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crushed, 'waterlily'

The LA duo crushed makes music for waxing poetic on the moments that pass you by. For lost loves that have begun to fade in your memory. A Portishead for a nostalgia-pilled generation; a group whose music, despite having only an EP out into the world, carries a deep sense of place and time. On "waterlily," extra life's opening single, crushed paints a picture of tragic desire through a combination of shoegaze guitar and melancholic vocals that inspire comparisons from Sugar Ray to Elizabeth Fraser.

Both members of crushed, Bre Morell and Shaun Durkan, come from Temple of Angels and Weekend, respectively. Through these separate forays into reverb-laden dream pop and post-punk, they've together acquired a fascination with the evocative. Whispers of faith drive the lyrics on extra life: "Glowing in the center of the darkest pond / you're all I've ever wanted," Morrell sings over a filtered backbeat. It's a lyricism that speaks of an all-encompassing love, where the object of desire is your everything to a near-religious degree. Then, the music swells once again, and you fall back into the dream you were almost brutally awakened from.

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Reanna Cruz is a news assistant for NPR Music's Alt.Latino.