Alt-pop duo Good Neighbours have landed with a debut that's like a ray of sunlight cutting through a stormy sky. "Blue Sky Mentality", their debut full-length album, isn't so much a song-assemblage as it is a shiny snapshot of hope born in chaos, written on the fly from hotel rooms, backstage corners, and tour buses across a year-long whirlwind on the road.
"Blue Sky Mentality", Good Neighbours expertly channel that 90s pop-vibe into something new, something raw with genuine emotion. Over the course of 14 tracks spanning 38 minutes, they achieve this by infusing them with an infectious melodicism, leavened with a human warmth sorely lacking in most current alt-pop. The album radiates purpose, aimed squarely at making the listener feel lighter, freer, and more hopeful.
And they've done precisely that. The buoyant pulse of "Keep It Up," a pep talk set to shimmering synths, to the magnetic slow burn of "Ripple," with all the gliding ease and confidence of a band playing in its pocket, every song here speaks to momentum and release. Then there's "Home", the album's emotional support, a song that feels reflective and future-facing, like coming back to yourself after a long time away.
"Blue Sky Mentality" is lovely in its imperfection. The duo describes it as a big record but but is not polished and that rawness is its strength. You can feel the air of hotel rooms, the hum of airports, the laughter between takes, it's all part of the record's living pulse.
In a world that's still catching its breath, Good Neighbours provide a rare kind of sanctuary, a music that doesn't pretend the darkness isn't there but insists on finding light in it all. "Blue Sky Mentality" is the sound of two dreamers showing you can still make your way home even while on the go.
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