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Rewarding in its patience, the songs the band sculpts on their second album don't rely on ambiance as a crutch. While powerful in themselves, they provide a clearer image of songwriter Stephen McAll's distressing past. Unlocking his truth in mysterious ways, McAll, along with his bandmates, achieve an equally expansive and intimate statement that considers the pieces that shape one's life with a gentle yet discerning eye.
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I read that the album’s heartbreaking finale Do You Need A Friend might be Owens’ finest ever work, but even that didn’t prepare me for an emotional gut punch to rival the greats. Owens has always had a knack for writing six or seven minute epics, with songs like Hellhole Ratrace and Vomit standing out in the Girls discography. And this is even bigger, bolder and weightier than those classics, its oppressive guitars, soaring gospel backing vocals (previously seen on Vomit), and brutal closing refrain of “If you really wanna know, I’m barely making it through the days” announcing the arrival of a true song of the year contender. An unexpected and truly flooring Roxette reference seals the triumph.
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Aerial M’s The Peel Sessions comes across as more of a tribute than a repackaging of lost songs, a lasting record of a fleeting moment in Pajo’s history that we’re thankful to finally hear.
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More than any other album in her discography, BRAT showcases every facet of Charli XCX. She’s a club diva, she’s a pop girlie, she’s a partner, she’s a friend, she’s a daughter, she’s a woman trying to navigate her 30s and she’s a person who’s still mourning the death of someone very close to her.
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Decking their idiosyncratic brand of post-rock with a warmer, smoky sheen might've been a step in the right direction. If anything, the duo makes a great case to silence anyone disputing that it's hard to care for Arab Strap without Moffat's acerbic narratives.
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Decking their idiosyncratic brand of post-rock with a warmer, smoky sheen might've been a step in the right direction. If anything, the duo makes a great case to silence anyone disputing that it's hard to care for Arab Strap without Moffat's acerbic narratives.
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McGreevy and his songwriter partner, Evan David Lewis, tackle similar subject matter on their debut full-length, Modern Fiction. But instead of just focusing on themselves, they also write about those close to them, evoking a sense of melancholy that permeates even deeper. Clocking in at a brisk 28 minutes, Harm's Way unfolds with not a minute wasted, packing in a generous amount of hooks that plays to the duo's strengths.
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Sure, the audible influence of genre touchstones like Beat Happening, The Pastels, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart might make it easy to dismiss on a superficial listen, but is it fair to expect bands to carve out new sonic terrain in such an established and beloved genre? The originality comes in the sheer songcraft of The Umbrellas; it’s not what they sound like, but how they fuse these sounds together. The first minute of the sublime When You Find Out perfectly encapsulates what I love about Fairweather Friend; this is an idea developed it to its maximum potential. The execution is near-perfect.
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Feeble Little Horse are standing at the front of the pack when it comes to the newest wave of American shoegaze. With Girl With Fish, they reach their full potential, pairing feedback and loopy guitar effects to brighten Pittsburgh basements with surprising sweetness and infectiousness.
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Now in their early twenties after starting the Lemon Twigs in their teenage years, the Long Island, New York duo of Brian and Michael D'Addario sound more confident injecting their personality into their '70s-indebted songwriting. In paring down their songs to their barest essentials, they've successfully built a cohesive body of work in a way that their previous attempts at creating conceptual rock operas and intricate baroque rock didn't.
