Album Review! Whitney - Light Upon The Lake

On their debut album “Light upon the Lake” Chicago-based Whitney conjured up a beautiful and quaint atmosphere that feels larger than life in its simplicity and effortlessness; a fantastic and melancholic folksy tale driven by some excellent guitar work and instrumentation, superb song-writing and the hottest falsettos to come out in pop rock music in quite a while.

Julien Ehrlich and Max Kakacek formed Whitney after their previous band’s (Smith Westerns) breakup and they couldn’t have put together a better breakup record than “Light upon the Lake” because at its core this this album is the ultimate breakup album but it doesn’t lean towards the sad, bummed out side so much; instead it focus on a far more reflective approach on failed relationships, learning from your mistakes and trying to look up to the future the best you can although, there’s always this sense of nostalgia and sheer melancholy all over the record that makes it feel almost conceptual in a way when you look at each song and analyze them collectively instead of just individually.

Whitney keep their song writing simple but fresh and very touching; that doesn’t make for album that lacks anything on the lyrics department, though; actually, it’s quite the opposite. It is that juxtaposition of beauty and simplicity that makes this record unforgettable, relatable and ultimately irresistible; even if very pronounced falsettos aren’t up your alley, chances are “Light upon the Lake” will win you over in one way or another by the end of the record; either it is sonically or lyrically because the album excels at both.

The album opens with one of its stronger tracks, “No Woman” where verses like “I've been sleeping alone; I've been going through a change; I might never be sure, I'm just walking in a haze; I'm not ready to turn” combine with some lush instrumentation; delicate keyboards, alternating acoustic and electric guitars and a two-words chorus that quite honestly feels more intense than most choruses this day despite its lack of words. Whitney plays as if they had been playing together for many years (and in a way they have, at least some of them) and that self-confidence is very tangible on this record and especially on tracks like “No Woman” but that’s just the beginning; there’s plenty more to come.

On the second track “The Falls” the instrumentation is definitely peppier and less melancholic than it is on the rest of the album; it’s probably the liveliest the band gets along with “No Matter Where We Go” but the lyrics are not entirely in the same tune. Drummer and singer (yes, drummer and singer, how cool is that?) Julien Ehrlich sings rather melancholic lines like “Til the falls ran dry; I was lost inside morning light; I took too much to slow down; these days and nights I can’t be found” backed up with some rather brisk instrumentation and the contrast works out wonderfully not only here but also as the record goes on.

Then “Golden Days” and Dave’s Song” come next and you’ll be inevitably hooked. “Golden Days” is easily one of the best songs to come out this year: the horn arrangements towards the end are simply awesome and the “na na na” outro, definitely one of the tracks’ trademarks, crushes through your heart in a way that feels both very intense but also very soothing; like the picture of a lion licking its wounds alone. The instrumentation here also sticks out; Whitney are a 7 piece band and “Golden Days” is possibly the only track here where it sort of seems that way because there’s room for everyone to shine equally and also because the vast majority of the album is actually so intimate that you’ll probably want to google check if the band really is a 7 piece act after having listened to  any of their songs and I’m not saying that in a derogatory manner but rather as a compliment taking into account the quiet and contemplative context of the album. Lyrics like “Oh don’t you save me from hangin’ on; I tell myself what we had is gone and after all that I put ya through, I get knocked out like I never knew” are filled with genuine emotion and nostalgia and if I were to choose one single that represents this album the best, conceptually, that probably would have to be “Golden Days”.

“Light upon the Lake” is truly an ode to Americana and pop-rock music from The Byrds’ era and songs like “Dave’s Song” provide some of the folksiest moments on it in addition to a very strong chorus that rounds things up quite well (“I know it's hard to give up when I don't want to be saved; Take me in your heart again and I know how to keep you hung up but I won't do it again; Oh I know I wish you were my friend”).

There’s a lot to be said about how good this album continues to be. “On My Own” and “Polly” are lovely and intimate and again, written with highly relatable sensibility and there’s also a monster single like “No Matter Where We Go”, which is again, another strong candidate for best song of the year. “No Matter Where Go” is the song you play on to make through the winter and melt even the thickest snow; it’s a track to go to bed to with the hot beverage of your preference while you enjoy your time cuddling with your couple or fluffy pet and if that doesn’t sum up what this album is in a nutshell, nothing will. This song is the jingliest track on an album full of jangly moments and the guitar really shines on here; it suits the vocals and sets the tone of the song masterfully. You’ll find yourself smiling and singing along to the infectious chorus “I can take you out, I wanna drive around with you with the windows down and we can run all night” all the way through the entire song.

I couldn’t have thought of a better ending to this album than “Follow”. Great performances, even greater vocals and moving lyrics like “I pray your troubled mind remembers when it’s coming to an end at least the rain won’t come again” that prove that when you’re honest and passionate about what you're doing, no matter how simple it migth seem, it will always feel meaningful and especial.

There’s an instrumental passage “Red Moon” that quite frankly feels rather anti climatic and I wish “Light Upon the Lake” was as good musically as it is lyrically because is very well-written but for me, personally, when it comes to the instrumentation it feels flat even taking into account the song’s context and it sounds as if they were more worried about wearing their influences on their sleeve than trying to craft something that matched the rest of the album the way the lyrics deserved because, again, the lyrics are nice. Other than that, my only complaint is that tracks like “No Matter Where We Go” and “The Falls” are criminally short considering how frickin’ good they are and I wished they just kept on and on but I guess that’s more of a compliment than an actual complaint depending on how you look at it.

“Light upon the Lake” is in many ways the quintessential pop-rock album: it can make you smile, cry, think, and dance and sometimes all of that in the same song; It’s reamarkably poignant and impeccably crafted, especially considering this is merely the band's debut LP; it’s the type of album that instantly takes you to a different time and place soon as you start listening to it and the sum of all its part makes for an experience that feels truly magical and enchanting in a way few albums in modern pop-rock music nowadays can match or recreate.

You can listen to some of the album’s best songs in the link down below!

https://whitneychicago.bandcamp.com/album/light-upon-the-lake

Album Review! Russian Circles - Guidance

Russian Circles new LP “Guidance” might not be their most ambitious but it’s definitely one of their most balanced and ultimately crushing works to date and an excellent exercise on post-rock and instrumental rock in general.

It’s pretty hard not to love the new Russian Circles LP “Guidance” if you’re a fan of post-rock or good rock music in general. It’s clear that this album is their less experimental and probably less ambitious album so far and it’s precisely for that very same reason that, at this point in their career, crafting a straight-up, hard-hitting rock record was ironically the most ambitious thing the Chicago trio could’ve done, if that makes sense. For a band more used to working on textures and nuances it might be easy to think choosing a more "plain" approach represents some kind of sonic detour at least to some extent, from previous records but as it turns out, Guidance’s biggest accomplishment is that it proves that, when things are done right, sometimes less is more and man, things are done quite right here.

The album starts off in a quiet and very introspective way with the harp driven song “Asa”, which essentially brings to mind some sort of folky take on an old Explosion in the Sky track and while by no means is it a bad song, it doesn’t surprise either and it doesn’t really feel like it sticks out in any particular way beyond setting a calm before the storm mood for what’s to come and in that way it works fine. What comes next is a two-track set of some of the most pummeling and heaviest stuff the band has put out with the amazing, epic “Vorel” and the Impressive “Mota” both of which are teeming with fantastic, incendiary guitar riffs and some boisterous, larger than life drums and when all altogether comes into play you can’t but make question whether you’re truly listening to a three-piece set because it seems pretty incredible to say the least that such a noisy, powerful sonic assault can come from only three people but somehow, believe it or not it is true.

The track “Afrika” felt quite frankly out of place for me both in the musical context of the album and also in terms of its placement on the track list. Perhaps on another Russian Circles record it would’ve worked out better but here, it doesn’t really add much to the overall listening experience. The song “Overboard”, though, is along with the closing track, the most “classic” or typical, if you will, Russian Circles track here; only that it certainly feels more organic, not necessarily less ambitious but definitely more straight forward instrumentation-wise but the results are quite fantastic. It’s one of the album’s most reflective and also atmospheric moments and it perfectly sets the mood for the song “Calla”.

“Calla” is basically an over six minutes long display of blaring guitars and thunderous drums performed with tight precision and a straight out of the heavy metal book rowdy appeal that makes for the most punishing track on “Guidance” and also one of the heaviest songs the band has put out; some pretty badass and jaw-dropping stuff. The closing track “Lisboa” is the most nuanced song on the album and also the most reminiscent of the band’s previous works and the most “by the book” post-rock here but in this case not for being a bit conventional it is less effective, on the contrary, it’s clean and meditative but it’s lush and epic as well.

“Guidance” is full of great moments; it's as atmospheric and cinematic as any good post-rock record should be and it's also worth noting the album contains some of the rowdiest and most crushing tracks in the band’s catalog, which combined with some more traditional but exceptionally put together and performed passages, results in an amalgamation of talent and song-crafting that exhibits Russian Circles’ versatility and visceral power and it’s probably the coolest post-rock album of the year so far. When you have both the badassery and the melodic sensibility showcased throughout almost the entire record's running time, you don’t really have to reinvent the wheel on every new record you put out; you just have to be confident about what you’re doing and what’s more important, rock and that’s exactly what Russian Circles do here and quite often, rock.

You can listen to whole record in the link down below!

http://noisey.vice.com/blog/russian-circles-guidance-stream

Album Review! Car Seat Headrest -Teens of Denial

NY based Will Toledo’s musical project Car Seat Headrest comes through with a strut-charged, genuinely relatable and pretty damn entertaining to listen to album that not only represents an improvement in terms of maturity and cohesiveness over his previous record “Teens of Style” but also happens to be one of the coolest rock albums of 2016.

After listening to “Teens of Denial” for the first time it might seem as Will Toledo had been releasing albums professionally for decades but in reality it is Car Seat Headrest’s first album to be recorded in a professional studio, with the help of a skilled, experienced producer for the first time and with an actual band backing Toledo up for the first time as well. Considering all that the level of grandiosity and self-confidence this album exudes is simply insane. “Teens of Denial” is, hands down, one of the most ambitious rock albums of the year and somehow Will Toledo accomplished that without sacrificing a single bit of authenticity and personality, which makes this record an even bigger triumph.

Will Toledo’s ability to pen songs with surprising craftsmanship (all the more surprising taking into account he’s only 23-year old) instantly stands out on the album’s opener “Fill in the Blank”. The album serves as the perfect opening track in that it perfectly captures the slacker rock heart and soul that makes “Teens of Denial” such an example of what a good rock album should be like, both sonically and lyrically. Will Toledo’s confident, sometimes unpredictable vocals are one of the album’s trademarks and this track has him singing his way through lines like “You have no right to be depressed, you haven’t tried hard enough to like it; haven’t seen enough of this world yet. But it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts” with unquestionable passion and irresistible appeal.

Not only does the rest of the album lives up to that great first impression but it actually gets better and way more epic. A lot of the songs here are pretty lengthy and the longest one hits (and surpasses) the 11 minutes mark but things are always fun and engaging. Will Toledo writes lyrics that essentially deal with rather typical teenage issues and topics but what’s not typical at all is how witty and cohesive his story-telling is and that makes the album equally easy to relate and to admire.

The next rack “Vincent” is over 7 minutes long and it features a lot of what you’ll keep getting on “Teens of Denial”:  Great lyrics, varied, fiery instrumentation that feels very classic rock n’ roll inspired and some explosive, unpredictable vocal passages. Will Toledo’s vocals resemble Joe Casablancas on many of the tracks here but “The Strokes” aren’t the only palpable influence here. There’s a lot of Pavement and some snippets of Weezer thrown here and there in addition to 90’s grunge vibes to spare but it never feels as if Will Toledo was trying to rip off anyone; he makes that eccentric and unique combination his own.

“Destroyed by Hippie Powers could’ve easily been a super grunge hit from the 90’s and the lyrics are refreshingly funny, personal and sharp as hell (“What happened to that chubby little kid who smiled so much and loved the Beach Boys? What happened is I killed that fucker and I took his name and I got new glasses”.  The track “Just What I Wanted/Not Just What I Needed” delivers a bit more of the same but at this point you’re so hooked on with what you’re listening to that that’s exactly what you want and again it boasts some strong  performances.

“Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales” might very well be the most awesome song on the “Teens of Denial” and in all honesty, it’s a strong candidate for song of the year. The lyrics are touching and charming and they are basically an examination on the whole party till you pass out lifestyle, moreover in the aftermath of it and how it can affect someone’s life. The chorus is catchy enough to make you sing along to it while you’re driving, walking, skating or just lying in bed listening to the album and it’s very well crafted with smooth care and noticeable melancholy; awesome song.

So, at this point in the album you might think, “How on earth is he supposed to top this or at least keep things up until the end of the record?” well, the truth is, for the most part Will Toledo makes it happen. The next two tracks are an adrenaline rush of bombastic performances, compelling rock n’ roll swag, a couple of wacky, off the chain endings  and again, another solid lyrical deliver: “No one should ever have to look at themselves. I steer clear of graveyards; they are cliché in my death-obsessed generation” (“1937 State Park”) and “They say that the world is one, but if the world is one how come you never come around anymore? I guess it's not that simple; well, everyone learns to live with their sins but girl you wear yours like a brand new skin” (“Unforgiving Girl”).

“The Ballad of Costa Concordia” is an impressive rock epic of over eleven minutes long that mashes together Car Seat Headrest’s best tricks in one single super track and somehow doesn’t feel long because of how varied and shifting Will Toledo keeps things at all times and “Connect the Dots (The Saga of Frank Sinatra)” is another brilliant moment and one of the album’s highest peaks alongside tracks like “Drunk Drivers” and “Vincent”. The lyrics are pretty offbeat and there’s a sense of true candor to them that will leave you smiling and pondering on equal measure. Sonically speaking the song is pure rock essence and it’s a real blast.

The album has its flaws, though. The closing track “Joe Goes to School” feels rather flat in comparison to some of the other tracks and the album deserved a far better ending in my opinion. “Cosmic Hero”, unlike the majority of the longest cuts here, feel overly stretched out and it loses steam halfway through the song whereas the song “(Joe Gets Kicked Out of School for Using) Drugs With Friends (But Says This Isn't a Problem)” didn’t really add much to the mix asides from its remarkably long title.

However, despite some very punctual flaws and a few low points the album is terrific. It’s incredibly pleasant to see bands and artists making music that sounds this fresh and fun and smart nowadays. “Teens of Denial” succeeds because it exemplifies everything that makes and has always made good rock n’ roll so fun to listen to in the first place; it’s an authentic roller coaster of thrills, laughs and introspection and on top of that, It’s insolently good. 

You can check out some of the album's singles in the link down below!

https://carseatheadrest.bandcamp.com/album/teens-of-denial

Album review! TTNG - Disappointment Island

UK, Oxford-based band formerly known as This Town Needs Guns are back with a shortened name, a reduced three-piece lineup and their most accessible and balanced record to date.

TTNG have gone through quite a lot of things for a band with only 3 records counting this one under their belt. However, changing the band’s name and the recurrent lineup changes (most noticeably former vocalist Stuart Smith for the current vocalist Henry Tremain) haven’t really altered TTNG’s original formula; the band is as jazzy and math-rock inspired as it’s always been and this new project sees the band doing once again what they do best while refining everything that has made their sound so easily distinguishable and characteristic.

On Disappointment Island the band sounds as clear and clean as ever, the instrumentation sounds sweeter but it’s also more intricate (some truly amazing guitar work being displayed throughout the entire record) and Tremain’s vocals sound a bit less intense but more subdued and balanced all of which keeps things fairly entertaining almost for the album’s entire running time, something previous TTNG works lacked.

The record starts off with two of the liveliest and most immediate songs here; the opening track “Coconut Crab” works perfectly as the album’s introduction because it sounds fantastic and it sums up the kind of lyrical themes TTNG explores here. The lyrics are very contemplative and sort of bummed out but positivity is also palpable and that charming songwriting is another improvement Tremain has made for the occasion; this might not be the band’s most intense album lyrically but it’s hands down their most mature lyrical work to date.

What’s so interesting about “Coconut Crab” is that it seems to be a song about Tremain’s songwriting process and what it represents to him: “words likely have less merit than the timbre of their sound so sing anything you feel like and don’t let it get you down”. “A Chase of Sorts” is another strong single that also features some very interesting and reflective lyrics adorned with lines like “pencil in the pain preceding black, you’ve penned yourself in half, yanking back the tact that you have lacked; your mask is part the task” or “are you the you you’ll sing out loud or the you you’ll leave out?”.

The duality between how sweet the music is and how sharp and philosophical the lyrics are, is essential to understand the purpose of this record, right from its very own title to its fantastic cover artwork. “In Praise of Idleness” combines some of the sweetest melodies on the album with deep musings like“Move on, I’m no good; What do I contribute; cut the fat from your backs; where do I exactly fit; does the group benefit if I quit and cease to exist” while “Whatever, Whenever” is an excellent track with a delicate tone and some kind of post-rock inspired moments (a novelty for the band as far as I can remember). The music is sweet but genuinely intense which prevents things from turning sappy and the lyrics, once again, feel quite dark in comparison with the music being played: “I’m just fine, most the time; I’ll get by; I’ll survive. I’ve been losing the taste for living, biting my tongue, now it’s bleeding; biding my time just to give in”.

“Bliss Quest” starts off as one of the slowest tracks in the band’s catalog but eventually evolves into something more fast-paced and the track “There is no I in Time” sounds terrific and also contains some remarkably clever uplifting passages like “…break under your dead weight or persuade change; what’s there to choose between nothing and nothing; there’s you, what have you to loose” where the band comes across some positive thoughts with frankness and sensibility.

“Sponkulus Nodge” and the closing track “Empty Palms” do the job and end the album on a very satisfying way, especially “Empty Palms” which is a great exemplification of how well TTNG’s blissful instrumentation-almost dark lyrics combo works on this record. Tremain’s vocals sound better than ever they can also get a bit repetitive at times and while “Consoling Ghosts” feels like a filler and “Destroy the Tabernacle!” probably the punkiest track the band has put together so far, feels more like a failed experiment, the vast majority of the album remains highly enjoyable and surprisingly emotional.

TTNG aren’t exactly re-inventing the wheel in any way here but the production is tight and both the guitar work and the drumming are stellar. The track listing is catchy and dancey and the lyrics are thought-provoking and reflexive in contrast, which makes for a rather distinctive aesthetic that gives the album personality and candor.

On a recent interview Tremain complained that making music was getting more and more difficult every time to such an extent that it was barely feasible for them to keep going making music. With the quality of the work presented on this album, it would be a real shame to see TTNG calling it quits due to financial struggles so, if you’re into some math-rock, jazzy, pop-rock, emo stuff with solid songwriting and a sound capable of brightening up even the rainiest days, you should definitely not miss this record because as it turns out, this island is everything but disappointing. 

You can listen to the whole record in the link down below!

https://thistownneedsguns.bandcamp.com/album/disappointment-island

Dealing with depression and mental illness

I recently read a very interesting article titled “3 Lies We Need to Stop Telling About ‘Negative People’ “(the link to it is right at the end of this post and I strongly suggest checking it out) and frankly, it resonated with me so much that I really felt like going a bit deeper into it here. Perhaps that might come off as unusual since I haven’t really touched down on any deep, personal topics yet but I’ve been thinking a lot about the way we deal with depression and other forms of mental illness lately and I suppose that article struck a chord with me, particularly because I’ve dealt with depressive issues in the past and I’m dealing with them now.

I really like it how that article debunks the myths surrounding the so-called “negative people” and the false idea that sticking close to people who are going through a very rocky time in their life for whatever reason and therefore are experimenting severe anxiety or depressive issues is such an unhealthy thing to do to ourselves that the best way to face a situation like that is cutting ties with the people affected, right off the bat without much thinking. I understand every person’s own happiness should be their top priority but does it really have to be that way?? I don’t really think so.

I recently went through some emotional delicate situations that got me feeling very low and depressed and at the beginning, I went through this phase where I would talk very little to anyone out of fear of being a burden to them but even though I’m still struggling with depression because of what’s happened in my life over the past few months, at some point I realized that if I kept doing that to the people I care about I would be doing pretty much what was done to me and got me feeling so bad in the first place to them and that didn’t sound very fair.

The aforementioned article focused mostly on the way other people perceive mental illness and it explained very well why cutting someone affected by depression or anxiety out of your life just like that is needlessly drastic and rather cruel, especially if you call that person a “friend”. However, I’d like to focus on how the people who are struggling with mental illness perceive and accept their condition and what a good way to deal with that might be because in my case, my initial reaction was to close in and avoid any form of communication related to what I was going through precisely out of fear that people who are important to me would just leave me asides if they felt I was being a burden to them because of my mental state.

I am really far from being an expert on these matters, I wish I was so that everything would be easier but sadly, I’m not. One thing I’ve learned, though, is that if communication is important when things seem to be alright or at least sort of alright, it becomes even more relevant when things aren’t; talking about your feelings and what you’re going through during a rough period isn’t easy, sometimes that’s the last thing we want to do but sometimes that might be precisely what we need the most even if we can’t quite feel that way at the moment.

I think making an effort to try to come across our feelings at least to some extent and get rid of the erroneous preconception that somehow we’re going to hurt our friends and family or make their lives “toxic” by opening up to them about our condition is fundamental. Being as upfront as possible about what we’re going through isn’t going to fix anything by itself and it’s no guarantee people would be more supportive to us in any way but just being outspoken about it already makes a huge, cathartic difference. I also realized that the more I tried talking about my depressive problems, even if it was just a little bit, the more I felt relieved.  Just letting everything off of your chest can have a surprisingly healing effect and if, on top of that, the other person happens to empathize with what you’re going through and react in a considerate and patient way then such positive effects will only increase.

It is important to acknowledge we do not represent a threat to anyone’s emotional stability, no matter how messed up we’re feeling, just by telling them about our problems and, daunting as it might be at first, we have to trust that the people who are important to us won’t cut us out, even if there’s a realistic chance some of them might, giving all these “negative people” misconceptions that were talked about on that article I mentioned are rather frequent in people nowadays.

In all honesty, trusting others has become nearly impossible to me at this point for a number of reasons but I also understand that somehow we have to teach ourselves to do it and get rid of the fear that things will go bad because that’s how 99% of the time things are for us. First, we have to work on trusting ourselves and then we have to move on and work on trusting others; trust is a type gamble and like any gamble sometimes it pays off and sometimes it doesn’t but living our lives convinced that it never will, in the end will only leave us feeling desolated and unsatisfied and that’s simply unfair; unfair to either our friends or family who might be genuinely interested in supporting us the best they can and unfair to us because we cannot torture ourselves thinking that mental illness is our fault or something that will eventually set us apart from the people we love.

Sometimes there are people who really want to help but they just don’t know how and I understand very well how hard it is to tell them how when we ourselves are not quite clear on what we’re feeling and let alone can we articulate it in a way that would make any sense to others but that’s where communication comes to play; communication is a mutual thing, it’s reciprocal and we can learn a whole awful lot about our mental illness and how to get over it or at least put up with it in the healthiest way possible, just by talking and exchanging ideas back and forth with someone we care, there’s no need for greater explanations.

I’d like to think this whole post is a modest example of a way to let your feelings out and talking about your problems; not long ago writing about this type of stuff publicly on a blog would’ve been outright unthinkable for me but I just felt it was a good thing to do and honestly, writing about it for a while felt very good; writing and talking can be way more therapeutic than most people might think and when it comes to our mental health, really, we owe at least that to ourselves, we must to try.

http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/04/lies-about-negative-people/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SocialWarfare

Now, how about some happy stuff? :)

Album Review! Posture & The Grizzly - I am Satan

On Posture & The Grizzly’s latest record “I Am Satan” the band sounds at their most mature yet delivering earnest emotional moments, affected, sometimes very poetic lyrics and sweet melodies to spare, showcasing a bright production, sweet vocals and a very clean instrumentation.

When members of a well-stablished and experienced band decide to start a new side project, sometimes stepping out of the shadow of a more notorious project can be quite tricky, especially giving how obnoxious comparisons can be. In this context, many bands spend an entire career (and very often in vain) trying to figure out a way to come up with a truly representative set of songs that would finally separate them from just being “X band’s side project”.

Posture & The Grizzly feature members from their Connecticut pop-punk/emo collective fellows TWIABP and ever since I first checked them out, it’s been very hard for me not look at them as just some kind of TWIABP 2.0 only that less experimental and ambitious and while they’ve never sounded quite bad, they’ve always lacked, in my opinion, that sense of authenticity, so to say, necessary to justify listening to them in a world where TWIABP exists. However, on this new project the band seems to have found the right balance between wearing their roots and influences on their sleeve and crafting a distinctive sound.

The album’s opening track “I am Not a Real Doctor” is in reality the first part of a two-part song with a second version or rather part of it taking place right at the album’s end. From the very start the band sounds genuinely emotional, melancholic and contemplative and that’s definitely a deal closer here; this is definitely the best the band’s ever been at songwriting so far. It’s one of the hookiest songs on the album which makes it a perfect kick-off tune; plus, it’s also lyrically moving. Lines like “I swear you loved miracles but there’s no gods no disbeliefs; only evil caused by me” sound utterly honest and touching.

The album breezily develops into an insanely solid set of tracks starting with “Elliot”, followed by “Mandy”, “Raspberry Heart” and the rare instrumental passage that actually works well, “Shooting Sparks”. In fact, the album’s biggest downside is precisely that it never gets that consistent again. “Elliot” is definitely one of the record’s most interesting highlights thanks to some carefully played instrumentation and some reflective and a tad sorrowful lyrics (“Deleting pictures off your phone in hopes that they burn. You’re wishing your life was over, I’m wishing that I’d stay sober. Nothing can last forever”).

Tracks like “Mandy” and “Raspberry Heart” will surprisingly have you humming and singing along to lines as emotionally-driven as “Say you’ll never leave. Where’s my mind, deranged like a killer” or “Honestly I hope I don’t see you again unless we started over, so elated, so jaded”. By this time it’s clear the album’s is a very personal meditation on the inherent complexity of relationships, interpersonal problems and struggling with regrets and the past. “Shooting Sparks” works nicely as some kind of instrumental interlude showing good drumming and nice production.

The album drops down quality-wise on tracks like “The Undertow”  which doesn’t ever sound quite fleshed out, perhaps because of how short it is and how kind of generic the lyrics come off for some reason.  “Kill me” suffers from a similar problem although the lyrics are more stirring and the other instrumental passage, “Star Children”, feels completely unnecessary and brings nothing to the table.

“Acid Bomb” offers some intense (albeit too blunt at times) and very personal lyrics but musically it doesn’t seem to work out and it’s not because the band doesn’t sound fierce enough to match the lyrics because they do, but they clearly haven’t mastered that sort of post-hardcore inspired vocal style they try to recreate on that track so they sound rather flat instead.

However, some of the album’s most stellar moments take place during the album’s second half in the form of tracks like “Balloons as Hands” (“Let’s set this church on fire, take a sentiment of all we are is art in making”) and especially “Delete Me” a track as lyrically engaging (“The truth is that you don’t feel the same way about me that I felt for you, so leave; some things are supposed to stay together and all you could say, “Some things aren’t supposed to say together”) as it is musically enjoyable (the bass here sounds lovely). The album’s closing track dives further into the topics touched down on the album’s opener only that this time around with even more emotion and a more subdued, organic tone courtesy of some sweet acoustic guitar playing. The vocals are affected and very emotive and it’s a perfect ending for the album.

With this project Posture & The Grizzly prove that they have all the musical talent and the emotional sensibility to create records both worthy of well-deserved comparisons with bands like TWIABP and also capable of living on its own for its own merits. Sure, the album’s got its flaws (the second half of the album is sort of hit and miss) but the overall appeal of the album doesn’t suffer too much from that due to the band’s wide array of strengths and it confirms Posture & The Grizzly as an interesting talent to follow.

You can listen to the whole record in the link down below!

https://brokenworldmedia.bandcamp.com/album/i-am-satan

Album Review! JANK - Awkward Pop Songs

Philadelphia-based JANK’s debut LP is as full of pop culture references as it is a musical delight to listen to, which makes for an album honestly irreverent in every sense of the word. Sometimes the formula works and sometimes it doesn’t but most times it works, and by it works I mean prepare for a Cap’n Jazz, Unicorns and Fang Island infused emo ride unlike anything you’ve heard this year.

Bands who don’t take themselves seriously in the pop-punk, emo scene aren’t far from being a novelty; as a matter of fact, it’s one of the genre’s trademarks and sadly, that often results in some sort of Spartan band battle to see what band comes up with the campiest cringe-worthy line.  What happens is that ironically, many bands are so concerned with not taking themselves seriously that they become a parody of what they were trying to achieve in the first place and the line between what is funny and what is eye-rolling renders pretty damn blurry, pretty damn fast.

Saying Awkward Pop Songs is free of these faults would be a lie but saying those moments detract from the quality of the music presented on the majority of this album would be an even bigger lie because these guys definitely can put together some catchy, jazzy, brisk-paced songs with great skill. In terms of musicianship JANK are a true rarity in the genre because not only do they replicate the sound of their Kinsella inspired influences with wonderful craftiness but they also add some very welcomed variety to the mix by including some moments of pop-rock unpredictability that bring to mind acts like The Unicorns and Fang Island in a very good way.

The guitar work throughout the album is fantastic; it sounds fuzzy, dynamic, math-rock-ish and it’s got just the right dose of reverb. The drumming is very good; actually it’s more than very good, it’s surprisingly great for the genre, especially on tracks like “Caitlyn” and “Kentucky Castle”.  The production is definitely one the album’s positive notes too; everything sounds clean and crisp, the vocals are good, the bass sounds fantastic and everything seems neatly put together despite how chaotic things get at some points; let’s call it a beautifully controlled chaos.

The lyrical department makes this album stand out among countless bands out there desperately trying to do what JANK do so naturally here: being genuinely funny most part of the times; and how did they manage that? Simple, a taste for sharp pop culture and daily life observations many bands lack and a sense of sometimes head-scratching yet utterly laugh-inducing wackiness that keeps things entertaining pretty much all the way through. 

From the very opening track’s title, it is plain to see what you’re about to find here: lots of funny observations and clever oddities that provide most of the songs with real charm. The title of the song, “Ouran Highschool Toast Club” is a nod to a very well-known manga/anime series and it’s essentially comprised of weird, funny lines in the fashion of “I am not tall enough to ride Stratego libido. When will I take Finland in this game of risk?”.

What comes next is the album’s strongest set of songs, perhaps a bit too soon in the album but strong nonetheless. The track “Wut I Liek Abt U” will bring a few good smiling moments to anyone who doesn’t mind some good silliness with lines as irresistible as “Tell me your favorite kind of dinosaur so we can reenact their deaths or we can play 20 questions in different rooms or whatever you wanna do”. 

“Racecar Bed (Ft. Yung Goth Boi)” is probably the closest to being serious the bad gets on the entire record (“and I'm wasting time, worrying about who I can really count on and picking up a book is so goddamn straining on my eyes cuz I'm not reading for me, I'm reading for you”) and let’s not forget the title of the track is based on a Simpson’s reference. Spoiler alert: don’t expect anyone called “Yung Goth Boi” to show up anywhere here.

“Caitlyn” is a solid track with a real nice ending. The lyrics once again steal the show here once you realize the song is basically about having a date with an imaginary dog, which makes lines like “There's still so much to see and maybe if we're lucky we can stay up late and watch tv” ridiculously funny when you come to think about it.

The remaining songs are mostly very good.  The band gives a fine example of what not taking yourself seriously should be like in music like this with the song “J A N K” where at some point they unashamedly assert: “This is a rip off of a Title Fight song”.  The track “Kentucky Castle” is good and it also feels more “serious” in comparison to others, lyrically, while the song “Spilt to Bill” asides from having a title that’s an obvious joke reference on the band Built to Spill, it’s also got some of the album’s most cleverly funny passages. 

What is it that doesn’t work quite right here, then? Well, for one, the closing track “Vin Decent” is the weakest song, in my opinion and, frankly, it didn’t really do much for me lyrically or instrumentally. Then, of course, there’s a problem with the filler tracks that aren’t actually tracks but some sort of “joke tracks”. That’s JANK deliberately trying to be funny and not really succeeding at it.  “Loading Screen” sounds passable but it’s completely out of place and it abruptly breaks the super fun mood solidly built on the previous tracks whereas “The Hat Store” and “Weed is Tight” are the cheesy, forced, eye-rolling and do very little for the album.

However, looking past those aforementioned missteps, the vast majority of the album is refreshingly fun and funny, smartly self-aware and a real pleasure to the ears, full of jazzy-rock hooks, swift, nice melodies and a stellar production. Awkward Pop Songs might not be as crafty as it could’ve been but the band prove to be so good at what they do that it still makes for an infectiously humorous experience where imaginary dogs, anime references and songs about being sad and laughing at it coexist in perfect harmony all while sounding like a breezy, colorful musical mess.

You can listen to the whole record in the link down below!

https://ohnoitsjank.bandcamp.com/album/awkward-pop-songs

Brush Hour: Dutch Golden Age

I've always been interested in drawing, painting and other means of visual expression and it wasn’t until recently that I really started getting into painting and by getting into it I mean very modestly attempting to paint stuff by myself and as that was happening I discovered this sort of renewed love for painting, I started picking up on many details and it’s made me truly appreciate how beautiful and intense painting can be. Despite how good or bad you consider yourself at any kind of artistic expression my suggestion is just give it a chance and try doing something because first, it’ll be super fun and second, even if you don’t think you’re any good I can almost promise the experience itself will make your love for the art form of your preference grow stronger and that’s always a positive thing!

In the middle of this sort of sudden artistic inspiration, I found myself getting into sketching famous portrays originally immortalized by some of my favorite artists in painting and seeing how 90% of what I’d done were sketches of paintings by Rembrandt and Vermeer made me realize just how much I love the Dutch Golden Age and why it is probably my favorite artistic period. It’s actually fairly to see why it appeals so much to me as still lifes and portraiture are two of the coolest painting subjects for me and those two works of art reached a VERY high note during that period thanks to the work of prominent artistic figures like Rembrandt, Vermeer, van Utrecht and Hals (seriously, it was like the avengers of art at the time).

Vermeer was the creator of none other than Girl with a Pearl Earring, which is, hands down, one of my favorite paintings of all time. Technically speaking it is a tronie not a portrait but in all honesty very portraits are as good at being portraits as Girl with a Pearl Earring is despite being a tronie. There’s something so intriguing and mysterious about that girl; she’s wearing a turban and this sort of very unusual dress and the way she literally looks directly at the spectator’s eyes combined with her facial expression, done with ridiculous, otherworldly smoothness, it all makes for one of the most fascinating paintings ever made in terms of skill, delicacy and impact and it is my personal favorite Dutch Golden Age painting. Interestingly, in the 90’s it was found that the painting’s dark background was initially green but it eventually faded; and I say interestingly because to me that actually ended up enhancing the overall impact of the painting.

Rembrandt was a BEAST and he painted some of the craziest portraits ever. The Storm on the Sea of Galilee is an example of dynamism and emotion and Titus, as a Monk…well, I hardly doubt a better use of different tones and shades of brown has been seen; plus, the facial is expression is amazing. Frans Hals painted countless masterful portraits and to me his work deserves more recognition because he was unrealistically good at portraiture; one of the very best (Jester with a Lute is insane). In addition to that, there was also van Utrecht, whom I really admire when it comes to still lifes; he’s definitely the guy if you’re looking for some still life flowers and regarding that, his painting Flower Vase…well, you can’t really step still life flower painting up from that.

A special recognition must be given to Caravaggio in all this, though. Pretty much all of the greatest painters from the Dutch Golden Age drew a LOT of inspiration from him. Caravaggio’s influence was tremendous; he is easily one of the ten, perhaps five greatest painters of all time, in my opinion and his complete mastery of the chiaroscuro technique essentially redefined painting and paved the way for what was later known as the Golden Dutch Age; an artistic period exciting and inspiring like few others!

Album review! White Lung - Paradise

Vancouver punk-rockers put out a record that cleverly managed to find just the right balance between the feral onslaughts of previous albums and a new more softened and polished sound that makes for one of the most rewarding rock listening experiences of 2016 so far and a solid candidate for best punk rock album of the year.

Just by giving a quick listen to the singles that led up to this new project It was very clear from the get-go that Paradise wasn’t going to be just another repetition of the sound they clearly had mastered on albums like Deep Fantasy or Sorry and that’s precisely Paradise’s biggest strength.  Singles like “Hungry”, “Kiss Me When I Bleed” and the sort of ballad “Below”, while retaining White Lung’s essence, also showcased an unusual melodic quality to Mish Way’s usual raspy, ferocious vocals and a wiser, more complex production that made it very clear Paradise had the potential to become a career-changing record for White Lung.

Whether or not this record will be considered a game-changer for the band is yet to be seen but one thing is for sure: This album is their most polished, balanced, accessible record to date and those who thought White Lung’s trademark aggressive assaults were going to be completely blown out of the water on this record have another thing coming as Paradise’s fiercest moments sound as wild as you would expect coming from a band like White Lung only that this time around they channeled their usual punk brutality differently and the results are as hard-hitting as they are cerebral and appealing.

On Deep Fantasy White Lung proved that apart from sounding totally badass, Mish Way’s lyrics can be exceptionally smart too so it’s nice to see one of Paradise’s defining traits is strong, relatable, kind of twisted lyrics and of course, as usual, this is all accompanied by Anne-Marie Vassiliou’s steady, reliable drumming and Kenneth William’s frantic, almost neurotic guitar work that infuses almost every song here with a very distinctive and unique vibe proving once again his talent is as crucial to the band as Mish Way’s rad vocal delivery.

The album opens with “Dead Weight”, a track that could’ve easily been on Deep Fantasy and contains a few warped lyrical passages of many you’ll come across next, like the verse that kicks off the song (“A pound of flesh lays between my legs and eyes; secure the sutures, he'll grow beneath the ties”) and a chorus that goes “I am a wash now without a life to please and I know the hole inside of me is not the way I ever want to be; I'm gone”.

The next track, “Narcoleptic”, is one of the album’s most intense songs both lyrically and sonically and one of my personal favorites here. Not only is it instrumentally great but it goes deeper into the dark side in the songwriting department (“Stuff me full of septic, I'll become narcoleptic”) and Mish  Way makes use of a few crafty metaphors to convey the song’s latent underlying anxiety.

What follows is probably the album’s strongest set of songs starting with “Below”, which is possibly White Lung’s catchiest track to date alongside “Hungry” and according to Mish Way, “It’s a song about the preservation of glamour and beauty.”  Then it’s time for another standout track and a satisfyingly catchy single, “Kiss Me When I Bleed”, which is basically a love song, albeit a White Lung style love song (“I will give birth in a trailer, huffing the gas in the air. Baby is born in molasses, like I would even care” or “I got a basic need; kiss me when I bleed”). Once again the production is fantastic and very clean on both tracks.

The next song is called “Demented” and not only does it provide the record with another sort of bummed out, gloomy chorus (“You were born to ruin your life; you were sworn into a bad, bad wife, this is a sad, sad life”) but also with some of the most head-banging moments here, particularly towards the end of the song when a heavy, straight out of the metal book guitar riff kicks in before the song fades away.

“Sister” isn’t as crushing as “Demented” but it doesn’t fall too short either and “Hungry” is another example of catchy song development, blending tongue-in-cheek references like “Baby, you’re weak, baby, you’re starving; the star will melt, we’re all hungry for it” with some nice, meticulous instrumentation.  The last 3 tracks do a very good job keeping things interesting even though none of them quite reaches the highest quality peaks already reached in previous cuts. The title track certainly feels like a more than fitting ending to the album.

On the whole, I think this record completely blows away any possible doubt that White Lung could’ve started losing steam and power and it shows that they only found a more mature and satisfyingly nuanced way to express all that raw energy that makes White Lung one of the most impressive punk rock acts out there right now and it also makes “Paradise” their best LP to date in my opinion, and for a band with such a strong discography quality-wise that means prepare yourself to have oodles of fun because this is definitely one of the best albums of the year so far.

You can listen to the whole record in the link down below!

https://whitelung.bandcamp.com/

Album review! Pity Sex - White Hot Moon

Ann Arbor shoegazers return with a sophomore album that is as far from being groundbreaking as it is packed with the same intimate reflections on love meet melancholic, musing passages formula that made its predecessor a listening experience as pleasantly likeable as this new record turns out to be.

Perhaps the biggest compliment that can be said about White Hot Moon (and probably about Pity Sex for that matter) is that what they may lack on innovation they excel at style and lyricism. Pity Sex have always worn their influences on their sleeve and personally, I don’t believe that thinking of names like My Bloody Valentine or Lush (which by the way released a very interesting come back EP a few weeks ago) while listening to modern music is necessarily a bad thing; on the contrary, in Pity Sex’s case while their music is highly influenced by their fuzzy-pop rock heroes but its unique, youthful yet ironically apathetic approach makes their music stand out even if at this point that doesn’t make up for the freshest sound out there.

Pity Sex’s biggest strength is precisely on the songwriting department and once again singer- guitarists Brennan Greaves and Britty Drake spend most of their time here looking at the past in and figuring out how to deal with all the things that went out wrong in that past (especially regarding that strange thing called love, of course) and also dealing with how that makes them feel as a person. The band are clearly at their best when they deal with these topics and they are aware of that, which sometimes isn’t that great because your ears will inevitably start getting a strong feeling of Deja vu sooner or later into the record that will only grow stronger if you’ve also listened to Feast of Love before.

However, most of the time the results are highly enjoyable because let’s be honest, they sure can put together standout, catchy, melancholy-driven songs like few other bands in the genre at the moment can. For people their age I find it very interesting how much Greaves and Drake seem to be concerned by this sort of fear of being alone; in fact, on the track “Burden You” Drake even seems to find some kind of relief or peace making sure the guy she’s singing about can’t get over her: “I’ll always think of your lips when I’m movin' mine against his. I wanna know I wanna know. That I’m burning in your mind also. Don’t let me go don’t let me go. I’m your burden--you’re mine to swallow.”

Other tracks like the title track and even more noticeably “Wappen Beggars” with passages like “It’s too long a time to be alone. Silken love, satin getaway, don’t we look good, don’t we feel great. Silken love, hanging over me” head down the same I really don’t want to be alone road. Even the most brisk-paced, almost upbeat at times track on the album, “Orange and Red” is pretty much a song about loving intensely and avoiding loneliness: “I’ll follow you if you follow me too” Drake keeps repeating until the very end of the song.

“Bonhomie” comes off like a kind of weird yet very catchy track where what appears to be Greaves’ auto-tuned voice singing UFO metaphors kicks the song off before finally getting to the point in a way more direct manner: “You love me. You love me not”. One of the slowest, most intimate tracks, “Plum”, also happens to be one of the most engaging not only because sonically speaking it adds some variety to the generally uniform sound of the band but also because it provides the album with moments of strong emotional intensity, as Drake’s folky vocals reminiscent of Katie Crutchfield, approach her mother’s death with heart-wrenching honesty and sorrow.

“Nothing Rips through Me” is interesting in that when we listen to Greaves’ brooding, deadpan vocals saying he’s okay we don’t believe him at all and honestly, that’s the song’s biggest triumph. Nature seems to play a very important role throughout the album as well and it’s White Hot Moon’s number one source of metaphors, to the point where tracks like “September” pretty much revolve entirely around their nature-infused rhetoric. 

It does feel like they played things a bit too safe here and I can see why some people might see that as somewhat of a step back in the sense that instrumentally speaking they didn’t really take any risks but at the same time I do believe White Hot Moon is more sharply written than Feast of Love, perhaps not necessarily in content but certainly in style, and for a band as heavily influenced by poetry when it comes to songwriting that’s already an improvement on itself and also a certain type of risk; a modest one, true, but still a risk nevertheless.

Instrumentally speaking Pity Sex’s delivery is rather discreet, relying heavily on fuzzy guitars and reverb effects as usual and sometimes things might even get a bit repetitive which is a problem Feast of Love didn’t suffer from but for the most part not only does White Hot Moon hit all the right notes that made Feast of Love such a good record to begin with but also their compositional skills are more complex and stylish this time around. 

White Hot Moon might not exactly be a game changer in the shoegaze pop-rock canon but it is a very good follow-up to its predecessor and taking that into account it does something very few sophomore records in rock music do: it lives up to the level of quality preceding it all the while making the best out of its slightly more than 39 minutes of length all of which breeze by as if the album were only 15 minutes long and for me, that’s always a good sign. 

You can listen to the whole record in the link down below!

https://runforcoverrecords.bandcamp.com/album/white-hot-moon

The Raven

Alfred Hitchcock is, without doubt, one of my favorite filmmakers of all times, probably in my personal top 3, and to me he’s the guy who redefined the concepts of mystery and suspense in cinema, much like Edgar Allan Poe redefined (and sometimes defined) those concepts in literature. On Edgar Allan Poe, Alfred Hitchcock once said: “It’s because I liked Edgar Allan Poe’s stories so much that I began to make suspense films. Without wanting to seem immodest, I can’t help but compare what I try to put in my films with what Poe put in his stories: a perfectly unbelievable story recounted to readers with a hallucinatory logic that one has the impression that this same story can happen to you tomorrow.”

Personally, I couldn’t agree more with Hitchcock on that and what makes things even more interesting, is that not only was Poe capable of capturing that unique and tense atmosphere Hitchcock praised so much through his more short stories but he managed to pull exactly the same string through his poetic works as well, and he did that with unique consistency and mind-boggling  ease; in that sense, to my mind, what he accomplished with The Raven hasn’t ever been matched in terms of style and atmosphere by any other author ever since, which is why The Raven is probably my favorite poem of all times.

Picking up on Hitchcock words, I think what makes The Raven stick out even more than its wonderfully mysterious tone, is precisely how natural and perfectly believable everything feels and I have a personal interpretation for that.  I think for anyone who’s ever read the poem the narrator’s sense of grief and torment about his lover Lenore is clearly palpable throughout many passages of the story but I personally feel like that’s tightly related to the presence of the raven itself.

I think, by the way he speaks about his lost “rare and radiant maiden”, that he feels not only utterly affected but perhaps even responsible for whatever caused Lenore’s absence; he is definitely full of regrets and clearly, he never got to overcome all those feelings of remorse and sorrow that were driving him mad and this is precisely what I think the raven stands for in the poem: that it doesn’t matter how hard he tries to find inner peace and to erase how bitter and melancholic Lenore’s figure makes him feel, what’s done can’t be undone and the raven, a relentless representation of his own conscience, will always be there to remind him that his  “soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor shall be lifted—nevermore!.”

I think those are feelings we can all understand and sort of connect with and for me, that’s what makes The Raven so freakishly plausible despite its somewhat fantastic tone, which is to say, in Hitchcock’s words, that’s what gave The Raven that hallucinatory logical vibe that worked out so well and that definitely helped the poem become so timelessly popular and ultimately acquire the cult status that it still holds today.

Whatever your interpretation of the poem might be, like all good poems, the amount of possible levels/interpretation on which The Raven works amazingly well seems to be pretty much endless and that’s something you can get from poetry, particularly from good poetry, that makes poetry such a beautiful and unexpected journey. The Raven was the first poem I ever read that thoroughly made me love poetry and it showed to me that, when done right and when it clicks with you, the intensity with which a poem can conjure up all sorts of feelings, thoughts and sensations remains unrivaled in literature.

As a curiosity, it is said that an early draft of The Raven had an owl in it instead of a raven (which would’ve been incredibly awesome because I ADORE owls!). Alfred Hitchcock once said, comparing both Poe’s and his own style: “We are both prisoners of a genre: “suspense”. You know the story that one has recounted many, many times: if I was making “Cinderella,” everyone would look for the corpse. And if Edgar Allan Poe had written “Sleeping Beauty,” one would look for the murderer. “

Edgar Allan Poe is the type of author that even if you started reading a story written by him without knowing it was actually written by him, you would still recognize his personal stamp sooner or later and the fact that he was able to translate all the traits that made him a one of a kind author (especially when it comes to very short stories) so perfectly into a genre like poetry to such a extent that you can still sense when a poem was written by him, exactly as you would if you were reading one of his short stories, is what makes Edgar Allan Poe the unforgettable testament to literature that he is, and I honestly can’t think of a better example of that achievement than The Raven.