Release Date: 16 January 2026
Song Count: 10
Duration: 27 minutes, 1 second
Rating: 8.4/10
Description:
Heading over to a largely forgotten corner of Europe, we witness what could be considered Lithuania's biggest cultural representatives of the past year releasing a shorter full-length album just a few days ago as of writing. Katarsis is an alternative rock band consisting of four members who performed under their Baltic home country's flag in Eurovision last year - perhaps not emerging as the stars of the show, but nevertheless acquiring a dedicated international audience simply through sticking to their specific field of musical expertise and performing "Tavo akys", a song so unequivocally them that it successfully served as the ultimate grand introduction to the world stage on who they are. And while this breakout song also rears its head in this new album as one of the 10 tracks, its inclusion is far from the only thing catching the ear here.
Listeners have frequently described Katarsis' general discography as a particularly moody, nocturnal and depressive sort of rock music that incorporates subgenres like gothic rock and shoegaze to fully lean into its feels, and these tracks are no exception - from the soulful way the instruments are played and the softly reverbed, distant effect each of them receive in production, to the very subtly expressive vocal delivery of Lukas Radzevičius, the lead singer, the somber and gloomy atmosphere invoked within the music has a particularly strong presence, like as if it were rainy weather captured and depicted in rock music form. This particular musical framing to really showcase the emotions of sadness and numb ambivalence is effective in its aim but simultaneously manages to feel natural, like an organic part of the music and the band's identity, without becoming overbearing and suffocating with its thorough indulgence into this kind of sound. One does not have to necessarily understand the lyrics to truly emotionally tap into the ongoings of the tracks, and that on its own is a noteworthy feature - to be able to express oneself even without having to sacrifice one's own language to make any meanings clearer or to appease a non-Lithuanian audience.
The only complaint I could possibly have with Žiedlapis tau as an album is the simple fact that it's merely bite-sized by music standards, being only 27 minutes long in total - though perhaps the fact that it's on the shorter end leads one to appreciate its strengths far more without falling back to common habits of excessive repetition or songs beginning to sound the same as each other. Every single song here has something new to say or introduce to the musical scope, but particular highlights amongst them include the aforementioned "Tavo akys", right alongside "Malda", "Kas man be jūros" and "Neleisk man". It's not necessarily common to find a record that feels like a complete package in terms of musical contents, especially ones of this duration length, but Katarsis have truly outdone themselves with this work and provided just that. I sincerely hope that they continue their well-deserved time in the alt-rock limelight, and am very excited to see what sort of music they can conjure up next!