Letting Up Despite Great Faults - wrapped, 2014

"A long time ago, probably 1994, a friend and me got caught in this torrential downpour while walking the parking lot at high school. We took cover inside her Ford Taurus and we tried to have a long conversation about nothing and everything to idle the storm’s duration. Well, the rain fell so hard that our conversation was drowned and instead we just turned up the radio and heard music that got transformed by a dreamlike wave of white noise created by the raindrops hitting the roof of the car. Letting Up Despite Great Faults‘ Neon brought that memory back. The car stereo was loud enough to help the music prevail over the rain noise, but you still had that distant sound enveloping everything. Conversely, the songs in Neon do have a sizeable portion of Shoegaze, but it’s a lean serving, just enough to make it more of a warm hug and less of an awkward cuddle."

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - shift, 2014

"Shift" is a track from the 2014 album Neon by Letting Up Despite Great Faults, an American indie pop/dream pop band founded by Mike Lee in 2006. The song, with a runtime of 2:56, is the opening track of the 13-song album, released on August 12, 2014, and characterized by its dreamy, shoegaze-infused indie rock sound. Critics have noted Neon for its shimmering, danceable melodies and New Order-inspired basslines, with "Shift" setting the tone for the album's ethereal vibe."

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - bishops, 2014

"Bishops" is a track from the 2014 album Neon by Letting Up Despite Great Faults, an American indie pop/dream pop band. The track features vocals by Annah Fisette and is described as having a darker, more pounding take on the band’s dreamy, shoegaze-inspired sound. Critics noted its catchy vocals and electronic dream pop elements, fitting into the album’s nostalgic yet urgent vibe."

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - the colors aren't you or me, 2009

"fascinating is “The Colors Aren’t You Or Me”, a song that has more relation to the Swedish band The Radio Dept. circa their Lesser Matters heyday. In fact, much of the album seems to be influenced by the likes of Lesser Matters; it features fuzzy electrics and vocals that flip between mopey and lovey."

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - bulletproof girl, 2012

"We have a soft spot for Austin, Texas outfit Letting Up Despite Great Faults, thanks in large part to their fusion of dreampop with a more metronomic, New Order referencing sound."

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - release, 2009

"Letting Up Despite Great Faults is an electronic-pop group from Los Angeles, Calif. that makes beautiful, lolling music with whispery vocals. Formed by Mike Lee in 2004, the six-piece band blends sampled sounds and polyrhythms with mandolin, cello, guitar and keyboards. The band got its unusually long name when Lee decided to start writing and recording songs despite feeling he wasn't very good."

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - teenage tide, 2011

“Teenage Tide” is off that EP and it finds the band picking up where their debut left off. The song maintains that perfect dream-pop sound, with consistent guitar riffs draped softly in a fuzzy reverb and fronted by airy vocals. Like the earlier stuff, “Teenage Tide” hints lightly of The Radio Dept. circa Pet Grief. But Letting Up Despite Great Faults brings out the vocals a bit more and plays off the youthful nature of the band. These are songs about love and life, and so they find that middle ground between hope and despair. “Teenage Tide” is uplifting yet has to it a hint of sadness. It’s a core element that made Letting Up Despite Great Faults such a strong LP."

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - numbered days, 2012

"There’s no end, so just do the best you can!"

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - breaking, 2012

"A lot of that was I wanted to make sure I was writing songs that I liked playing on just the guitar. I think it’s very easy for me to go down a lot of soundscapes and synths and drum machines and analog filters, and it’s so easy to get lost."

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - maybe i'll hide with you, 2006

"Letting Up Despite Great Faults is the indie electro-based sonic diary of founding member Mike Lee. Their 2009 self-titled debut LP was an exploration of indiepop melodies, electro beats, and shoegaze guitars. The lead single "In Steps" instantly caught the attention of everyone from Pitchfork to Rolling Stone. With rave reviews and countless blog support, 2011 saw the release of Paper Crush, an EP full of washed synths, hazy guitars, and heartfelt pop that NPR called "both nostalgic and caught in a moment that feels never-ending." Since then, they've continued to refine and expand their sound in their 2nd LP, Untogether, an album that radiates infectious melodies, heartbreaking sentiments, and danceable dreampop. They have been compared to similar artists such as New Order, The Postal Service, M83, and The Radio Dept."

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - take my jacket pauline, 2012

"The band gets considerable mileage out of simplicity: Untogether comes fully stocked with the sort of minimal but richly melodic Bernard Sumner-esque guitar patterns ("Scratch", "Take My Jacket Pauline") and dry-iced, strobe-lit Hacienda flashbacks ("Postcard", "Bulletproof Girl") that make for pure indie pop catnip. And despite working within intimate, drum-machined parameters, the band evinces a greatness of depth to its sound-- upon hearing the baritone guitar hook underpinning the effervescent opener "Visions", it's natural to mentally substitute in a cello line."

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - pretending green grass, 2006

"I had a lot of insecurities about it, namely it being too upbeat and me not being confident in my vocals. I think you can hear some elements that appear in our other songs…jangly guitars, high basslines…melancholy lyrics over a dancey beat…"

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - folding under stories told, 2009

"This is an album for those who lamented The Radio Dept’s recent stray from their fuzzy electro-pop beginnings into something a bit cleaner and danceable, as well as for those who continue to love everything by that band yet fully cherish their early days as well (I fall into the latter camp)."

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - in steps, 2009

"To say that it never rains in Southern California might be an overstatement, but it's still an unexpected pleasure to hear something so unmistakably autumnal from the season-challenged state. Letting Up Despite Great Faults, a Los Angeles-based band, effectively capture an overcast mood with "In Steps", the opening track from their forthcoming self-titled album. Layering lush synth and a shimmering New Order guitar tone, "Steps" prettily evokes the tipping point from full bloom to slow decay, as the warm summer days give way to a wet, windy fall."

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - repeating hearts, 2011

"From the opening chords of the sweet ‘Repeating hearts’ until the reverb heavy fade out of ‘Helium’ (sounds like a balloon losing its wind!), there is rhyme to these sunny, happy drenched music. It’s a good continuation of the ideas that this Los Angeles based band laid out on their début album, Letting up despite great faults."

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - sophia in gold, 2011

"There’s a chance you’ll become quite smitten with Letting Up Despite Great Faults’ dreamy indie pop - their name taken from the Blonde Redhead track ‘Loved Despite Great Faults.’ LUDGF’s sound is just as nostalgic."

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - mixtape receipt, 2006

"Despite its ponderous name, Letting Up Despite Great Faults makes music that’s light as a feather and ephemeral as a dream."

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - gleam, 2024

"classic dream pop influences with an affectionate, post-'90s mix of chorus-heavy guitars and gentle, recessed vocals"