I realized that I let most of the year go by without doing any music reviews! I realize that I will never be able to catch up; there was so much great music in 2019! So instead, I thought I would do a "mini-review" of my top 10 favorite albums of 2019! Tell me yours in the comments!
1. Alcest "Spiritual Instinct" - By far, my favorite album of the year, as well as my most anticipated. I was lucky enough to have someone suggest this French band to me about four years ago, and I have been hooked ever since. They are right up my proverbial alley. This band swirls together aspects of black metal with shoegaze to form a new genre (that they created) called "blackgaze". Eerie, melodic, ethereal - there is nothing like this type of music on the planet. (I will blog in more detail about it later.) Some of their six albums - like 2014's "Shelter" - veer more onto the shoegaze side of things. Principal vocalist/ guitarist/ songwriter Neige has said that he always has to resist the urge to create a Slowdive record. Other albums, like this one, lean heavily on the metal side. The riffs are heavier, the screams are more raw. But it still retains a healthy measure of dreaminess. There are only six songs, but, true to post-rock form, none of them less than fiver minutes. "Les Jardins de Minuit" has a savory mix of powerful shrieks and medeival-style chants. The results send chills down my spine. My favorite track is the haunting "Le Miroir". Not too long ago, I was sitting in my car, listening to music in the parking lot of a grocery store while my wife shopped. A man came up to my window and asked if it was Depeche Mode. And that's the kind of music this is - heavy metal being mistaken for darkwave...
2. DIIV "Deceiver" - For those who follow my blog, they know that I have reviewed this band before, and that they are one of my absolute favorites. This record ties with Alcest for my favorite of 2019. Those who know the band know that frontman, Zachary Cole Smith, has struggled with heroin addiction, and it showed in their soporific, hazy brand of shoegaze. A few things have changed on their new album. 1. The band moved from New York to Los Angeles. 2. Cole went clean. 3. The band all contributes to the music instead of it just being Cole's confessional project. And it shows. It shows in the interviews where Cole takes a backseat to the other band members. And it shows in the music. The lyrics are still Cole's. His dark lyrics explore addiction and rehabilitation. But the music is clear and purposeful. It seemed unlikely that they would stop their sophomore effort "Is the Is Are". It seemed unlikely that there would be another album. But there is. And guess what? It does not suck.
3. Whirr "Feels Like You" - This album was a great $5 investment, and I'll explain why. For most of the past decade, Whirr has been at the forefront of the shoegaze revival. Nick Bassett has played in other shoegaze bands like Nothing (a band I've covered for five years) and Deafheaven. They put out two very good releases that were generally loved by fans, and then they fell victims to cancel culture. Being young and dumb, they made comments on Twitter about a rival band that could be considered transphobic, and they lost their record contract. Now, I am not justifying their behavior, but it is unfortunate that we live in such an unforgiving society. Even after offering apologies, the band seemed over. But they have persisted and released a new album on Bandcamp for $5. This album is very typical shoegaze - swirly guitars and muted vocals. But it is very refreshing, especially on songs like "Younger Than You" and "Rose Cold". Hopefully, though, they will make an effort to stay off of Twitter...
4. Sturgil Simpson "SOUND & FURY" - What do you do when you are a Grammy-winning country artist who has already made three country albums that boldly stretch the limit of the genre? You make a decidedly-not-country album. I was really surprised when I first listened to this album. Sure, there's a little country Americana in there, but this album takes genres and warps and twists them into something purely original - Southern rock, synthpop new wave, boogie, and funk, all melted and fused together in something that resembles ZZ Top meets The Cars. This is a really psychedelic record. Apparently, Simpson wanted a visual accompaniment to the album, and there is a Japanese anime version of the album on Netflix, but I haven't watched it yet. I can't wait to see what Simpson does next. Check out "Sing Along", "Make Art Not Friends", and "All Said And Done" for good samples, but, really, this is a concept album and should be listened completely in one season.
5. LSD "Labrinth, Sia, & Diplo Present... LSD" -
LSD is an acronym for the collaborative project with British singer Labrinth, Australian singer Sia, and American deejay and producer, Diplo. The result is an exquisite pop gem of an album, a veritable earworm. This record helped remind me that - along with punk and post-punk - my past is saturated with EDM, and I still love it. These songs are vibrant and colorful, laden with funky beats and the serene, angelic voices of Labrinth and Sia. Really - what's not to like? Some of the songs, like the elegant "Thunderclouds" have an almost 1950s vibe to them. Other delightful songs are "Genius", "Mountains", "Audio", and "No New Friend". I seriously hope that this album is not the end of their creative endeavor and that we see another release from them in the bear future.
6. Ride "This Is Not A Safe Place" - The 2010s saw a rebirth of the shoegaze movement, many new bands switching genres to start reviving the movement. This opened up the doors for many of the shoegaze bands from the '90s to have comebacks, including the Holy Trinity of Shoegaze, being My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, and Ride. In 2014, much to the pleasure of fans, Ride came together again, not just for touring, but to release a pair of albums. Their sixth album sees them back on form. It's not perfect. I don't like all of the songs. But the ones I do make up for the mediocrity of the others. Both "End Game" and "Shadows Behind the Sun" are strongly reminiscent of The Church. "Clouds of Saint Marie" is a sweet but meaningful pop song. The primary single, "Future Love", redeems the entire album by combining pop sensibility with the dreamlike layers of sound that shoegaze is known for. Ride have shown that they are just as relevant now as they ever were.
7. Drab Majesty "Modern Mirror" - Here is a band that I didn't discover until last year, thanks to my good friend, Linda. Andrew Clinco is the drummer for post-rock band, Marriages (featuring the wonderful Emma Ruth Rundle). He started recording solo music, but he said that it didn't sound at all like him - it sounded like it was music by someone else. So, he created an alter ego as the frontperson of his new band, Drab Majesty - the androgynous Deb Demure. The result is this third album of bone-chilling, danceable darkwave, a total throwback to the gothic music of the '80s. I'm not going to lie - I listen to this band - like on songs like "The Other Side" and "Noise of the Void" - and I hear Clan of Xymox, totally. But that's not necessarily a band thing. In fact, I quite like it. This entire album immediately pulls you into its groove like an indelible homecoming. I can almost see the goth clubs that I used to inhabit as a young man in the '80s. Thank you, Linda!
8. Billie Eilish "When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?" - This one may come as a surprise to some people. Yes, I know that "bad guy" is overplayed on the radio. I know that she is so oversaturated in the media that many people have grown to dislike her and she is regarded as "mainstream". But there is a reason that a 17-year-old has achieved this kind of success. (She is exactly the same age as my daughter to the day.) This is a really good album. I have never been averse to pop music. But I love pop music that is subversive even more. And that fits this album. It is surprisingly simple - hard hitting drum beats bumping beneath Billie's airy vocals, singing about surprisingly sinister topics. "bury a friend" is so dark. "i love you" has such a good use of dream pop wall of sound. Hey, if this album is good enough for Dave Grohl, it's good enough for me.
9. Tool "Fear Incoculum" - Like millions of other people, I was one of those who waited almost fourteen years for this album. Truthfully, I was hoping that it would score a little higher on the list than this, but it is what it is. It's still a good album, filled with ten-minute opuses, laden with heavy guitar riffs, off-kilter rhythms, languorous, psychedelic ponderances, Maynard's perplexing lyrics sung is his crystal-clear voice, and trippy interludes. Some people have disliked it, complaining that it is not heavy enough, but too atmospheric. But hey, "atmospheric" is my bag. A typical Tool album. Although not quite as good as "AEnima" or "Lateralus". but about as good as "10,000 Days". The whole album is better, as with all Tool albums, better when listened in one sitting, but my favorites are "Descending" and "Culling Voices".
10. Chelsea Wolfe "Birth of Violence" - In April, 2018, I made a trip to Philadelphia to visit an old friend, a music guru of sorts, and one of the many artists he introduced me to was Chelsea Wolfe. I came back from Philadelphia with the album "Abyss". Over the next couple of years, I was able to explore her back catalog which consisted of four other albums. It's hard to describe her music. She uses a plethora of influences and morphs them into her own creature. Each album is vastly different than the next. Metal, doom, drone, goth, folk - Wolfe is all of these and none of these. On this, her sixth album, she decided to return to her folk roots and go acoustic, and the live shows were also stripped down to their bare elements. But even for an acoustic record, this album is still dark and brooding, and she adds so many complex layers of orchestra, keyboards, and ambient noises that give this album the feel of a nightmare that you can't wake up from. But you don't really want to. Black lace blowing in a cold breeze.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
11. Ladytron "Ladytron" - Like other bands like Curve and M83, Ladytron mixes elements of shoegaze with what is essentially electropop. The result is something that is at once diaphanous and danceable. But I have to say - there can be no denying that this band takes a page (or two) from ABBA - not necessarily a bad thing, the springy harmonies and catchy beats. My favorite songs are "Far From Home", which melts in the end into a blaring cacaphony of pure noise, and the angular "Run". It's no wonder why Brian Eno loves this band so much.
12. Cigarettes After Sex "Cry" - This El Paso band is one that I have listened to before they had an album out yet and only an EP. And I have always loved them. I admit that a lot of their songs sound kind of the same - sweet dream pop melodies set to Greg Gonzalez's feminine voice, everything languid, soft, slow, and reverb-y akin to Cowboy Junkies, Mazzy Star or Julee Cruise. One discussion group I'm in had one individual referred to them as Shoegaze Maroon 5. But sometimes there is comfort found in familiarity and predictability. If all of these songs sound like the same song, then that song is romantic, a little sad, and a touch moving. Just listen to the song "Heaven", and you will see exactly what I'm talking about. I don't know what the whole "Hentai" is about, though. B ut I guess in the end, though, all of these sugary and sensual songs are about sex.
13. Silversun Pickups "Widow's Weeds" - These guys have been one of my top bands for the last ten years, and their fifth album released last year was one of my most anticipated albums. Yet I was a little disappointed in this one. In fact, I have been disappointed in the last two albums. They haven't been bad. This one isn't really bad. But they don't move me in the way that "Carnavas", "Swoon", and "Neck of the Woods" did. Nevertheless, the songs are good, and the band is in good form, like on the principal single, "It Doesn't Matter Why". The other strong points are on "Freakazoid", "Simpatico", and "We Are Chameleons" Regardless of how I feel about the album, it is good to still have these guys around. They really are one of the coolest bands out there.
Some critics have called A Place To Bury Strangers the "loudest band of New York City", and I believe it. I have heard as much from the two people I have personally spoken to who have seen them live. Both have commented on how loud it was, and that earplugs were essential. I have never seen them live. I had a chance to see them live in Phoenix this summer, but I declined the opportunity. The basement venue had no seating, and that is tough for a disabled gentleman such as myself. But I really wanted to go.
From what I hear, their live shows are an assault on the senses - long sessions of ear-bursting walls of sounds and broken instruments. Not just sonically, but visually. Their sets include little lighting beyond strobes, color patterns, and smoke machines (seizure trigger). I hear that, by the end of the show, you feel like you are going just a little insane.
Case in point - every year at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, the wholesome, vivacious, bubbly TV personality and chef, Rachel Ray, whose husband is a musician, hosts a free party where she serves her fare and invites musicians to play. I don't know who the marketing genius who scheduled A Place To Bury Strangers to play the Rachel Ray Party in 2011, but it was a beautiful mistake of epic proportions. You can watch it unfold on YouTube. The geriatric, middle class people sitting at the picnic tables to eat Rachel Ray's burgers, looking on in horror as the band, looking like they slept in some dirty alley, scratches out feedback on their instruments when, suddenly, frontman Oliver Ackermann steps off of the stage towards the audience and stand their like a god, guitar hanging from his shoulder, sneering at everyone. Then he grabs his amp while the music drones on and drags it offstage, stretching it as far as the chord will allow to get it closer to the uncomfortable audience, drenching them in more noise. Then bassist Dion Lunaden hurls his bass at the audience, never in any danger of hitting them, but dissolving the barrier even further between performer and audience. Just as quickly he takes up another bass and resumes playing, and Ackermann in turn also hurls his guitar contemptuously at the audience. It is hilarious.
Then, at the 2018 SXSW performance at Blackheart, the band sets up their equipment - not on the stage, but in the middle of the audience, much to the bewilderment of the audience. You can watch it here. This is just an example of how iconoclastic this band is, how they want to challenge the norms of rock performance and even the music itself.
As early as 2012, my friend Tim, one of my music gurus, tried to turn me onto this band. I only remember, because of Facebook reminded me that Tim had posted a link to m y page that went unnoticed. It wasn't until 2016 that I finally latched on. I should have listened to Tim. APTBS has since become a staple in my musical diet. But what do they sound like? A definitive fixture in New York's post-punk revival, they are a fuzzy mixture of shoegaze and noise rock. In the same song, they can be at once ethereal and yet assault your ear drums. Tim told me in 2012 that they were like "an amped up Jesus & Mary Chain". I would throw a liberal helping of Sonic Youth in there, along with a smattering of My Bloody Valentine. And yet their sound is their own - caustic, impressionistic, grating, an explosive heap of metalic pieces lashed together loosely with baling wire. Here is a brief overview of their releases.
"A Place To Bury Strangers" (2007) - Though released towards the end of the decade, APTBS has been around the better part of ten years. Their first album was mostly a collection of songs that had reverberated through the NYC in clubs and on various independently-released EPs. But it brought the sound of the band into the public spotlight, selling only a couple of thousand copies on the first couple of printings, but eventually winding up number 38 on Pitchfork's "The 50 Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time". There are some strong moments on here - "Missing You" with its gashing riffs and dreamy hook, "Don't Think Lover"'s harshness melting into sweetness. "To Fix the Gash In Your Head" is perhaps one of my favorite with its electronic hummingbird-heart beats paired with a wall of sound. The dirge-like "The Falling Sun". "Breathe" is a dead ringer for Jesus & Mary Chain. The dark and danceable "I Know I'll See You". "She Dies" is another favorite, exemplifying the strength of the band, going from somber and crestfallen swelling to a painful roar.
"Exploding Head" (2009) - Their sophomore release is perhaps one of their albums listen to the most, maybe because it is so catchy. The bendy, swirly guitars on "It Is Nothing" gives away to insistent distortion. "In Your Heart" is the primary single and shows how the band can throw together random noises that ultimately coalesce together to make an impressionistic portrait of a pleasant song. "Dead Beat" always reminded me of a foray into psychobilly worthy of The Cramps. "Keep Slipping Away" is the second single and perhaps the most radio-friendly song they've produced, but that doesn't keep it from being a great song. "Ego Death" continues the fixation with Jesus & Mary Chain, but only if they existed in the gravitational pull on the surface of Jupiter, much heavier, much darker. "Smile When You Smile" is a great song, one of their tunes with a Sonic Youth vibe, like one of Lee Renaldo's compositions. "Everything Always Goes Wrong" has a Joy Division vibe, with Ackermann doing his best deep-throated Ian Curtis, and Lunaden's bass heavy and thrumming in a complimentary imitation of Peter Hook. The title song, "Exploding Head", is one of my favorite - a gothed-up surf punk melody worthy of 45 Grave. "I Lived My Life To Stand In the Shadow of Your Heart" finishes out the album with a bang. How can a song be shoegaze and hardcore at the same time? I don't know, but APTBS accomplishes just this. I have seen the live versions of this song where the ending collapses into a jumble of compressed and improvised chaos.
"Onwards To The Wall" (2012) - This 5-song EP by the band is one of my favorite releases by any band of all time. "I Lost You" starts out the set with the band's dominant basslines, the guitair only there to scratch out atmosphere. Perhaps my most favorite songs by APTBS is "So Far Away". It's hard to say why this song stands out. It is wistful, almost nostalgic, with the guitars shadowing the vocals, the whole song set on dreamy reverb. "Onwards To The Wall" is another song with a Sonic Youth feel, but this time Kim Gordon, perhaps because of the unknown female accompanist on the song, or maybe like Sky Ferreira on "Blue Boredom" with DIIV. The music fades out and fades back up on "Nothing Will Surprise Me" with it's frenetic pace. A great release.
"Worship" (2012) - The band's third album starts by laying the foundation of pounding drums and thrashing crashes of guitar noise on "Alone" and immediately contrasts by going nearly muted and sensual on "You Are The One", one of my favorite tracks. But then they crank up the fuzz to eleven on "Mind Control", a song that works on so many levels because of its stroboscopic effects. "Worship" goes dense and murky again, paying homage again to J&MC. I am usually not a lyrics guy, especially when the words are muttered below the threshold of sound as Ackermann does, but the lyrics to "Fear" make me appreciate the song, clear for once and almost confessional. "Dissolved" is divided into two halves - the first smudgy, melty, slow and shoegazey like a plunge into Slowdive, and the second half is jerky and perky like something kraut rock, or like Beach Fossils or DIIV. The pounding beats of "Why I Can't Cry Anymore" are industrial and artificial. "Revenge" is like Deep Purple swallowed shards of glass. "And I'm Up" has hints of the Buzzcocks or the Feelies. The album plunges through the finish line with the aggressive "Leaving Tomorrow". Or in other words, this is a great, great album from start to finish.
"Transfixation" (2015) - This album is my least favorite of all of APTBS's albums. It's not terrible; it's still good, but it doesn't grab me like the others. It is much less shoegaze, and much more abstract, more Dada. Though the same grinding darkness is present, it has more of an jazz feel to it, more improvised. But in a way it works. This is art for the sake of art, as in the song "Deeper", which is like a dull knife scraping the bottom of a steel drum, droning on at a sludge-like pace. Definitely a WTF moment, but there is no arguing that this is art. "Straight"has some sharp bass riffs, but "Love High" is confused and disarrayed. But that is their intent - to keep you off-kilter. "Now It's Over" is one of my favorite tracks on the record, but only because it is so simple - bass and vocals. But don't worry - there is plenty of pandemonium on the rest of the album to make up for it, as demonstrated in the final track - "I Will Die" - where vocals, music, and samples are kneaded and pounded into one continuous pulp of lovely noise.
"Pinned" (2018) - On their fifth, and most recent, album, just released this summer, the band is back in form. They have fleshed out their sound. A lot of this is due to adding Lia Simon Braswell as a permanent drummer after a rotating lineup of drummers. Not only does she bring her feverish percussive abilities to the proverbial table, but her sharing of vocal duties adds a dimension to the band's sound that wasn't there before. "Never Coming Back", the principle single, shows that the band is as raw as ever - two notes on a bass backed by a kick drum, only the dual vocals bringing the song to a maddening pitch - a pop masterpiece. "Execution" reminds us of their penchant for dissonance. "There's Only One Of Us" is the second single, set to a skipping beat and a guitar effect that sounds like a bagpipe. Braswell and Ackermann seem to emote John Doe and Exene Cervenka. "Situations Change" is one of my favorites, the bass tamed and the guitars soaring to the front. It could be a Bauhaus song, Ackermann even sounding a bit like Peter Murphy. "To Tough Kill" unlaces into mayhem again with its two-step beat indemnified by Braswell's spooky vocals. "Frustrated Operator", another favorite, accentuates its post-punk flavor, sounding a bit like Killing Joke. There are a few songs like "I Know I've Done Bad Things" play up the electronica element. But the band is about taking whatever there is and creating sonic landscapes with it. "Keep Moving On" is so catchy that it makes it onto all of my playlists as of late.
I'm not going to just sit here and tell you how great this band blah blah blah. But I will say that they are one of my favorite acts of this decade. And I will make a prediction. In twenty years, no one will be talking about how much of an influence Cardi B or Migos were on them. They will be talking about how much of an influence bands like A Place To Bury Strangers were Mark my words...
I know, I know. I'm late doing this, but I can't revive my blog without letting you know what I think the Best Album of 2017 was - and that distinction belongs to Slowdive for their self-titled 4th album, their first in 22 years.
Last winter, when the album first came out, I sent a couple of clips to my buddy, Steve. He said, "I like it. I've never heard of them." The truth is, I never heard of Slowdive in the '90s, either - not until my renewed interest in the shoegaze movement starting about six years ago.
So why is that? Why had we never heard of them? Both Steve and I prided ourselves on being up on music back then - we were young and hip. I listened to some shoegaze back then like Catherine Wheel and Lush. Why not Slowdive, who has since gone on to be recognized as one of the most influential of the whole genre?
A lot of it has to do with unfortunate timing. First of all, shoegaze never took off in the United States like it did in Great Britain. The fact that I listened to as much as I did from the scene is testament to the fact that my tastes were pretty broad and far-reaching. In the UK, however, the scene exploded like a dazzling firework, everyone was deeply enamored with it, and, just as quickly, everyone turned on it with revulsion. Slowdive's first album, "Just For a Day", was released in late 1991, on the down swing of things. Slowdive, having taken their name from a Siouxsie & the Banshees song, had been around for a while, and their first album was highly anticipated by fans of that style of music. It was met with disappointment and poor reviews. By then, music critics were calling the music of My Bloody Valentine, and other shoegaze acts, bloated, indulgent, bombastic, artsy fartsy - "the scene that celebrates itself", they called it.
Slowdive - then
This really would be an unfair interpretation of Slowdive and their first album. It is effervescent, languid, borrowing all the best elements of Cocteau Twins. My favorite tracks are the opener "Spanish Air" which combines the mesh of guitars and harmonies of Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell into something akin to a Mamas & Papas song, the scintillating "Catch the Breeze", the somber waltz called "Ballad of Sister Sue", and my favorite, "Primal", which builds up to an impalpable wall of sound, a veritable assault of the senses.
There were problems with their sophomore record, "Souvlaki", as well - a lot of it marketing issues made by the record company. For instance, the record company kept delaying its release date in America, and it was almost a year later (1994) from the British release date. They were weeks into their American tour without having the benefit of having an album out. Also, the British press was abandoning shoegaze in favor for its noisier, less-cerebral cousin, Britpop, bands like Suede and Oasis. And yet "Souvlaki" has gradually come to be known as one of the quintessential shoegaze albums, along with MBV's "Loveless". They enlisted the assistance of avant garde composer Brian Eno, who co-wrote and played on a couple of songs, the spacey and trippy "Sing" and "Here She Comes". Other gems include the urgent "Alison", "Machine Gun" with Goswell doing her best Elizabeth Fraser, and shoegaze staples "40 Days" and "When the Sun Hits". The whole record is a masterpiece.
In 1995, they released their third record, "Pygmalion", which was a departure from their earlier sound. It was more experimental and ambient, relying more on electronica, obviously influenced from their time with Brian Eno. It consists of more atmospheric, moody arrangements with minimalistic instrumentation. Forget "Dark Side of the Moon", "Pygmalion" is just as mind-altering and psychedelic, with lengthy explorations of music like "Rutti", "Visions of LA" and "J's Heaven". This is a really great concept album. Three weeks after its release, their record label dropped them.
Over the next twenty years, all of them moved onto separate projects. Some did solo projects, and some went on to form the alt folk band, Mojave 3 on the 4AD label. Halstead formed a musical project, Black Hearted Brother, and Goswell joined members of Mogwai to form Minor Victories (all of whom I will write about in the future). In the interim, the shoegaze movement was reborn and Slowdive was touted as its hero.
So, now we come to 2017, and the band reunites to record "Slowdive", their first record in 22 years, and on an independent label. The result is clear and crisp, a shoegaze album with ecxellent engineering for the new millennium. The band runs through the spectrum - atmospheric dream clouds cushioning the vocals, both male and female, on "Slomo", guitars tuned for maximum fuzz on "Star Roving", one of the main singles, and Halstead answers Goswell's frantic keening with serenity on "Don't Know Why". "Sugar For the Pill" shows the maturity the band has reached by molding dreaminess into awareness, like waking from a deep sleep, and "No Longer Making Time" is my favorite song, with its alternating sweet verses and exploding choruses. I love to see how Goswell, Halstead, and Christian Savill blend their guitars to make soaring landscapes of exquisite noise. "Falling Ashes" is an eight-minute opus, melancholic pianos and wistful voices layered by a soft breeze. Just lovely.
Who knows what is next for the band? But I am happy that they reunited to form this angelic collection of songs that has dominated me for the better part of the last year. I highly recommend this band if you have never heard them.
I first came across Kiwi shoegaze artist, Tamaryn, in 2012. I downloaded a free promotional single, "Heavenly Bodies" off of her second album, "Tender New Signs". I loved it immediately with its swirling guitars and soft vocals. It was evident that this was a Cocteau Twins rip-off, but I did not begrudge this. I think it is fantastic when artists today pay homage to my favorite group of all time. The song was good enough that I always intended on checking out the whole album, but I never got around to it.
It was a pleasant surprise when Tamaryn released a third album called "Cranekiss" to good reviews. Last year, she embarked on a tour with pioneer shoegaze band, Lush - their first in twenty years. Over the last year, I have had the pleasure of listening to the album. Tamaryn has shown that she can successfully transcend the shoegaze genre and make a resplendent and satisfying pop album.
Tamaryn with members of Lush
"Cranekiss", the principal single, has the same Cocteau Twins flare that "Heavenly Bodies" had - scintillating guitars with heavy reverb, a strong Will Heggie-style bass line, and Tamaryn doing vocal acrobatics. But "Hands All Over Me" takes a markedly different turn, a mouth-watering synthpop tune in the vein of Chvrches or Phantogram. "Last" is another delectable poptart, faintly reminiscent of Kitten, in other words, not very goth or shoegaze at all, but very dream pop with some Tears For Fears hooks and Tamaryn doing some gravity-defying vocal scales. "Collection" continues the effervescent new wave swell, sounding kind of like Altered Images. "Keep Calling" takes a shift for the melancholy, reminding us that this band is from a genre on the darker side of the melancholy spectrum - a beautiful ballad but with a strong, New Order-style bass. The song shimmers with moodiness. "Softcore" is still my favorite selection off this record, going full goth - a spooky bass line, scracthy guitars, and yet it is oddly danceable.
Cranekiss
"Fade Away Slow" goes all shoegaze with the vocals nothing but a hoarse whisper fed through reverb. The music is a dull hiss, dragging along like an echo of the lyrics, but carried forward with a down-tempo synth beat. "I Won't Be Found" continues with the ethereal - impressionistic guitars with voices like wish crashing on a mountainside, the music just a whisper of leaves blown off the peat moss. "Sugar Fix" is by far one of my favorites as well, and probably one of the most Cocteau of the songs on here with its candy guitars and pummeling bass and dance beat offset by Tamaryn's sweet and diaphanous voice. "Intruder (Waking You Up)" starts with an insistent thrum set over watery guitars, flashes of light shining on the water.
Tamaryn really isn't covering new territory, for those who know the genre, but she is bringing it to a new and younger audience. God bless her for it. It is a pleasant rehash of things that have faded under the unkind glare of time. Lately, I have listening to newer and harsher versions of shoegaze like A Place To Bury Strangers, a band that takes the gentleness and buries it under distortion. Tamaryn is an earlier recollection of shoegaze, chaff blowing on the summer wind. But in times of winter, this is the stuff you dream about. I like how she has almost given two tones to this album. The first half is light and effervescent, and the second is darker and moodier. Kind of like life.
When I was young, I always prided myself on being up on music, and then, in 1990, I moved to Salt Lake City to go to college. It was like moving into a musical black hole.
Utah is not like that now, home to bands like Neon Trees, The Used, and Joshua James. But back then, it was always three years behind. They had an alternative radio station, X96, but they were playing stuff like The Smiths, Depeche Mode, and The Cure. As appealing as that sounds now, in 1990, that stuff was sooo 1987.
Now, I realize that Phoenix is no cultural mecca, but, in the days before internet, perhaps its proximity to Los Angeles made music a little more accessible. It was home to Meat Puppets, Gin Blossoms, and a healthy punk and metal scene that included JFA, Junior Achievement, Mighty Sphincter, Sacred Reich, and Pedifile. Not to mention an awesome alternative radio station, KUKQ, with its iconic deejay, Jonathan L, who organized the very first alternative festival, Q-Fest, before Lollapalooza was even dreamed of - right there in Arizona.
On Christmas Break, I went home to Arizona, and it was like coming up for water. I went to my friend Steve's house, armed with a stack of blank cassettes to record any new music he might have. One of those bands was Lush, a British band on the prestigious 4AD label. The album was the compilation, "Gala". Armed with new music, I went back to Utah and listened to these cassettes - a lot. I was a college student, so I did a lot of walking and riding the bus with enormous headphones always on my head.
Gala
Apart from the colorful album cover by Vaughan Oliver and 23 Envelope, I noticed that Miki Berenyi's overdubbed vocals reminded me of Elizabeth Fraser's from Cocteau Twins - not a surprise coming from a 4AD band - except that the music, while still swirly and ethereal, was hard and biting, not like Cocteau Twins. Lush, for me, was part of the next-gen lineup of musicians for the label. In the '80s, it had been Cocteau Twins,Dead Can Dance, Throwing Muses, and ending out the decade with The Pixies. Lush, for me, represented the newness of the '90s, music that was unfamiliar to me. Since being back from Utah, when it came to being familiar with the music world, I felt, for the first time, being out of my element, out of touch - a feeling I have felt often since in my many years.
Back then, no one knew to call it "shoegaze", although that's what it would be called eventually. To me, it was swirly, watery music like Cocteau Twins, with a vocalist whose lilt was like Liz Fraser's, except pushed into the background - it was like that, except that it was harder, had an edge. No one knew what shoegaze was back then, except that it is easier to see how things progressed and were influenced - all from the perspective of looking back in time.
At the end of 1990, 4AD wanted to introduce an American audience to the music of Lush, and so they released "Gala", which was essentially a collection of the three EPs that the band had released previously in the UK. As a result, the groups of songs on this collection have a very different sound - different EPs, different producers, different feels.
The first EP was 1989's "Scar", produced by Jon Fryer, of This Mortal Coil fame. The first album is raw and unvarnished, much like My Bloody Valentine's first album, "Isn't Anything". This includes "Bitter", a dead ringer for The Smiths - the machine-like drumming, the fierce strumming just like Johnny Marr's, and Berenyi doing her best female Morrissey. "Second Sight" is one of my favorite Lush songs, because it goes through several tempo changes - starting out billowing like My Bloody Valentine, picking up tempo like Throwing Muses with a punk gallop that would make David Narcizo proud with tremulous vocals emulating Kristin Hersh, and then devolving into chaotic noise like Sonic Youth. "Etheriel" lives up to its name, and "Baby Talk" has rubbery guitar leads over a pounding bassline. There are two versions of "Thoughtforms" - one soaring and the other clear and muted, as well as two version of "Scarlet", one an extended play.
In 1990, their second EP was "Mad Love", which are the songs that I perhaps know this band best for. One thing that I didn't know was that this collection of songs was produced by Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins. This surprised me, because I had always just assumed that Guthrie had unwittingly influenced the shoegaze movement from afar, but here he actively produces a record that defines the sound. The songs here are clearer and uninhibited. If they resemble Cocteau Twins, then it is mainly from the early era where Cocteau had a more primal, less ethereal, sound, like the 1983 John Peel Sessions or on the EP "Peppermint Pig". "De-Luxe" is arguably the most recognizable song by the band with its guitar hooks swathed in reverb, and Berenyi doing her vocal acrobatics. "Leaves Me Cold" is perhaps one of my favorite songs with the guitars turned down to a gothic chill and Merenyi's vocals descending into dark scales, a strong bass ascending over the screeching guitars. "Downer" is the perfect shoegaze song - aggressive and hard with angelic harmonies offering a musical contradiction.
The songs from their third EP, "Sweetness and Light", are perhaps the most uninteresting as the band seems to settle into what people would think shoegaze sounds like. The songs - the title track, "Sweetness and Light", "Sunbathing" and "Breeze" - drift like dandelion chaff on a summer wind, coalescing and swirling, the flitting guitars nearly distinguishable from the hushed vocals. They are good songs, but not nearly as unbridled and throaty as the other songs. There is also a lovely cover of "Hey Hey Helen" by ABBA, which sounds as if it by done by Sex Pistols fronted by Kate Bush - in other words, sublime.
After taking a nearly twenty-year break, Lush reunited last year, releasing a brand new EP earlier this year (that I might have to review), as well as embarking on a tour with newer shoegaze artist, Tamaryn (whom I will review soon). It pleases me that this band got back together, as they were so important to me in my youth, being at the front of a genre that is still my preferred style of music. Now, if we can only get Cocteau Twins to reunite...
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.
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.
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.
