimlessly in the background.
Skull exercises this balance throughout the four song EP. During the intro track “Red Stairs,” Anastasia Platoff and Joel Fagerberg lead you through the corridors of their minds in a trance-like fashion until you reach the quaint, comforting chambers that are “The Order of Things” and “Watching // Taming.”
Platoff’s vocals are simplistically beautiful. They’re powerful but not demanding; dreamy but not too understated. They combine with the intricate picking, haunting reverb, and artful, reflective lyrics to create a painfully beautiful EP. The sound fabricated by Skull peels back the layers of your soul until only its raw core remains.
To conclude Speculum, Platoff sings you a final melancholy lullaby a.k.a The Cure’s “Disintegration.” The cover, like the rest of the EP, is stunning enough to evoke tears, but hopeful enough to lead you to a utopian lo-fi bedroom pop dream world.
