Emily Gold

In May, Yay! LA-approved dream pop singer Emily Gold had a five-week residency at Hollywood hotspot Harvard & Stone. We even presented one of the evenings. As a special surprise on the night of Yay! LA‘s lineup, Gold resumed the stage after her set with Angelica Tavella of TV Heads and Rachel Fannan of The Bomb and much of this website.
The fiery, femme-powered anthem they debuted was called “Teeth,” which was later shot live at Bedrock and recorded at The Barbershop studio in Echo Park. You can watch the footage of the trio below, but Gold would prefer it if you viewed it as an “almost-live” session

She writes:
“I had so much fun playing this at the residency with the girls I figured, ‘Why not lay it down real fast and make a fun video?’ It is a departure from the dreamy, textural stuff I was doing on my last album and delving into some more straight-ahead rock and roll.” - Yay! LA Magazine

10CC, I’m Not In love (Emily Gold cover)
I love hearing artists cover tracks in unique and totally new ways. Emily Gold’s slinky, indie/electro cover of the 10CC classic is not only stunning, but refreshingly original, featuring it’s own instrumental progressions and a beautifully delicate melody. I LOVE this cover. - How and Echoes

In a city where the nights can seem to stretch on forever, and the lights of the various downtowns, main streets, and ports twinkle as brilliantly and wondrously as those we see in the skies overhead, it’s no surprise that this atmosphere might help inspire such a gorgeously lush piece of dream pop as Emily Gold’s new record, Recluse. Few artists are able to truly take listeners on journey’s with their music, but if one closes their eyes and allows it, Recluse will take listeners through rich, swirling, vibrant worlds, rife with catchy pop melody and expansive with bright psychedelic character.

With Recluse, Gold and her band dive deep into some of the most enveloping and textural indie rock one might hope to hear. Gold’s vocals ring out crisply and cleanly into the air, and seem to dance over the top of her band’s dynamic soundscapes like autumn leaves on the breeze. All the meanwhile the guitars, synths, bass, and drums work together to create layers of sound which both fill the space with heavy, full melodies while still leaving room for everything to breathe and be distinct.
Maybe even more stunning than just the overall sound captured on the album, is how intimate and revealing an experience listening to Recluse can be. Right from the start, one gets the feeling that Emily Gold is putting everything she has out there for all to see. Much of the album has a tenderness to it that, at times, makes the worlds that she weaves with her music seem almost as delicate as cut glass. However, this fragile beauty is very much balanced by the passion and intensity that you can hear burning behind her voice which gives these songs their true power and depth.


With Recluse, Emily Gold absolutely hits every bit of her mark, and manages to avoid many of the pitfalls which can plague first albums. Her sound is awesomely full and mature, and her songs, and the playing on them, are impressively tight. The album is so good, that one immediately wonders, what comes next from this? Where does Emily Gold go from here? However, with such a successful outing such as this, the answer to that question should be an easy, “Wherever she wants.” - Yay! LA Magazine

Emily Gold is a Los Angeles based musician who is breaking away from her “dreampop” roots. You can catch her every Tuesday this month at Harvard & Stone where she’ll be performing new material that she describes as LOUD and written for the live experience. Get to know Emily through our interview and guest mix, and don’t miss tomorrow’s show with Bloody Death Skull and Betty Petty!

Can you provide us with some background about yourself and your experience with music? Where did you grow up, what inspired you to start creating music?

I’ve lived in LA most my life, besides a brief 7 year stint in Connecticut from 7-14 and my college days at UC Santa Cruz. I come from a musical family so perhaps that was nurtured in me on a subconscious level, however I was never taught music or pushed to explore it by my dad or grandparents. I just knew from an early age that’s what I wanted to do. In my 5th grade yearbook where you write what you want to be when you are older, mine said “Singer.” I was always drawn towards the arts and performing, I danced and did theatre and choir in school, but it wasn’t until I was 20 that I first picked up a guitar and started writing songs. Music always elicited a strong emotional response for me and I have pretty intense synesthetic experiences with it so as I began to go to shows and festivals I developed a deep painful yearning to create it myself. It’s one of those “it chose me” situations where I had to begin creating music otherwise I probably would have killed myself by now.

You have some awesome song choices in your playlist! There is a strong female presence: X-Ray Spex, Patti Smith, PJ Harvey, Mazzy Star. Were these women a big influence to you as a developing musician? If you could have any one of these bands play at your residency which would you chose and why?

My first two major influences when I began writing music were Jenny Lewis and Stevie Nicks. Jenny’s songs are very simple to play so they are great learning songs, usually just 3 or 4 basic chords so I learned maybe 2 songs of hers and then just wrote my own melodies on top of similar progressions. I’ve since moved away from the singer/songwriter world and also away from my classic rock roots and am now really inspired by punk and power pop ladies. If I could have any of these women play my residency I would probably choose..ooof…that’s a tough one, either Patti Smith or PJ Harvey cause they are legends but also I would probably not be able to perform cause I would have a heart attack if that happened. (Wow, all my answers end in death…I swear I’m a really optimistic person haha!)

Congrats on your residency! What night are you looking forward to the most?

I am honestly stoked for every single night, I handpicked the line up so there is not a single band I don’t thoroughly enjoy. However I have to shout out my friends’ bands TV Heads and The Bomb who are playing the last 2 nights. They are absolutely electric to watch. I also have a little secret in store for the last night on May 31st so I am very excited for that particular night!

What do you hope the audience takes away from your performances?

I want them to rock out and have fun, simple as that. I was more conceptual and emotional in the songs from my album Recluse, but now I am focusing on writing specifically for the live experience and I just want to get loud! I think my old songs are a bit selfish when performed live, they don’t allow for the connection between audience and performer in the same way the new stuff does.

Lastly, what’s your favorite type of pie?

Coconut creme or lemon meringue…get in my belly!!! - Lo- Pie

Emily Gold is an up-and-coming artist from Los Angeles, making a splash in the local scene. We got a chance to talk with her about her new album, Recluse, what it means to be an Angeleno, and more! Read the interview below, and be sure to catch Emily Gold‘s May residency at Harvard & Stone! The shows will be every Tuesday at the iconic Hollywood venue; supporting acts are TBA.

Thrillcall: Your album Recluse feels remarkably cohesive, especially the instrumentation. What influences were you channeling when writing this record?

Emily Gold: Thank you! Man, it was all over the place. I don’t think we ever explicitly tried to rip someone’s sound, it came from a pretty pure place of creation, but naturally we have our favorites. For example, harmonically I often think about Thom Yorke and guitar-tone wise I think Dave, my producer, likes to keep Kevin Shields in mind.

T: You have just released a video for your single “Love Moves,” which features interpretive dancer, Meghan Sanett. Why did you choose to do this treatment for the video?

EG: The song, while deeply personal, is actually sung from an emotionally detached place. It’s almost matter-of-fact. With Meghan, we were able to have her act out the emotional character whilst the band and I narrated.

T: I appreciate the lyrics in “Love Moves” as well: you seem to suggest that love operates by the first law of thermodynamics, where love can change form but it never disappears. What inspired you to write this song?

EG: THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS SUGGESTING! Good Job! This song was about my first serious relationship but from a place of distance because I didn’t actually write it until a couple years later, and this was my realization after the dust had settled. I like it because I think it is a realization a lot of us come to in our mid-20s, that love is not black and white, there aren’t any objective rules.

T: I loved your spread in Yay LA, featuring those beautiful art house photos of you and your guitar. Will there be a visual element incorporated into your live shows as well?

EG: Sarah Abramson is a wonderful photographer! I definitely keep the visual aspect of performances in mind, after all it is just that, a performance. I do what I can do within my financial abilities. I have big, huge ideas in mind for the future when I can hopefully have some money behind me to go into live production but for know those are just dreams…and secret! I like to dress up a bit and where I can I like to have projected visuals on the band.

T: In what I have read, you seem to be very connected to LA. How does the city influence your music? Specifically, how did it affect Recluse?

EG: I grew up in LA and because of the personal nature of my songs and my anthropologic tendencies, I think my music reflect this city’s culture. The disappointment of flakiness, the tacky mysticism that can be really fun like claiming you’ve seen a UFO and seeing psychics (which I have), the frustration of traffic and heartbreak, and the chronic hope that this city doesn’t often get credit for. The album was actually named Recluse out of a feeling of alienation in this city, by people I thought were friends and mainly through my own insecurities. The title track is an anti-love song for LA. But I think the album resolves itself and becomes more of a coming-of-age type thing rather than a cynical bummer of an album. It turns out the themes I touched on with Recluse are feelings that many of my international contemporaries felt as well, so rather than it being city-specific, I now understand it was about youth. Now I’m a couple years older and turns out I fucking love Los Angeles. - Thrill Call

Emily Gold‘s new LP Recluse finds its shimmery, shoegaze overtones amidst the pits of heartbreak, the heaviness of becoming a recluse in a new place, and in her own words, “the subtleties of human interaction.”

The album in its entirety will take you afloat into a hazy, spaced out universe where you’ll find tranquility amongst the nebulas. Gold’s vocals effortlessly and dreamily ascend on their own, and alongside fervid, wailing guitars–there’s something bewitching about the way she seamlessly layers her sweetly luminous voice over transitions to raging, lo-fi heated choruses from the calm of her slow-building verses.

The title track “Recluse” shimmers with Gold’s soaring vocals over the humming blare of guitars. Its confrontational in that she’s making direct, loathesome statements after reflecting on experiences that might have repeated themselves as she closes out with “I left your party because I don’t care to climb/And make out with some liar under some street sign/I won’t fold.” We get the sense she’s tired of other people’s bullshit and retreating to a “state” of recluse allowed her to find greater ambition and confidence, as a musician and individual.

Gold shows off her cavalier side in her fuzzy standout track “Cyanide Lollipop.” With an unignorable blaze of contempt, reminisicent of a Sylvia Plath poem, she howls “Cyanide lollipop, I’ll make your lips numb/Sugar in your teeth, boy/I’ll make you taste blood,” followed by a gradual build-up to psyched-out garage rock riffs. “Love Moves” is a sweet, anti-love song. She sings with self-assured urgency and carries her falsetto skyward to soften the blow of the hard-to-hear truth of “I loved you, I swear I did/But it went away/There was nothing I could do/Sometimes love moves.”

Emily explains where she draws inspiration for songwriting, the artists that have influenced her and why LA is the place to be for music right now in the Q&A below:

Your album seems self-reflective and overall very personal. What thoughts/feelings do you want your listeners to take away from your album?

It is indeed a very personal album, I really struggle to write in any other way and it can be awkward when I have blatantly written a song about someone close to me. When I write I hope to capture the in between of emotions, or the subtleties of human interaction and relationships. I live so much in my head, hence the album’s title, and writing can kind of be a way to corroborate the facts of what’s happening between myself and the outside world and the swirling experience of that inside my mind. It’s like a diary. Ultimately I hope to be as vulnerable to people as possible, it excites me to be naked like that, kind of like an emotional streaker or something haha.

You mentioned that you’re releasing a cassette with Wiener Records soon. How did that come about?

Danny from Wiener emailed me a little while back, I hadn’t heard of Wiener but I absolutely love Burger Records so I’m excited to have some cassettes to sell at shows that is in anyway associated with Burger, they are rad.

What are your favorite places in Los Angeles, either to hang out or the ones that inspire you?

As far as inspiration goes, I draw my material from human interaction and I guess most of my social life is in east LA. Being an LA native, I used to get the urge to flee, explore new terrain or whatever but lately I’ve been kind of overwhelmed with whats happening in music and art on the east side. There’s an excitement and momentum happening that can’t be denied. If you walk down Sunset on any given night in Echo Park there is music coming out from every which direction. Bands and artists are supporting each other in a way I’ve never seen before. Downtown LA is another favorite of mine. It feels like a real city.

Name some of the artists that have influenced your sound as musician and songwriter.

Nirvana, My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, Spiritualized, Jenny Lewis (my queen). Most of these though are a retrospective influence though. Like I don’t actively try to make anything that sounds like anyone, but just like you shit what you eat, your music tends to sound like what you listen to.

What are your dream venues? As in, where do you hope to someday play shows?

My “dream” live experience is basically any large outdoor like festival type venue. I want to grow wings and fly over a large crowd at sunset. The Ace Hotel seems rad too, though. - The Bait Shop

Emily Gold says the pop confessionals on her forthcoming debut album “Recluse” aren’t just love, lust or heartbreak songs but about “the in-between,” and that often-agonizing fluidity of emotions plays out in her new single “Love Moves.” Amid lush instrumentation and finger-snaps, and punctuated by a tasty guitar solo from David Burris, the British-born, California-bred singer-songwriter plays the sad, steely-eyed realist, lamenting that “love just made us weaker and weaker.” The single is the follow-up to last fall’s bitter pill “Cyanide Lollipop,” which found the third-generation songstress — she’s the daughter of songwriter Andrew Gold (“Thank You for Being a Friend,” “Lonely Boy”) and the granddaughter of Academy Award-winning composer Ernest Gold and singer Marni Nixon, the movie voice of Natalie Wood, Deborah Kerr and Audrey Hepburn — emerging from her own shell as a session player. She admits to being a recluse during the making of “Recluse,” which is “inspired by feelings of disillusionment with life and love in Los Angeles and feeling alienated by the various scenes. I can be a bit of a loner, mostly by my own kind of self-deprecating, overly-active thought process.” The first release since Gold’s “Wrap You in Dreams” EP in 2013, “Recluse” (out July 21) was co-produced by Burris, with contributions from drummer Sean Draper, bassist Itai Shapira (Rhye) and keyboardist Adam Berg (the Decoders). - Buzzbands.LA

Emily Gold returns by releasing a music video for her dream-pop/grunge-fuzz single “Cyanide Lollipop” off her forthcoming debut LP Recluse. Shot and edited by her drummer, Sean Draper, the apt video features a hedonistic, polygamous, bohemian “Lollipop Cult” which Gold and her band successfully infiltrate and poison. - Free Bike Valet

Emily Gold debuted in 2013 with her “Wrap You In Dreams” EP, which was dedicated to her late father, the songwriter Andrew Gold. She returns with a full-length later this year, titled “Recluse,” and the first single “Cyanide Lollipop,” made with songwriter/producer David Burris, demonstrates that she’s digging deeper beyond the velvety ballads on her debut. Gold’s honeyed vocals take on a new bite as she tells a boy “I’ll make your limbs numb” and “I’ll make you taste blood.” It’s sweet vs. raw, after all, like you’d imagine a “Cyanide Lollipop.” - See more at: http://www.buzzbands.la/2015/01/06/stream-emily-gold-cyanide-lollipop/#sthash.8FpaFfHT.dpuf - Buzzbands.LA

Emily Gold‘s sound is split between dream-pop haze and grunge rock fuzz as an unapologetic salute to the ’90s. Early next year she will follow-up her debut EP, Wrap You Up In Dreams, with a full-length, Recluse, which was co-written by producer David Burris who originally met Gold while classmates in high school. Here’s the album’s first leaked single “Cyanide Lollipop”: - Free Bike Valet

Emily Gold‘s “Running Back To You” explores a well-worn theme for romantic singer-songwriters, but that shouldn’t deter a listener from enjoying the arching folk melodies she writes to accompany her dulcet vocals. Her talents also prove that the apple doesn’t fall from the tree. Gold comes from impressive lineage including: her late father Andrew Gold (who wrote the pop hit that would later become the famous “Golden Girls” theme song), her grandmother Marnie Nixon (who was coined as the voice of Hollywood for providing the singing voice for Natalie Wood in “West Side Story,” Aubrey Hepburn in “My Fair Lady” and more) and her grandfather Ernest Gold (who won several awards for his composition for film). It won’t take long for Gold to also make a name for herself. With songs like the lilting title track of her debut EP and the pensive “In the Air,” “Wrap You Up In Dreams” is a wonderfully nostalgic listen. - BuzzBands LA

Emily Gold fronts a quartet and leads her troops into battle like an experienced general who isn’t afraid of what lurks beyond the frontlines. She has a commanding presence; an aura to her voice and image that make her memorable from the very first song of her new disc Recluse. This is music for travelers, adventures willing to make that rocky climb to the Holy Grail of audio riches. While an overshadowing arc plays out through the songs, each cut is different and brings varying components to its alchemical table for a mercurial sound that leaves you guessing as to what’s lurking around the bend.
There isn’t a set path for the album and feels almost disjointed at times, but the more you listen, the more everything starts coming together and delivering those “Aha” moments that good music is so capable of. The auspicious opener “Drowning” is so quiet and hushed that it barely registers as actual music; just sit back and enjoy Gold’s Earthy vocals as they float above minimally notated guitar licks, a repetitive bass n’ drum trot and towers of obtuse texturing. The title track toys with a traditional rock format as it features riffs, verses and choruses that see Emily bend her voice to the point of nearly cracking it. It’s not heavy metal for God’s sake, but it’s a ballsy little rocker with some stark indie auteur work making it tick and entice. “Cyanide Lollipop” is also on the rock tip with guitarist/producer/engineer Dave Burris providing both acoustic and electric licks that brush shoulders with the anchored rhythms and Gold’s snotty vocals expulsions.

“Love Moves” boils the atmospherics down to a bubbling simmer. It’s steeped in blues and soul with vocals that are so lowdown and embracing a storyteller vibe that they almost outshine her band’s diligent work. The bass lines cut through with gusto and the sparsity of the drums only emphasize the importance of the beat at work. Removing the soul elements, “Not from Here” is more akin to “Drowning’s” rainy day, sky high drama with snippets of guitar melodies bolstered by bass bumps and spaced-out drum beats. “Out of Touch” is strikingly upbeat, a rarity on Recluse, the good time rhythms and highly melodic guitars conjuring up what could manifest as an FM radio invasion if the proper DJ gets their mitts on the record. The album meanders into a beautiful, smoked-out, THC baked haze in the second half where tracks like “Shadow,” “Dizzy (Let Go)” and the majestic “Intangible” dig deep into their sounds for a layered experience like none other. “Retrofitting” feels like it’s missing something, although “For the Night” has a glacial, indie first half that turns into rip-roaring, fire-snorting rock as it comes to a close.

If you are up for a journey, then this is the album to take with you. It leaves the destination up to the listener and whatever thought patterns that form in your mind while listening is where you’ll end up. The overall experience is rarely hampered, although a couple of tracks could have used more planning. Still, this is a great album… yes, an actual album with a path that you’ll want to follow the whole way!

7 out of 10 stars.

Dale Butcher - Music Existence

Emily Gold’s Recluse could easily end up album of the year with the proper promotion. The strong material waves a proud middle-finger at genre stereotypes and current musical clichés. At its core, Recluse is an album that’s like a soundtrack to a shaky, introspective state of mind or a surrealistic art-film full of visceral imagery. Those looking for mountainous peaks and valleys in terms of structure and composition might be disappointed, yet music aficionados that savor a slow-burn with a cool hand will gladly eat this up for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s not quite perfect, as a few of the songs fall victim to their own tropes and formulas, but these missteps are minor in the grand scheme of things.

Though British born and California-raised; Emily Gold avoids the “starlet” syndrome that seems to be a problem with up and coming female performers. That’s not picking on the sex, it’s just the truth as I see it. Emily’s lyrics don’t shy away from her harder-edged and she isn’t afraid to paint portraits of pseudo-mental violence with her sometimes expletive-laden phrasings. The cussing isn’t overdone but used when trying to prove the most extreme points of lost love and life gone wrong.

Recluse really establishes a rhythm and groove from the outset; a frame of mind and a feeling, not so much a “rock n’ roll groove.” Gold delivers the bleak “Drowning” with an utter lack of sentimentality and the music offers glimmers of hope before swallowing them up in creepily woven guitar melodies, ambient rhythmic noises and keyboards. My Bloody Valentine could certainly be an influence here and wields equal sway over the heavier crunch of the title track. “Recluse” gives the guitars a chance to reach full blast and the drumming opens up into more tangible patterns alongside dense bass lines. This is mood music, to say the least, and has a manic persona throughout as heard on the irritated, guitar heavy pluck of “Cyanide Lollipop” where Gold reckons back to a time where L7 and Babes in Toyland dominated the tougher side of female rock.

The album perks up with a pair of poppier cuts including “Not From Here” and the absolutely glitzy “Out of Touch”, a track so close to being radio-friendly fare it’s kind of surprising. Still, the lyrics keep a finger on the pulse of loss and the layers upon layers of throbbing auxiliary instrumentation lends a raw churn to the melodic uplift. “Shadow” brings the atmosphere back down to earth; the brief glimpse of heaven now a purgatory of blustery blues backed by both hip-hop and symphonic ballast, which gives this subdued track many varied personalities. In line with “Shadow,” both “Dizzy (Let Go)” and “Intangible” dwell on the abandoned side of town where Gold sings soul like an experience busker watched by everyone that passes by and waiting discovery. Rock pyrotechnics spill out in all direction during the guitar-smattered offerings “Retrofitting” and “For the Night,” showing that Emily and her band are capable of tackling any kind of song that comes their way.

This is simply an astonishing album that demands repeated listens. It would have been interesting to hear a couple more rockers mixed in with the soundscapes, but this is a small issue on a record of plentiful musical treasures. Nobody should pass this up. 9 out of 10 stars.

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/emilygoldmusic

Michael Shugart - Skope Magazine

It’s almost impossible to pin down current California native Emily Gold and her twisty, turning debut album platter Recluse. Is it trip-hop? Not exactly, but it does have that kind of tangible beat. Is it rock n’ roll? Nah, not quite although it does have a few sizzling moments of riffage. Is it indie? Probably, but it’s got so much more scope under the hood. It’s not easy to describe and not necessarily easy to sell, but it’s just good music.

So Recluse serves up ten tracks that truly have a distanced from society, reclusive vibe running through their veins. “Drowning” sets the town and mimics being submerged in icy polar waters with fractured melodies, trance vocals and a subliminal rhythm oozing in the background. It sounds like a few artists in passing, but really not enough to drop a straight comparison. The title song is the same way as it pounds, punches and shoves with a brawny rhythmic backbone and guitars turned up in the mix; a seemingly straight-up rock song on first glance, but one with numerous indie trip-hop influences pouring out whenever you sit down to analyze it. “Cyanide Lollipop” is also on the rock-side of the track with touches of sodden acoustic guitar and light rock n’ roll arrangements along the deadly silent death-pop; throughout Gold demonstrates her ability to hit every desired note.

The album shifts gears into cruise control with the barely breathing, breathless trip-hop of “Love Moves.” Though the results are fun when Emily and the band up the volume and rock hard for a bit, their strength is in these desperate, darker dabbles. This tune is all poker-faced, deadly serious gambling with strong, husky vocals sliding over a greasy rhythm that’s soul, blues, noir and trip-hop all bottled up and left to explode like nitroglycerin. “Not from Here” is like an edgy version of a Disney soundtrack, both whimsical and threatening as the music morphs into a mini-symphony full of layered melody guitars, grooved bass, eerie digital ambience and elevated keyboards. It’s akin to Bjork trading shots with Portishead. An obvious choice for a single, “Out of Touch”, is without a doubt or second glance the bounciest, most pop-fueled smash on Recluse. Its chorus is practically lit up by bright Vegas lights and displayed for the whole city to admire.

Reducing itself to that primal, street lamp lit vibration, “Shadow” is a creeping ballad that practically stalks the listener and refuses to let up during its extended course of action. And “Dizzy (Let Go)” is much of the same with Emily’s solar-powered vocals giving a nice skyward stretch over pointed guitar noodling and bustling percussion from drummer Sean Draper. “Retrofitting” adds rock back into the mix only to be subtracted by crawling, suicide balladry of “Intangible”. It sets the stage for the hard rockin’ finale “For the Night,” which highlights Dave Burris’ scorching electric guitar and Emily’s voice which rises to a near scream before the proceedings come to a close.

Recluse will not be for everyone but those with an open mindset will absolutely adore the sense of exploration this album yields. It is truly deceptive and wistful in the way it builds and ratchets up a mood, although it never resorts to excess just for the sake of excess. Anyone into exploratory, experimental music would do well to give it a dedicated listen.

8 out of 10 stars.

Bradley Johnson - Indie Music Reviews

Somewhat comparable to Lana Del Rey’s trail blazing, neo-gangster work on seminal albums Born to Die and Ultraviolence, British born artist Emily Gold and her bleak, pop confections will impress many on her new album Recluse. It’s that same, fleeting like heartbeat of a sound with grand arrangements mingling with pop structure, old school soul and modern rock influences. As a whole, Recluse is successful, even if it could use just the slightest amount of tempo variation.
First of all, there’s no hiding the fact that Emily Gold can sing and sing very well at that. Her voice is the sole highlight of the pop symphony opener “Drowning,” which delegates her backing band to playing as few notes as possible while she takes steady aim at the melodies with her wide open vocal chords. Simply put, the combination is out of the world even if the music could use a little dynamic buffering. That minor issue is fixed on the title track which blends rock with indie and r & b feel. Dave Burris busts out some electric guitar and the rhythmic grind is harder and more pronounced, lending twice the oomph to Gold’s hearty vocals.
“Cyanide Lollipop” is the definitive mixture of Emily Gold’s many ingredients. It possesses a bleary-eyed, dream-pop ramble that signals a storm with electric guitar riffs, wailing cupie doll vocals and acrobatic rhythms peppering the concoction with many tiny accents to catch on multiple listens. At its best, Recluse is an album so richly packed with subtle sounds, it’ll take a lot of time to discover them all. “Love Moves” is all soul wrapped up in a clubby package with simultaneous electronic and acoustic drums which makes for a noticeable dichotomy. Finger snaps, “whoa oh” vocal melodies and a plateau of rich crooning makes for an instant hit that remains energetic despite all of its opaque musings.
“Not from Here” makes tasteful use of piano, but sounds nearly identical to the opening track aside from that. By no means it is (or any of the songs) outright bad for that matter, but it does fall into a little samey-ness that detracts from the flow if only for a moment. Bringing a kinetic crunch back to the proceedings, “Out of Touch” is stuffed to the gills with walking bass lines and rising tides of insectoid guitar hum that sends this piece to some interplanetary heights. Emily shines on the verse and choruses; her voice low and sultry when it needs to be and reaching high up in her register whenever the music matches her moves. “Shadow” comes off as an unreleased track from Lana Del Rey and, though it has a strong, muscular rhythm, it’s a little slow and self-indulgent to really kick up the attention span.
The album’s final half really seals the deal though and makes Recluse worth spending the money on. Acoustic guitars bustle and teem during the intro of “Dizzy (Let Go)” where Emily plaintively contemplates putting trust in love as several soft rhythmic cadences and keyboard brush-strokes fill the downplayed music with life and light. Sweeping, anthemic English indie rock is delivered in spades on “Retrofitting”, a track that shows Gold hasn’t forgotten where she came from. It’s full of guitar static, oscillating beats n’ bass lines and several dynamic vocal cues that catapult Gold’s voice higher and higher. The moody delicacy of “Intangible” is mesmerizing in both its restrained arrangements and pushy bass rhythms. Emily’s lyrics paint poignant pictures such as “My narcotic heart, pacemaker God, please give me a pulse,” as she slowly ascends to a chorus that’s the romantic knockout of the album. “For the Night” bridges English indie shoegaze with hard-edged Seattle grooves and is the penultimate album ender. There is no denying it; Emily Gold is onto something with Recluse. A few tweaks to her songwriting will render unstoppable but she’s in more than fine form on these eleven lucid tracks.
8 out of 10 stars.
Joshua Stryde - Band Blurb

Emily Gold’s career has been skyrocketing at an alarmingly quick rate. She has many plans in the works, including a tour, large distribution deals, and pushing her songs to TV and radio. Her debut EP made quite a splash and this first full-length album shows off her talents along with those of co-writer David Burris. It’s an interesting hybrid of sounds that owes much to 90s shoegaze (both English and American) with a garnish of grunge-rock, cold wave and other assorted genres that only real music detectives have bothered to sniff out over the years.

The meat of the material on this album is dressing up minimalism as a full, arena-sized sound and, in that respect, Emily and her cohorts do a fantastic job. Even when seemingly little is going on, there is an expansive range of aural techniques happening. The opener “Drowning” is dripping with reverbed and delayed guitars while the bass does a deathbed heartbeat similar to Red House Painters. Itai Shapira gets as much thickness as he can out of a few notes. There might be a soft bed of synths in the background, but it could just be the way Burris processes the guitar-work. One would have to ask the chef about his secret recipe. At the heart of the maelstrom, Emily Gold sings with an assertive yet soothing voice that drags you right into the album’s unusual world.

Burris stomps a mean fuzz pedal on the title track and gives the song a ticked off slant for Gold to splay her vocals upon. It never quite reaches full tilt, lying back in sort of a slocore mode while letting riffs and roughshod rhythms add a little sinew to the band’s skeletal song structures. “Cyanide Lollipop” features a sassy, smart-aleck smirk to Gold’s vocals and the instrumentals follow suit with choppy acoustic guitars, buoyant bass lines and Sean Draper’s locked-on drumming providing just enough to slam to push the music forward. “Love Moves” is all blue-eyed soul with Emily’s mightiest, bravest vocal performance on the album. She goes from the gut, almost growling out the lyrics like Tina Turner with far more grace and class as the rhythm section totally supervises the action here.

“Not from Here” is pure power pop; sugary and sweet, almost too sweet and “Out of Touch” only expands on that sweetness to the point of practically nagging for airplay. These aren’t particularly bad songs, but they lack some of the grit and gruel that gives Emily’s material its bravado. Luckily the dirt beneath the nails, hurdy gurdy comes back in force on cuts like “Shadow,” “Intangible,” “Retrofitting” and “For the Night”.

Recluse could have benefitted from a little more time on the cutting room floor but for the most part it’s a worthwhile listen with a lot of ideas to absorb. A few ideas go astray, but well over the majority of the album things really come together. Consider Emily Gold an artist to keep a close eye on in the future!

7 out of 10 stars.

Daniel Boyer - Gas House Radio

English-born California transplant and singer/songwriter Emily Gold showcases the cultural diversity of her growing up on her debut record Recluse. She is in command of a powerful voice that swirls and surrounds the listener in a neon-colored cloud of sound.

It’s clear from the opening track, the plaintive shoegaze of “Drowning” that she took liberal notes from English greats such as Swervedriver, Ride and even The Beatles as she layers the track’s musical tapestry into a clearly depicted portrait. The title track rides a hymnal keyboard drone but also brings a heavy, fuzzy guitar to the forefront that prods Gold into raising the decibels of her vocals a few notches. In terms of pacing, the rhythm section keeps a steady groove with some intricate tom-drum flourishes, but the lower register is more of a canvas for the guitar, vocals and keys to paint upon. A sharply recorded acoustic strum juxtaposes against an elegant cello in the early going of “Cyanide Lollipop.” Downbeat vocals don’t dress down their anguish and apathy, building to a grungy, Seattle-inspired riff crescendo during the track’s outro. The Pixies could be a good point of reference here and that’s not a bad place to be. Finger-snapping, soulful bass pulsations and a midnight groove slink r & b style on “Love Moves,” a tune that really gives Emily’s voice a chance to shine. Her singing and vocal arrangement is downright playful and funky, enforcing forward motion that really carves up some infectious hooks. “Not from Here” features nary a rise in volume; it’s sort of a merger of the trippy Hooverphonic and dark n’ driving rhythms of Portishead. This is textbook shoegaze but composed with much more flair than any run of the mill, garage-rooted No-Wave band. The piano is a nice touch in combination with the soothing percussive rolls and ebbing billows of bass. There’s an oblique, noir vibe happening on “Out of Touch” where Gold croons like Nancy Sinatra performing at a darkwave club. The melodies play out in sustained guitar drones and aquatic synth melodies that always feel like they’re sinking beneath the water. “Shadow” returns the album to smoky, smoldering vocal sex and driving rhythm n’ blues; there’s a sincerity, honesty and passion in Emily’s husky voice as she drives nails into a lost lover over a bluesy bassline . The acoustic guitar roots “Dizzy (Let Go)” has rootsy malice while numerous textures and additional strings are embedded into the backdrop. “Retrofitting” has plummeting drums and cosmic keyboard lines with buzzing guitar distortion and twinkling chords creating the feeling of being lost in deep space without a suit for protection. The vocals undulate and coil around every rise n’ fall making for one of the most memorable cuts on the record. Atmospheric cymbal flourishes and bleak beat programming contrast against upbeat, gorgeous guitar melodies and Emily’s confident vocals during the cinematic sweep of “Intangible”. It’s probably got the best chorus on the album. Closer “For the Night” starts as a bass-y r & b romp before whipping into a riff-driven, hard-rock climax that will absolutely get your hairs standing on end and your toes curling.

Recluse is an eclectic record with only one or two weaker spots, but even those weak spots are surrounded by great instrumentation, production, playing and singing. It’s safe to say that Gold and her band don’t sound like anybody else out there and it’s refreshing to hear that in a music scene that’s running stagnant in terms of original ideas. This is a keeper and bodes well for any follow-up effort. 9 out of 10 stars. - allwhatsrock

Emily Gold delivers a heaping, helping of musical nirvana on her full-length introduction Recluse. Prior to this ambitious, epic LP outing, she had released an EP that spearheaded her into national attention. With a big, bulky backbone of a backing band and a voice to die for, Emily outclasses current dream-pop starlets like Lana Del Rey ten to one. The terms dream-pop and shoegaze are appropriate labels for her sound, but she also toys with grunge, indie-rock, soul, and sultry 50s revival to get her point across.
“Drowning” is a beautiful piece; almost like a lullaby, but it holds interest and doesn’t lull its audience to sleep. Built on a sparse foundation of David Burris’ minimalist guitar chords and the orchestral percussion of Sean Draper, this cut is the greatest soundtrack to a movie that’s yet to exist. Instead of simply yielding more of the same, the title composition has a sneering blanket of guitar distortion, hypnosis beats and a big, burly bass lick thanks to bassist Itai Shapira. The symphonic progression of the music is still intact, only in the confines of a more rock-rooted number.
Cello accoutrements accompany Burris’ acoustic guitar in the twang-y, blues lead-in to “Cyanide Lollipop.” Gold’s sprawling voice is burnt with angst, but less self-loathing, than a Courtney Love wannabe. She has a distinctive delivery with the ability to hold notes and let them fall away into the darkness. This gal has got soul and she’s not afraid to use it! David busts out some heavy, groovy riffs that wouldn’t have been out of place on a lost Nirvana album, giving the song a very different second half than the first.
“Love Moves” is a snappy, slick shoegaze hum buried beneath bulging bass grooves and the kind of expressive vocals that dominated the 50s night club scene. “Not From Here” is mostly a classical, stripped-down guitar melody layered over a morphine drip beat that has a neoclassical beauty. It gets in your head with slight volume swells in all the right places by the keyboards and sweetly distorted guitars. Immediately pressing ahead with more agility and pop energy, “Out of Touch” has one of Emily’s biggest chorus melodies placed alongside a noisy guitar background that offsets the tranquility though never distracts from it. Gold has pipes of, well, gold and she uses them to their full advantage here.
“Shadow” reverts to an updated 50s vibe with sonic augmentations and digital touches that warps it into the 21st Century. Shapira’s fluid, walking bass licks are a consistent highlight of this after dark showing. The acoustic and blues-footed “Dizzy (Let Go)” is a real showcase for the guitars and bass as they elicit a sullen, pitch-black mode for Gold’s vocals to slither across. There’s a groove somewhere in there but it’s one for intent listeners to locate and love. “Retrofitting” is semi-heavy/semi-pretty like Justin Broadrick’s landmark work with Jesu; revolving, endlessly cycling guitar chords with synth melting into the background as a hard beat eschews flash for tone. “Intangible” comes off like Enya from Hell; world music from the deep underworld and is all the better as a result. Capping things off, “For the Night” illustrates every single strength heard prior on the album from shoegaze to indie to trance-y soundtracks, culminating with a beefy slab of guitar rock that reels the album in on a heavy note.
This is a record that is meant to be listened to from start to finish without interruption. The whole thing sweeps over the eardrums in wave after endless wave of low-key, sonic bliss that burrows deep into the mind. It’s as close to a perfect record as anyone else has up their sleeves in 2015 and for that it should be commended. In fact, it’s better than most mainstream artists making the big bucks, so Emily Gold is certainly here to play on Recluse.
9 out of 10 stars.
Lance Wright - Rock n' Roll View

You can count Emily Gold as the most enticing new artist you haven’t heard in 2015. Okay, maybe somehow through some social channel you’ve stumbled upon her music, but the chances are low with the only release to date being an EP. Emily is on the cusp of releasing her first full-length, Recluse, and this is real music with real feeling and emotion. It’s not orthodox, though it does owe somewhat of a debt to many great bands of yore (Low, My Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver, Pink Floyd, Portishead), but it’s completely original even when stacked up against those legendary artists.

Turning her back to established ideals and going against the norm, Emily Gold and her band plays a cycling, rotating, revolving shoegaze style of music that hasn’t seen large popularity since the 90s. Jarboe, Jesu and Weed have tried to reignite the genre in the 2000s with some great works of their own, but nothing seems to be breaking through. Gold could be the one. Track to track, this album tells an interconnected story through music from the austere, heartfelt drone of “Drowning” rippling directly into the deeply lathed, lo-fi rock of the title track and then reverting to the minimalism of “Cyanide Lollipop,” a tune that sounds like it could have been recorded by any noted riot grrl act in the early 90s (though it possesses more tunefulness and a better flair for composition). The track arc weaves and bobs into the floating, weightless r & b of “Love Moves” which contains shuddering bass, drums and vocals with co-composter Dave Burris etching guitar minutia into every minute of the song. “Not from Here” operates with much of the same mission statement, remaining low fidelity throughout but allowing room to breathe in the form of pop-addled choruses and louder instrumental bursts with piercing, ringing guitar chords. “Out of Touch” borrows some of those clang-y chords for its chorus but this song is almost as hooky as any number of pop-punk tunes on the radio, even if it’s from an entirely different state of mind and style. “Shadow” melts into a hot, molten magma of bluesy vocal phrasings played out atop digital beats and earthy rhythms; a stellar companion piece to the entrancing “Love Moves.” “Intangible” is also cast in that mold and boasts the album’s most triumphant, fluttering chorus where Gold really lets her melodies fly. “Dizzy (Let Go),” “Retrofitting” and “For the Night” all bathe in the afterglow of 90s shoe-gazer rock but also feature some of the most wisely placed, blazing guitar riffs on the album with rhythmic pounding to match… a very different side of Emily Gold and her band for sure (especially the really loud breakdown closing out “For the Night”).

The tight production, distinguished songwriting and overall charm of this record are hard to top. There is a quality and consistency here lacking in many records I’ve heard recently. This impressive full length debut promises a wonderful future ahead for Gold and her listeners alike.

8 out of 10 stars.

Scott Wigley - Da Hip Hop Palace

Versatility is both a blessing and a curse. For British shoegaze queen Emily Gold (who now lives in sunny California), her many motifs work more often than not. With eleven tracks on her debut outing Recluse, there are, of course, a few awkward moments, but at least 70-80 percent of the time she hits the bullseye with authority. After an EP release garnered some attention in hardcore circles, Gold has come returned for another round with an album that’s harder to chase down and get ahold of than a desert mirage. She is a shape-shifting queen of unnatural sounds and, sometimes, these multiple change-ups make the record hard to follow. The patient listener, however, is rewarded for time well-spent.

The album almost has a division between track types. There are austere forays into psyche prying, dreamy indie pop that sort of trade dazzling musicianship for texture mastery and a maestro’s attention to layering. These rollicking, anti-gravity compositions rely on barren guitar painting, throbs of bass, a draping of keyboards, atmospheric percussion and Gold’s HUGE voice to carry the material. Cuts like “Drowning,” “Not from Here,” “Out of Touch,” and “Dizzy (Let Go)” are submerged in these murky, yet astral, flourishes that propel the material even when it is as dark as dark can be. It’s about a third or more of the record and definitely one of Gold and her band’s many strengths. However, when she’s not peddling hallucinogenic pop songs, Emily has a second career as a dark, bluesy lounge singer whose voice scowls and scrapes for cigarette burnt tonalities that haunt the memory for days. The best examples of this particular style are on the soul-shaking “Love Moves,” the cold embrace of “Shadow” and the dire verses intersected by crystalline choruses of “Intangible”. These are some of the greatest tunes on the record and totally showcase a side of Emily that definitely needs more fleshing out on the next record. The last quarter of the album bends atonal indie rock with riffs and power-chords with just the right amount of trippy expansiveness like on the title piece and “Retrofitting”. The incendiary “For the Night” makes no bones about throwing a few riffs on the table and seeing if the legs will give. It’s definitely not Gold’s prettiest stuff, but makes an impact when needed most.

Recluse is an album of three different visages. Some may kind of wish she’d hold true to one direction and stick with it for the majority of the album, but there is something to be said about diversifying your sound and taking risks/chances. She has nailed down much credibility with such a strong debut and the majority of this record ranges from good to superbly exceptional, putting her on a pedestal where any direction and diversion is possible. Let’s hope she keeps the best of these ideas for future releases and tinkers with the ones that are rather incomplete. It’s hard to shake over half of these songs after you’ve played the record three times or more, so there is again, something to be said for that kind of staying power!

8 out of 10 stars.

William Elgin - Indie Artists Alliance

No record in recent memory has channeled nightlife depression and the dark side of the tracks as well as Emily Gold on her latest release Recluse. Others have tried, but this beautiful recording truly captures that drugged-out, swaying drunk, lost in an alleyway vibe better than anybody else in recent memory. Sometimes, it’s almost too hopeless for its own good, but just when you think you can’t handle anymore, an incandescent melody illuminates the way or things just explode in radiance. Gold’s a gifted composter and vocalist with a band that knows how to compliment the strengths of her songs.

There is an otherworldly; ethereal shading to Gold’s ambient compositions and it’s hard to tag her with any particular style. A baroque, gothic feel encompasses the work here but it’s not sad and teary-eyed like most goth music tends to be. “Drowning” is a prime example of Gold’s material. It’s like performance art or improvisational theater set to music with tense ambience giving way to rushes of Dave Burris’ twinkling guitars, Sean Draper’s understated skin-work and bassist Itai Shapira’s consistent thump. This music is stripped down to its essentials and builds to an almost operatic peak with Gold’s emotive vocals. The title track is more riff-y and rock-fueled and while competent, it’s not really the band’s forte. It has that hip indie vibe which doesn’t gel with the more thematic compositions.

Speaking of thematic compositions, this album has more than one can even count. “Cyanide Lollipop” handles the rock elements better while working an acoustic guitar angle and sweltering indie textures that give the music a glowing, enrapturing shine. Distilling things down to a dirge-y, ballroom waltz, “Love Moves” is all soul and swagger with zero posturing. Here Emily showcases the lower register of her vocal chords and her hickory smoked phrasing really combines well with the low-slung, bass sound. “Not from Here” combs a similar, craggy depth with harmonious vocal acrobatics. “Out of Touch” goes straight for a verse/chorus standard that sticks to the brain like peanut butter. Still, Emily Gold shines brightest (or should I say darkest) when a number requires her to let it fly off into the flickering glow of the candelabra, like “Shadow”. The track is adorned with little more than a ruminating thump of bass drum, thick low-end, tasteful guitar work, and her voice ascending above it all. Several of the remaining songs stay mindful of the same tactics including “Dizzy (Let Go),” “Retrofitting” and “Intangible.” “Retrofitting” unleashes a little electrified rock, but the other songs share an unpredictable tranquility with top-tier rhythm playing and vocals capable of ripping your heart out of your chest. “For the Night” is the most rock n’ rolly tune on the album and penned with THE riff in mind as it lacerates with tautly wound power chords full of ruthless hard knocks. - Vents Magazine