Laguna’s latest single, “Sweetlips,” is a gloriously raw trip through psychedelic fuzz and analog grit, served with just the right amount of weird. Fronted by James Guida, the Geelong-based mastermind behind the project, Laguna’s sound is a throwback to the heavy, chaotic grooves of the ’60s and ’70s. With “Sweetlips,” Guida brings stoner rock, VHS-era aesthetics, and his signature DIY ethos into his grungy, haunted, and mesmerizing music.
“Sweetlips” kicks off with an eerie ambient swell, like a ghost waking up in the back of a dusty dive bar. Then the fuzzy, grimy, unapologetic guitars crash in, accompanied by crunchy, head-nodding drums that hit with hypnotic force. But just as the noise threatens to consume everything, Guida’s smooth, calm, and hauntingly melodic vocals glide in. His high, dreamy delivery floats above the wreckage like a sweet hallucination, softening the edges of the chaos just enough to draw you deeper into the vortex. And when the bridge rolls around, the guitar solo wails, spiraling into a soaring crescendo.
The music video doubles down on the surrealism. Whether it creeps you or not, you can’t deny that the video editing is exceptional with all those effects, glitches, overlays, the monochrome, distortion, and everything. The guitarist wearing a white mask before a hefty huge cross is creepy enough as it is, but doing push-ups with a cowboy hat before a headstone at a grave—that’s insane.
Released via Guida’s own label, Mountain Girl Records, “Sweetlips” is a psych fuzz salvation. With each new project, Laguna continues to defy genre conventions, push artistic boundaries, and build a gritty, personal, and captivatingly strange universe. Check out the music video on YouTube.
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Review by: Naomi Joan