Windmill was one of the artists that helped me during period of my life of developing open-mindedness and musical discovery, to hear and appreciate the poppier, more minimal and simply happy side of music. Though despite having listened to his previous album Puddle City Racing Lights for some couple years, it wasn't until around halfway through this year that I took the time to hear his latest offering, Epcot Starfields.
This album is quite a leap from his previous, but still manages to sound like more of the same... which if you're like me, is more of the same that you love. It seems more mature, described as combining "star-gazing and shoe-gazing", a clear lyrical focus on stars, planets, space, science and philosophy in general, and the music sounds more minimal, atmospheric and reserved. At the end of the day though, it's still the quirky piano-driven pop that Mathew Thomas Dillon (the pivotal member of the project) showed us he excelled at with Puddle City.
Epcot feels a lot shorter as an album, being 4 songs and 13 minutes shorter than its predecessor, and also feels less varied, but I put it down simply to Thomas managing to refine the sound of Windmill. Previous material was irregular and almost erratic, but this album comes across as a cohesive whole, each song playing an important role in the story and theme of the album.
Epcot StarfieldsReleased: 2009
Country: UK
Genre: Indie/Dream Pop
"Big Boom" music video
"Airsuit"
