When an album suggests from its opening notes just how stunning it will be, a sort of promise is made. It is the kind of promise few bands are able to keep, but from the opening string quartet intro straight through the album's delicate closing, Headlights deliver a pop masterpiece with Kill Them With Kindness. This record is alive with a pulse that beats with shoegaze spirit. Through its veins runs the lifeblood of an indie-pop band not afraid to incorporate a synth wall of sound and a mod organ in consecutive songs, not afraid of anything at all. There is a synthesis of keyboards and guitars, of vocals, of ethereal programming and huge drums; a solidification of lyrics centered on the paradoxes, the ups and downs we all experience. And in this world of stun or be stunned, by the time Kill Them With Kindness shimmers to its close, you realize not only how remarkable the album is, but how rare it is for a debut LP to yield such dramatic results.