B-Side Guys

Addiction stories told from single viewpoints miss half the devastation. Sungaze’s “Rice Crispies” corrects this oversight through alternating perspectives that document both sides of dependency’s emotional wreckage—the person consumed by substances and the person watching it happen. Ian Hilvert and Ivory Snow’s vocal interplay creates genuine dialogue rather than mere harmony, with each singer inhabiting their assigned role completely enough to make the conversation feel overheard rather than performed.

The production builds walls of reverb that both comfort and isolate, creating the kind of atmospheric density that shoegaze requires while serving the song’s thematic content. The “slamming rhythm section” mentioned provides necessary weight beneath dreamy textures, preventing the track from floating away into pure aestheticism. This balance reflects Sungaze’s understanding that beautiful music can carry ugly subjects without diminishing either the beauty or the ugliness.

The lyrical structure’s alternating perspectives reveals how addiction creates parallel isolation experiences. The observer watching someone “trapped in misery” feels helpless to intervene, while the person using seeks escape from circumstances that feel unbearable. When both voices converge on “So beautiful / I feel nothing,” the shared numbness becomes momentarily unified—both parties seeking different forms of emotional anesthesia through different methods.

Snow and Hilvert’s vocal performances carry the weight of people who understand their assigned emotional territories. The delivery avoids melodrama while maintaining enough rawness to make the desperation feel genuine rather than performed. Their harmonies suggest two people speaking past each other even when using the same words, capturing how addiction creates communication barriers even during moments of apparent connection.

“Rice Crispies” functions as both shoegaze achievement and empathy exercise, demonstrating how genre conventions can serve serious subject matter without sacrificing artistic integrity. The track creates space for listeners to inhabit both perspectives simultaneously, understanding how good intentions and destructive impulses can coexist within the same relationship. Sungaze has crafted something that honors the complexity of addiction’s social dimension while providing the cathartic release that effective dream pop requires.