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Saturday, October 26, 2024

The Head And The Heart, Lilly Hiatt, Lost Leaders, Phantogram, 311 - Variety in our New Music bin


The Head And The Heart: Arrow


Here's the first sample of an upcoming album to be announced shortly, on which the band returns to self-producing and something closer to their early folky sound. "We really wanted to make our next music our own way, and it was a lot of fun to have all of us in a room together again," says vocalist/guitarist Jonathan Russell. This song, he says, is "very self-empowering ... It’s nice to know that you have your own way of providing yourself with confidence when you're out there in the dark.”

Lilly Hiatt: Shouldn't Be


The upcoming album Forever was written and recorded by Hiatt and her husband, Coley Hinson, in their home outside Nashville. Hiatt calls this first single "a song about standing in your truth" and not needing validation from others. "I hate when you leave me on my own / I start spinning now - but I shouldn't be." 

Lost Leaders: Cookie Jar


We're catching up with the recently released Hungry Ghosts, an 8-song collection (is that a short album or a long EP?). The title refers to a Buddhist concept about people searching to fill the void. The duo of Byron Isaacs and Peter Cole says the album captures them "in all of our moods: pointedly snarky, whimsical and outlandish, reflective and confessional. It starts very worldly getting caught up in the surge, moves to psychedelia, then the journey ends with getting yourself back home. In the end things are alright."

Phantogram: Running Through Colors


The duo of Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter just released their fifth studio album, Memory of a Day. The AU Review writes: "The album creates a rich, atmospheric soundscape that feels incredibly cinematic and immersive." This track is one of several highlights, with "a bold, confident sound."

311: Full Bloom


The title track of the Omaha, Nebraska band's 14th (!) album is "about maintaining some innocence and sense of wonder and not becoming jaded," says lead singer/guitarist Nick Hexum. "One can decide that they’re in the prime of their life and choose to live in full bloom."

Saturday, October 12, 2024

Maggie Rogers, Dawes, The Cure, Bottlemoth, Sapling


Maggie Rogers: In The Living Room


Just six months after her Don't Forget Me album, the singer-songwriter releases another track that could easily have fit in that collection. (We're guessing it's destined for a "deluxe edition.") "Like so much of the album, it’s a song about the beauty and pain of memory, and the way that interweaves with reality when you’re processing the exit of a person in your life," Rogers says.

Dawes: Front Row Seat


We've previously featured a couple of its singles, and with the full release of Oh Brother, we're picking this track for our New Music bin. It's a rocker that takes a break midway for a jam-band interlude. The lyric suggests anxiety about the U.S. political situation, then takes a fatalistic attitude: "But if that’s the ball game / If the experiment’s complete / And we both stand around / To watch it all come down / At least we got a front row seat."

The Cure: A Fragile Thing


Robert Smith & Co. are back with Songs of a Lost World, sounding as cheery as ever. Billboard says of this track: "The swirling, midtempo rocker is classic Cure, with a morose, nearly minute-long instrumental intro that sets up a most on-brand tale of devastating love." Smith says the song "is driven by the difficulties we face in choosing between mutually exclusive needs and how we deal with the futile regret that can follow these choices.”

Bottlemoth: Everything Works Out in the End


How about we inject some optimism into the mix? The debut album by this indie-folk quintet from the UK, Even Us Ghosts, comes out this week. Singer-songwriter Ethan Proctor says of this song's title and key lyric: "I can’t recall who said it first to me, perhaps my parents or grandma said a lot when I was growing up. It’s a sentiment that has stuck; our biggest problems now won’t matter in 6 months, and that is a calming ideal. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end yet."

Sapling: Rabbit Hole


This synthy and very catch single is first we've heard from Sapling, a native of Dumfries, Scotland, now based in Glasgow. "Having been influenced by early folk and protest music growing up, she now turns to her own expression of emotion and protest mixed with the inspiration of dance, pop and soul," per her Bandcamp page. 

Sunday, October 6, 2024

U2, Dear Rouge, Monica Moser, The Wild Feathers, Sarah Jarosz land in our New Music bin


U2: Picture Of You (X+W)


If this sounds like a U2 track from the early 2000s, that's because it is. 
The boys from Dublin are marking the 20th anniversary of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb by releasing a batch of previously unreleased songs from that album's recording sessions. The Edge says "I went into my personal archive to see if there were any unreleased gems and I hit the jackpot. ... Although at the time we left these songs to one side, with the benefit of hindsight we recognize that our initial instincts about them being contenders for the album were right, we were onto something."

Dear Rouge: Cutting Teeth


We dip again into Lonesome High, released last month, for this high-energy track that songwriter-vocalist Danielle McTaggart says "embraces the thought that even negative experiences can be where you get your strength, and your chance to succeed in life." "Got something to cut my teeth on," she sings. "I've sharpened up and I'll bite down."

Monica Moser: Find You Yet


This singer-songwriter - a native New Yorker previously based in Nashville and now part of the Austin, Texas scene - has been in our mix for a half-dozen years now. Her latest collection is 27teen, which includes previous singles like "Shortcut" and "Headlines" along with new tracks such as this one, which Kindline Magazine calls "a seamless fusion of indie-pop and introspective songwriting. The lyric suggests a desire to desire to meet a soulmate, but having other priorities that come first: "You're all I want in the end / I just don't want to find you yet."

The Wild Feathers: Stereo


Nashville meets Los Angeles on Sirens. The Feathers, based in Nashville, traveled to LA to record the new album with Shooter Jennings producing - and the result is country-rock with echoes of Laurel Canyon. Bassist/singer Joel King says this track "began as an instrumental soundcheck jam while on tour, and we knew we had to make it a finished song ... We loved the idea of an explosive harmony/chorus right up front in the song, then followed by fun musical idiosyncrasies throughout. Lyrically, it struggles with the duality of life. How can life be both beautiful and depressing at the same time?"

Sarah Jarosz: Just Like Paradise


Unlike U2, Jarosz didn't wait 20 years to release extra tracks from Polaroid Lovers, her seventh album. Eight and a half months after its release, she has issued a deluxe edition with two additional tracks - Wildflowers In The Sky and this song, co-written with Nashville-based Daniel Tashian. "We were overlooking the Gulf of Mexico and taking in the cool ocean breeze," she said in a post. "The way the sunlight was sparkling on the water led us to imagine a place where you never have to be cold or worried or lonesome and you can let go of all your darkness and fears.

(Photo: Jarosz at the Ryman Auditorium, by Erika Goldring via Facebook)