New songs for September 28th, 2022

 Here they are:


"Evergreen" by Mt. Joy: Probably Mt. Joy's hardest-rocking song to date, "Evergreen" is surprisingly upbeat and electric-guitar driven for the mostly psychedelic folk-rock-y Mt. Joy. "Evergreen" is also very upbeat and doesn't dip into weird beat-changing territory the way that, say, "Lemon Tree" did. Another thing that makes "Evergreen" stand out in Mt. Joy's catalog is how funny it is! You probably didn't think the band behind bittersweet songs like "Silver Lining" could be so hilarious, but their humor is proved here in lines like "This is the part where your wedding ring gets pulled across your eye." Ouch! Definitely subversive humor there, but funny nonetheless! 

"Fairweather Friend" by GA-20: Continuing our streak of rock-oriented songs for this week is "Fairweather Friend" by GA-20, with a sound whose roots go back to the blues! The song's syncopated shuffle recalls groups like The Black Keys, but GA-20 seems to be a bit more authentically blues-y than they are. Even their name is a nod to a classic electric guitar model from the 1950's. One particularly interesting thing to note about the instrumentation of this song is that its melody comes from two guitars. There is no bassist to be heard on this track! The combination of the thickness of the guitars and the song's prominent drumbeat could easily fool listeners into thinking there is a bassist. 

"Night Moves" by Lissie: Not to be confused with Bob Seger's bittersweet mid-'70s country-rock tune of the same name about becoming a teenager, Lissie's "Night Moves" has a bittersweetness of its own for entirely different reasons. It is a stark song that, fitting to its title, has a rather nocturnal sound that is as mysterious as it is mellow. Her "Night Moves" takes place in her post-teen years and is about being betrayed by love, as opposed to Seger's ode to curiosity about the mysteries of sex and romance. Another interesting parallel between the two songs is how they both illustrate a folk-rock sound, although Lissie's is less influenced by roots-y country and more by the melancholy, isolated, yearning sounds of musicians like Stevie Nicks, and probably by Joni Mitchell as well. It's probably mere coincidence that Lissie has a song title identical to one of Bob Seger's most popular songs, but both the coincidences and contrasts between the two songs are rather striking!

"Should've Been Me" by Mitski: In the ever eclectic catalog of indie-pop musician, Mitski, we find her once again channeling pop music of the 1980's, but it's a rather specific song she's set on emulating this time. Perhaps you could say she has a "Maneating" appetite for '80s musical nostalgia here! Both the riffs and beat for "Should've Been Me" are practically identical to Hall and Oates' "Maneater," although she slips in a middle section between the verses that have enough usage of major 7th chords to distinguish itself from that song. Beneath the upbeat vibes of the song are troublesome lyrics about how Mitski wanted to be more available to her partner in a relationship that had shaky, questionable communication. The song's title basically serves as an apology for how she "should've been" the one to satisfy her partner's needs, but in a relationship both as rocky and as shady as the one she's describing, how are you supposed to know what's going to happen?! This song has a great way of masking feelings of regret with a catchy, nostalgic beat and melody, which in turn serves as a great and clever way for people to listen to you!

"Supernatural" by Barns Courtney: Barns Courtney is great at churning out catchy rock/indie-pop anthems, particularly his blues-by-way-of-pop debut single, "Fire." With each new song and album, Barns reinvents himself, but the way "Supernatural" sounds is something that I don't think any of his fans would've anticipated! "Supernatural" sounds a bit like what Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" might have been like if she felt scorned enough to create a fiery, back-with-a-vengeance rock song over a pop/soul template. "Supernatural" has surprisingly blazing electric guitar riffs during the chorus that shake the listener by the neck and demand they listen to what he has to say! So just what does Barns have to say in his latest tune?! From what I can gather from its lyrical content so far, "Supernatural" seems like Barns' way of getting back at a former lover who wronged him. In the chorus, he claims he is unstoppable and "supernatural," perhaps to signify how he won't get out of his ex's life no matter how much they want him out of it. Way to haunt your ex, Barns! "Supernatural" is a swinging song that's somewhat scary, yet still soulful, sweet, and satisfying!

"The Perfect Pair" by beabadoobee: Unlike the recent alt-pop/rock-oriented experiments beabadoobee has ventured into with her last few singles, "The Perfect Pair" is a back-to-basics folk-pop song that seems like it could work equally well on acoustic guitar and ukulele. The first four chords almost sound like a folks-y, elevator music version of "Stairway to Heaven," but not in a bad way. With such a sweet, mellow sound, you would think this would be one of beabadoobee's few positive songs lyrically, right? Wrong! Beabadoobee's bitterness can still be detected in "The Perfect Pair" as she repeatedly directs her partner to "break her heart in two" due to the hopelessness of her latest relationship. Is every song for this week a breakup song?! I guess so! Well, not every week can have nice lyrical content, can it?! 

New songs for September 14th, 2022

 Here they are:


"Run Away to Mars" by Talk: I have not heard a new entry like this one in a long time! "Run Away to Mars," the debut song from Talk, is thoughtful, bittersweet, and contains both acoustic guitar flourishes and enough backing from the electric guitar to make it into a solid neo-folk-rock piece that can move mountains (and Mars)! The yearning tone of the song is palpable everywhere from the instrumentation to the lead singer's vocals, and its lyrics also tug at the heartstrings. The song is not about literally going to the planet Mars, but just trying to find somewhere to escape to when times get tough. Why aren't there more songs out there like this one these days?!

"Tongo Barra" by Vieux Farka Touré (featuring Khruangbin): Two eclectic musical acts, both of African origin (directly from Africa in Touré's case, in the country of Mali), coming together to create musical fusion! Does that sound cool or what? That's 'cause it is cool! Together, Touré and Khruangbin stir up a musical gumbo that has a hypnotic, otherworldly sound with foreign words chanted over it that manages to be catchy and danceable, not unlike Talking Heads' "I Zimbra," which this piece reminds me heavily of! "Tongo Barra" is a bit more blissed out than "I Zimbra," but both the setup and sound of the songs make them sound like musical cousins to one another! 

"Tonight" by Phoenix (featuring Ezra Koenig from Vampire Weekend): I've long considered indie-pop groups Vampire Weekend and Phoenix to be similar to one another, so it's not that surprising that they collaborated with one another. What's more surprising to me is that it took over a decade for either band to consider such a project happening! Both bands combine electro-pop, power pop, and a rhythmic influence slightly akin to reggae (especially in Vampire Weekend's case), so "Tonight" ends up being a song that could pass for either band. As such, it hearkens back to the more new wave influenced electro-pop sound that Phoenix broke through with in 2009 with Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, known for the late '00s mega-hits "1901" and "Lisztomania." While I'm doubtful that "Tonight" will join the ranks of those two songs, I have no doubt at all that "Tonight" will be a fun song to hear for fans of both Phoenix and Vampire Weekend!

New songs for September 7th, 2022

 here they are:

"A Nocturnal Heresy" by Ondara (formerly J.S. Ondara): When Ondara debuted in 2019, with a moniker that was then preceded by his first two initials, his bittersweet take on folk-rock recalled people like Tracy Chapman and Richie Havens with his brutally honest yet still vulnerable and sensitive sound and lyrics. Three years later, folk-rock still beats as the heart of Ondara's work, but he's added a bit more rock instrumentation on his latest song, "A Nocturnal Heresy," than he had on his previous songs. Both electric guitar and synth take center stage to the acoustic on this song. The song seems to be a "sequel" of sorts to his debut song, "Saying Goodbye," in that both are about ending a relationship, but in "A Nocturnal Heresy," it appears he doesn't know where he stands on the issue.

"Orange Blood" by Mt. Joy: Apparently, citrus is a recurring theme on Mt. Joy's latest album, if their previous single, "Lemon Tree," is anything to go by. The cover art of the "Orange Blood" single also features an anthropomorphic orange. "Orange Blood" is a calmer song than the more frenetic and unpredictable "Lemon Tree." There is still something psychedelic about "Orange Blood," but it doesn't have the slow-fast-slow-fast rollercoaster dynamic that "Lemon Tree" had. This is also Mt. Joy's first single to date that uses both Spanish and English words, the former of which are used in the first verse, adding to the exotic, tropical allure of the song. 

"Then it All Goes Away" by Dayglow: Sweet, summery pop songs made for an "alternative" audience is Dayglow's forte, and this is exactly what he does with his latest song, "Then it All Goes Away." However, something is present on this song that wasn't there on Dayglow's previous two hits, and that's how he chose to model this song after moodier, late '00s electro-pop groups like Phoenix, Passion Pit, and MGMT, as opposed to the bright, sunny '80s pop of Michael Jackson and "Take on Me." It seemed like just another Dayglow song until I found out Sloan Struble (who, himself, is "Dayglow") used those bands as influences, and having taken another listen to the song just now, I can hear a bit of MGMT and Phoenix influence, leaning more towards the synth-heavy stuff of the former's late '00s output than the slightly more guitar-driven stuff of the latter's album of the same era.

"There'd Better be a Mirrorball" by Arctic Monkeys: You'd probably never think that an Arctic Monkeys song could sound like a complex cross between Frank Sinatra and 1960's baroque-pop, yet that's pretty much what you get with Arctic Monkeys' latest song, "There'd Better Be a Mirrorball." The song sounds like it belongs in a much more distant era than the one it came out in, but perhaps that's part of the point to the song. Maybe Alex Turner and co were tired of their more jagged "alternative" sound and wanted to transport their listeners to a time when even their own parents might not have been alive when things were safer and more predictable (or so we would like to think). Even the lyrics (i.e. "old romantic fool") seem somewhat Sinatra-esque. About the only thing that prevents this song from being mistaken for the product of a bygone era are Alex Turner's husky, perishing vocals, more suited to alt and indie than they are to the "crooner" genre. 

New songs for August 31st, 2022

 here they are:


"Saturdays" by Broken Bells: Knowing that Broken Bells started out as a side project of James Mercer from The Shins, one should not be surprised to hear an overt Beatles influence in Broken Bells' latest song, "Saturday." Unlike the folk-y, jangly Rubber Soul-era Beatles material that The Shins typically seem to go for, "Saturdays" is more reminiscent of the swirly psychedelia of albums like Revolver  and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Both the drone and shakiness of the guitar in the song recall songs like "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" and "Within You, Without You." Lines like "kept me gettin' high 'til you were mine" only accentuate the song's already trippy vibe, and the lyrics overall seem to be about the surreal nature of time. Far out, man!

"Weird Goodbyes" by The National (featuring Bon Iver): Two indie-folk/rock heavyweights who have been around roughly since the late 2000's and have only gotten more popular from there, The National and Bon Iver's latest collaboration, "Weird Goodbyes," isn't so much "weird" as it is poignant. Matt Berninger's deadpan yet forlorn vocals against bittersweet, piano-based music almost seem to channel Leonard Cohen here, albeit against a hip-hop influenced percussion section. The song is one of realization of how difficult modern times have been for society to handle, as if sensing a "goodbye" is imminent. That is to say, a goodbye from the world itself as we once knew it. 

New songs for August 24th, 2022

 Here they are:

"Blood on the Tracks" by Marcus King: With "Blood on the Tracks," blues-rocker Marcus King continues with his throwback 1970's-inspired sound. Taking musical cues from both Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Born on the Bayou" and the CCR-soundalike song, "Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)," "Blood on the Tracks" is a slinky, blues-y vamp with lyrics that as rooted in the blues as the music is. The song has a similar lyrical theme to many older blues tunes in that it concerns someone who is in the midst of making a difficult decision between the sensuous allure of music and the more purifying ways of spiritual life.

"Out of My Head" by First Aid Kit: "Out of My Head" is a phrase that some people might think apply to First Aid Kit themselves when they hear this song, as it appears that after about a decade of folk-rock, the Swedish songbird sisters of First Aid Kit have finally surrendered to synth-pop. Chances are, no one saw this coming (I certainly didn't). Apparently, they wanted a sound that was closer to musicians like Kate Bush and 1980's-era Stevie Nicks, both of whom have dabbled in the folk-rock sound as well at times. "Out of My Head" is about being trapped inside your mind and wanting to escape from it, and the throbbing urgency of the song's instrumentation certainly seems to indicate this, yet it still contains the yearning fervor present in most other First Aid Kit songs.

"Stay Out of It" by Michigander: This song features Michigander at their most U2-ish so far. The riffs on the chorus could have easily been influenced by a song like "Where the Streets Have No Name." The more bass-laden verses make for an interesting contrast with the more driven vibe of the chorus. Not a whole lot more to say about this song, but it's a good one.

"Tippa My Tongue" by Red Hot Chili Peppers: This song marks a return to form for RHCP. The mixture of funk and rock they started out with did get featured in a few of the songs they did from the '90s onward, but it wasn't near as common as what it was when they started out. "Tippa My Tongue" brings back the freewheeling and somewhat goofy funk-rock the Chili Peppers started out with, and even features a few "rapped" sections during the verses. 

New songs for August 17th, 2022

 here they are:


"Burning" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Karen O and the YYY's return to guitar-based music on their latest song, "Burning," at least a little bit. The song is mostly dominated by piano in the beginning and then a synth-string "orchestra" later on, but it's not the instrumentation, necessarily, that makes this song so special. First of all, it's the style that the YYY's chose to go for here. The verses, in particular, seem to recall "girl groups" of the early 1960's such as The Ronettes, The Crystals, and The Chiffons with their pristine pianos on top of trembling tambourines. Although the string section is synth-laden, it still sounds compelling enough to lure listeners in. The subject of the song is also worth mentioning, as it is one of a growing number of songs to address climate change (albeit in a subtle manner, in this case). The imagery of the song is fittingly fiery to its torrid title, but Karen could easily be addressing an actual fire or a metaphorical one here, if not both!

"Lucky Ones" by Julian Lennon: With George and John long gone and Ringo's work not near as well-known to the public as the other members, Paul McCartney has been the only Beatle to remain active in the music scene into the 21st century. However, on a few occasions through the new millennium, John Lennon's kids have kept the Beatle flame burning, even for just a brief moment. Sean Lennon got minor attention for his folk-y, Elliott Smith-esque "Dead Meat" in the mid 2000's, and now it's Julian Lennon's turn to shine in the limelight for the first time in decades! An anthemic, piano-laden song with neat guitar flourishes in the background, "Lucky Ones" is a song of hope during a time of despair. He seems to want to embody the spirit of peace and love now just as much as his dad did in the 1960's and '70s. Like our previous entry, "Lucky Ones" also addresses the plight of climate change, but does so in a way that offers hope to future generations.

"Problem With It" by Plains: If any of you indie-folk fans are hearing this song for the first time and think that its lead vocalist sounds familiar, that's because those are the vocals of Katie Crutchfield from indie-folk group, Waxahatchee. Plains is her side project, and their debut song, "Problem With It," almost sounds like a "sequel song" to Waxahatchee's "Can't Do Much," a mellow country-rock tune in B flat, much like this one is. Adding to the song's country vibe are its "heartbreak out on the road" lyrical theme, as well as the instrumental help the song receives from Jeff Tweedy (Wilco)'s son, Spencer, and Jay Farrar from alt-country groups Son Volt and Uncle Tupelo. 

"Soul Sweet Song" by The Tedeschi-Trucks Band: One of the TTB's more bittersweet songs, "Soul Sweet Song" is a melancholy (yet still sweet and soulful) tune for a good reason. It's a tribute to the group's now former keyboardist, Kofi Burbridge, who died in 2019. While the song is poignant, it's not completely sad, due to its major key, the honey-drenched harmonies of Tedeschi and Trucks, the soulful horns that punctuate the song, and Tedeschi's trademark blues-guitar sound spreading joy through the sadness that might have permeated this composition otherwise. This is the way to do a tribute song, if you ask me!

"Spit of You" by Sam Fender: While many of Sam Fender's songs tend to evoke the anthemic yet melodic rock sound of acts like Bruce Springsteen and U2, "Spit of You" has a more bittersweet jangle evocative of groups like R.E.M. with soulful acoustic guitars layered with cleanly distorted electrics and a sweet sax solo at the end. The title of the song probably refers to the phrase "spitting image," as the song revolves around the bonds between fathers and sons. "Spit of You" also notably slower than the other songs Sam has gained attention with, although it isn't too slow of a song. Sam showing off his sensitive side is so sweet and sublime!

"Tangled" by Ceramic Animals: Pennsylvania's Ceramic Animals have been around since 2013, but this marks the first time adult alt radio has taken notice of them. The laid-back blues/country/folk/rock combo of their breakthrough song, "Tangled," sounds so much like one of Dan Auerbach (Black Keys)'s solo songs that I was convinced he was part of Ceramic Animals! As it turns out, he is not, but there seems to be a striking similarity between Auerbach's work and Ceramic Animals' sound, so perhaps he produced it. Not any wonder, then, that Ceramic Animals opened for The Black Keys recently!

"Vault of Heaven" by Pixies: Interesting that this is the second Pixies song (to my knowledge) that has the word "heaven" in its title (the first would be "Monkey Gone to Heaven," which ranks among their best-known songs) since The Pixies seem a bit too warped and dark to address ideas like heaven in their music. "Monkey..." was a rather twisted and angry environmental protest song, though, and "Vault of Heaven" seems to be almost satirical in a way. Perhaps part of the reason this gritty alt-rock take on "spaghetti western" music even uses the word "heaven" in the first place is to rhyme with "7-11." Lead singer Frank Black seems to weave a short yet compelling tale in "Vault of Heaven" how paradise isn't all that it's cracked up to be, as though it's useless to try to attain idealism in life. Dark and cryptic, as many Pixies songs are, but this one seems more noticeably country-rock than a lot of their stuff is. 

Boy, oh boy! "B" songs!

 Once again, only two songs that both begin with the same letter. Here they are:


"Bad Love" by Dehd: An interesting, compelling mix of indie-rock guitars and techno-pop beats and synths, Dehd's breakthrough song, "Bad Love," starts off slow, imitating the rhythmic pattern of The Ronettes' "Be My Baby" before quickly sliding into a faster pace for the rest of the song. "Bad Love" is a song about recovery from toxic past relationships with the hope that one will start to bond more with themselves than with people they don't quite fit with.

"Boy" by The Killers: This song finds The Killers sounding closer to their namesake, New Order (New Order's "Crystal" video featured a then-fake band called "The Killers"), deftly combining atmospheric techno-pop with only the occasional use of electric guitar. The song's icy vibe could be attributed to how lead singer Brandon Flowers wrote the song as both a cautionary tale for his teenage (at the time) son and as a song of self-reflection of what life was like for Brandon when he was a teen himself. The titular "boy" could be both his son and himself, as he repeatedly urges him not to overthink things.