It’s getting cold here in New York where I am, and in Chicago where the artist Lipsticism resides. It’s “brick” out there season, Sagittarius season, girl I really should have worn gloves today season. And though Lipsticism’s Elapsed Kiss was released in October—when the weather didn’t yet necessitate keeping your head warm—to me it is simply perfect for tiptoeing into winter. Elapsed Kiss sounds like a frosted window, ice flowers creeping rhizomatic crystal feather patterns across glass. It’s crisp and creamy, glowing like a yellow lamp through sleet watched from a bedroom. If I’m waxing poetic it’s because I can’t get enough of this gorgeous third album from Alana Schactel, who recently mentioned in an interview that she’s been influenced by Gregorian chants, epic landscapes, fear, and memory.

The songs on Elapsed Kiss are all hyper-dreamy but with a beat, making them both vaporous and solid; the vocals are celestial and ecstatic, in a way that sounds far away but not alien-like. I feel as though I am being told something. “Sun Lifts The Weight,” which comes near the end of the record, is particularly like this. The opener, “Hold Me Release Me,” is equally enchanting and seductive. After listening to the first song I don’t know how one could not keep going—it builds, almost hypnotizing. But it’s not quite trance-inducing, because as it continues, there is always something to notice. Elapsed Kiss makes me want to dance in the snow in a translucent puffer coat. But, y’know what, even if it were the start of summer, it would make me want to dance on a rock in the middle of the sea, or topless in a convertible with beautiful strangers.