With a twanging guitar line that feels like getting gently pulled by the hand to the edge of a cliff, and whispering vocals resting on top of a Joni Mitchell “River” like piano figure, “Ophelia” is exceptionally pretty, uplifting, and ominous at the same time. This track features on the new lp “Whatever Helps You Sleep”, and know what, the title track is pretty exquisite too so attaching that below as well.
Honestly it isn’t often that a throwback stands up to anything that actually occurred in the era it’s throwing back to…which is why this track is a bit of a stand out. “Just Another Year” sounds like Brandy singing a Chaka Khan song off of the latter’s “I Feel for You” album from ’84 ( yes, it’s that specific a vibe). This type of innately melodic R & B is really hard to find these days…which is why this is a bit special. While a lot of praise has been heaped on the respective albums of Kali Uchis and Teyana Taylor, “Just Another Year” is far more compelling a track than anything on either of those acclaimed LP’s.
A brow-beaten anthem about waking up and walking away, “This Is My Cue” is all ascending vocals, snakey twanging New Order style guitar, and self realization and as such is extremely fine.
A windswept, fist pumping AOR goth anthem that brings to mind Pat Benatar, Heart, and Siouxsie all at once (an equation we can really get behind), this kind of empowering, dark, big chorus’ed pop is a welcome bad influence in these days of electronic emo top 40 swill…which is to say it’s big and powerful and kicks a whole lotta ass.
Time is slipping away but no one’s giving up in the candy-coated cloud of “Gunslingers”. Opening with a semi-cheesy lounge keyboard, then morphing into some sinewy slightly trippy soul, ultimately concluding on a big fat bed of “yeah yeaaaaahs”, something sweet is happening here. The band is from Miami which means Florida is now officially responsible for the 2 best songs called “Gunslingers” that we’ve ever heard ( the other being Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers “Two Gunslingers” i.e. very good company).
There is something special about “Cruise!” I can’t quite put my finger on. It’s like some weird combination of Toro Y Moi, a faceless old disco 12″ from 1979 you’d find in a random pile of records and a lost Brenda Fassie ( late legendary Diva) bootleg from the 80’s. It’s hazy and catchy and a little bit weird and sounds like nothing else I’ve heard today. Shormey exults us all to “Cruise!” in the quietest way possible and it’s damned near impossible not to be charmed.
The Clash were always expert at intertwining the sour with the sweet, telling stories, and conveying sights no matter how unpleasant or challenging they were, and making them “palatable” for the masses i.e. making them pop. “Time” by Hold sounds not unlike a classic Mick Jones led track off of 1980’s “Sandinista!”: cuttingly critical and observational, radiating frustration ( in this case after a conversation with an overt racist) but paradoxically served up in a melodic blanket. It’s completely infectious exasperation.
Sweetly dizzy and hallucinogenic, all about waiting for that thing to happen, “Someday…” is a living fever dream and it’s difficult to resist it’s lush and tuneful charm. Yeah, it’s kind of funny, as any song specifically referencing a jalapeño in it’s first verse generally would be, but it also sports the line “If the breeze is right dead leaves will come alive”, which is ridiculously poetic.
Understated, winding and turning, shimmering and pretty, “Tired” is basically a sigh in song form. There’s a line within it that goes “Oh God, won’t you get off your phone and tell me how you feel. I’m tired”, which just about sums it all up. The guitar within somehow manages to both chime and sound utterly defeated and it all makes for something exceptionally fine.
“Lazy Love” is the long lost cousin, or modern day offspring (take your pick), of Nilsson’s “The Moonbeam Song” and Gilbert O’Sullivan’s legendary ” Alone Again (Naturally)”, the latter being one of the darkest # 1 songs ever, which is to say it sounds like it’s wistfully wandered into 2018 straight out of 1971. Plush and simple, awash in sorrowful sun going down strings, and starring both drums and guitars that literally cry, it’s taken from Johnny’s forthcoming ep, and is a fantastically sweet thing.
PICKING UP ROCKS 