ALBUM REVIEW: 'California Nebula' by Default

To fully understand the intricate beauty of Chinese shoegaze band Default’s album titled “California Nebula,” you simply need to understand the history of the shoegaze genre. One does not need to understand Mandarin in order to understand the scope and message of the album.   

Believed to have emerged from the United Kingdom’s underground psychedelic rock sound, shoegaze has become a defining genre in mainstream music. The term “shoegaze” refers to band members gazing at their shoes during performances almost in a trance-like state.  

While shoegaze is still considered to be a rather niche sub-genre of rock, I have been listening to the genre for years, and it was actually my most played genre in 2025 according to Spotify Wrapped.  

California Nebula” begins with the song “*A Day in Winter” opening with one of the most ethereal guitars riff I have ever heard. Upon first listening, it immediately made me feel as if I were floating around in outer space in slow motion. This song lacks any lyrics and acts almost as a prelude to the next track titled “*Pigeon Whistle.”  

The second track is my favorite on the album because it is what piqued my interest in listening to the other songs on the album. “Pigeon Whistle” has the formulaic shoegaze sound with very loud instruments and ambient vocals, typical of the modern shoegaze sound.  

The third track, “*Covered in Cement After Death,” has the most melancholic feel out of all five songs on the album. Around the track’s two-minute mark, the recurring intergalactic ambience theme resurfaces.  

The fourth and fifth tracks, “Moon Plate” and “Schwarzschild Drainhole,” are the most experimental on the album, both producing an avant-garde sound compared to the previous tracks. “Moon Plate” is my least favorite on the album, and this is a popular sentiment as shown through the decreased number of global playthroughs, which Spotify tracks.  

Overall, “California Nebula” is one of my favorite albums not only because of how obscure and niche it is, but also because of the length of the album. The album consists of only five songs, but each track gets longer as you make your way through.  

Due to the album being released almost 10 years ago, there have been significant changes to the band as a whole. Default’s lead vocalist was replaced in 2018 (a year after the release of “California Nebula”) and the band is no longer a shoegaze band. Their 2023 album features more of a singer-songwriter/indie folk sound.  

I’m usually a huge fan of bands taking detours with their approaches to sound and creativity, but I think Default would have risen to prominence in China and around the world as a leader in the shoegaze genre had the bandmates decided to take that path.

“California Nebula” will always be an album I can easily recognize, and it will always hold space in my music repertoire.  

*The song titles in this article have been translated to English due to an inability to print the Chinese characters.