Category: New Music Reviews

I pray for records like this on a regular basis. Specifically, the kind where reggae, pop, and post punk tightly snake around each other, and make you completely forget what year you’re living in. “Lemons” spiritual father is “Ghost Town” by the Specials, while the soul of Slits legend, Ari Up, is living, and breathing inside of Mina’s ace vocal…which is to say, it’s a bit of a classic. Oh, and one more thing ! :  there’s a nod of honor to Smiley Culture preceding the song in the video, and so if you haven’t done it yet, please check out our piece on his wondrous creations under “Lost 80’s” in Topics section of this very blog. You won’t regret it.

Remember when when Madonna was making classic, boundary pushing singles at every turn ? Big, fat pop records that you couldn’t get out of your head ? And then we hit the 2000’s and she wasn’t ? It’s still sad and disappointing….well, meet Baum, and allow her to redress the balance, and pull us into the pop future. She is bitchin’ and unapologetic. There’s a real raw depth, and assertiveness to her singing ( and songs for that matter) that kicks the asses of all the pop queens lurking in the top 10 these days. And with that, here are 2 shining stars to share. “Hot Water” is an infectious, sinewy, candy coated groover that gets bigger by the second. Then comes “First”, a ballad, featuring a world weary, sultry, I’m throwing up my hands vocal, within a tune that sounds like some long lost Prince ballad from the late 80’s, married to an early D’Angelo record, and I can’t think of a higher compliment to pay than that.

A heavenly widescreen hymn for staring at the sun, and wiping your brow to. The sparseness of “Count No Count” contradicts how positively epic it is, which is part of what makes it so compelling. How to describe it ? Well, simplest way would be imagine Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star singing a gospel song… but the LA duo take it well beyond those confines, and it is a singularly beautiful beast.

He is Joseph of Mercury, and he is here to polarize you. “Angel” is completely earnest and romantically over the top. It’s a fifties soul ballad that seems to have gotten lost and found itself wandering around in 2017. It’s a scene where everyone is dressed in white and the stars are shining, and we are all bowing before Venus standing in her shell ( in the parking lot of a drive-in). Okay, will tell you straight : you will either love this or hate it. We recommend you just give in and succumb to it’s undeniable charm, and accept it’s bouquet because it really is pretty freakin’ swell.

This is a pretty nifty piece of post-punk here, with a tuneful, New Order-esque guitar line as the star, some understated whispery vocalizing following sweetly in it’s wake, plus some bonus dissonant twangs…subtle, memorable, and cool.

Ever imagine Kim and Kelly Deal collaborating with Neil Young on a song about that stuff  that you do that you don’t want anyone to know you do (or did ) ? Now you don’t have to, because Partner have invented it. It’s a song, and an eternal truth, and epitomizes what Partner are about : chorus’s and self- flagellating truth telling…but fun, if that makes sense.

The debut album “In Search of Lost Time” is due out in September and judging by the tracks they’ve kicked out so far, it contains no bad songs : every one thus far has been a freakin’ diamond.

And hey do yourself a favor and check out another truly fine track off the forthcoming album ,”Play the Field”, a popped out, new wave diary of teenage lust, sports bras, and the sacrifice of dignity.

Bonus: Oh no, just had an 80’s flashback, and gonna attach this piece of pop absurdity that sounds like a distant forefather of “Play the Field”, and spontaneously popped into mind . It’s by MOR legend Gino Vannelli, it’s ridiculous and it kinda rules.

Urgent, frantic, but also romantic in it’s exultation of the word ‘radio” as in the old school, “the radio is my lifeline” way, which is pretty damn romantic. Anyhow, this is a true power pop anthem, and could possibly make your heart explode.

An ecstatic Go-Go’s/Bangles/60’s girl group hybrid, set to a motorik-krautrock beat ( no really),  this is pop of the highest order, and in a perfect world, at this very moment, it is blasting from a radio in a pink convertible rolling defiantly down the Pacific Coast Highway, and not looking back.

Holy sheez, the guitar on this is sticky, and lethal, and pretty impossible to evict from your head once it’s introduced itself. The whole song sits close to both Sleater-Kinney, and the year of 1994, and will spit in your eye and walk away, and you’ll like it.

While it’s a pretty common thing in hip hop for artists to reference themselves by name in songs, it’s not that often you hear it in a rock song…okay, you know where this is going. Vivienne Chi’s new song is called, yup, “Vivienne”, and it’s a little rollercoaster. It’s all about those inner voices telling you what to do, guiding you or misguiding you, and goes from quiet to loud and back again, whilst  flirting openly with Kate Bush…and there’s something indescribably special about it.