“Silver Linings” by Autumn’s Grey Solace

There are countless bands out there conjuring up ethereal music that can trace its origins directly back to the Cocteau Twins’ classic 4AD albums. But few of them are as proficient, or prolific, as Autumn’s Grey Solace. For over 25 years now, singer/keyboardist Erin Welton and guitarist Scott Ferrell have been trading in their arcane art, and their latest album — The Neverending — contains ample proof of their dream pop prowess.

Ferrell’s effects-laden guitar chimes and shimmers in only the dreamiest of ways on a song like “Silver Linings.” Meanwhile, Welton’s soprano voice is the very definition of effortless as she sends it gliding and tumbling through Ferrell’s arrangements. And even she doesn’t engage in the same sort of enigmatic glossolalia as Elizabeth Fraser famously did with the Twins, her lyrics — “I run to hide within total weakness/Oh, don’t go, don’t go/And leave me alone” — nevertheless possess an otherworldly quality all their own. The resulting song is a beguiling mix of coy playfulness and forlorn melancholy.

The Neverending is currently available.