They say good things come to those who wait, and in the case of Brooklyn's The Blessed Isles, the adage bears out. After five years of recording in studios across four states, the band stands poised to inject a much-needed dose of substance into the shoegaze bloodstream with their debut 2016 LP, Straining Hard Against The Strength Of Night. Not satisfied to merely recreate the genre's trademark textures, vocalist and guitarist Aaron Closson (The Hourly Radio) and multi-instrumentalist Nolan Thies (N?TIONS) put a premium on song craft, fashioning melodies that seamlessly reinforce the tell-tale shoegaze soundscape. At their core, these are finely wrought pop songs that would shine in any genre, but are fully realized in the gossamer intricacies and stentorian pulse of Straining.