SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: PAPERCUTS – BAXTER’S BLISS EP

Papercuts
Baxter’s Bliss EP
Slumberland Records

After taking a brief hiatus to focus on production with bands like Beach House and Sugar Candy Mountain, Jason Quever has returned as Papercuts to present Baxter’s Bliss. The digital-only EP seems to serve as a small appetizer for the band’s upcoming full-length, Past Life Regression. The EP is the first we’ve heard from Papercuts since the artist’s 2018 album, Parallel Universe Blues.

The fruition of Quever’s talent for arrangement and writing is heard throughout Baxter’s Bliss. The first track on the EP, “A Dull Boy,” sets a melancholy tone for the following four tracks, where Quever somberly reflects on fleeting details of life which bring us joy, such as learning to play the tambourine or seeing a smile sprawl across another’s face: “If ignorance is bliss, then heaven looks like this.” The EP’s title track, “Try Baxter’s Bliss” is aptly representative of the EP’s purpose: distraction and escapism during times of existential dread.

The project is dreamy– and somewhat ominous, a frothy blend of shoegaze and folk-pop with slightly drooping, gloomy guitar as on “Try Baxter’s Bliss,” sweeping, bright organ tones “When Will You Come Home”, and foreboding bass and percussion that can be heard on “The Partisan”.

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