Tonstartssbandht struck a sensible balance between laidback cool and insular uncool, mystical spirit and inviting energy. Their psychedelia and prog rock-inflected sound is experimental but never enervating. It’s a testament to their ability and connection that Petunia might be their best work together yet.
Throughout It's Funny How the Colors, Log Across The Washer’s Tyler Keene whips up a universe of ramshackle folk built for porch gazing as much as drifting through your own recollections of the past. The tape is never a bummer, although there's a hushed energy (in its lyrics) of accepting the present for what it is.
It’s not always easy for a band with such a plethora of ideas to integrate them so smoothly. Without the strength of their songwriting, Mandatory Enjoyment could come off as a hollow list of reference points that dissipate the moment the record ends. That is decidedly not the case here, as each touchpoint is confidently held in veneration.
Modern Fiction, their latest release and their first full length, is jangular. Its bread and butter are trebly clean or chorus-pedaled guitar riffs combined with infectiously crafted open chord melodies. However, the attack of these riffs is frantic, and the album’s lyrical themes belie the initial optimism of their tone.
Take two men named John, a drum kit and a guitar and you’ve got the makings of a powerful, noisy new record, Nocturnal Manoeuvres. The eponymous JOHN hail from the UK and have channeled a brooding and primal sound on their third full-length album. Like the title suggests, the vibe is dark throughout the album’s ten tracks.
The band claims many influences from the 1960s and 70s, such as Alice Coltrane and Art Ensemble of Chicago, and most listeners can detect echoes of Stereolab and Broadcast. However much Vanishing Twin honors the past, Ookii Gekkou swirls these genres into something else ever-changing, as we would hope music in the future would.
Everything about Troper’s style is designed to deceive and confound; it’s difficult to take what he sings about at face value but, in all honesty, that’s where the fun lies. Consider that he named his latest album Dilettante, a word which means, “A person with an amateur interest in the arts without real knowledge.”
The four songs come from the Emphatically No writing sessions, culled when the band wanted to create a good flow for the full-length. There might not be anything as mesmerizing as ‘“Listen to Your Heart.” “No.”’ but that’s not to say there’s no charm to be found in the B-sides; charm is something that comes to Cheekface effortlessly.
While Audio Drag is not a perfect distillation of their live act, Gustaf’s debut is still great fun as the band leans on its storytelling ability to explore the various anxieties, desires, and fears of the titular "ego slob." Lydia Gammill gladly makes herself the joke, inhabiting a narcissistic narrator that is both self-absorbed and needy.
Styrofoam Winos is a shimmering quilt of folk, rock, post-punk, soul, pop, and country, stitched together by three incredibly strong and worth-listening-to Nashville singer-songwriters: Lou Turner, Trevor Nikrant, and Joe Kenkel. These are incredibly versatile, never in danger of sounding bland, never at risk of repeating themselves.
