Shannon's Swansong: Revisiting Blind Melon's "Soup"

Blind Melon circa 1991

Finally, the '90s nostalgia is starting!

Recently, I've been seeing a lot of "greatest of" lists on the interwebs lately, and I have seen Blind Melon listed frequently as a one-hit wonder.  This startled me.  Were they really a one-hit wonder?

I guess so!  Their only solid billboard hit was 1993's "No Rain."  Anyone who watched MTV knew who they were - a ubiquitous video catching on the feel-good, hippie-dippy vibe that was sweeping the nation in the early '90s - a bunch of long-haired. shirtless guys basking in the sunlight and sunflowers with a chubby girl in a bee suit tap dancing around.  Everyone knew this song.

The first time I heard their 1995 sophomore album, "Soup", I was blown away.  This was not the band I thought they were.  It was dark, gritty, hard, and, well, not hippie at all!  This was rock!  Sure it took a page from the late '60s and early '70s, drawing heavily from the psychedelic sound of bands like Led Zepplin.  But these guys deserved a second look.

What does it mean to be a "one-hit wonder" anyway?  Can a band's artistic merits be measured in their ability to mass produce hits?  That Blind Melon was able to follow up the commercial success of a radio hit with a stark and raw album like "Soup" is a testimony to their legacy.  Unfortunately, that legacy was cut short.

Shannon Hoon 1967-1995

Life was good for Blind Melon after the release of their first album.  Shannon Hoon, the principal singer/ songwriter had emerged from rehab and celebrated the birth of his daughter, Nico Blue.  To support the release of the new album, the band embarked on a tour.  Hoon took a drug counselor with him on the tour to try to remain focused.  Eight months after the release of the album, Hoon dismissed his counselor, and a few days later was found dead in the tour bus from a drug overdose.  It's a story that tragically is all to common among rock musicians, and other artists.  I have often wondered what Hoon might have accomplished had he survived and gone on to produce other music.  In a way, "Soup" is his swansong.

The album starts out with "Goodbye", complete with a horn section lifted right out of a New Orleans funeral procession.  "Galaxie" is an ode to Hoon's car, a 1964 Ford Galaxie.  The song demonstrates the band's capability to create complex rhythms.  "2 X 4" is about Hoon's experience in drug detox, with Hoon screaming, "I'm talking to myself more!"  The riffs could be lifted right from "Houses of the Holy", and Hoon's voice soars like Robert Plant's.  "Vernie" slows don things to a more contemplative pace, and "Skinned" is a playful tune complete with banjo and kazoo with Hoon singing about a serial killer who makes human skin and body parts to make furniture.  "Toes Across the Floor" is probably my favorite song with Hoon's philosophical musings going from a plaintive whimper to a hoarse shout.  "Walk" simmers down to the kind of acoustic numbers I like to see with the band, complete with a mandolin.  "Dumptruck" starts out with the fury of a Motorhead song, but shows the band's uncanny ability to work through mood changes in the same song.  "Car Seat (God's Present" is a feverish song with a violin added, recounting the horror of Susan Smith, who murdered her own children.  "Wilt" is another Led Zepplin-esque song.  "The Duke" is a slow, psychedelic

Soup.

shimmer.  "St. Andrew's Fall" is a beautiful song, recounting the story of a friend who committed suicide by jumping.  The song starts out subdued and works itself into a rage, finishing out with an exquisite string arrangement.  "New Life" has some pleasant interplay between guitars, a song about the birth of his daughter, Nico.  "Mouthful of Cavities" is an acoustic duet with Jena Kraus.  The result is a very haunting melody.  The album finishes with "Lemonade" which tells the story of a bar fight.  It starts out with a dull blues grind and progresses to fast-paced ska, finishing out with the same New Orleans jazz it started with.

This is really great album - one of my favorites.  Over the last twenty years, I have listened to it many, many times.  In preparing to write this review, I found out that Blind Melon is still together and touring.  Imagine my surprise.  I guess I assumed that they had disbanded with the death of Shannon Hoon as I have not heard anything new from them.  I'm glad they are still together.  But this record remains a tribute to Hoon's genius, a talent taken from us too soon.

Dark Yet Happy: The Music of MUNA

MUNA

MUNA are relatively newcomers to the pop music, darlings to Los Angeles' LGBTQ scene.  Their first release in this year's "The Loudspeaker EP".  They describe themselves as dark pop, or, as their website states, "Their music the blending sensuality of R&B, rhythms of pop and rock, and audacity of synthpop with raw, unbridled lyricism."

This was another suggestion to me by my ,music guru, Nikki.  The EP is short, having only four songs, but the whole thing has a nice, poppy groove.  "The Loudspeaker" is the first song featuring a chattering guitar riff, simmering synth beats, and lead vocalist Katie Gavin singing motivational lyrics.  It is pretty upbeat.  In fact, I am trying to figure out why they describe themselves as "dark pop", because there is really nothing dark about it.  "So Special" is a bit more somber with some really nice, layered vocal arrangements.  It kind of reminds me of Imgoen Heap, one of my favorite artists.  In fact, all of this music is kind of reminiscent of Imogen Heap.  "Winterbreak" combines scintillating harmonies with icicle chimes.  And "Promise" finishes out the set with a rousing plea to an unknown lover.

This EP is a nice little introduction to MUNA.  It will certainly never be my favorite, but it is a pleasant listen, a pure venture in pop escapism.  I think it will take a full album to really get a feel for these guys.

YesYesYes to NONONO

NONONO

In 2012, singer/ songwriter Stina Wappling returned to Stockholm, Sweden after studying psychology in the UK.  She hooked up with experienced production team, Astma & Rocwell, and the result was the band, NONONO.  And in early 2014, they released their debut album, "We Are Only What We Feel".  The result is an exploration of catchy, dreamy dance pop.  They describe themselves, on their website, as "urban-indie", a "melancholy yet hopeful with a bassy beat oriented foundation."  And that sounds to be a pretty good description.

This band is adept in hooks, throwing out little snippets of sound that will grab you and reel you in.  I still wake up in the middle of the night humming some of these melodies.  The album begins with "Jungle" with it's prominent high-end bass and keening, synth tagline with Wappling's trilling vocals.  "Like the Wind" continues in the same vein, a somber tune with Wappling doing wordless warbles during the chorus.  "Pumpin' Blood" is the primary single off of this collection and is known for its cheerful whistle.  "Echo" lives up to its name with the vocals and synths set to a slow reverb, accented by an acid house, doppler-effect keyboards.  It's a great song.  "One Wish" changes gear to a country sound, complete with a strumming acoustic guitar and piano.  "Fire Without Flames" could be a '90s club hit, and the record ends with the ambient and mellow "Love".

All in all, this album is a nice, little pop record.  Not likely to join the ranks of my favorite records, but a pleasant listen.  I haven't heard much more about this band since I downloaded this a couple of years ago.  It will be interesting to see what else this Swedish trio produces.

Sorry Somehow: Revisiting Husker Du's "Candy Apple Grey"

Husker Du

I have told the story before, but I like to revisit my repertoire of anecdotes often.

It was on a Sunday night around 1988, and I was in the living room with my two older brothers.  We were watching MTV's "120 Minutes", back in the day when the network actually played music.  Sunday nights were reserved for those who loved the burgeoning alternative music scene.

By the late '80s, my brothers and I had reached adulthood, and all of us had gone through our garish phases in our teen years - punk rock, big-hair metal, or gloomy goth.  But now, all three of us had relaxed and embraced the "whatever" vibe of alt rock.

A Husker Du video came on, a selection off of their final album, "Warehouse: Songs and Stories".  My dad, who hated our music, came into the living room and watched the video for a minute, or so.  Then he announced, "This is pretty good."

We looked up at him in surprise.  After all, this was punk.

"For a rock band, they're pretty clean cut," he said.  "The drummer could use a bit of a haircut.  But other than that, they seem pretty normal"

Yeah, they looked normal.  That was part of the punk ethic.  American punk was never so much mohawks and leather jackets as it was jeans and t-shirt.  They looked normal.  Sure, Grant Hart wore his hair in his face.  Bob Mould looked like the nerdy, chubby guy from next door, and Greg Norton sported a Tom Selleck mustache.  They were normal guys that made innovative, brainy music.  That was the point of punk - blue-collar art made for the people by the people, a DIY, lo-fi, garage rock approach to bypassing the music industry and making homespun songs.  And this resonated with my dad.

(l to r) Grant Hart, Greg Norton, Bob Mould

Little did my dad know that that very year, the Minneapolis band would splinter apart, a schism caused by their own demons - alcoholism, heroin use, and the suicide of their manager.  But there is no doubt that this band was a seminal influence on my youth - including the albums "Zen Arcade", "Candy Apple Grey", and the aforementioned "Warehouse".  Indeed, Husker Du helped pave the landscape for underground rock and alternative music, having critical, if not commercial, success in the '80s, and a legacy that carved the way for the alternative scene through the '90s and continues to be an influence even today.

I realized that I did not have any of Husker Du's music from the old days, so I decided to build my collection, starting with their fifth record, "Candy Apple Grey", as well as their second to last.  This album marked several shifting moments for the band.  Their previous record company, notorious punk label , SST, had miscalculated the growing popularity of the band and had not printed enough copies of "Zen Arcade", and they sold out within days.  Some people had to wait for the reprints until after the subsequent album was released.  To avoid another marketing error like that, Husker Du signed to a major label for "Candy Apple Grey", contracting with Warner Bros. Records.  It was a huge deal.  I mean, they were never going to be Michael Jackson, but, in 1986, for a punk band to have a deal with a major label.  These things just didn't happen back then.

Secondly, the band was purposefully trying to stray away from their hardcore roots in favor of a more melodic sound.  The sound is still there, only tempered with intelligent songwriting and the use of actual hooks.  This combination of punk and pop rock was actually first envisioned by Husker Du and continues today.

The album starts out hard, heavy, and aggressive with the song "Crystal", dominated by Bob Mould's snarls and shouts accompanied with furious guitar strumming.  Then the pace changes with "Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely" with a catchy drum and bass section with the lead guitar shrieking out a killer hook while drummer Grant Hart takes over on vocals.  This is one of two songs with Hart as the vocalist, the other one being the equally catchy "Sorry Somehow".  There are also a couple of acoustic sets where Mould shows contemplative song-crafting that became the hallmark of his solo career with "Too Far Down" and "Hardly Getting Over It".  There is even a piano ballad called "No Promise Have I Made".  These mood shifts are different than any punk album I have ever heard, and, really, contribute to making it one of the best.  There are plenty of other foot-stompers to round out this record on "I Don't Know For Sure", "Dead Set On Destruction", "Eiffel Tower High", and "All This I've Done For You".

Husker Du may not have been Top 40.  But they have earned a permanent spot as one of the most influential acts of the '80s.  I dare you to check them out.  You will see some of their influence in some of the acts you like today.  I recommend their music to anyone who is serious about the history of rock music.

Blood in Heaven: Grimes' New Album "Art Angels"

Grimes

For as long as I have been able to select my own music, I have loved underground and obscure music.  But in a weird way, what I love more is pop music that is twisted and warped beyond commercial viability until it becomes something subversive, something almost perverse, like a mutated doppelganger of everything that is normal and accepted.  This describes the music of Canadian pop artist, Grimes.

Claire Boucher, aka Grimes, is a true artist.  Not only does she write and produce her own music, but she designs her album covers and produces, designs and directs her own music videos.  And what spectacles these videos are - colorful costumes, random sets, fangs, angels, and blood.  Lots of blood.  She is a visual and audio artist in a way that Lady Gaga once was.  It is little wonder that the prestigious label 4AD picked her up, along with fellow Canadian electronic artists, Purity Ring.

In researching this review, I have watched some of her live performances for radio programs.  Just watching her is entrancing as she kneels on the floor with her various digital equipment surrounding her, scrambling over keys and knobs, warbling into the microphone as she crawls, adding layer upon layer, dimension upon dimension to her unfolding, sonic panorama.

Grimes is an artist, as expressed in the title of her fourth studio album "Art Angels".  (Her first album was a tribute to Frank Herbert's "Dune", her favorite book - and mine - called "Geidi Primes", which is reason enough for me to love her.)

Art Angel

The album starts out in typical 4AD fashion with a maudelin orchestra accompanied by Grimes' sweet soprano in the song "laughing and not being...", and then leaps right into a sauntering pop ballad called "California".  But then the record takes a turn for the bizarre in "Scream" featuring Asian rapper, Aristophanes, spouting some rapid-fire phrases in Taiwanese, accentuated by Grimes' piercing screams.  "Flesh without Blood" could almost be a tune by The Go-gos.  She shows that she truly has pop sensibilities in songs like "Belly of the Best", "Easily", "Pin", and "Butterfly", drawing on several influences - house music, Dirty Dutch, trap, and witch house.  But then she will startle the crap out of you on songs like "Kill V. Maim", which is by far my favorite song on here - a simple drum beat with a buzzing bass riff set to Grimes' high-pitched, saccharine vocals, punctuated by the occasional growl or shriek, all laced together by a cheerleader-type chorus.  There is definitely a Japanese, harajuku vibe to the song, and my kids variously say this song reminds them of anime or Baby Metal.  My other favorites are the rock steady "Realti", the bouncy "World Princess part II", and the pounding "Venus Fly", featuring R&B singer, Janelle Monae.  The bass thumps on this song along with some sick acid house sequencers.  The album simmers down to a quiet boil on the acoustic "Life in the Vivid Dream" where she plaintively moans, "Angels cry when it's raining."

Really, I can't rave enough about this record and about Grimes' talent as an artist.  This easily has become one of my favorite records of 2016.  Grimes gives me hope in pop music.  Not everything is mass-produced by writing teams.  There are real artists out there, and Claire Boucher is a real artist.

Slaving To the Groove: My Review of The Chain Gang of 1974

Katmin Mohager

Katmin Mohager, who also goes by the moniker The Chain Gang of 1974, was a touring member of 3OH!3 when he broke off and started making music of his own - deejay-oriented synth pop with its head in the clouds of the 1980s (rather than anything from 1974.)  Mohager has said that, upon hearing Tears For Fears, the desire to make music was awakened within him, and it shows.

For this review, I listened to The Chain Gang of 1974's sophomore release, "Daydream Forever", released in 2014.  To tell you the truth, it took a long time for me to kind of like this album.  It took several listens before I "got it".  And that is not to say that it isn't catchy - it's as catchy as a skunk trap in Lousiana.  The music is upbeat, frothy, fizzy, but with not a lot of substance.  Like watching a Zoolander movie.

But after a few listens, it starts to get to get under your skin like chiggers.  It's actually a pretty cool album.  How subversive is it to have a synth pop song called "Death Metal Punk".  The album starts with "Ordinary Fools" which has a fake computer beat set to a guitar with a Deep Purple grind to it that both nicely offset each other.  "You" has another electronic beat that soars into a Tear For Fears-style anthem with an OMD hook.  "Sleepwalking" is the main single, and it is an unstoppable groove that will put a wiggle in your hips.  It also showcases Mohager's smooth, pouty voice.  "Lola Suzanne" is probably my favorite song with its New Order vibe and high-end bass that would make Peter Hook weep with joy.  "Miko" blends the understated resonance of drum & bass with assertion of a power ballad.  "Moksha" continues with the experiment of blending electronica with rock.  There are also some remixes of the singles on this record.

Like I said, not really my kind of music.  But there are three or four really good gems to be found on here.  If you so choose, you will slave to the grooves in this selection.

Revisiting a Psychedelic Classic: Meat Puppets II

Meat Puppets

I grew up in Casa Grande in the '80s, a small, dusty town in the Arizona desert about 45 miles from Phoenix.  Also, I was only one of a handful in the town who listened to hardcore punk.

Of course, I knew who the Meat Puppets were.  They were a punk band from Tempe, less than an hour from where I lived.  I had neither heard them nor ever seen them play.  Sadly, I was not old enough to drive, not old enough to go to bars or clubs.  But I saw the flyers for their shows all over town, plastered to telephone poles on Mill Avenue, pinned to the motley bulletin boards at Tower Records by ASU, prominently advertising their live shows at the Mason Jar, a small punk venue in Central Phoenix.

Plus, they were on the SST label.  Everyone who knew anything about SST knew that all of the best punk bands were signed to SST - Minutemen, Black Flag, Descendents, Bad Religion, Overkill, and Saccharine Trust.  By 1984, Meat Puppets had released two albums - the eponymous "Meat Puppets" and "Meat Puppets II".  I went to a local Zia Records and bought a "Meat Puppets II" cassette from the used bin, usually a harbinger that the album was not good.  But I was only fifteen years old and didn't have a lot of money.  I had to spend my money wisely.

Meat Puppets circa 1984

Little did I know that this album would eventually be a seminal influence in my life and change my perception of what music was.  At first, I hate it.  I popped the cassette into my Walkman, and WTF?!  This wasn't hardcore like their first album!  It was some kind of weird country, hippie shit!

And when I say country, I mean straight-up country!  Songs like "Magic Toy Missing", "Lost", and "Climbing" were twangy in a weird kind of a way.  They a campy kind of country, like an old-timers' square dance complete with Western shirts, bolo ties, and ruffles dresses.  This wasn't punk!

And when it wasn't country, it was hippie stuff - long psychedelic jams like "Aurora Borealis" or "I'm a Mindless Idiot".  Or songs with nonsensical lyrics sung in an off-tune warbling voice, singing Dada-esque phrases like "Plateau":

"There's nothing on the top but a bucket and a mop

And an illustrated book about birds

You see a lot up there but don't be scared

Who needs action when you got words"

Or "Lake of Fire":

"Where do bad folks go when they die?

They don't go to heaven where the angels fly

They go to the lake of fire and fry

Won't see them again 'till the fourth of July"

This wasn't punk!  Well, there was one hardcore song - "New Gods".  But all in all, it was a hard listen, often dissonant and harsh, the instruments and vocals rarely in sync.  It was like listening to really drunk music for people who are really drunk.

I don't know where it changed for me.  I think I was listening to "Plateau", and at the end, there are a few chords were the music actually becomes beautiful.  This is a little hard to understand for a fifteen year-old, but it finally dawned on me that their off-key music was deliberate.  At the end of "Plateau", it was like the guys were saying, "Yeah, we can play, if we want to!  But we're not going to!"

Cover for "Meat Puppets II"

That was the changing point for me.  I grew to love this album for what it was.  Meat Puppets was one of SST's bands - just like Sonic Youth or Husker Du - that were pushing beyond the limits of hardcore and trying to make audible art.  Not too much later, I bought their third release, "Up On the Sun", which I also loved.  And not too soon after that, I got to see them live for the first time at the Mason Jar.  One of the benefits of living in Arizona, I have seen Meat Puppets live more than any other band.  We pulled up into the small parking lot of Mason Jar, and it was already full.  So my friend Steve tried to park in back, and the band was out back smoking weed.  Curt Kirkwood came up to our car and told us we couldn't park there.  We were ecstatic.

Their live shows are something else.  The level of energy is astounding.  They will launch into ponderous improvisational jams, inhabiting the stage while their families sat in the wings.  Next they would launch into a rendition of "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain", each verse becoming faster and faster until the song ended in a frenzy, in a blur of noise.  I saw them live many, many times.

They were like Arizona's best secret.  Until 1993 when Nirvana's Kurt Cobain invited Meat Puppets to play with him on MTV Unplugged.  Cobain admitted that "Meat Puppets II" was a huge influence on him, even though Courtney Love hated the album.  Meat Puppets joined him onstage for the songs "Plateau", "Lake of Fire", and "Oh, Me".  Suddenly, everyone in the world knew who Meat Puppets were, and the secret was out.  Since then, the Puppets have broken up twice and got back together twice, changed their lineup, and relocated to Austin.  (Bastards.)  But they are still together and still making music.  But nothing will match the magic of falling in love with their second record.

For this review, I downloaded the album digitally, since all I have is the cassette.  The digital version is nice with a bunch of extras - several demo recordings of songs like "New Gods" and "Lost", as well as an old song, "Teenager(s)" from when they were still hardcore.

This record is an essential for anyone who cares about underground music in the '80s.  Released in 1984 at a time when Van Halen was jumping, this obscure, little-known, crazy record went on to influence and set the tone for practically the whole '90s, and, yes, you need it in your collection.  I did.

Soporific Heaven: The Beautifully Hazy Music of DIIV

DIIV

At the beginning of 2015, my old friend Mahesh referred a band to me by emailing me a link to a YouTube video.  He wrote, " I know how much you are into the shoegaze thing, so I thought you might like this band."

Oshin

I took one listen and directly downloaded the whole album.  The band was Brooklyn's DIIV (pronounced "Dive"), and the album was their 2012 debut album "Oshin".  I immediately liked it immensely.  This is really "my kind of music", if there is such a thing.  Definitely taking a page from the early '90s shoegaze scene, DIIV is at the forefront of the rebirth of this sound - swirly, distorted guitars creating a sonorous, delirious and dreamy soundscape with soft, barely mumbled lyrics.  Rather than going for the wall of sound thing that most shoegaze bands go for, DIIV takes a different approach.  Founder, singer, and songwriter, Zachary Cole Smith plucks a constant melody on his lead guitar, fed through tremendous amounts of reverb, creating a playful, less intense sound that sort of reminds me of The Feelies.

Their debut album took the scene by storm with a sound that was earnest, real, unpretentious, and received a ton of critical acclaim - a masterpiece of jangle pop with an upbeat bounce paired with Smith's subdued lyrics filling the spaces.  There are very strong songs on this release, the strongest of which is "Doused", the primary single.  It starts out with a dominant bass which sets the tone for a infectious rhythm which is soon joined by Smith's flitting and billowing lead guitar until his impressionistic vocals and lyrics take shape:

"Never had you run so far but you really gotta get away

You know it in the nighttime running to it

Caught a rising star but then you let it drop into

The ocean now the water's running through it"

Sky Ferreira

"Oshin (Subsume)" carries the reverb to a point that the texture is a smear across a barely needed drum beat.  "Follow" and "Sometime" are sparkles on a surface of water that rouse such wistful feelings in me.  The album finishes off gracefully with the muted "Home".  The album was a really great start and introduction to this band.  My main complaint about this record is that it is monochromatic.  Most of the songs kind of sound the same.  But I liked it enough that I was pretty excited when I got news earlier this year that DIIV was releasing a sophomore record.

DIIV had taken a four year hiatus between albums, and it seemed that they were exorcising demons.  Smith, along with his girlfriend, artist Sky Ferreira, was arrested for heroin possession, and, following a stint in rehab, he went into the studio and pounded out a seventeen song opus.  The result is less bubbly, darker, more brooding.  And Smith created the first album I downloaded in 2016, and definitely my favorite record of the year, so far.

Is The Is Are

The album, called "Is The Is Are", starts out with "Out Of Mind" which really sounds like it could be lifted from the previous album with its unconcerned lilt, but, halfway through the song, there comes a mild keening, a subtle urgency that seemed lacking in their previous release.  This mounting exigency continues with "Under the Sun", "Bent (Roi's Song)", and "Dopamine".  It sizzles with "Blue Boredom", sung by Sky Ferriera, doing a great impression of Kim Gordon on "Shadow of a Doubt".

The next song is "Valentine", which makes in onto every playlist or mix CD I make lately, with its swirly, opiate haze, Smith's lyrics hinting at his heroin addiction:

"Medicine for free

If you’d only asked for me

I’d be a better animal

In every other little way"

"Yr Not Far" is one of my favorite songs, and it is an homage to The Cure, specifically to the haunting melody of "A Forest".  The similarity is undeniable.  I have listened to the songs back to back.  I don't lament it; the fact that Smith's influences come out in his music is actually kind of nice.  Like his love affair with noise gods, Sonic Youth, in the song "Mire (Grant's Song)".  The feedback of the guitars and the desperate discordance of the vocal harmonies makes this song all their own, though.

Zachary Cole Smith

"Take Your Time" and "Is The Is Are" return to some of their previous waggishness.  But "Incarnate Devil" sucks us back into the feverish drug haze.  There are a couple of unnecessary outros and intros.  But otherwise, every song on here is great.  One of my my favorite tracks is the second to the last song called "Dust", which is supposedly their best song live.  It starts with a similar tune to their first single, "Doused", but halfway through the song it dissolved into a wall of sound and distortion that is uncharacteristic to their sound, but more what people expect when they think of shoegaze.  But the result is beautiful.  The album finishes out with the languid "Waste of Breath".

The first album was alright.  The second one is a masterpiece.  It's kind of cliche for heroin junkies to make masterful art.  I really hope they get the help that they need.  But for now, I am glad that something achingly beautiful came out of their pain.

Please check out this album.  You won't regret it.

And Best Country Artist Goes To: Echosmith's Genre-Bending Music

Echosmith

I have to admit that I had some bias when it came to Echosmith's debut album, "Talking Friends".  I downloaded it early, back at the end of 2013, when it was first released.  Becca, a friend of mine, referred this album to me, but, shortly after that, the first single, "Cool Kids", hit the airwaves, I lost my appetite to listen to it.

Now "Cool Kids" is a pretty cool song - catchy and effervescent with a killer hook.  It's not a bad song.  So why is it that it drove me nuts?  Was it the juvenile lyrics about teen angst?  Most likely it was the curse of my generation, the post-modern Gen X.  We hate everything, especially when it has mass appeal and is commercially viable.

This same bias doesn't pertain to my kids.  They love Echosmith, and this record is regularly listened to in the kitchen or sung to in the car.  It has become a fast favorite in the Jessop household, and yet I still resisted giving it a listen.  Sometimes, in the car, I would ask, "Who is this country song?"  And my kids would firmly defend their un-country-ness, saying that they are alternative rock.

But it is undeniable - there is a country twang in some of the songs like "Bright" and "Nothing's Wrong".  I have a theory about this.  Regardless of their musical abilities, they do not write their own music by themselves.  They have a music writing team that works with them.  It's a thing that record companies do.  This means that they aren't truly "alternative", but a creation of the music industry.  All of the songs are written genre-neutral so that with a few minor changes they can be twisted into whatever genre is selling.  That's why many of these songs sound like they could be modern country hits.  With Echosmith, it has become a running joke with my daughter Sara.  Every time one of their songs comes on, I say, "Who is this country song by?"  "Dad, it's not country!  It's Echosmith!"  Really, I know, and so does she.

But I am being too harsh, I think.  I am slowly becoming a musical curmudgeon.  They are not that bad!  They are actually kind of catchy.  Music industry creation, or not, they are better than anything else on the mainstream radio - which is nice.  I mean, they play instruments.  Can Bieber say that?

Echosmith is a California quartet made up of the Sierota siblings, all young enough to be in the same demographic as my own kids.  They make sweet, innocent, bubbly music.  I sat down to fully listen to the album for the first time a few days ago.  Even though it has taken me a long time, even though the fervor for their hit single has died down by now, I have to admit - this album is pretty good.  There are some really finger-tapping tunes on here with enough hooks to catch a school of high school fish.  "Come Together" is a rousing adolescent anthem.  "Let's Love" is a pleasant jig featuring the vocal talents of  both Jaime and sister Sydney, as is "Marching Into the Sun".  My favorite song is "Safest Place".  But as I said, it's all hooks.  Hooks galore.

So will they be one-hit wonders?  Only a second album will tell.  And enough time has gone by that one should be forthcoming.  Nothing on here is going to make me think too deeply.  It's all saccharine.  But it tastes sweet.  And sometimes you just have a sweet tooth.  This will never be my favorite album.  But it's pleasant enough that I won't be deleting it off my phone.  And that's the best compliment I can pay to Echosmith.

Hear Kitten Roar

Chloe Chaidez of Kitten

Since I reviewed one of their first EPs several years ago, Los Angeles new wave band Kitten has gone through several big changes, including several alterations in their line-up to the point that it seemed Kitten had used up its proverbial nine lives.  The only consistent member of the band is the delectable Chloe Chaidez until it becomes very evident - Chloe is Kitten.

A singer-songwriter since the age of ten, she was opening for such highbrow acts as Conor Oberst and Band of Horses by age 12!  So it is evident that this girl has talent.

Her first eponymous album, Kitten, released in 2014, was a very strong start for this artist, showcasing her songwriting ability as well as her wide range of influences.  Many of the songs here are tracks from her previous three independently-released EPs, but they are a good way for neophytes to cut their fangs on her music.  This album has since been one of my favorite recent releases.

The album starts out with a track called "Like a Stranger", a song I have already, but has a definitive, danceable grooves that would make Madonna proud.  It right away makes manifest one of Chloe's greatest gifts - her voice.  She has the ability to run the gamut of emotions with her killer pipes - gyrating from soft whispers to throaty yells.  The next track is "Sensible", and it usually finds it onto most of the mix CDs and playlists I make.  Set to a heavy synth beat, Chloe shouts incomprehensibly into a megaphone.  The result is tantalizingly artistic and, well, very post-punk.  "Sex Drive" has an infectious, funky throb that really kind of reminds me of Duran Duran's "Union of the Snake", offset by Chloe's occasional piercing shrieks.  She demonstrates a refined pop sensibility with an '80s flair on such gems as "I'll Be Your Girl", "Devotion", and "Doubt".  Chloe goes all dream pop for the delirious and beautiful "Cathedral" and shoegazey "G#", two of my favorite songs.  But my real favorite is the subtle and haunting "Why I Wait" with Chloe's whispers set to chilling organ chords.

For some reason, Chloe left the major label and released this year an independent EP entitled "Heaven Or Somewhere In Between".  She has shown that she is, not only a great artist, but a shrewd businesswoman.  I have kept up with her on social media, where she has heavily promoted her EP.  (She even answered one of my emails personally.)  She followed the release of the EP with extensive touring this spring and summer.

The new EP follows a well-crafted well-crafted vision of dream pop.  The opening track, "Fall On Me", with its layers of different tones, is reminiscent of OMD.  There is definitely a heavy '60s jangle to many of these songs, going back to The Shangri-Las and other Phil Spector bands, and such is the case on the song "Church".  "Heaven" and "Knife" flashback to '80s bands like The Cure and early Depeche Mode respectively.  "Rapture", with its earth-shaking vocals, is a perfect example of Kitten's brand of music.

Kitten is certainly not going to disappoint with this collection of both album and EP.  In this day of cookie cutter music, I always revel and rejoice that pop music can be created marvelously and not have to rely on tired cliches and formulas.  Kitten will be around a while, because she has shown she can land on her feet.