REVIEW

The first full-length album from San Francisco shoegaze artist Wisp (real name Natalie R Lu).

Released via Interscope Records—the label behind top-tier artists like Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, and Lady Gaga—this debut LP marks a major step in Wisp’s meteoric rise. Many will be familiar with her Cinderella story: at 18, Natalie’s single “Your Face” went viral on TikTok, leading to a contract with Interscope and the launch of her professional career. She followed with the 2024 EP “Pandora”, performed at Coachella in 2025, and opened for major acts including System of a Down and Deftones, quickly evolving into a fully realized live band. With this momentum, Wisp has become one of the most talked-about names in contemporary shoegaze.

Produced over roughly a year, this album expands Wisp’s sonic palette and pushes the boundaries of shoegaze. Mixing by Lars Stalfors (St. Vincent, Soccer Mommy) and Stephen Kaye (Laufey, Ziggy Marley), with mastering by Ruairi O’Flaherty (Phoebe Bridgers, boygenius), elevates the sound to a new level: distorted guitars crash without harshness, and the delicate, whispery vocals are rendered in exquisite detail. Compared to “Pandora”, the improvement is immediately apparent.

Highlights include:

#1 “Sword” opens with folk-inspired guitar and misty, fragile vocals before powerful drums erupt, unleashing a wall of sound that jolts the dreamlike listener into the story’s beginning.

#5 “Guide Light” evokes My Bloody Valentine with psychedelic, crashing shoegaze. Its gradual descent into slower, heavier passages will delight fans of dense, immersive walls of sound.

#7 “If Not Winter” channels slowcore to convey the sadness of parting, with a poignant piano outro that leaves a lingering emotional impact.

#8 “Mesmerized” is one of Wisp’s rare uptempo tracks, its soaring chorus melody bursting with energy.

#9 “Serpentine” balances tender lyricism with catchy hooks, carrying faint echoes of ’90s–’00s J-pop, from artists like the brilliant green or Aika Ohno.

#11 “Black Swan,” produced again with Kraus, ranks among Wisp’s heaviest shoegaze offerings and serves as one of the album’s highlights. The piercingly beautiful vocals slice through the noise, creating a striking counterpart to the earlier Kraus-produced track “Pandora”.

#12 “All I Need” closes the album on a pastoral, acoustic note, conjuring imagery of thawed snow and verdant meadows.

Despite contributions from multiple producers and composers, the album’s vision remains unified—a testament to professional craftsmanship. The music videos reinforce this narrative world, featuring Wisp as a heroine awaiting rescue in a castle, or transforming into an armored knight, maintaining a fantastical continuity that echoes her angelic depiction on “Pandora”.

With 12 tracks that refine Wisp’s shoegaze signature while embracing new creative directions, the album far surpasses its predecessor in emotional impact. Unlike the early critiques that dismissed her as a TikTok-fueled phenomenon, Natalie’s full compositional involvement is evident across the record, making such dismissals obsolete.

This release stands as a defining work for modern shoegaze (Nu-Gaze), and may well become a milestone in the genre’s 2020s renaissance. Its influence on the increasingly crowded Nu-Gaze scene—whether to intensify the wave or mark its consolidation—remains to be seen. Leading up to the release, Wisp already had 3.07 million monthly Spotify listeners, making her next moves highly anticipated.

As a fan, one can only hope for her continued success—and look forward to the eventual Japanese tour. Having emerged from the winter of “Pandora” into the spring of “If Not Winter”, one wonders whether Wisp’s next chapter will herald a “summer” of poppier, more hook-driven shoegaze. Tracks like “Mesmerized” hint that the door is already ajar.

Previous review: Wisp - Pandora