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Two minutes and thirty seconds into the title track of Rachika Nayar\u2019s Heaven Come Crashing<\/em>, <\/em>an absolutely massive drum and bass beat drops. As a fan of Nayar\u2019s debut record Our Hands Against The Dusk<\/em>, it caught me off guard. That album has no percussion on it at all. Heaven Comes Crashing <\/em>is almost entirely drum-free, too. There are some rapid-fire mechanical hi-hats on the second track, \u201cTetramorph,\u201d and the back half of track six, \u201cGayatri,\u201d has what sounds like a snare buried deep in the mix. But it isn\u2019t until track seven that Nayar delivers an unexpected drum explosion, before immediately retreating to the soothing wash of \u201cSleepless,\u201d just one song later.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Nayar\u2019s unique brand of guitar-heavy ambient-adjacent music plays almost like a version of M83 from an alternate universe. One where instead of turning to \u201880s pop music for inspiration, Anthony Gonzalez mined his instrumental epics for every last drop of emotion. Heaven Comes Crashing<\/em> is as emotionally heavy as the title would imply but uses surprisingly few words to get there. The only vocals come courtesy of Maria BC, who floats over the title track and the stunning album closer \u201cOur Wretched Fate,\u201d where she worldlessly belts out her laments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n There are lyrics on \u201cHeaven Comes Crashing,\u201d but they\u2019re almost indecipherable as Maria BC whispers beneath an ocean of flailing guitar lines and sparkling drones:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Is it morning?<\/p>\n I don\u2019t remember going to sleep<\/p>\n How can we face the day<\/p>\n Like this?<\/p>\n You throw down your arms and count to see<\/p>\n How deep it is<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Instead of words, Nayar turns to heavily processed guitar, lonesome textures, and the occasional burst of trance chords to capture the desperate longing at the album\u2019s core. But the album is also an indictment of the sort of abandon that often accompanies unbridled passion. It\u2019s bookended by \u201cOur Wretched Fantasy\u201d and \u201cOur Wretched Fate,\u201d betraying a certain disgust for its own emotional recklessness. Track three isn\u2019t \u201cDeath and Love\u201d; it\u2019s \u201cDeath and Limerence\u201d \u2014 opting to spotlight unhealthy romantic obsession rather than fulfilling emotional partnership, through U2-esque guitar lines that eventually drown beneath heavily reverbed and out-of-tune tremolo-picked notes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That\u2019s followed by the unease of \u201cNausea,\u201d which builds from an unsteady drone to maximalist panic of \u201890s synths and one of the simplest and prettiest guitar melodies on the record. The ambient emo of \u201cPromises\u201d follows, leading into \u201cGayatri,\u201d which ratchets up the energy and serves as a bridge to the explosive title track.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n