Music Features 72
Tove Styrke – Kiddo
It seems like I’m on an electropop kick lately. I’ve tried to do all sorts of self-analysis to see why this is, and I’ve decided that I don’t need a reason — I should just accept my newfound love of catchy hooks and danceable beats. The first step to acceptance? Drowning my ears in synthesizers. […]
Mark Barrott – Sketches from an Island
Mark Barrott is a very smart man. However, being smart doesn’t always mean you’ll make great music. In my opinion, sometimes the intellect gets in the way of the feeling. Not so with Mark. On his criminally unheralded album “Sketches from an Island” takes a much maligned style, the music of Ibiza, and reinvigorates it […]
City of Ships – Ultraluminal
Ultraluminal is the new LP from Austin, TX / Brooklyn, NY based post-rock outfit City of Ships. I was lucky enough to jump on a portion of their 2012 summer tour and I thought they were on-point back then, but they’ve done nothing but grow in the past three years. In the album’s first single, “Alarm,” […]
Lower Dens – Escape From Evil
On the surface, Lower Dens’ newest album, Escape From Evil, is the most pop album the group has put out to date. It rides the growing wave of modern bands adding subtle synth hooks over nostalgic, drawn-out lyrics of unrequited love, which makes sense when you consider the lead singer Jana Hunter wrote half the album […]
YOB – “Clearing The Path to Ascend”
Oregon doom champions YOB’s most recent effort, “Clearing The Path to Ascend,” breathes a breath of fresh air into the sometimes-stale genre of doom metal. Too often, doom bands rely on heaviness and heaviness alone as their only tool to wield, paying little attention to song dynamics or character. While YOB does a great job […]
Celine Neon – Getcha Good
After listening to this track for the first time, I was making weird mouth noises for the rest of the day. I also began moving in a way that could only be described as “spazmatic bobble head doll”. “Getcha Good” is the kind of song that lodges itself in your brain because of its energetic […]
My Morning Jacket – The Waterfall
Over the course of a decade-and-a-half, My Morning Jacket has developed its signature blend of alt-country, soul, electronica, and roots rock — a seemingly self-contradictory concoction that has earned them their status as outdoor-festival gods. Their latest album, The Waterfall, runneth over with that classic sound, yet ventures into new sonic territory as well. Nature imagery and soundscapes abound, and the album has […]
Clifford T. Ward – Mantle Pieces
Back in the early ’70s, there was a songwriter who penned some of the loveliest, smartest, and knowing odes to quotidian life and its people. He wrote forgotten hits like “Gaye” and “Home Thoughts from Abroad” that struck British audiences with their perfect memorable mixture of literate lyricism and timeless Orchestral Pop arrangements. Now, for sure, […]
Swervedriver – I Wasn’t Born to Lose You
“I Wasn’t Born to Lose You” is the recently released new album from beloved ’90s shoegaze band Swervedriver, and their first since 1998. It positively confirms the truth behind the old idiom, “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.” Featuring lead singer Adam Franklin’s distinctive, nonchalant vocal stylings and the swirling fuzz guitars that put […]
