Romance! Despair! Trauma! Sounds good to you? It sounds good to me too and mixed together by Love Spirals Downwards it sounds even better. Suzanne Perry and Ryan Lum once again create a world without boudaries, taking in subtle sounds and sharp senses, morphing them into music and presenting them back for our listening pleasure. Seductive and sad, full of longing and lust, this album can't help but satisfy your cravings for music that captivates with a hit of decay wafting about the edges. Like visiting ancient ruins on a sunny day, Ardor captures your imagination and it's up to you what you let them do with it. My suggestion: surrender to them!

The second album from melancholy bunch Love Spirals Downwards and a splendid affair it is too. Suzanne Perry's heavenly vocals mix with a lushly produced backdrop of melody and ambience for fifty gorgeous minutes of sound. There's nothing taxing about this music, nothing particulary experimental, but where there is I could happily listen to it for years to come. With the added bonus of the last track "Tear Love From My Mind" penned by Mr. Rosenthal himself, this is simply introspective, intelligent "pop" (and I use the word reservedly) having more than a hint of sadness buried within it. Exquisite.

When discussing the ethereal gothic sound, one can't help but mention Love Spirals Downwards latest effort, Ardor. The album makes its intense entrance with the churning, beautifully stellar " Will You Fade," and for the nest 55 minutes, takes the listener on a delicately passionate, otherworldly journey to the very depths of human emotion. Musically, the band bears much resemblance to the bands from the old 4AD sound (specifically the Cocteau Twins), yet Love Spirals Downward manages to do more than just wear their influences on their sleeve. The striking vocals of Suzanne Perry sound like they were captured in a low-lit cathedral or mystical shrine deep in the night, adding impeccably to the richly swirling guitars of Ryan Lum. The emotional wrestling present in both the music of Lum and the vocals of Perry is captivating and can be evidenced just by looking at the titles alone: ("Depression Glass," "Tear Love From My Mind"). Of the 11 tracks present, the standouts are "Write In Water" with its dreamy harmonies, and the slowly climaxing guitar of "Will You Fade; however, even the standouts don't overshadow the solidarity of the album as a whole. Each of the individual songs piece together to produce that "heavenly melancholy" perfect for late night drifting and moody contemplations and methinks that Ardor has established Love Spirals Downward as a staggering and potential standardbearer in the ethereal gothic scene today.