Track Review – Page 4

TRACK REVIEW: Amen Dunes “Lonely Richard”

In 2006, during the Northeast’s creepiest and most beautiful time of year–fall–Damon McMahon started recording his tightly knotted, introspective guitar melodies in the Catskills, never intending them for public consumption. Thus Amen Dunes was born, and thus–essentially–it remains: the music is simple, lonesome and woodsy, with a healthy dose of the otherworldly-creepy sensation you get from spending a lot of time alone with the Hudson Valley’s sinisterly beautiful landscape.

“Lonely Richard,” off the forthcoming album Love (out 5/13 on Sacred Bones) illustrates McMahon’s penchant for interiority–his voice, small-sounding and thick with melancholy, takes a back seat to the guitars, which screech and whine and slide all over this track. There’s a folky simplicity at the heart of it, but much more immediate is the drone of the instrumentals–how the guitar lines repeat and loop over themselves, how the strings maintain such a constant pitch that they lose form by the end of the song, assuming an atmospheric presence that evokes wind, or clouds, or something else just as environmental. The track builds low and slow, then fades away just as subtly. It’s sort of an anti-social number, but the simple chord structure underlying it keeps “Lonely Richard” from being unfriendly.

In typical fashion, Amen Dunes have released a single that reveals practically nothing about the album to come–the track wouldn’t be gripping enough to save a lethargic album or to temper an overly sweet one, but by itself, “Lonely Richard” has a deceptively compelling low-grade catchiness that will, if nothing else, awaken your curiosity. Wet your whistle with “Lonely Richard,” via Soundcloud:

TRACK REVIEW: Sean Nicholas Savage “Empire”

Few people can boast the creation of 11 studio albums by the time they’re 28. Quebec’s own Sean Nicholas Savage, who will officially enter his late twenties at the end of the month (happy birthday Sean!), absolutely can. What’s even more impressive than the sheer volume of Savage’s output is that he’s only been recording since 2008. As a prolific staple in the Montreal indie scene, Savage has been represented by Arbutus Records (home to Grimes, Doldrums, and Blue Hawaii) for the last five years, and hasn’t wasted a moment since his initial signing with the label. Following 2013’s Other Life LP, Savage releases Bermuda Waterfall on May 13th, and I suspect he’s already churning out new ballads for the next record.

“Empire” is the vulnerable core of Bermuda Waterfall. A sorrowful track that bridges contemporary minimalism and eighties sentimentality, it is the kind of song that multiplies its infectiousness exponentially with each play. Commencing with the twinkling chirp of keys, a patient but weighty bass line, and an unobtrusive snare beat, Sean’s clean voice chimes in with the darkly romantic phrase “We held each other in the empire of hate” that quickly comes to characterize the narrative.

His vocal style is one that is so familiar it’s impossible to recognize where you’ve heard its doppelgangers. On the higher end of the audible spectrum, it glides between trembling, shrill, and soft with genuine ease. This is a sensitive singing niche-one that could be butchered with cheesiness were it attempted by another artist. That isn’t to say schmaltzy music hasn’t influenced the song; easy listening and corporate muzak rush to the mind’s forefront when hearing “Empire” for the first time. It certainly has its roots in mid-80’s sap rock, but it subdues those elements to the most tasteful degree as opposed to satirizing them. What could have been rendered ironic is instead painfully sincere, a quality that marks all of Savage’s music. He writes as if meekly exposing a raw wound to a wolf pack, wincing and hoping for the best.

Isolation is another recurring feature in the annals of the artist’s recording history, and there is no shortage of it on this track. It is just too perfect that as he sings the line “Kissing myself, holding myself / As if you were, somebody else” he’s harmonizing with himself. This kind of lyrical/formal continuity reflects the skill set of someone who’s been writing music as many years as Savage has been alive. Likewise the thematic desolation of his words compliments the sparseness of the song’s composition beautifully.

Savage is the kind of songwriter who has the ability to sate his listener while still inspiring a gluttonous hunger for more – kind of like watching butter settle into hot toast and spreading on three layers more, despite having plenty in the first place. Given the combination of his talent, youth, and compulsive need to create, I expect to be slathering on much more of Sean Nicholas Savage in the near future.

Check out “Empire” below:

TRACK REVIEW: Amen Dunes “I Can’t Dig It”

The two tracks off Amen Dunes‘ forthcoming album Love that have surfaced (“Lilac in Hand” and “Lonely Richard”) are both on the murky side of things, but neither can touch the newest single, “I Can’t Dig It” for sheer liberated noise. Lo-fi and howly, the track is an ingloriously atonal celebration of being no good in all the right ways. Rough rhythms and war-cry vocals abound.

As always, the music is the product of Damon McMahon and friends, but Love is probably the first Amen Dunes recording that can’t be considered a solo album. Not only do we see McMahon’s longtime collaborators Parker Kindred (drums) and Jordi Wheeler (piano, guitar) join him for the length of the album, but several of the tracks feature input from other friends and neighbors. In fact, “I Can’t Dig It” gets its guitar and sax lines, respectively, from Efrim Manuck, of Godspeed! You Black Emperor, and Colin Stetson, of too many projects to list here.

Truth be told, there might be too many people on this track. Stacked as high as a too-tall deli sandwich, “I Can’t Dig It” has too many instrumental lines, rhythms, and sections to keep track of, let alone rock out to. Which is a shame, because the high-flying vocals and fast-paced, moshable rhythms would make for fantastically distorted and dirty party music if the song’s structure were a little bit simpler.

Amen Dunes newest album Love, including “I Can’t Dig It,” will be out May 13th on Sacred Bones. Can you dig it? Yeah, I thought I was gonna get through the whole review without making that joke, too. Give the track a listen below via Soundcloud:

TRACK OF THE WEEK: Son Lux and Lorde

Last year, producer/composer Ryan Lott, aka Son Lux, released his amazing full-length album Lanterns to immediate praise. How’s now returning with Alternate Worlds, an EP of four of Lanterns’ songs reimagined and reinvented. The tracks are all worth a listen, but Son Lux’s collaboration with Lorde on a remake of his song “Easy” is our favorite.

“Easy (Switch Screens)” ups the ante by replacing “Easy”’s originally slithering, quietly hypnotizing sound with a heavier, more intense one. The song is still rather minimalistic but the percussion takes an industrial turn here, and when paired with Lorde’s now unmistakeable voice, it’s downright sinister—but in an oh so sexy way. She sounds like a movie villain spurned as she sings Son Lux’s lyrics, “Pull out your heart to make the being alone easy.” An abrasive electrical guitar solo punctuates the track with a distorted sound that almost nears scratches on a chalkboard.

The overall effect is ever so slightly disquieting, but 100% mesmerizing. Alternate Worlds is due out May 27th on vinyl via Joyful Noise Records, but it’s available digitally right now. Take a listen to “Easy (Switch Screens)” below!

TRACK OF THE WEEK: Phox’s “Slow Motion”

Madison, WI’s Phox have been around for a few years now, steadily building hype around the world for their special brand of chamber pop. The septet, fronted by the ever so charming Monica Martin, received particular praise coming out of SXSW, and tonight they’ll be opening for Laura Mvula at a sold out Music Hall of Williamsburg show. All this without even having a full-length album out yet.

Luckily for us, their debut is on its way. The self-titled album is due June 24th, and Phox are now streaming their track “Slow Motion” to tide us over until then. The track is a gorgeous display of the band’s versatility, implementing hand claps and whistles alongside a banjo, clarinet, electric guitar, and piano. It wavers between minimalistic and lush, evoking a wide open feeling that brings early Noah and the Whale to mind. Martin’s croon is soulful and dazzling, akin to Feist. Listen to the track below and catch Phox on their tour while you still can!

TRACK REVIEW: Parquet Courts “Sunbathing Animal”

Parquet Courts, besides being the only (I think) garage-punk quartet to ever show Ridgewood, Queens the limelight it deserves in “Stoned and Starving,” are both from and intensely representative of Brooklyn’s DIY culture. They keep it simple and keep it snotty, braiding basement-classic two-chord guitar parts with noisy hooks and lyrics that seethe with existential ennui but rarely use big words.

The group came crashing into mainstream view with Light Up Gold at the end of 2012, and then proceeded to have a busier year than their dope-smoking, couch-crashing, afternoon-rising music might have made you think was possible: they toured extensively in 2013 and released their Tally All The Things That You Broke EP less than a year after the full-length dropped. On June 3rd, Brooklyn’s hardest-working slackers are back with a brand new record titled Sunbathing Animal. Early in March, Parquet Courts came out with the title track off the new album–but only on sheet music. The dynamics prescribed for the song? “ffff,” aka “loud as hell.” Indeed.

“Sunbathing Animal” is now out as a single for those who can’t read sheet music, and you can buy the 7” on Record Store Day. The track doesn’t deviate from the slightly atonal simplicity that characterized the group’s first record; however, the sustained fever pitch of vocal energy that lasts the entirety of the near-four minute song marks new, exciting ground for Parquet Courts. The repetitive, rigid drum beat is almost maniacally fast, with twirling guitar solos to match. More passionate than it is disillusioned, “Sunbathing Animal” tightens the kind of instrumental sprawl that, on the first record, would have indicated boredom, and brings all that bright distortion and dissonance into what sounds like a Parquet Courts version of a highly danceable single.

The sheet music for this track suggests a tempo of “penitenziario,” which translates to “prison.” Is “Sunbathing Animal” a punishing song, or is it penitent? Check it out below and see what you think:

TRACK REVIEW: Prinze George “This Time”

Brooklyn’s own Prinze George are an indie-pop group that specialize in thumping synths and sweetly catchy melodies. We’ve featured them before for their last single, “Victor,” and now they’ve come out with a new song, “This Time.”

“This Time” features a driving, upbeat rhythm that begs to be played on the dance floor. Naomi Almquist’s plum vocals repeat the line “There you are after all this time” over electronic pop that blends elements from the ’80s and ’90s—it brings acts both old and new to mind, from Ace of Base to Banks. This year is looking promising for Prinze George, so keep your eye on the foursome and check out “This Time” below.

TRACK REVIEW: Throwing Snow’s “Summus”

London based electronic producer Ross Tones, aka Throwing Snow, recently released his four track EP “Pathfinder,” and its closing track, “Summus,” is now available to stream online. The track has industrial sound, with a pulsating bass that acts as the song’s heartbeat. Though it starts off quite minimally, it builds and evolves into a densely layered work with multifaceted percussion and plenty of energy.

“Pathfinder” was released via Houndstooth, who say the EP is “a route into a greater portion of work” to come from Throwing Snow, so keep your eyes peeled! Listen to “Summus” in the meantime, below:

TRACK REVIEW: “CATALYST”

Tristen’s “Catalyst,” the latest track from her 2014 release Caves, harkens back to a post-disco dance era. The electro-flute intro, thumping synthesizer and clean female vocals are immediately reminiscent of ABBA and Madonna, particularly with their classic pop tracks “Gimme Gimme Gimme” and “Get Into the Groove.”

“Catalyst” is a fun showcase of Tristen’s diversity as a songwriter. Though she’s always been loyal to the Nashville folk-pop scene, she can certainly hold her weight as a synth-pop singer. The song’s strongest features are its dance-ability and audible proximity to 70’s and 80’s club giants that beckon you groove along. Lyrically, “Catalyst” is a rather simple ditty, as most electro-pop songs are known to remain, but Tristen’s vocal style is unique, untarnished, and keeps things interesting. This track is ideal for your next party playlist.

Take a listen here:

TRACK REVIEW: Haley Bonar “No Sensitive Man”

Eight years ago, Alan Sparhawk of Low spotted twenty-year-old Haley Bonar performing at an open mic and invited her and her drummer on tour with his band. Since then, Bonar’s been busy: she’s put out five solo studio albums and started a punk side project called Gramma’s Boyfriend, which we hear involves performing in eighties figure skating outfits. Bringing anxious bass lines together with elegant vocal harmony, Bonar brings a songwriting style to each of her albums that’s appealing and complex, with a way of cloaking grisly lyrics in catchy hooks.

“No Sensitive Man” opens with a rousing drum line and dreamy, smeared vocals that seem draped over the music. “Shut your eyes and play me something good,” Bonar sings, sounding exasperated. “I don’t wanna talk. We can get away with anything these days.” It’s a flat, unsentimental meditation with a choppy bass line that sprawls over the track. This is Bonar at her most disaffected– “No Sensitive Man” bristles in a way that’s new for Bonar’s solo material, and though it’s exciting to see her snarl, the self-isolation of the vocals on this track ultimately sound lazy, and disengaged from the rest of the music. In the absence of the sweet, story-telling style that have made her albums so good up to this point, the flat disappointment and dismissiveness that colors this track feels kind of unengaging, especially since the instrumental lines don’t fill out to take over the spotlight from Bonar’s narrative persona. While I like the idea of Bonar taking the thematic bleakness her music has always had and drawing it into the music’s aesthetic a bit more, “No Sensitive Man” lacked focus without Bonar’s vocals front and center.

Bonar’s new album, Last War, will be in stores May 20th via Graveface. Until then, check out “No Sensitive Man” below and let us know what you think!

TRACK REVIEW: Jeffertitti’s Nile “Blue Spirit Blues”

Jeffertitti’s Nile is the kind of band that likes to make its own reality. The project of Jeffertitti Moon, bassist for Father John Misty, Jeffertitti’s Nile developed in the space between tours, expanding with various new members and cameos as well as scattered musical styles and odd combinations. The group prides itself on its unpredictability, and seem to deliberately sidestep expectations with each new release of self-described “Transcendental Space-Punk Doo Wop.”

It should come as no surprise, then, that the first single off the Jeffertitti’s second album The Electric Hour, set to drop at the end of April, is a little out of left field: on “Blue Spirit Blues,” Jeffertitti conducts a large-scale, ultrazany reimagining of jazz legend Bessie Smith’s 1929 version. Jeffertitti’s cover is a full gutting of the track: underlaid with a bass pull as powerful as a riptide, “Blue Spirit Blues” moves at a breakneck pace through its three and a half minutes, rollicking and snarling the whole way.

Bessie Smith and Jeffertitti aren’t nearly as odd a combination as they seem on first glance, and in fact, the more you listen to the song, the easier it is to realize that the full-body trip of Jeffertitti’s “Blue Spirit Blues” isn’t a new addition; the song always had a glint of craziness beneath the surface. The lyrics have always been scary: it’s the story of dreaming of descending into hell, running until someone wakes you up. Just as the deep dread and foreboding at the heart of Jeffertitti’s version is traceable to Smith, the original version of the song has always had something otherworldly and–in an early 20th century jazz sort of way–psychedelic about it. Jeffertitti’s rendition blasts open the song’s expansiveness and amps up the dark, sexy rhythm behind the melody.

It’s hard to know what to expect from an album whose first single is a cover, but if the imaginative power behind this track is any indication, The Electric Hour will be worth looking out for. The new album drops on April 29th via Beyond Beyond is Beyond Records. Until then, listen to “Blue Spirit Blues” below:

TRACK REVIEW: Flashlights’ “Failure”

Florida punk rockers Flashlights have just released their new track, “Failure,” in anticipation of their upcoming album Bummer Summer, due out in late spring via Hard Rock Records. Singer/guitarist Terry Caudill’s emotional vocals bring Taking Back Sunday’s Adam Lazzara to mind as he rasps, “Don’t you want to stay? Was it something I did?” The track is reminiscent of early emo but Flashlights infuses it with a soft guitar reverb that makes this track a perfect summertime anthem.

Bummer Summer was produced by Scott Hutchison and Andy Monaghan of Frightened Rabbit and will be Flashlights’ second full-length release, following their 2011 debut I’m Not Alone. The foursome will be at SXSW, playing with fitting peers like The So So Glos and Diarrhea Planet, and later going on a US tour with Miniature Tigers. Listen to “Failure” below!

TRACK OF THE WEEK: Protomartyr “Scum, Rise!”

Hooray for being angry as fuck! Hooray for growling, depressive post punk! Hooray for creating a dystopian musical landscape that mirrors your hometown! “Scum, Rise!” doesn’t just get at a superbly timed sense of anxiety–with all that compulsively fast strumming and all those bleak lyrics–it also manages to be utterly, shimmeringly beautiful, even in the throes of its own desolation.

With their second studio album Under Color of Official Right, out this coming April, Protomartyr settle deeper into the near-nihilistic, aggressive approach that they established on their debut. This time around, they throw their full weight into an exploration of their hometown, Detroit. Under Color is not an album about Detroit, per se, so much as it creates the full panorama of an aesthetic landscape, complete with a swelling sense of inner turmoil balanced by external sensations: an acute sense of winter, discomfort, and urban decay. Protomartyr is practically bursting with disappointment and anger, along with a bristling intelligence that sets itself up for self-imposed isolation.

Even the group’s name screams portent: casting their lot in as original martyrs can’t be an entirely serious move on the band’s part, but does give them an austere, evocative ring even before you’ve heard the music. I’m reminded of Savages, who released their stellar debut Silence Yourself last year. But Savages’ anger–warped, noisy, and throttling–was nearly always alienating on Silence Yourself—not only was the music so atonal and distorted that it sometimes seemed deliberately repellant, but the lyrics assumed some sort of high priesthood clarity over everyone, especially other musicians, regarding life, or philosophy, or morality, or whatever. The fury and intellectual ostentatiousness is at least half tongue in cheek. I mean, calling your album—of music—Silence Yourself? Hilarious.

Protomartyr, too, spits in your face and tells you to fuck off. But there’s something less enclosed about the riffs, which, even at their darkest, have at least a trace of catchiness. Singer Joe Casey’s vocal lines aren’t distorted enough to seem far away, and remain endearing even at their most gravelly, when he’s flatly repeating the phrase “nothing you can do” towards the end of this track. Maybe it’s the reassurance of being able to hold the backdrop of Detroit in your head as you’re listening to the music: Protomartyr often gets bleak, but never becomes so interior that you get lost as you’re listening.

Listen to “Scum, Rise!” below:

TRACK REVIEW: “Pyramids” (Frank Ocean Bootleg)

Based out of Seattle, Blue Sky Black Death (BSBD) consists of Kingston (Kingston Maguire) and Young God (Ian Taggart). Both Kingston and Young God were beat makers and hip-hop artists throughout the early ‘00s. In 2005, they eventually met up with each other and collaborated on a double album, A Heap of Broken Images, and have since released a number of rap and instrumental hip-hop full lengths.

the duo released Glaciers in December, 2013, and have since coined the term glacial hip-hop to describe their music. After the release of Glaciers, It seems that the their music has taken a more experimental turn, in that it transitions seamlessly from ambient noise, to sugar sweet melodies, to chaotic dissonance, and back. I’m still not exactly sure what glacial hip-hop is, but the neologism seems somehow fitting.

On February 14th, BSBD celebrated their Valentine’s Day by releasing an unofficial remix of Frank Ocean’s “Pyramids.”

The first part of the remix isn’t much different from the original song. It isn’t altered lyrically, rhythmically or melodically, it is just rearranged. It begins about six minutes into the original version. Structurally, BSBD left the song alone. The remix follows the original word for word, beat for beat and note for note for about 1.5 minutes until the section loops back and repeats. The first part of the track ends on Frank Ocean’s chorus, just as it starts hinting at something new about to happen. Distorted hip-hop lines are introduced, which interact with Ocean’s vocals.

It then dissipates and the music pauses. BSBD completely shifts gears, introducing a song that is rhythmically and lyrically different from the previous track. “We all young ghetto boys, that’s why we act this way,” a line from the UGK (Underground Kingz) song, “Wood Wheel,” is repeated throughout the rest of the track. The song is slowed down to about ½ the tempo. New rhythmic sections interact over the lyrics, which are almost indistinguishable.

The dichotomy between the first half of the song, which is pretty much left alone, and the second half of the song, a UGK song that has been torn apart and made almost unrecognizable, is probably the most interesting part of this remix. I’m not exactly sure what Frank Ocean and UGK have to do with each other, but for some reason it works. Compositionally the track in it’s entirety is risky and unconventional, which is apparently the mantra of this glacial hip-hop duo.

Unfortunately for those of us in the northeast, BSBD is touring pretty much every other part of the country right now. Maybe you can’t see them live, but you can listen to Frank Ocean’s “Pyramids” remix here:

TRACK REVIEW: Odesza’s “Sun Models”

It’s mildly humorous that a production duo from Seattle would have a hit song by the name of “Sun Models.” Western Washington alumni Harrison Mills (aka Catacombkid) and partner Clayton Knight (BeachesBeaches) make up Odesza, the pair that’s accumulated almost five million SoundCloud streams in the two years they’ve existed. They’ve also been getting their fair share of radio play, and when I was visiting my native Washington State, I heard their latest single on the taste-making airwaves of KEXP.

“Sun Models,” which is fresh off of Odesza’s 2014 album of the same name, is a beachy and blissful track that I assume will be played throughout the summer months. It opens with the warm crackling of a dust caked record, as well as a few chicken-pecked keys peppering in a dull, tinny drum effect. The vocals, provided by Michigan soul singer Madelyn Grant, register as a languid ripple through still water. They are nearly recognizable as words, but morph into liquefied croons thanks to the shrill frequency of the vocoder. I can’t help but notice the proximity to the vocal manipulations of Grimes mastermind Claire Boucher.

The song is danceable without a doubt, but not in an aggressive way. It’s a relaxed track that drifts somewhere between melancholic and bright. Smears of twinkling keys glide over a crescendo of strobe-worthy synths of the European House ilk, while eerie calls float in and out.

In response to their ever-growing exposure, Odesza has kicked off a massive U.S. tour that will go into May. The pair have added a couple of Canadian dates for our friends up north.

Check out “Sun Models” and dates below:

Wed. Feb. 12 – Pawtucket, RI @ The Met *

Thu. Feb. 13 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts *

Fri. Feb. 14 – New York, NY @ Best Buy Theater *^

Sat. Feb. 15 – Boston, MA @ Paradise *

Sun. Feb. 16 – Baltimore, MD @ Soundstage Baltimore *

Tue. Feb. 18 – Leesburg, VA @ Tally Ho Theater *

Wed. Feb. 19 – Raleigh, NC @ Lincoln Theatre *

Thu. Feb. 20 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel *

Fri. Feb. 21 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West *

Sat. Feb. 22 – Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre *

Thu. March 13 – Spokane, WA @ The Bartlett

Fri. March 14 – Bozeman, MT @ Zebra Cocktail Lounge

Sat. March 15 – Missoula, MT @ Palace Billiards

Fri. March 21 – Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Festival

Sat. March 22 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge %

Sun. March 23 – Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge

Tue. March 25 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sister

Thu. March 27 – Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s #

Fri. March 28 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada #

Sat. March 29 – Austin, TX @ Stubbs Jr #

Tue. April 1 – Phoenix, AZ @ Rhythm Room #

Wed. April 2 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah #

Thu. April 3 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echoplex #

Fri. April 4 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent # (SOLD OUT)

Sat. April 5 – Arcata, CA @ The Jambalaya #

Sun. April 6 – Eugene, OR @ WOW Hall #

Wed. April 9 – Victoria, BC @ Club 9one9 #

Thu. April 10 – Vancouver, BC @ Venue #

Fri. April 11 – Portland, OR @ Holocene #

Sat. April 12 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos #

Fri. May 9 – Toronto, ON @ Tattoo (Canadian Music Week)

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”]
[retweet][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

TRACK OF THE WEEK: Nick Waterhouse “It No. 3”

Nick Waterhouse‘s R&B-inflected debut Time’s All Gone came out in 2012, and may seem like a non sequitur coming from a twenty-something white guy from California. The album borrowed substantially from the bluesier end of sixties rock, meshed interestingly with a soulful Motown slant. But so much of modern music mixes up decades and blends stylistic influences—especially those from the sixties—that it no longer seems fair to dock points for anachronism. Waterhouse’s particular musical blend, while not unique, is certainly endearing—Time’s All Gone radiates with the kind of garage rock that lets you notice each instrument individually, without them being much treated or blurred into each other.

Waterhouse doesn’t change that aesthetic in “It No. 3,” a Ty Segall cover just released off his upcoming sophomore album Holly, out March 4^th. The minimal production on this track doesn’t matter a bit next to the sheer vocal personality. Maintaining the jumpy soul of Waterhouse’s first album, “It No. 3” indicates Waterhouse is gaining a greater comfort level in the music he makes, having more fun and paying less attention to the many—and formidable—influences that contribute to his work. His ownership of this song is especially impressive given that “It No. 3” is a cover, and though the rendition is a fairly faithful one in many respects, the personality behind it is all Waterhouse, no Segall imitation. Shrinking Segall’s original down from fifteen minutes to three, Waterhouse creates a concise, likeable sound that offers a lot for what it asks.

Go here to pre-order Nick Waterhouse’s new album, Holly, out March 4th. Listen to “It No. 3” below:

TRACK REVIEW: Team Me “F is for Faker”

After two years of sold out shows and festivals from here to Tokyo, Norwegian indie pop band Team Me are finally returning with some new music. The six-piece group just debuted their new single, “F is for Faker,” a lively track that brings Of Monsters and Men and Imagine Dragons to mind.

The song’s chorus features lead singer/songwriter Marius Drogsås Hagen passionately shouting the line, “You’re one of a kind,” over raucous instrumentals that fuse video game soundtracks with arena rock. Energetic hand claps, dramatic violins, and a backdrop of sparkling electronic effects pepper the rest of the song.

Team Me are currently working on their sophomore album, which is due out sometime this year, and they’ll be returning to the US for a few shows and a stop at SXSW. In the meantime, listen to “F is for Faker” below:

TRACK REVIEW: Jamaican Queens “Wellfleet Outro”

“You bring me down. I don’t want to live here with you anymore.”

Detroit outfit Jamaican Queens is a weird act. The music is chilling, the lyrics are depressing, but still, you walk away from band’s debut, Wormfood (out on vinyl February 11th), feeling comforted. That’s mostly to do with their melodies–simply, cloying lullabies that somehow humanize the oddball echoes that resound through Jamaican Queens’ electric-inclined instrumentals–and vocal lines. Lead vocals by Abby Fiscus elevate the sound to a whole new level of soothing–and, simultaneously, devastating–with “Wellfleet Outro,” a gorgeously simple vocal duet with Jamaican Queens frontman Ryan Spencer.

Acoustic guitar and flickering piano coexist with a grave hip-hoppish beat, scratched distortion layers over gentle strumming, and Spencer’s gravelly melody lines serves both to contrast against and harmonize with Fiscus’ vulnerable, repeated chorus: “You bring me down, I don’t want to live here with you anymore.”

As it documents the catastrophic omnishambles of a doomed relationship, “Wellfleet Outro” seems to also be drawing attention to a greater sense of hopeless, unsurmountable isolation. Like two islands floating ever farther apart, Fiscus and Spencer draw away from the harmony of the first half of the song into a dual narrative of parallel vocal lines, occasionally falling over each other but never connected.

Listen to “Wellfleet Outro,” the gorgeous new single off Wormfood, below:

TRACK REVIEW: David T. Little “…and there was morning – the Second Day”

David T. Little’s seemingly inborn theatricality complements his music’s strong themes. A classical composer with a rock drumming background who, in the company of an array of edgy and sometimes rock-leaning classical groups–the Kronos Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, and his own project Newspeak, to name a few–flirts with the rock/classical boundary, Little’s got a knack for unlikely but accurate pairings. In “…and there was morning – the Second Day,” the first track released off his forthcoming album Haunt of Last Nightfall, that tension lies between the courteous delicacy of minuet-ish xylophone trills and heavy strains of hard rock.

In early 2013, Little’s evening-long, multi-perspective cantata “Soldier Songs” demonstrated this blend of theme and experimentation on a grand scale. After interviewing soldiers, Little divided the experience into three phases of life–the young soldier playing war games, the fighting soldier, and the old soldier reflecting on his experience–to draw tormented circles around the ultimately incommunicable experience of war. Details like hip hop music filtering out of young soldiers earbuds add sharp, astute, and decidedly Little-ish twists on the music.

In “…and there was morning,” the parallel lines–one light, one heavy–lose separation as the song progresses, the bell-like melody drawn into and eventually transformed by the dark, rock and roll line. For all the new dawn-ness of its title, there’s little salvation in this song. Biblically, the second day marks a separation between the waters, and the creation of the heavenly expanse that sits between them. The song plays with boundaries and borders, considers and inverts the meaning behind their distinctions, but doesn’t seem to end with separation–if anything, the opposite is true. The song begins clear and clean, the xylophone separated into neat phrases, but by halfway through the track this line has been overtaken by chaos, churning electronics and sinister bass line lows. Little’s imagination is active, creating shadows out of clean separations, and a kaleidoscopic image out of a familiar picture.

David T. Little’s new album, Haunt of Last Nightfall, is out February 25th on New Amsterdam Records. Listen to the first single off that album, “…and there was morning – the Second Day” below:

TRACK REVIEW: We Were Promised Jetpacks “Peace Sign”

Attended by controlled and even sort of jittery guitar lines, Adam Thompson’s arena-ready voice soars on “Peace Sign,” the latest single to be released off We Were Promised Jetpacks‘ forthcoming live album, E Ray: Live In Philadelphia. This album, which was recorded while the band was on tour in 2012, marks WWPJ’s first new release since 2011’s In The Pit Of The Stomach. Though a studio album is, apparently, in the works, the band’s in-person energy is undeniably crucial to their aesthetic–“Peace Sign” displays no asymmetry or lack of polish for being recorded live–and E Ray will seek to recreate the experience of being in the same room with these four Scottish rockers.

“Peace Sign” is as angular and anxiety-laden as any of the band’s previous releases, laying guitar and vocals over a cold, ambient layer of white noise. As the track progresses, the sound opens up into something that’s both more complex and more vulnerable. Thompson’s voice operates almost parallel to the music, meeting the guitar lines at the hinges of their rhythms, and in the meantime, free-falling in a melody that’s all the powerful for how impromptu it feels.

We Were Promised Jetpacks’ music has suffered in the past under the weight of its own moodiness, and In The Pit Of The Stomach seemed to be running in place at times, over thinking its themes and splitting itself between too many musical impulses. A live recording seems to solve a lot of those problems for the band, who may be more inclined towards the “first thought, best thought” school, because “Peace Sign” maintains cohesiveness without losing any of the lyrics’ fretful intimacy.

Listen to “Peace Sign” below:

TRACK REVIEW: Neneh Cherry “Everything”

The hype for Neneh Cherry’s upcoming solo album—her first in 18 years—has been building for quite some time now. As we near Blank Project’s release date (Feb. 25th in the U.S.!), we’re getting another preview of the album by way of its closing song, “Everything.” The over seven-minute-long track is the slightly more subdued sister to the previously heard title track of the album, “Blank Project,” with both songs sharing Cherry’s primal energy and minimalist, slightly menacing production by Kieran Hebden (better known as Four Tet).

“Everything”’s lyrics feature lines like “Got my fingers in my ears I can’t hear you / What I don’t hear, can’t upset me,” a visual that corresponds with Blank Project‘s cover photo. At other points it sounds like Cherry is sort of speak-singing off the cuff, with lines like “Shallow water midget mountain high/ Beep me up trust me I’ll hold you down.” The repeating refrain “Everything is everything, good things come to those who wait” is often wrung into different melodies or cadences by Cherry’s rhythmic, poetic singing.

Four Tet outfits the song with a deeply reverberating, viscous bassline that contrasts Cherry’s bright yet raspy vocals. If Cherry’s lyrics and vocals are the song’s soul, Four Tet’s production is its pulsating, almost mechanical heartbeat. As the song comes to its end, Cherry breaks out in a staccato yell that soon turns into passionate, visceral “yeah yeah”s and “hey hey”s, with some laughter thrown in for good measure. Her vocals are cut out for the last minute or so of the song, at which point it loses it’s ominous edge and becomes an understated, twinkling hum before fading away.

Listen to “Everything” below:

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][fusion_soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/128855460″ params=”color=ff6600&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

TRACK REVIEW: Angel Olsen “Hi-Five”

“I feel so lonesome I could cry,” Angel Olsen half warbles, half snarls on “Hi-Five.” The new single off her forthcoming album, Burn Your Fire for No Witness, blasts by in just under three minutes . Olsen’s voice bristles with clarity, striking a shimmering balance between vulnerability, earnestness, and rock and roll swagger. Pegged as an early frontrunner for a 2014 favorite, Olsen released her debut, Halfway Home in 2012. The first album favored folky acoustic guitar stripped down to spotlight the singer’s voice—one worth spotlighting, with a barreling, Southen-tinged electricity to it that ultimately overpowered its acoustic backdrop.

Nothing could make Olsen’s voice sound bad, but “Hi-Five” is flattered by its harshly lo-fi backdrop. Swampy guitar lines seethe in reverb, prolonging their high notes in the same way that Olsen draws out the highlights of her vocal lines. One of the singer’s many talents has always been an elegant lyrical handling of angst; her songs deal with isolation, betrayal, and being unable to speak one’s mind. The vocal lines double back on themselves too quickly to be mistaken for self-pity, the dejection cracks a smile, and on “Hi-Five,” Olsen follows up the crooning “Are you lonely too? Are you lonely too?” with an unsentimental “High five, so am I.”

The new album is a more rugged approach to familiar material, but that doesn’t mean Burn Your Fire will lose the intimacy of Olsen’s previous work. Although the increase in guitar work can make it seem, on first listen, as if Olsen is abandoning the folky stylings we saw so much of in Halfway Home, it’s really just a punchier interpretation of the same gorgeous, forlorn soul music. Instead of a new direction, Olsen’s recent singles seem to better encapsulate the goals she’s always had.

Burn Your Fire for No Witness will be out February 18^th on Jagjaguwar. You can listen to “Hi-Five” below via SoundCloud, and click here to watch the video “Forgiven/Forgotten,” the first single off the new album.

TRACK REVIEW: “Give It Up”

I wouldn’t consider myself an especially devout David Lynch fan, but I love Twin Peaks rabidly and uncritically, and I watch the show in its entirety at least once every winter. Never when the weather’s warm. My theory is this: something to do with frigidness, and the overarching quiet that comes along with a thick blanket of snow, demands a Lynchian blend of detached dreaminess and surreality. So maybe the recent snowstorms and having Laura Palmer on the brain is to blame for the way I feel about this track–it’s otherworldly, it’s vaguely sinister, and it’s an utterly appropriate backdrop for the weather these days.

Duo HTRK claim an affinity with Lynch’s aesthetics; you can hear a kinship in the hypnotic chilliness of the melody, the scratched-out echoing synthesizers that ripple outwards as if a pebble’s been dropped into the beat of the song. Church-organ reverberations in minor mode plod menacingly up and down in the periphery, like mystery men in black trench coats and low-brimmed hats. The repetitive, androgynous vocals add to the sense of uncanny that characterizes this track.

HTRK stir some real polish into this mix, too–with glitzy production and a beat that suggests driving fast on open roads late at night, in a deserted city or through an empty stretch of highway. The sultry and foreign landscape that the song creates provides a space in which to detach from the outside world, whether in the dubious isolation of a dream space or nestled into the warmth and stillness inside a fast-moving car. The group’s new LP, Psychic 9-5 Club, will be out in 2014 and promises an expansive and rich musical landscape. For now, listen to “Give It Up” below:

TRACK REVIEW: “Comfortable Life”

Comfortable life for you, always a comfortable life for you. I used to think it was true, we all get as fucked over as I do. But now I know It don’t happen to you, ‘cause you get everything you want. But I like my way, struggle every day, that’s how I learned how to hunt.

Childhood friends Kerry Kalberg and Dan Francia began playing music together in High School. After meeting Nick Dooley at NYU, they formed Flagland. Kalberg (vocals and guitar), Francia (bass and vocals) and Dooley (drums) moved across the river to Brooklyn and have since released three albums, Danger Music/ Party Music, Tireda Fightin, and a split record with BIG UPS in 2013. Flagland will be releasing their next full-length album titled Love Hard, on February 25, 2014.

Self described as a band that plays “panic rock for the panicked,” Flagland’s repertoire floats through numerous genres, namely punk, grunge and 90s alternative. Part of their charm is their character. I had a chance to see them on 12/6 at Shea Stadium, where Kerry Kalberg stripped down to nothing other than his boxer briefs to play their entire set. Apparently that wasn’t a one-off, but rather something that he usually does during his shows.

“Comfortable Life” is the first single off of Love Hard. In three minutes, Kalberg, Francia and Dooley manage to drag the listener through a wide range of contrasting emotions. The track is initially colored with a simple, sugar-sweet melody and Kalberg’s soothing, yet understated vocals. By the second verse, the guitar picks up, and Francia and Dooley enter the mix on the drums, bass and xylophone. There is a diminuendo at the end of the second chorus, where Kalberg descends on each note until there is complete silence. Then the music explodes. Kalberg’s voice completely transforms, and what once was a bittersweet lament is now an impassioned emotional release. Kalberg, Francia and Dooley turn the volume all the way up on this verse and completely let go. With guitar feedback, vocal shouts and guitar power chords that starkly contrast the understated and restrained first half of the song, the second half of “Comfortable Life” is jarring and disconcerting, but in a good way.

The song’s garage band feel (pretty much the whole album was recorded in Dooley’s apartment) combined with its dynamism and emotional range makes “Comfortable Life” both genuine and raw. If this is any indication of what is to come, expect rich dynamics, varied musical styles, and intense emotion to fill all twenty tracks of Love Hard. Listen to “Comfortable Life” Here:

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][fusion_soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/123928873″ params=”color=ff6600&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Tag: Track Review