Category: New Music Reviews

While there is an undeniable air of Cocteau Twins about this ( always a welcome thing), this also brought to mind this antique instrumental off Paul McCartney’s homespun, and first, self titled solo album, “Hot As Sun”. “Primavera Feel” is basically the melodic equivalent of shafts of light spilling through the trees on a sunny afternoon. It’s gauzy, and fat, and really, really handsome.

World weary, murky and the aural equivalent of having all the shades pulled down in the daytime, this debut single from Grand Pax is both glorious and haunting, with a vocal not a million miles away from Sky Ferreira’s darker moments. Completely hypnotic and utterly special.

The last song on an album should always be an epic. It should encapsulate everything that’s come before it, while at the same time steamrolling everything that’s come before it. It usually lasts about 5 minutes, to allow time for maximum self-indulgence, self-importance, and complete awesome-ness  ( ex: “Day in the Life”, “Champagne Supernova”, “Purple Rain”). Sydney’s Middle Kids have just released their eagerly awaited debut album “Lost Friends” and as expected it’s a fine thing but want to acknowledge “So Long…”, the closing track, for keeping the aforementioned tradition alive. While it’s only 3 minutes and 25 seconds long, it’s the complete embodiment of a nutso closing track. I can only liken it to freakin’ Celine Dion fronting Explosions in the Sky. It’s a singular space alien in a world full of “normal” people, trying to figure shit out, and it’s going to smother us all…which is to say, it’s really good.

It’s pretty easy to drown inside “Roulette Love Gun”, a psychedelic low rider (seriously) anthem with an over the top, romantically crying guitar riding on a tidal wave sized wall of sound. It’s all pretty overwhelming…in the best possible way. Okay, the low rider reference:  it’s a little weird but this one brought to mind an old hit from 1981 by Tierra called “Together” with which it randomly shares a small strand of DNA. Weird yes, but damn, kinda cool too.

Here’s some rockin’ dream pop bubblegum with balls, emphasis on the pop. Gonna get obscure here, but this brought to mind a couple of truly underrated 80’s bands, namely Skin Games and Skeletal Family with a bit of the more famed Killing Joke and Curve thrown in. It’s windswept, gorgeous and bursting with empowering sadness, and features an especially majestic and glorious vocal by Hether Fortune. “Crashing” is taken off the new album “Happy Ending” which is full of similarly heart squeezing epics and worth holding onto and walking into the ocean with.

Always nice when a song lives up to it’s exceptional title. “You…” is drawn from the new album “Into the Shallows” and while it starts simply and sparsely, it morphs quickly and gloriously into an epic, desperate plea/crescendo, like a nerd laying himself bear on the stage of a school play, after being heckled, and shocking everyone with his/her singular, solo passion that no one in the audience saw coming and then everyone is justifiably blown away by. No really, it’s great just like that.

Over the past 5 years or so Doe Paoro has been kicking out ultra melodic, yearning, utterly addictive songs and has yet to really get the attention she deserves ( check out “I’ll Go Blind” & “Walking Backwards” especially because damn) : maybe “Walk Through the Fire” will shift things into a higher gear as far as recognition. It’s tough and wistful pop that goes down easy, acknowledging and channelling not one but 2 Florence’s : Flo Ballard and the legendary Supremes and the modern day Florence and the Machine. There’s also a healthy dose of Ronettes thrown in (which in this life is always a good thing) and it’s all completely infectious and just pop, pop, pop in the best way.

These 2 beautifully muddy, woozy, hook laden new songs from Sub Rosa ( formerly known as Lovebuzz) spin and swirl, and sound like long lost cousins of the gorgeous “Sunship Balloons” by Flaming Lips. Striking and swoon-worthy, both tracks are basically the aural equivalent of a sun shower and as such are outrageously fine.

Not sure how to describe this. On the one hand it’s classic desperate old school soul, on the other it’s some weird, off kilter, electronic blues ballad. Mostly though, it’s like a really pissed off version of the old standard “Blue Moon”. With her heart on her sleeve, Sophia’s gigantic voice fills every corner of the empty space as she aggressively pulls the song along behind her, rasping and swearing and telling it like it is, and it’s odd and cool and just kind of kicks ass.

The best records are always tinged with sorrow. “Prayer Hands” is a slightly spacey electro piano ballad featuring a truly warm and handsome vocal, that lands somewhere between Radiohead’s underrated and utterly wonderful”Moon Shaped Pool”, and Kate Bush’s “Aerial” ( this album keeps surfacing as a particular artist influence lately, more so than “Hounds of Love”, which is kind of amazing and well-deserved ). And with that meet Alexandra Sullivan, aka Cherophobiac, whose debut album “Surgery”, from which “Prayer Hands” is drawn, is a darkly revealing, brutally honest and innately melodic place. There is an overarching theme to the album but don’t want to spoil it here, just gonna recommend with every fiber that you take a listen to the whole thing below. If you hate the rain, love daylight savings time or don’t like your songs, albums or bands to be “too depressing”, you probably won’t be into this…but if you are open to traveling down to the dark places, you’ll be rewarded with something really, really beautiful .

Listen here: