• Courtesy
• GIFT, Illuminator

(Captured Tracks, CD, vinyl, digital)

Big feelings don't always translate into big music. Some of the most intensely moving songs, like many by Joanna Newsom and Elliott Smith, are quiet, subdued or otherwise small in sonic scope, despite the major feels roiling underneath. Brooklyn quintet GIFT go the other way, making music as huge and powerful as those overwhelming emotions.

The group's second album, Illuminator, is a powerful collection of synthed-out, guitar-soaked bangers. From start to finish, the album transmutes a torrent of relentless feelings into glistening tunes that combine the sheen of new wave, sincerity of jangle pop, angst of emo and dissociation of psychedelia. The elements yield a state of bliss even when the songs linger on painful realities and deep-seated anxieties.

Bandleader and vocalist-guitarist TJ Freda's fluid voice anchors the band's massive compositions. Fueled by the maddening concept of time and how to both ignore and wrangle it, he asks via a press release, "How do you truly live in the moment while anticipating what's ahead?"

The question emerges promptly on opener "Wish Me Away." Brisk beats evoke the acceleration of time as a disorienting scuttling sound shoots across the stereo image. The song stabilizes over guitar drenched in tremolo, ushering in Freda's anxious ask: "This life I can't repeat / Like sinking sand / It's gone way too fast / Will they remember me / Just in time to bury me?"

The album examines not just the passage of time but also how people enter and exit our lives. On the otherwise surging "Going in Circles," Freda emerges in a rare moment of compositional emptiness to sing, "A familiar dream she said / Caught under waves of dread / I couldn't find a way to stay."

Many of GIFT's hooks elicit a sense of trying to stop time. Their lyrics often center short phrases or even individual words that take up the psychic space of complex thoughts. On "Light Runner," which dabbles with breakbeats and chopped synths, Freda draws out words such as "feel," "took" and "again" as if underlining them — or not wanting to let go.

Energetically, GIFT rarely take a moment to breathe. Even songs that start out sedated — like "Falling Down," whose intro recalls late-'90s alt-rock through a chunky guitar riff — still reach a grand pinnacle.

Despite only forming in 2020, GIFT summon the power of a group that's been together much longer. The songs on Illuminator are full and potent; they often say multitudes with only a few words.

Illuminator is available at giftbandnyc.bandcamp.com and on major streaming services. GIFT perform on Tuesday, September 17, at the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge in South Burlington.