It's been a couple of years since I reviewed Lucius's smashing debut album, "Wildewoman" and since their song "Turn It Around" became a recognizable hit, even played on a Super Bowl commercial.
For their second album, "Good Grief", they collected songs written over the last two years and assembled a record that sounds much different than their last album. Whereas the previous record had a '60s beehive sound, this record has more of a soul and R&B vibe, with strong use of '80s synthesizers. There are less guitars and more synthesizers. Yet the strength of this band remains the powerful voices of two lead singers - Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig. Their voices are similar, and they sing in unison, continuing to exercise the mirror motif in their videos. When the music can be not very interesting at times, the voices of these two singers is a redemptive quality.
The album took a few listens to get used to, mainly because it is not "Wildewoman". But after a few listens, it started to grow on me, although this will never be counted among my favorites. It is just not my type of music, reflecting a period of the '80s that I just did not get into. However, this is a pleasant listen and has a few strong points.
For instance, The Pointer Sisters feel of "Truce" and "Born Again Teen" don't do much for me, but the Sheryl Crow sound of "Better Look Back" is pretty cool, and the demo version at the end is even better. Avoid the gaudy David Bowie cover, "Let's Dance", but definitely check out "Going Insane" where their vocals unravel at the end until it does really sound like they are going insane. My favorite tracks are "Madness" with its orchestra meshing well with the vocals and "Something About You" with its new wave synths and Taylor Dayne harmony. They do have some tender moments like the piano ballad, "My Heart Got Caught On Your Sleeve" with the music stripped down to bare minimum to show the true force of the duet's voices. "Dusty Trails" goes kind of gospel, and "Strangers" goes back to the '60s with its Everly Brothers mood and lyrics that aptly state:
"We are not two
We are one"
And the acoustic "You Were On My Mind"does what this band does best - another '60s jangle.
This is a decent record and definitely better than anything playing on mainstream radio. But I am still glad to be done with it and move on to the next review.
It always seems strange when other countries take such an American style of music - like country music - and makes it their own. Like Keith Urban. He's Australian, after all. If you think that's strange, what about a band from Indonesia?
That's exactly what Lost At Sea (not to be confused with We Lost The Sea) is - a group from Indonesia that plays bluegrass, country, and folk. With their repertoire of acoustic guitars, slide guitars, accordions, and mandolins, you would think they were from Kentucky rather than the Southeast Asia. But they amazingly pull it off. They are better than most country bands from the States.
Diaz Mraz grew up in the small village of Putussibau in Indonesia with his mother. His mother exposed him to a lot of music from the '60s and '70s - Bruce Springsteen, John Denver, Joan Baez, the Everly Brothers,Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Simon & Garfunkel. They listened to these cassettes over and over until they wore out. In 2014, Mraz took a trip around Southeast Asia - Thailand, the Philippines, etc. He came back and took a look at the youth around him, caught up in partying, drinking, and violence. He wanted to do something better with his life, so he took up music. He decided to make music that was influenced by the music that he grew up with and loved.
Pretty soon, in North Pontianak, with Mraz on drums, he enlisted a friend, Kajol Ifan, to play guitar. Mraz began corresponding with an American singer/ guitarist that he had found on YouTube named Avery Robitaille, and pretty soon she flew to Indonesia and Lost At Sea was born.
For this review, I have been listening to their EP, "The Songs We Lost", and I can tell you - I love this music. One of the songs, the final track called "Bertiga Sejahtera" is a country song actually sung in Indonesian. It's unusual, but still very good. In other words, don't take this band lightly just because they come from a country that you may not be familiar with.
The collection starts with "Foreign Hopes", probably the best song on the EP (and featured in the video below). This song has definitely made it onto many of my mixes, and it has a marked Indigo Girls vibe. "Madilog" has beautiful interaction between acoustic guitars and Avery's ardent voice. "Tourmaline" is a beautiful piano ballad that reminds me a bit of something Sarah McLachlan would do. "Americano" reminds me of another, um, country band I have reviewed, Echosmith.
This is really a dainty little collection. I hope these guys keep it up and take Nashville by storm.
"Who's your favorite band?" I asked my 7 year-old son, Israel (better known as Izzy).
Without hesitation, he answered, "KISS is my favorite band. My second favorite is Imagine Dragons."
"You're the youngest KISS fan," I told him.
"Yeah, me and Avery," Izzy said, referring to his 7 year-old brother.
It's been that way for the past year. The funny thing is - when I was his age, I was a KISS fan, too. In fact, they were the first rock 'n roll band that I ever listened to.
Growing up in rural Utah in the 1970s, I was kind of sheltered from rock music, having been exposed to country music, and such. There was a six month stint in 1976 where I lived in urban Phoenix and became aware of disco. But it wasn't until around 1977 or 1978, the same age as Izzy, that the music of KISS was introduced to me, and the world changed.
It was mainly because I had older, preteen brothers. I specifically remember sitting in the basement bedroom of one of their friends and listening to "Kiss Alive II" on 8-track. The music was raw and hard, unlike anything I had ever heard. Their makeup was garish and wild. This was forbidden music, stuff that I would definitely hide from my parents that I listened to. Back then, it was rumored that they worshiped the devil, and they were "Knights In Satan's Service", but I loved it. It forever will be the force that brought me to rock n' roll, and I am still here.
It even taught me about the concept of an album. I had listened to "Destroyer" and "Love Gun", and I remember in 1979 when "Dynasty" came out. Everyone was so excited for it. But I was disappointed that it had songs that were utterly foreign to me. I couldn't understand that a band would come out with new songs. I expected it to have songs on there that I love, like "Detroit Rock City". I'm glad that I was wrong.
In the 1970s, KISS ruled the world. I remember seeing teen girls with their faces like the band members in the band for Halloween. They would sell out arenas. People talked about Gene Simmons spitting both fire and blood, and the devout Christians would whisper about how he had sewed a cow's tongue to his own to make it ridiculously long. My good friend Howard, who is also a huge KISS fan and has seen them innumerable times, told me, "It's about the performance, not just the music. I'll even admit - some of the music is not even that great. But to see them live - that's where the magic is."
In 1978, they even came out with a TV movie with the band members playing themselves in costume, but with super powers. I watched the movie, and I was enthralled. There was no other band like them. They were the best band in the world.
For a few years at least. Then I discovered Styx, Rush, and then Ozzy, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Slayer, and then punk. That was all she wrote. I forgot about KISS.
Scooby & Demon
Now move forward to 2015, and I'm shopping for a movie for my kids. I see a feature length cartoon called "Scooby Doo & KISS". I decide to buy it for my kids, but really I was kinda buying it for me. Little did I know that my kids, especially Izzy, would fall in love with this movie. It was great. Not only did it feature the Scooby Gang, but all of the current line-up of KISS lent their voices, playing themselves, or at least their onstage avatars. This movie not only catered to the little kids, but to the parents as well, including some tongue-in-cheek humor, bordering on risque. In the movie, KISS plays themselves, but with superpowers, taking Scooby and the gang on a psychedelic roadtrip to Kissteria, including a banging medley of KISS music.
Izzy would watch this movie every day, racing home to finish his homework and watch the movie, and, like me at the same age, KISS became his favorite band. He idolized the characters, and, in no time, he decided that he was Demon, Gene Simmon's character, and the other kids were assigned their own characters, like Avery became Catman.
Avery & Izzy
Since Izzy liked KISS so much - and since I have never personally owned an album by KISS - I decided to download a comprehensive collection - "The Very Best of KISS". This 21 song anthology is a fairly justifiable representation of their 42 year career. I was surprised at how many songs Izzy recognized on here from the Scooby movie - "Rock and Roll All Nite", "Detroit Rock City", "Shout It Out Loud", and "I Was Made For Lovin' You". Exactly the songs I loved when I was a kid. Plus I got to introduce him to some other songs like stuff from their earliest releases in 1974 like "Strutter" and "Deuce". All of my kids know that Peter Criss sings "Beth", There are the '80s, big hair ballads like "Lick It Up", "Love It Loud", and "Forever". Then I got to show them classics that I love like "Love Gun", "Christine Sixteen", and "Calling Dr. Love". Fortunately, they are only seven and don't understand the obvious sexual metaphors in most of the songs. But the good thing in all of this is that I have rediscovered KISS though the ears of my children. I am able to remember what made these songs great to me back then. This album is something I listen to with Izzy and the kids in the car together, something we share, something we can bond over.
There is a tradition of half birthdays in our family, and it comes from being a plural family. You can read about it here. For Avery's birthday, he got a Kiss Army t-shirt, and Izzy got a matching t-shirt as his half birthday gift. They still wear them with pride, even though Izzy is kind of outgrowing his. Last week, at a football game, I got to introduce Izzy to my friend, Howard. Howard showed Izzy his Demon tattoos, and Izzy was amazed to learn that Howard has met Gene Simmons on several occasions. That is a very short degree of separation from Izzy and his idol.
So yes, KISS really is a multi-generational phenomenon. They are going as strong today as they were in the '70s. Maybe Izzy will tell his grandkids about he listened to KISS with his dad.
In preparing to review the second album by Las Vegas (and largely Mormon) band, Imagine Dragons, entitled "Smoke + Mirrors", I went back to my initial review for their first album, "Night Visions". I was amazed. I could, if I wanted, literally copy and paste my review for that album for this particular one. Many of my observations for both are identical.
For instance, I still think that singer Dan Reynolds' voice sounds uncannily like Jay Aston from '80s glam band, Gene Loves Jezebel. In fact, much of their music takes a page from the '80s. Also, I can still see similarities to The Killers, Coldplay, Vertical Horizon, and Neon Trees.
But mostly, like the last album, this new one does not really grab me. I even wrote back in 2012, "All in all a decent album. But I will not be holding my breath for their sophomore effort." So what was I thinking? Why was I really looking forward to this record? I suppose due to the hype.
It's not that it's a bad album. It's not. They are good musicians, decent songwriters. They have fantastic pop hooks. Their songs span a variety of genres. They are everything that people who like mainstream pop would hope for. And perhaps that's the problem. They are shiny and with a slick packaging. The name of the album, "Smoke + Mirrors" is an apt name for the band. Everything is there, except substance. Everything seems designed for commercial success, which they have. Many of these songs have topped charts and played often on the radio. Even my teen kids like Imagine Dragons.
But it just doesn't speak to me or move me. Maybe I'm just getting old.
The album starts out with "Shots", which isn't bad - a finger-tapping pop piece with a vocal hook for the chorus. "Gold" is moody and seething with a very nice sample of Native Americans singing in the background. It really makes the song work. The title track, "Smoke and Mirrors", has a very nice vocal progression. "I'm So Sorry" plays with blues and hard rock. "I Bet My Life", the main single from the album, with its soaring millennial whoop chorus, is pretty recognizable. "Polaroid" is one of the better songs on here, stripped down to a bare minimum, allowing the percussion and the vocals to carry the song. If the whole album was like "Friction", I would feel better about the album. It starts with a Middle Eastern rhythm and moves into nu-metal territory. The only other song that stands out to me is "The Fall" with its multiple song changes, The rest of the collection is fairly underwhelming.
And I feel bad. Because I really wanted this record to be good, instead of just "okay". But I will say unequivocally - there will be no purchase of a third album... Maybe.
A couple of years ago, when I reviewed Nothing's debut album, "Guilty of Everything", I predicted that this record would become one of my favorites, and it really has. I could barely conceal my excitement in May that they were releasing their sophomore effort, "Tired of Tomorrow". And it was definitely worth the wait! Although it was the album that almost didn't happen, thanks to Pharma Bro.
Nothing has had a bit of bad luck through the years. Founder Dominic Palermo started out in the Philadelphia hardcore scene in the band, Horror Show, which I find fascinating, as I myself as a teen moved from the aggressive punk sound to the swirling wash of shoegaze. Who knows what happened to Palermo to have him move in this direction? But he had to leave the band, because he stabbed a guy and served a couple of years in prison. When he got out, he started a band that has been instrumental in rebooting the '90s shoegaze movement into a viable force. Indeed, one may say that - along with DIIV and Beach Fossils - that Nothing leads this scene.
Downward Years To Come EP
To prepare for this review, I decided to check out some of their earlier music. Prior to signing on Relapse Records and recording their first album, Nothing had released a few EPs independently, and I downloaded one of them, "Downward Years To Come", released in 2012, and recently re-released. If anything, their sound was even more shoegaze back then. It was mellifluous, smudgy, with all of the instruments blending together with almost-whispered vocals, making splash of noise. The EP starts with "The Dives (Lazurus In Ashes)" with the guitars scratching out pulsations of distortion while the drum and bass count out a steady beat, Palermo's voice way back behind the music. This vocal affectation is signature with shoegaze bands, and I usually like it. But sometimes Nothing takes it too far. I have watched live videos of their performances, and you can see the guy singing into the mike but can
scarcely even hear that he is singing. The title track, "Downward Years To Come", continues this superfluous exercise in reverb, but it has some nice escalations halfway through the song with some strong percussion giving purpose to the vibrations of the guitars, and the song melts into the next track, "Mine Is Clouds", my favorite song on this EP. It is very reminiscent of The Jesus & March Chain with fluffy textures floating behind the melody. This blends into the heavy guitar intro of "If Only" that dissipates as the gentle vocals waft over what becomes a sweet melody. "The Rites of Love and Death" clears up to reveal a gentle acoustic melody, and you can actually hear Palermo's lyrics. It is a beautiful and pellucid song. It really is a great EP and a perfect introduction to shoegaze music, if you have never heard it, even if all the songs kind of sound the same.
Martin Shkreli, aka Pharma Bro
The thing that I have liked about this band is that they never totally eschewed their hardcore roots. It's still there, if you listen to it. For instance, "Get Well", on their first album, kind of had this grungy, grinding intensity that reminded me of Nirvana. This sort of genre blending continues on "Tired of Tomorrow". It's not just a shoegaze album. There are tons of other influences on here, making it much more of a complete album. But it is the record that almost did not get made, and here is the story why.
During the tour for their first album, Palermo was attacked after a show in Oakland, so severely that he was left hospitalized with a fractured skull and broken vertebrae. Following his recovery, he started working on the second album and signed to Collect Records. Then Palermo did research and found out that Collect was funded by hedge fund millionaire, Martin Shkreli, CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals. You know, Pharma Bro, the douchebag who bought the rights to the drug that helps people with HIV and then jacked the price up to ridiculously high amounts. You know, the guy that reflects everything that is wrong with America. Palermo knew immediately that he would not do an album that was in any way connected with this guy.
Nothing
In an interview with NME, Palermo said he told the band, "Look, we have to shelve this record. We have to. I'm not putting this fucking thing out there with this guy, he's involved in too much shit I can't get behind."
So they got out of their record deal, but without a second record. After some negotiations, they got their record back, re-signed to Relapse Records, and "Tired of Tomorrow" was released this year. And what a fantastic record it is!
First of all, the production value is much improved, and this album is more clear, less muffled, all while retaining the shoegaze ethic. The album starts out with "Fever Queen" with dream pop guitars spiraling to muted vocal harmonies. "Vertigo Flowers" is the primary single off of the album and shows the bands love for all things '90s. It has a veritable post-grunge, Foo Fighters vibe, very jolting and upbeat. "A.C.D. (Abcessive Complulsive Disorder)" continues this melding of grunge and shoegaze, loaded with strong pop hooks. Songs like "Nineteen Ninety Heaven" - which again shows their love for the '90s - are what makes this album not just good, but great. Palermo combines his voice with an unknown female accompanist along with a sparkling and tremulous orchestra. And "Tired of Tomorrow", the title track, is an evocative and somber piano ballad.
Tired of Tomorrow
"Curse of the Sun" has heavy guitars and reminds me a bit of Smashing Pumpkins, but dissolves for a while into a hazy bridge but then builds up to its quick buzz again. "Eaten by Worms" is one of my favorite tracks, with it's trucelent hum (and disturbing video) reminding me once more of Nirvana. As long as we are comparing to other musicians, "Our Plague" beautifully sounds like it could be a number by Silversun Pickups, but perhaps the biggest influence I see - unsurprisingly - is Cocteau Twins. There is no denying it. Every single album or EP that I have listened to by this band has a marked influence from my all-time favorite band. On this selection, "Everyone is Happy" and especially "The Heavenly Blue Flu" have that watery, swirling and eddying liquid sound that was created by Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins. There is no mistaking it. But that doesn't upset me. I like that they pay a sort of homage to this music from the '80s. It makes me love Nothing even more.
So this album almost didn't happen, thanks to Pharma Bro. Palermo later joked that he would like to sell a copy of this album to Pharma Bro for two million dollars. There is a reason that I love this band. And you should, too.
Our experiences on earth are full of life-changing events that carve themselves indelibly into our psyche - the death of JFK, 9/11, etc. Most of us can remember where we were and what we were doing at the time they happened.
On January 28, 1986, I walked into my Social Studies class at Casa Grande Union High School in my hometown in Arizona to learn that the space shuttle Challenger had exploded in midair, a little more than a minute after takeoff, killing all seven people on board. Everyone reacted with a sense of shock at the sudden loss of life, broadcast on international TV for all to see. I didn't see the footage until I went home that night, but many kids in my school were watching it live on TV. The whole nation mourned the loss of these astronauts, and it seemed as if the space program was never the same after this.
Now, the Australian prog rock band, We Lost The Sea, has commemorated the Challenger and other ill-fated journeys on a sprawling third album called "Departure Songs". We Lost The Sea describe themselves as a six-piece, instrumental, progressive post-rock band. If you think that's a mouthful, wait until you check out this album. It's a sprawling. ambitious opus with epic soundscapes and languorous explorations of texture and atmosphere that tell grandiose stories. One of the songs on here is almost 24 minutes long! And yet it all works. Their website states that this album "is inspired by failed, yet epic and honourable journeys throughout history where people have done extraordinary things for the greater good of those around them, and the progress of the human race itself. Each song has its own story and is a soundtrack to that story."
The first story on this this album is "A Gallant Gentleman", which is the shortest track on here. It starts our softly, two guitars creating a dull thrum, like gentle wakes licking the banks of a lake shore. Then the layers descend like pollen, a piano, the wordless voices of a choir, and drums. The song builds up, but never too intensely. The next story is about "Bogatyri" who are knights in epic Russian poetry. The song starts out with watery guitars, light shining and shimmering on the surface, and then taking a while to build up to a fierce gallop across the grassy steppes. These songs really do tell stories. "The Last Dive of David Shaw" starts out with liquid sounds, garbled radio transmissions, and the forced gasps of a rebreather, and the whole songs sounds muffled and muted, as if all under water. It tells the story of Australian diver, David Shaw, known for extremely deep diving excursions. In 2005, he lost his life trying to recover a dead body from the depths of Bushman's Hole. "Challenger Part 1 - Flight" starts with ambient noise with excerpts from beat poetWilliam S. Burroughs where he speaks of the biological necessity of dreams, perhaps to prepare us for space. The song takes us through several movements, and then tightens in intensity as the countdown draws to a close and dissolves into monumental chaos as the explosion occurs and we hear unintelligible transmissions and sounds of mourning.
After the destruction of Challenger, in light of the tragedy, President Ronald Reagan cancelled his State of the Union address in favor of a speech offering condolences to the families of the astronauts, and this speech is sampled in the final track, "Challenger Part 2 - A Swan Song", a song that conveys mourning, hope, and recovery.
There is no doubt that We Lost the Sea are musical geniuses to eschew lyrics in favor of storytelling using only musical threads to weave a tapestry. This album is perfect for playing in the background. I used it while I write, and I play it while I am going to sleep. There are no songs with a conventional structure, and I won't be adding any of these lengthy songs to any of my mixes. But as a whole, as a concept album, this is a very satisfying listen. I'm glad I have discovered it. The songs give life to our memories and our narrative.
So I can't talk about Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, better known as OMD, without telling this particular anecdote about them.
It was June 15, 1988, and OMD was at the peak of their popularity, only a few years previous released "If You Leave", the main song from John Hughes' classic '80s love story, "Pretty In Pink".
Of course I knew who they were. Everyone recognized the faces of Andy McClusky and Paul Humphreys, the two who made the backbone of the band. Even though they had gained fame in the early '80s with the single "Enola Gay" and had been known for some really experimental synthpop, I didn't get to know them until 1985, at the tender age of 15, when their sixth album, "Crush", came out. I was introduced to their music by Jaime Garlish. He was the cool kid in school, the guy who was a couple of years older than me and always seemed to know what was hip and new. For instance, he was into The Smiths before many people in my school had heard of them. Because Jaime liked them, I went and bought a cassette of "Crush", which is to date the only album I really know by the band. It soon became an anthem to my teen angst. The faux '50s vibe of "So In Love" and the jouncy, wistful synth vibe of "Secret" or the sappy romance of "Hold You" were personal soundtracks to the new experiences of being fifteen - first time falling in love, first girlfriend, first kiss, etc.
Now back to June, 1989. OMD was on tour with Depeche Mode. I just finished the day working at the auto parts store, and I went home to find friends inviting me to go see OMD and Depeche Mode with them. Teens are fickle. A few years earlier, these two bands had been everything to me, but, by then, I had outgrown them as was listening to things like The Mission UK, Cocteau Twins, and The Church. But at the sudden invitation to go to this concert, I was eager to go - until my dad reminded me that I was saving money to go to Belgium in just two weeks. I decided that I had better stay home rather than spend my money.
"Oh, you have such willpower," my dad said sarcastically.
So my friends left, and another set of friends showed up. Mike Martin, a goth kid I knew, and Daron, a skinhead. They didn't have money to go to the concert, either, but they asked if I wanted to go hang out in the parking lot. I asked my dad, and he sullenly agreed. After all, I wouldn't be spending money. So we headed to Compton Terrace in Phoenix and hung out by the entrance of the complex. It was fun people watching. This was the '80s, so there was a lot of guyliner, black clothes, and hairspray. We kicked back by a wall that separated us from the arena, listening to OMD blast classics like "Enola Gay" and "If You Leave". It was cheap and fun entertainment.
Jump forward to 2016. My cassette of "Crush" was long gone, and I was feeling nostalgic. So I downloaded it. As an adult, listening to this more than 30 years later, I can say that it sounds very dated. As influential as it has been, it belongs in the '80s as much as the mullets they wore. But I find that I am enjoying different aspects. Beyond the innuendo, they were called Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark for a reason. Their is an orchestral quality about them, how they manipulate sounds and layers, giving their music a different quality from other bands at the time. They were very experimental in the early '80s, and it wasn't until "Crush" that they started heading towards mainstream pop. But as an adult, I am finding that I enjoy the more experimental songs on this album, the songs that were perhaps less known than "Secret", "So In Love", and "La Femme Accident".
"Bloc Bloc Bloc", with its rockabilly feel and horn section, has lyrics that have stuck with me even today. The title track, "Crush", has some crazy loops taken from Japanese commercials. "88 Seconds In Greensboro" has a definite Joy Division influence, and that blends into "The Native Daughters of the Golden West" with it's ominous string section, one of my current favorites. "The Lights Are Going Out" is an example of their ingenuity, vocal loops over a slow drum beat and feverish lyrics, giving the whole song a nightmarish feel. So beyond the nostalgia, this album actually has some artistic merit, and, as an adult, I have appreciation for McClusky's and Humphreys' song writing beyond appeal to teen angst.
Back to that night in 1988, we were hanging outside the OMD concert when the payphone next to us rang. (Remember payphones?) It was a guy named Jeff. He was looking for a girl named Sarah who worked for OMD. We called out to the crowd. No Sarah. So we hung up. A few minutes later, a Rolls Royce pulled up to where we were waiting. A pretty, young girl named Sarah climbed out of the car and approached us with a look of desperation on her face, asking if anyone had called for her. We told her about Jeff's call. A few minutes later, Jeff called again, and he spoke for a few minutes with Sarah. Sarah explained to us that she was letting OMD use her parents' Rolls Royce while they were in town. (I wonder if the parents knew.) She said that OMD was staying in room #2350 at the prestigious resort The Pointe, which was nearby. They were having a party there, and she invited us to go.
So with stars in our eyes, dreaming of a night of debauchery, sex, drugs, and rock n' roll, we left the parking lot and drove to The Pointe. After what seemed like hour of wandering the resort, we finally found room #2350. We knocked at the door. No answer. We figured that Depeche Mode was still playing, so the band would not be over until after the show was over. So we decided to kick back poolside, with the room in full view, until the band showed up. After a long time, no one showed up, but we saw three, pretty girls, obviously groupies, come into view. We said hi to them and asked if they were here for OMD. Wrinkling up their pretty noses, they said no, but then they approached the door to room #2350 and knocked. They left when there was no answer.
We decided that OMD was not worth waiting for hours, so we left and went home. The next morning, my 14 year-old sister, Marina, asked me about the show, since she kind of had a crush on Paul Humphreys. A story about waiting at the pool outside an empty room was not interesting enough. So I made up a story about meeting the band and told her that I had met Humphreys, and that he had asked about her. For the next several days, she wandered around the house, starstruck, saying with wonder, "He asked about me?!"
I didn't have the heart to tell her I was lying. In fact, I still don't think I ever told her the truth. Teen brothers can be mean.
It's been a few years since I reviewed Canada's Purity Ring's first album. Since then, they have entered the pantheon of my favorite bands. "Shrines" has been become one of my all-time preferred electronic albums, and this band is so worthy of the 4AD label that they belong to. Remarkably, their second album, last year's "another eternity" is even better.
As a teenager, when I used to listen to the bands on 4AD, I used to let the broad scope of the music draw me into daydreams. I would let the music create dreamlike images in my head. Purity Ring does this for me as well.
This isn't your run-of-the-mill electronica. Yes, it is trip hop. Yes, it is witch house. Yes, it is synthpop. Yes, it is dream pop. But it is much more than that. There is a bravado about their music, a cinematic sweep, a bellicose grandeur that is impossible to ignore. They ignore traditional song arrangements. The beat is off-kilter and staggering, deliberately slow. Last review, I mentioned "a slow jam on acid", and that comparison still holds true. The synth arrangements are orchestral and panoramic, often building up to tantalizing pitches. And once more, Megan James' voice is clear, sweet and morose, silver lyrics spilling from her tongue, Her lyrics are stark and personal. This is far from club music. This is poetic music set to poetry. Like in the song "begin again":
"You be the moon I'll be the earth
And when we burst
Start over oh darling
Begin again
My moon oh my moon
Not even into
Another eternity
Will you stop your lovely orbiting
I had held it a world away
Until my body began to say
I need not one thing more
Oh wrap the ground around
Your gentle winding mind
Oh guard the pounding sound
Breathe in your fiery air"
And that's just one example. The whole album is lyrical.
The album starts out "heartsigh" giving way to a slow beat and sweet vocals, building up to pictorial crests of music. "bodyache" combines tinkling piano keys with a dense bass beat. "push pull" combines hopeful music with bleak lyrics like:
"There was no light and I swear
I could see the roaring fear
I heard the plains moaning back
I saw the thunder roll o'er black"
"repetition" is honeyed, golden, and nostalgic, the vocal melody looming over the music. "stranger the earth" is stripped down to an earthquake bass thrum with voice. "begin again" is one of my favorites, shimmering and melancholic. "dust hymn" has intense, insistent celestial chimes. "flood
on the floor" is another favorite, one that seems to make it onto most of my mixes. Heavy drum beat, heavy reverb on vocals with expansive synths. "sea castle" has soft piano with heavenly layers of sound, James' voice having a cabaret quality until it builds up in force. The album ends beautifully with "stillness in woe" is incredibly sad, a hushed symphony giving a way to pulsing synths like a light wash of rain, with exquisite lyrics:
"Don't be afraid if it's a little but close
I built a kingdom of your throats, I'm seeing double
Don't be afraid if there's no wind in my hair
There's a stillness left in there, I'm seeing double"
I really don't understand why I am not hearing more about this band out there. They are truly innovative, artistic, and unique. When I look for music, I look for bands just like this that move something inside of me, Oh well. They can stay hidden as far as I am concerned. They can be the private movie in my head.
Pretty much everyone who knows me well knows by now my obsession with the new shoegaze movement (referred by some as nugaze, but I don't like that term). Last year, I got into DIIV, who are the darlings of this scene (on tour now with Wild Nothing). In my research, I found that Zachary Cole Smith, the frontman of DIIV, started out this scene in New York with a previous band called Beach Fossils back in 2009. By the time Beach Fossils released their second album, "Clash the Truth", in 2013, Smith had already left the band for his own project, DIIV.
However, Beach Fossils, headed by Dustin Payseur, very much hold their own. Yes, there are some similarities. Both make smudgy music with strong rhythms, using one guitar to scratch out the beat and another to guitar to frolic with the melody., both have subdued vocals cached behind the smeared landscape of sound. But Beach Fossils is less sopoforic, less impressionistic, and more clear, more concise. They are like an up-tempo Joy Division, not droopy or mopey at all. Another band they kind of remind me of from the '80s is the British group, Felt.
The title track, "Clash of Truth", with its melodic, Peter Hook-style bass melody. starts this collection, sounding a lot like Joy Division, maybe like early New Order. "Generational Synthetic" continues this simple yet gratifying interplay between bass and guitar, sounding a lot like The Reivers, back when they were known as Zeitgeist. "Sleep Apnea" is an aptly named little pleasantly drowsy tune. "Careless" is my favorite track on the album with a jolting beat and lilting guitar hook. You can dance to it. There are a couple of ambient, fuzzy outros here, like "Modern Holiday" and "Brighter" that just add to the atmosphere. And there are a few eye-poppers on here like "In Vertigo", "Caustic Cross", and "Crashed Out", another one of my favorite tracks.
All in all, this is a really good album. Beach Fossils is definitely one of the bands at the front of this genre. It is solid '60s jangle pop coalescing with '80s mood music to create something uniquely modern. About the only complaint that I have is that all of the songs are slightly homogeneous, sounding the same. For instance, I had a hard picking one or two songs to add to my infamous mix CDs. Nothing was standing out enough. "Careless" would definitely make it on a mix. In other words, this album is much easier to listen to as a whole than singling out one or two favorite songs.
It's about time for this band to grace us with a third album. They are out on tour this summer. But when they hit the studio to make some more dreamy music, I will be listening.
