Album review: Wisp – If not winter

Things happened for Natalie Lu back to front, catapulting to TikTok virality in late 2023 before she had even chosen an artist name. The one she went with, after asking her Instagram followers for ideas, turns out to be beautifully apt. In a childlike, almost ghostly tone, she delivers her lines like she’s gently murmuring them in your ear with a comforting hand on your shoulder. Entwined with her outpourings of emotion is an exploration of shoegaze that’s not just tender and textured, but almost studious.

Wisp knows the playbook by heart, and she’s a clear, endearing devotee. If not winter is dripping with the influence of Slowdive and Nothing at the best of times, while there’s a mechanical whirr to Guiding light that doesn’t so much nod to as it does frantically wave to My Bloody Valentine. It’s by no means a reinvention, but it’s not regurgitation either – it is still hers. She’s an emotive storyteller, whether imagining the pain of being hidden away on the threadbare Sword (‘Hang me up in your closet / Paint me underneath’) or the seesaw between innocence and lust on the swirling Breathe onto me.

Her finger never seems too far from the volume knob, and she seems to relish the idea of dancing between light and shade. At times, she’ll own her seemingly docile nature across Get me back to me’s drifting chords and closer All i need’s sweet folksiness, but then invert it just as quickly. It makes her louder moments even more of a thrill, particularly Black swan, whose initial spiky scuzziness melts into a blissful haze of sound.

At its best, it’s pure, soul-soothing escapism. And yet, this is only the start – as she grows, she'll evolve and mould everything she’s absorbed into an even more individual sound.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Softcult, Nothing, Julie

If not winter is released on August 1 via Interscope