Last year, the dreamy Oakland shoegazers Welcome Strawberry released their sophomore album Desperate Flower. Today, they've followed that record with a relatively low-key EP, meant to accompany the LP and sensibly titled Floral Arrangements. I might like the band a little better when they're in this acoustic-adjacent zone.
In the Bandcamp description, Welcome Strawberry describe Floral Arrangements as "an acoustic companion piece." It's a nice little collection of odds and ends: a new song, a remix of one from Desperate Flower, and a cover of "As Big As You Are," a 2020 song from their Bay Area contemporaries Aluminum. The final track is an old demo, and when the big guitars kicked in, they startled my cat. I think that's a pretty good indication of the kind of dreamlike spell that the first three songs cast. Listen below.
The Floral Arrangements EP is out now on Cherub Dream. Welcome Strawberry leader Cyrus VandenBerghe is also a member of Sloome, who released the album Blue Fire Doom just last month.
