Stare Away "In Absence"

In Absence is the debut album from New York City's Stare Away, the solo project of Ben Nelson. Seven tracks of brooding post-punk and cold wave atmosphere, built from haunting melodies, shadowed soundscapes, and lyrics that sit somewhere between existential weight and melancholic beauty. From the cavernous title track opener through the glacial ache of closer "Familiar," the record moves with the slow, deliberate weight of someone choosing every word carefully.

The kind of album that doesn't explain its darkness so much as inhabit it, In Absence draws deeply from the brooding well of 1980s goth and cold wave while staking out territory that feels distinctly, urgently present. If your record shelf holds space for the darker corners of the alternative canon, this one belongs there.