If You're a Shoegaze Fan, You Can't Miss Deserta's 'Every Moment, Everything You Need'

On Matthew Doty's sophomore album, the challenges of the past few years are front and center while heading further into a fresh dream pop pallet.

I have a confession to make: with all of the phenomenal music released in February, there was no album I was looking more forward to than Deserta’s Every Moment, Everything You Need.

The recording moniker for Matthew Doty’s solo work, Deserta’s excellent debut Black Aura, My Sun snuck into the last spot on my list of best albums for 2020, and it’s been one of those records you realize would have been placed higher if there was a do-over. The overpowering hazed-out layers of guitar and hushed vocals are right in my shoegaze wheelhouse, and the spaciousness of synth strings on last year’s single, “Lost In the Weight,” had me stoked for where Doty was taking the project.

Luckily, Every Moment, Everything You Need is well worth the wait. Whereas Black Aura, My Sun was slow to show its brilliance, built upon walls of reverb, Every Moment, Everything You Need is immediate, like honey for the ears with the sprawling sonic jump that Doty has taken. Joined by James McAlister on drums this time, Deserta is now a fully realized dream pop head trip fit for the challenging present.

Doty recorded the album in his two-bedroom apartment while juggling fatherhood and his day job as a nurse during the pandemic. While we share the feeling collectively, this experience makes the album standout “I’m So Tired” hit so hard. Once a member of the bands Midnight Faces and Saxon Shore, Doty now sings, “guess you’ll know why I’m so tired, too tired to be cool,” as he navigated recording the album while working on the frontline.

There are hints of Sigur Rós throughout, and “Where Did You Go,” which features Mice Parade’s Caroline Lufkin, is one of these sublime moments that helps keep Deserta’s formula fresh. “It’s All a Memory” also stands out as its sawing keyboards and multilayered fuzzed-out guitars construct something so spacious there’s no way one would think it was recorded in an apartment home studio. “Goodbye Vista” is a monstrous number that would fit in perfectly on the first record, but the spatial updates and ambient outro demonstrate the maturation of the Deserta method.

Mixed by Dave Fridmann (see last week’s Spoon review) and engineered by Chris Coady, who has worked with shoegaze founders Slowdive, Every Moment, Everything You Need is eight brilliant songs of escape.

This time around, Deserta isn’t sneaking into the year-end list. Instead, Every Moment, Everything You Need is an early defining record for 2022.

Every Moment, Everything You Need is available now on felte.

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A small programming note:

Like all of you, I’m burnt out and looking forward to my first vacation in many, many years these next two weeks. Therefore, the newsletter will skip a few rotations before coming back on March 15th.

Be well,

Kiley ✌️🕶️