I hope everyone is having a great summer thus far, chock full of dramatic twists and heartfelt moments. I know I have plenty of stories worthy of being turned into a coming-of-age romantic comedy. Someone better call up Ben Affleck and alert him of this role of a lifetime.
We got some great albums this week, including a fantastic electronic record by Jamie xx. The whole album is very ambient and trance-inducing, with some very dancey songs in between. The track with Young Thug is also phenomenal and is quickly becoming the new song of the summer. It’s definitely something you should check out soon.
Along with Jamie xx, we also had some great outputs from singer-songwriters Patrick Watson and Sharon Von Etten, along with psych-rockers Talk In Tongues, as well as many other artists that can be found down below. Make sure to check them all out! Have a great week and remember to listen to Sheryl Crow as you casually sip your Kool-aid Jammers.
-Jordan
| ARTIST | ALBUM | DESCRIPTION | LABEL |
| Jamie xx** | In Colours | Really cool electronic stuff from member of The xx. Sparse, ambient, trance-inducing. Some great features throughout (Young Thug, Romy, Oliver Sim). This is great! A lot of cool minimal textures, variation between songs while maintaining a uniform tone. FCC 2,9 Try: 3,4,6,8,9 | Young Turks |
| Patrick Watson* | Love Songs for Robots | Singer-songwriter with ambient, intimate ballads, taking a lot from Bon Iver and Alt-J, but in an original way. Lyrics are compelling and emotional, all reflecting on different aspects of love. COOL STUFF. | Secret City |
| Sharon Von Etten* | I Don’t Want to Let You Down | She is a great songwriter. Well-written, heartfelt songs that manage to narrowly avoid some heart-ache cliches thanks to Sharon’s voice and lyricism. A short EP, written and recorded on tour, but still holds and does not feel rushed or half-assed. Try: 1,2 RIYL: Fleetwood Mac | Jagjaguwar |
| Talk In Tongues* | Alone With A Friend | Solid mix of psych rock influences and Creation Records-esque shoegaze/pop. This is great! Some col experimental moments as well, don’t rely too heavily on typical psych rock conventions. FCC Clean Try: 1,3,5 RIYL:Tame Impala, RIDE | Fairfax |
| Summer Camp* | Bad Love | Dirty, hectic, bu catchy pop songs. There is a whole lot going on, but the songs themselves manage to push through the fuzz and the noise. It’s fun, it’s cool, it’s catchy. Male + female vox. FCC Clean Try: 2,1,4 | Moshi Moshi |
| The Acorn* | Vieux Loup | Mostly acoustic, folksy stuff but w/ some cool, subtle synth and electro textures thrown in. Interesting vocal modulation. Not as straight-forward most singer-songwriter stuff. It’s cool. FCC Clean Try: 1,2,4,6 | Paper Bag |
| Soak.* | Before We Forgot How To Dream | Somber songs focused on themes of innocence, adolescence, and entering adulthood. There is a whole lot of pain and feeling in her voice. Sparse, dreamy, ethereal instrumentation. Cool interludes thrown in throughout the album. FCC Clean Try: 2,3,5,10 RIYL: Beach House, Torres | Rough Trade |
| Little Wings* | Explains | Mellow, well-written folk jams. Dude is a great lyricist. A few nods to Americana and older folk/americana stuff. Also a bit of influence drawn from Neil Young. Try: 1,2,6 RIYL: Bill Callahan | Woodsist |
| Shana Cleveland & The Sand Castles | Oh Man, Cover the Ground | Sleepy, sparse folk music, occasionally reminscient of John Fahey. Not a lot to distinguish individual songs, but it’s nice background music. | Suicide Squeeze Records |
| Mittenfields | Optimists | Bland, repetitive rock. It tries to sound like Japandroids or METZ, but w/ half the energy. The dude tries to sing/scream, but it sounds ugly. Nothing memorable. | Self-Released |
| Flesh World | The Wild Animals In My Life | Noisey, abrasive guitar tones backed with pleasant, but not too melodic vocals. Sound familiar? Yeah, these guys really like Sonic Youth. Not bad though, definitely some tight jams on here. Members of a bunch of queercore bands. Try: 1,2,5 RIYL: Sonic Youth | Iron Lung |
| Matt Skiba and the Sekrets | Kuts | The guy from Alkaline Trio trying power-pop. Pretty sure track 2 rips a guitar line from Queens of the Stone Age. Pretty boring, nothing too innovative or exciting. Every song sounds the same. FCC:1,4, basically every track RIYL: Alkaline Trio | Superball |
| Emory Liu | Emory Liu | Lo-fi indie rock that sounds a lot like Modest Mouse. Ramshackle arrangements, tiny sounding guitars, and intense vocals. | Self-Released |
| Silver Jackson | Starry Skies Opened Eyes | Weird, experimental ambient electronic music. This thing is all over the place. Not a whole lot of structure, the songs tend to float around ideas rather than actively engage them. FCC: 6 RIYL: Animal Collective | Homeskillet |
| Clap Your Hands Say Yeah | Clap Your Hands Say Yeah | 10th anniversary of CHYSY’s debut. Features some cool bonus material (demos, outtakes, etc) but other that that, nothing new. Weird, cool indie rock. Try: 2,3,4, all of it RIYL: Talking Heads | Wichita Recordings |
| Algiers | Algiers | Dark, soulful, almost has a bit of a darker gospel sound to it. Kind of weird, kind of experimental. Very percussive and rhythmic with lots of bluesy, soulful backing vocals. This is strange, but not bad. Sounds like it should soundtrack True Detective. Try: 1,3,4,5,6 | Matador |
| Hollow Sunshine | Bring Gold | Sludgy rhythm guitars w/ bright melodic leads on top. Very melodic vocals. Reaching for that shoegaze revival money, but falling short due to boring production and songs. FCC Clean Try: 1,3,6 RIYL:Cloakroom, Nothing | Iron Pier |
| DMA’S | DMA’S | Jangly, melodic brit-rock. Full of hooks and big choruses. Pretty straight-forward instrumentation, predictable at times but overall pretty solid. Try: 1,4 RIYL: Oasis, Stone Roses | Mom + Pop |
| Miniboone | Bad Sports | Fun, feel-good power-pop and indie rock songs reminiscient of early Weezer in their general feel. Very accessible, but the songs build on a great deal of pop-rock cliches | Ernest Jenning |
| Brendan Phillip | Dine Alone | Diverse range of R&B songs modeled after the likes of Drake and Frank Ocean, along with a lot of newer, cleaner production seen from labels like Soulection and HW&W. Pretty good, but it doesn’t have it’s own voice. | Dine Alone Records |
| Strange Names | Use Your Time Wisely | Feel-good new wave pop songs with energetic baselines throughout and all the classic synths. Sounds like it’s trapped in the 80’s in a coming-of-age film. It’s up to you whether that is good or bad. | Frenchkiss |
| Anti-Flag | American Spring | Anthemic punk, full of social commentary. Surprise! It’s pretty “mainstream” and clean sounding for a punk record. Not sure if these dudes are as anti-corporate as they say. Also, writing songs about some issues they don’t have a right to address. FCC 6,8,13 | Spinefarm |
| Twenty One Pilot | Blurryface | Just read the review on the CD, this thing is horrible. | Atlantic |
| Kid Wave | Wonderlust | Glittery 90’s sounding rock with shoegaze elements, but stuffed with hooky guitars and distortion. Sounds a lot like Hole’s Celebrity Skin album. Very cathcy and captures the melancholy feeling of a lot of 90’s alt-rock. A bit repetitive and derivative. FCC Clean Try:1,5,2 RIYL: Hole | Heavenly Records |
| Total Babes | Heydays | Indie-rockers from the likes of Cloud Nothings, churning out similar and familiar riffs and rhythms. Pretty oky. Try: 1,5 | Wichita Recordings |
| Tanlines | Highlights | Anti-climatic synth-pop songs with a bit of new wave influence. Instrumentation rarely develop and vocals maintain same runs throughout the album. Starts out catchy and becomes boring. | True Panther Sounds |
| The Wheel Workers | Citizens | Very suprising album to say the least.Indie rock album with some synth-pop elements, but with strong political statements to match engaging music. A pleasant surprise, worth a listen | Self-Released |
Photo by dannyjohnryder 