Triptides // Past Lives

On Past Lives, Triptides step away from the cosmic keyboard pop of their recent work and return to the chiming foundations of 1960s psychedelic folk-rock. The guiding principle is simple but effective: every song features a 12-string guitar, placing Glenn Brigman’s crystalline playing at the center of an album that draws openly from the Byrds without slipping into pure revivalism. A faithful reading of Gene Clark’s “She Don’t Care About Time” establishes the reference point, but the band quickly turns that familiar jangle toward its own hazier emotional landscape. The title track and “You Make It Easy” pair bright melodic surfaces with mellotron-softened introspection, while “Dying Sun” and “Why Do I Try?” introduce enough shadow to keep the record from becoming an uninterrupted exercise in California sunshine. Wurlitzer, Hammond organ, and sitar add color without obscuring the economical songwriting, and Brigman’s largely self-performed arrangements feel intimate rather than isolated. Stephen Burns brings a subtle change in perspective to “Sabotage,” while Florentine Wex’s bass and backing vocals lend “She Has Always Been There” a welcome communal warmth. Throughout, Triptides treat nostalgia less as a destination than a lens, using the vocabulary of folk-rock, dream pop, and West Coast psychedelia to examine love, impermanence, and the strange sensation of recognizing a moment while it is still unfolding. Past Lives is modest in scale but unusually cohesive, a finely tuned collection whose ringing guitars and bittersweet melodies make the past feel vividly present.