sweet trip rym

• Retrospective Reviews , Reviews , Song Reviews

A Sweet Trip of Sweet Trip: A Guide Through the Cult Favorite Band’s Best Songs

• By: Joe Hoeffner
• June 2, 2021

Start reading >>

Get our (actually) good newsletter.

It’s handwritten most Tuesdays, and it features our latest music coverage and Tom’s latest thoughts on life.

Here’s an example . Pretty enjoyable, right?

Engaging with the music of Sweet Trip is a very personal thing. That’s true for all music–the thesis of this very blog is that the listener forms their own story when listening to a song based on their own experiences–but it’s especially true with Sweet Trip. A Sweet Trip song is never just happy or sad: even their most upbeat moments have a wistful undercurrent, and even their most melancholy songs have a certain sense of wry serenity. This ambiguity extends to their albums:  Velocity : Design : Comfort  celebrates the possibilities of the future while hinting towards a deeper alienation, while  You Will Never Know Why  contains devastating ballads and peppy Stereolab-esque pop. Different people with different imaginations will hear the same music and come away with different conclusions.

As such, my ten favorite Sweet Trip songs will look very different from someone else’s. I don’t mean to position myself as an authority–Roby Burgos himself is reluctant to declare himself an authority on his own music, not wanting to override what fans might think–but since they released a new album and I had the immense privilege of interviewing Burgos , I want to share ten songs that I think are essential to understanding the unique beauty of this band. As ranking these songs would be like choosing a favorite puppy from a litter, they’ll be listed in chronological order.

“Fish” (from  Halica: Bliss Out v.11 ):  It’s not quite accurate to say that Sweet Trip arrived fully formed. Their debut album,  Halica , had elements of both ambient techno and shoegaze, but they didn’t always synthesize the two as neatly as they would in the future. Still, they had blissful soundscapes down pat, and the album’s opening track, “Fish,” still stands among their best. Clouds of synth and guitar drift across playful, clattering drums, while Valerie Cooper’s voice lilts and echoes like a mysterious spirit singing as she bathes in the depths of a cave. Even as it gets noisier towards the end, “Fish” still feels like a dream, a burst of optimism and possibility.

“Dsco” (from  Velocity : Design: Comfort ):  Considered by many Sweet Trip fans to be their best work (it’s ranked the highest on Rateyourmusic, the music nerd haven where I cut my teeth writing amateur reviews),  Velocity : Design : Comfort was where Sweet Trip truly came into their own. On  Halica , the electronic and rock elements were starting a tentative courtship; here, they’re happily married, and the result brims with imagination and joy. “Dsco” is  VDC  at its most optimistic, with vibrant pop hooks and crunchy rock candy guitars suggesting a glorious futuristic playground: it sounds like a utopian soda commercial in the best possible way. But while the lyrics invite us to “spread the towels and bring out the lotion” and “synchronize your time in motion,” the pleasure is tempered by the need to escape from something: “run away to the sun, to the comfort.”

“Velocity” (from  Velocity: Design: Comfort ):  Sweet Trip’s brilliance comes in part from their musical versatility. They’ve always delighted in genre fusion, but you get the sense that they could have been a pure dream pop band or a pure ambient techno outfit and been just as excellent either way. Case in point: “Velocity,” a straight-ahead IDM suite that stands tall alongside the Autechres and Venetian Snares of the world. While some IDM gets too caught up in its own cleverness, “Velocity” is endlessly evocative: its looping synth haze and sputtering drum crunches summons a world of blue holograms and jagged chrome skylines. Everything about it is pure cool, down to a distorted lounge-y piano put in the mix towards the end, but Cooper’s periodic vocals hint at a desperation and a loneliness behind all this opportunity.

“Chocolate Matter” (from  Velocity : Design: Comfort ): There’s something great about a band that knows exactly what its listeners want. Take “Chocolate Matter,” which comes towards the end of  VDC  and provides a dizzying rush of catharsis. It starts out as a catchy, lilting shoegaze song, not far off from You Made Me Realise -era My Bloody Valentine. Then, an absolutely thunderous guitar riff that sweeps in out of nowhere, sticking around just long enough to get you addicted before disappearing for a buzzing synth solo and another verse. “This is all great, of course,” you catch yourself thinking, “but I really hope that huge guitar riff comes back.” And then it does! And it repeats over and over again until the end of the song, growing louder and more ecstatic until it feels like your headphones might break! And it’s awesome!

“Acting” (from  You Will Never Know Why ): Musically,  You Will Never Know Why  is a lovely moonlit shimmer of an album, forgoing the noisier shoegaze and IDM parts of Sweet Trip’s sound for pure dream pop bliss. Lyrically, however, it gets dark, going into thorny, personal territory. “Acting,” an early highlight, gets a lot of mileage out of that juxtaposition. It’s a long, sprawling song, with a psychedelic outro left over from the  VDC  sessions, and the rich sounds make the lyrics dig their claws in deeper. “Don’t speak of golden dreams,” Burgos sings over a fast-paced, jazz-inflected section. “You once had a chance to make things right.” The “acting” described in the title refers to “acting on regrets,” but when Burgos coos “so sad, so sad, so hopeless,” the cruel joke of the title’s second meaning comes in. It’s the most luscious world’s-smallest-violin ever recorded.

“Milk” (from  You Will Never Know Why ): While “Acting” was acidic and bitter, “Milk” is just devastatingly sad. With its jangly acoustic guitar and yawning pedal steel, “Milk” sounds a little like Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You,” but while that song is an expression of romantic intimacy, “Milk” is about the loneliness of drifting apart. According to Burgos, “Milk” is about an insomniac watching their lover sleep, jealous of their peaceful rest. But in the song’s bittersweet tone, it’s clear that the divide is deeper and more complicated than that. “You will drift away/and I won’t mind,” Cooper sighs, and she means it. “Don’t you drift away,” she pleads afterwards, and she means that, too.

“Your World Is Eternally Complete” (from  You Will Never Know Why ): One of the album’s most upbeat offerings, “Eternally Complete” has plenty of darkness in its lyrics, but this time the darkness is being pierced by the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s a fast-paced pep talk of a song, with Cooper’s sweet, bell-like voice encouraging you to “carry yourself through the frozen desert” and “empty your thoughts into the well of pressure.” It’s a lot to ask, but it’s a testament to Sweet Trip’s empathy that it feels possible: it really does feel like they’re in your corner, and if they think you can carry yourself through the frozen desert, then, hey, why not give it a shot?

“Things to Ponder While Falling” (from  You Will Never Know Why Outtakes ): When “Things to Ponder While Falling” was posted to Soundcloud in 2015, the description said that it was “probably the last Sweet Trip song ever.” Thankfully, that turned out not to be the case, but if it really was the last we’d hear of them it would have been a wonderful coda. The first half of “Things to Ponder While Falling” is a gentle, almost halting lullaby, with Burgos and Cooper singing from the point of view of an outcast (or just an agoraphobe) hiding in their home from the “wounds of coyness and shame.” It’s not a happy song, but there’s a sense of peaceful resignation: if you’re falling, you may as well close your eyes and drift off before you hit the ground. Then, right when you think there’s nowhere else to go, a surge of guitar kicks in, and you get your second wind along with the band.

“Chapters” (from  A Tiny House, In Secret Speeches, Polar Equals ):  When any band returns after twelve years, it’s natural to wonder what might have changed in their sound and what new approach they might take. In the case of Sweet Trip, they didn’t radically alter their sound for  A Tiny House, In Secret Speeches, Polar Equals , but they did take everything they had done over their discography and put it all together into one lush, swooning package. Everyone who likes Sweet Trip will find something to like on this album, and “Chapters” may end up one of the best-liked songs of all: starting with a glitchy acoustic strum that recalls the warped warmth of Fennesz’ Endless Summer , it becomes a psychedelic swirl of guitar, synth, and voice, achingly tender and romantic. “Hand in hand, electrified/I will love you,” Burgos and Cooper promise, and the sentiment is earned.

“Snow Purple Treasures” (from A Tiny House, In Secret Speeches, Polar Equals ): There’s nothing tiny about  A Tiny House . Although it’s not the longest album Sweet Trip’s ever made ( VDC  beats it by about four minutes), it’s definitely the most ambitious, aiming for transcendent romantic bliss at every turn. In the wrong hands, it could be exhausting, but with songs like “Snow Purple Treasures,” who could complain? Not unlike “Chapters,” it opens with a sparse acoustic strum and delicate vocals before expanding into the stratosphere, but there’s always something twilit and elegant to its sound. In short, it sounds like its title (the best Cocteau Twins song title Cocteau Twins never came up with.)

“Polar Equals” (from A Tiny House, In Secret Speeches, Polar Equals ): If you wanted to narrow Sweet Trip’s entire discography down to one song, it might be “Polar Equals.” Sure, it lacks the gorgeous vocals that are essential to the band’s excellence, but it contains just about everything else: dreamy peals of guitar, brilliant blossoms of psychedelia, even a return to the blippy IDM of VDC. And to finish it all off, there’s a beautiful outro that shimmers and glimmers and darkens like black butterfly wings. It’s a perfect reminder of what Sweet Trip is capable of, and it’s when it finally sunk in that one of my favorite bands was back.

Joe Hoeffner

Our favorite songs. updated on fridays..

Featured partner

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Elbow Create a Monster Called “Balu”

Aedan Peterson’s “The End Did Come” and Thwarted Expectations

Jaryn Jones is Astonishing on New EP “Angles”

Every song has two stories: one that’s written and one that’s heard.

• Our Philosophy
• Song Reviews
• Music Promotion
• Newsletter Signup
• Write for Us

Affiliate disclosure: Some links on our site are affiliate links, which means that if you click through and buy something from one of them, we get a small commission. Those, ads, and duct tape help us keep the site running. Also, if you’re reading this, hello.

Watcha looking for?

Hey, if you liked what you read…

Tom wants to talk to you.

⬅️ That’s Tom. He writes and sends our newsletter. He’s okay at basketball.

The newsletter is a thoughtful reflection on life / songwriting, plus a recap of our recent stories. ( See an example here. )

If you want Tom to send you our newsletter once per week, enter your email below.

Velocity : Design : Comfort

STREAM OR BUY:

Release Date

Discography timeline, allmusic review, user reviews, track listing, similar albums, moods and themes.

• listening party
• existing artist
• See all results

No matching results

Try a different filter or a new search keyword.

Search all Bandcamp artists, tracks, and albums

• artists PRO view site
• edit profile
• subscription subscription
• view collection
• showLinkedBands(!showLinkedBands())" data-test="linked-accounts-header">

from You Will Never Know Why (2021 Remaster, New Cover​/​Comic) by Sweet Trip

Digital Track Streaming + Download

Buy digital track   $1.20 usd  or more, send as gift  , buy the full digital album, you will never know why (2021 remaster) compact disc (cd) + digital album.

Buy Compact Disc   $12 USD or more  

Full digital discography.

Get all 9 Sweet Trip releases available on Bandcamp and save 10% .

Buy Digital Discography   $91.80 USD or more ( 10% OFF )

Sweet Trip San Francisco, California

discography

contact / help

Contact Sweet Trip

Streaming and Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Sweet Trip, you may also like:

To See the Next Part of the Dream by Parannoul

supported by 63 fans who also own “Milk”

Takes me back to my high school classroom during the days of binging Inio Asano's old manga scanlations before anything was licensed. At that time, I was discovering many kinds of Asian shoegaze, but I've never heard anything like this. Makes me think of Pasteboard, Supecar, and Midnight Pingpong a bit, and it's funny bc the first two I listen have blue album covers too. Lu

LP! by JPEGMAFIA

supported by 55 fans who also own “Milk”

Each track has its own importance to life. A lyrical genius with a rhythm that only makes the message more present and real. Kusistency

무너지기 (Crumbling) by 공중도둑 (Mid-Air Thief)

supported by 52 fans who also own “Milk”

huge props to mid air thief for figuring out how to get a synthesizer on lsd 49th-quadrant

Se Bueno by TURQUOISEDEATH

A remarkable fever dream that successfully juggles post-rock, shoegaze, breakcore, indie pop, new age, and even spoken word. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 2, 2023

Nice Coordinated Outfit by High Pass Filter

Definitive, career-spanning compilation from the iconic Australian avant-garde band, combining elements of dub, shoegaze, and more. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 12, 2023

Altercation by Crimewave

Distorted, choppy guitars clash with industrial techno beats on this exhilarating dispatch from the Northern UK underground. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 19, 2023

Come in by Weatherday

supported by 44 fans who also own “Milk”

noise pop save me... milk & kisses

Bandcamp Daily    your guide to the world of Bandcamp

Dead Vibrations Explore the Darker Side of Swedish Shoegaze

Eight Artists Pushing the Ambient Edges of Techno

Chilean Folklore Gets the Andean Electronic Treatment on “El Origen”

On Bandcamp Radio

Beans joins the show to discuss his album release, "ZWAARD".

• terms of use
• switch to mobile view

• Car Rentals
• Airport Transfers
• Attractions & Tours
• Bundle & Save
• Destinations
• Trip.com Rewards

Currie's Farm Market Review

Currie's Farm Market

A very nice place to get local items and good produce. You can get premade food as well to take home and cook.

Curries sweet seasonal corn is delish....wish I could buy some right now. Have not tried their other produce, next visit❗️

This is a family operation which has been around for decades. A few years ago they added ice cream, specialty foods and kinda went low scale Pusateri’s on Collingwood. Prices are high. Good fresh l...

Great spot to buy local produce & baking. I go weekly to buy fresh bread & local produce. Also have other products from local vendors to purchase here. The staff are very friendly & helpful.

Popular Destinations

Recommended attractions at popular destinations, popular attractions, popular travelogues.

• Customer Support
• Service Guarantee
• More Service Info
• Website Feedback
• About Trip.com
• Terms & Conditions
• Privacy Statement
• About Trip.com Group

Other Services

• Investor Relations
• Affiliate Program
• List My Property
• Become a Supplier