Category: New Music Reviews

“Garden Roses” is echoey, mournful, and transportive, and Beckie Margaret’s crying, siren-esque vocal absolutely shines: when she hits the high notes, it calls to mind the  legendary Shara Nelson of Massive Attack “Blue Lines” LP fame. What a lovely thing, wish it were even longer.

By the mid-80’s, Prince was at the height of his creative powers. Utterly fearless and endlessly adventurous. One of his most surprising inventions at the time was the creation of a female alter-ego whom he christened Camille. Basically she was Prince with studio manipulated/pitched up vocals. Now the plan at the time was to release an album as Camille. It was recorded, mastered and allegedly printed but the plug was pulled at the last minute for reasons unknown. Fortunately a few of the songs earmarked for that project ended up on the “Sign ‘O” The Times”, most famously “If I Was Your Girlfriend”, and so we were at least blessed with a little something. Still, how brilliant and boundary pushing would it have been for such a gloriously androgynous pop creation, and work of art to have been properly unleashed. Lord.

Prince had Camille, and Emma Louise has Joseph. And it is Joseph who sings the lead on the epic, plush, Goldfrapp-ian “Mexico”. Story is that while recording her first album back in 2013, Emma heard her some of her backing vocals pitched down and was so taken with the effect that a new identity was born to embody this otherworldly voice, and that is Joseph. And the result is just beauteous: a galloping, widescreen anthem of the highest order. It also brought to mind the brilliant “My Father” as sung by Alison Limerick on the 2nd legendary This Mortal Coil LP from ’84 and you can’t get any better than that.

Astral Drive aka Phil Thornalley is a lot of things. Producer (The Cure, Prefab Sprout, Pixie Lott), one-time member of aforementioned Cure, and co-writer of Natalie Imbruglia’s mega hit ‘Torn”, with loads of other credits under his belt. He is also completely infatuated and crushing hard on Todd Rundgren. On his new self-titled album , the Todd influence is so overt, so brazen, so unabashed in its love and reverence that it’s nearly impossible to cast a critical eye…or at least it is for me as a Todd loving fool. There are flourishes in certain songs that are reminiscent of very specific Rundgren tracks  ( the title track both is and isn’t Todd’s 1973 “Sometimes I Just Don’t Know What to Feel”)…but they are delivered so earnestly, are so heart on the sleeve, that complaining about them seems nonsensical ( gotta say this as I suspect some purists may take issue with it). The entire LP is just melodic to the core, full of pretty glorious, un-cynical piano pop-soul, and hooks,hooks,hooks (of course). Want to mention that things get even more meta on tracks like ” No One Escapes” and the fab lead single “Summer of ’76”, where the respective chorus’s brush shoulders with those of another wondrous artist who himself was openly influenced by Todd, namely New Radicals’ Gregg Alexander…and so if you dig that stuff at all, you will very likely be susceptible to the charms on display here.

The additional irony is that Todd himself embarked on a similar venture way back in 1980 with his band Utopia, releasing an album of deliberately Beatle-esque songs called Deface The Music, which itself was all love (and pretty fun honestly)…and so, thinking Todd would heartily approve of this labor of love.

And with that, take a listen to the album on Spotify below and party like it’s 1976:

And have a look at the video for lead single “Summer of ’76” which pretty much captures the feeling in a bottle :

Something a bit Todd Rundgren-esque happening here in the best way, which is to say “Everything” is slightly spaced out, ridiculously melodic, brazenly prog…and of course features a seductive little piano opening. It is plush, lush, and most handsome.

It is stiflingly hot and humid in NYC right now, the kind of heat where you are grateful for even the slightest hint of a breeze. Thankfully Madlovely have gifted us with an exceptional bit of dubby, hazy and slightly desperate hip hop soul pop to soundtrack that feeling of walking and breathing in the absolutely solid night air. “Thirsty” is a sticky groove that includes a lyrical tribute to goddess Chaka Khan’s version of “I Feel For You”, and sounds like some otherworldly imaginary duet between T-Boz and the late Prince Be of P.M. Dawn, which is to say it’s kind of perfect.

The glue that holds “Waste” together is empty space: it’s a vast, melodic ambient pause. It brought to mind the wonderful Julianna Barwick in it’s hypnotic, spareness, it’s stops and starts and suspended animation, but is even more intimate than the best of her work. Ineffably pretty and epic.

Okay, this is beautiful, and it’s difficult not to instantly fall under it’s hazy, wistful, summer spell, which is to say it’s about as infectious as any windblown acoustic ballad has a right to be. “I walk in the breeze like I am seventeen, love is mostly war and love what is it for ” goes the meandering chorus, exuding both optimism and world weary cynicism and yeah, it’s beautiful. “Seventeen” is featured on Tomberlin’s forthcoming debut album,”At Weddings” to be released in August via Saddle Creek and while we’re here, gonna attach the video below which, gotta say, perfectly captures the mood.

With “Good Son”, LA duo Bad Wave have created a new genre we’ll call ” Post Fathers Day” i.e. this is no celebration of bonding with dad but rather a synth washed lament about letting that Dad guy down. It’s plush and pop and while there is a Ben Folds vibe to the whole song it’s not remotely as self-satisfied as one of his typical tracks which is to say it’s earnest and defeated and just really damn pretty.

gentle j is Jordan Thomas and “Smoking’ is disorienting, hot, and a little fuzzy at the edges. Echoey and lush, sounding like Cheap Trick, the Beach Boys, Flaming Lips and early Pink Floyd all melted up in one pot and stirred together, it’s just beautiful woozy pop weirdness. As for the video, if you are a film geek, you will be instantly transported back in time to epic all consuming 70’s road movies “Two- Lane Blacktop” and “Vanishing Point” which makes this all kinds of perfect.

A lo-fi, twisting, turning, sleepy, hypnotically jangling, and maybe even slightly sinister snapshot of childhood, “Work” has a real 90’s Blake Babies/Juliana Hatfield feel to it ( with a tiny nod to Nirvana’s “All Apologies” ) and features some truly transcendent guitar. As far as Momma goes “Work” is just the tip of the iceberg, as in the new album “Interloper’ is full of even more subtle, whispering, lo-fi wonders so yes, yes, yes, please visit it below.