Bergen-based dream pop act Chain Wallet will release their second album, No Ritual (Jansen Records), February 2019. While the band may channel the moody eighties-inspired melancholia of bands such as Wild Nothing, paired with guitar work which nods to The Jesus and Mary Chain and Johnny Marr, the band isn’t painting itself into a corner. The band seems to find inspiration in with acts from the 80s while keeping their feet firmly planted in 2019.

While feelings of inertia and melancholy are present on the album, there is a warmth to the recordings and a sense that sorrow will turn into happiness in the end. Aimless teenage angst morphs into a reflective quarter-life crisis that searches for answers.