Album Review: Whitelands - Sunlight Echoes

With their second album, Sunlight Echoes, the band Whitelands from London have created a story that follows the ups and downs of life. It is an ambitious, deliberate “full-cycle” record that demands close attention to the moments when the light begins to fade.

The first half of the record captures a rare, shimmering optimism. This is shoegaze that breathes in wide-open spaces, layered with ethereal textures and a “Britpop breeziness” that feels like the first warm sunbeam of the year. Tracks like “Heat of the Summer” and the soaring “Glance” evoke a sense of limitless beginnings, like looking out a window on a summer day when the world feels bright and reachable.

As you “flip the record,” the quality remains impeccable, but the atmosphere collapses inward. If the first half was a panoramic view of the world around us, the second half is an exploration of the internal ghosts we live with.

I like to refer to this transition as the “Sith side” of the album. Here, the band explores the heavier, darker tolls of intimacy and isolation. The panoramic vistas are replaced by a beautiful claustrophobia. Staring at yourself in a mirror in a dark room is the perfect analogy for this shift from observation to painful introspection. You realize that the brightness of the “Jedi side” wasn’t just for show; it was necessary to create a sense of inevitability about this journey into isolation.

The standout track, and the album’s emotional peak, is undoubtedly “Mirrors.” It acts as the gravitational center of the record, swapping the earlier shimmer for a jagged, brooding intensity. It is “dark as hell itself,” a track where the themes of fragmentation and internal struggle reach their peak.

For fans of the early ’90s era, the nod to Ride is unmistakable. Whitelands capture that specific energy—driving rhythms paired with melodic, swirling guitars—without ever feeling like a throwback. They’ve taken the DNA of classic shoegaze and injected it with a modern “light vs. dark” dualism that is entirely their own.

Sunlight Echoes succeeds because it respects the listener’s full emotional range. It acknowledges that you cannot have the shimmer without the shadow. It is a sophisticated, clever record that proves Whitelands are masters of both the light and the dark.

@shoegazefordayz