Love Is The Weapon has a fun blend of styles from more middle eastern / Indian to reggae and even bits of rap. Elephant Heart’s new composition is confident and assertive in its sound, inserting itself quite nicely into listeners’ brains with an inimitable backing beat. An extended instrumental section provides a distinct middle to the single; when the vocals start back in, there’s a considerable boost to the momentum.…
Malou Beauvoir’s Papa Damballah draws upon considerable tradition in its overall sound and subject material. Key to the song’s success has to be the crystal-clear vox contributed by Beauvoir. The focused drums and guitars imbue the composition with a classic sound that fans of modern jazz and flamenco will appreciate. Stunning visuals add a further layer of complexity to the composition. Fans ought to strap on a pair of headphones…
Grown Bones is a furious, eclectic track that showcases a performer in Lila Blue that has no parallel. With rapid shifts through vocal stylings, emotional states, and a set of continually shifting musical influences, Blue’s latest defies convention. There are some seriously head instrumental arrangements that build off the gnarly riffs of early Tool, while the vocals traipse from Bjork to Ani DiFranco and Janis Joplin. No two seconds of…
It has been a moment since we last checked in on Justina Valentine, but we were floored when Strawberry Soda crossed our desk. The thick, bass synths immediately draw in fans, while Valentine’s vocals refresh the time-tried approach of performers like Trina and Lil Kim. The unity of Justina’s bars and the hypnotic backing beat separates this cut from the rest of songs charting on the Billboard rap parts. The…
On The Moon, Natalie Major is able to weave an honest and earnest narrative with some of the most impressive vocals we’ve heard so far in 2020. Standing at the intersection of pop and the timeless singer-songwriter tradition, Major will have listeners firmly on the edges of their seat by the time that the first minute concludes. The dynamic established between the piano and the aforementioned vox is fantastic, pushing…
Benjamin Went Fishing, the latest track from Frogbelly and Symphony, has some of the most interesting time signatures we’ve heard this years. There is a fascinating pacing of the vocals that provides a more contemplative, introspective flair on the laid-back 1970s California folk rock sound. Multiple vocals included into the mix at points during Benjamin Went Fishing add further complexity to an already heady effort. The dynamic established between the…
Darling is a fun, retro-infused track that calls back to the days of A Flock of Seagulls and Duran Duran. The sweeping synths work well with the hopeful, heart-melting vox. There is a robustness to the single’s production – rather than redlining each constituent element of the song, Heartracer uses a gradient of loudness to make for a fully fleshed-out soundscape. Darling will appease fans of Walk the Moon and…
Indie reggae artist Jonathan Emile has been quietly building up quite the solid reputation in the last few years, cutting a handful of sleeper hits in the mid-2010s that included a collaboration with arguably the most important rapper of the last decade in Kendrick Lamar (2015’s “Heaven Help Dem”), and now in 2020, he’s back with some of his best content to see widespread release so far in Spaces-in-Between. Made-up of…
It’s pretty surprising to have the band bio included in your press materials written by The Old 97’s Rhett Miller. It’s even more surprising once you realize John Dufilho, frontman and songwriter behind the decidedly punk rock band Clifffs, has also worked for years with Miller, who’s Americana band sounds absolutely nothing like Clifffs. And that’s part of the beauty of this Texas band’s LP, Panic Attack, it really sounds…
In their fourth studio album, titled Kingdom Illusion, Oakland psychedelic rockers Whiskerman offer up what is arguably their most progressive and involved effort yet while staying true to the aesthetical foundations that gave them their start, and while its eight songs – which collectively run about 44 minutes in total – don’t necessarily break the mold when it comes to modern psych concepts, they’re easily some of the most captivating indie…
Naughty Jenny has Project213 calling back to the late 1980s and early 1990s. There are hints of the Sisters of Mercy, The Smiths and Midnight Oil. With an assertive set of vocals and luxurious instrumentation, Jared is able to make a song ring out loudly among a mountain of generic music. There is particular care taken into the creation of an aesthetic for Naughty Jenny. The slinky, stripped-down style of…
To say that it isn’t easy to make an original country album that resonates with generations young and old in 2020 would be too great an understatement for any self-respecting music critic to make, but in the case of Carlos Washington’s Steel Horse Swing and their new album Little Bit of Texas, the process looks and sounds all too simple. It’s debatable whether or not we’ve ever seen an era quite…
With a rollicking groove and a bouncy acoustic guitar harmony to lead the way, White Owl Red’s “Out of the Waters” comes swinging out of the shadows hard and clears a path for the trademark vocal of one Josef McManus in this cut off of his latest LP, Afterglow. In Afterglow, McManus’ White Owl Red project is sounding as warm and embracive as ever, and arguably putting down some of their most…
Into The Ground has a deep and dark sound to it that really allows the brooding vocals of Wettworker to shine. This means that there are nods to rap just as there are to darkwave and industrial. A head-nodding groove issues forth from this single; piano lines out of the Black Tape for a Blue Girl playbook imbue the composition with a timeless sound. Human and electronic elements couldn’t be…
I remember absolutely trashing my voice trying to reach the notes that Tom Keifer would hit during Cinderella’s hits back in the day. I was pleasantly surprised that his supersonic skills have not diminished after thirty years. On Hype, his latest track, there’s a very intense style of hard rock that fits Tom’s vox perfectly. This means that are bits of sludge rock and post-grunge that are incorporated here to…
No Ceiling hits a number of distinct marks at its onset. There are nods back to 1980s synthpop (think Zapp Band and neo-retro acts like Chromeo), the raw sex of performers like Chris Brown and Jason Derulo, and a bit of the finesse of a Babyface or Lionel Richie. EMG’s No Ceiling has a timeless sound to it as a result, ensuring that the song can bounce around a wide…
LVVRS are able to create a bouncy, musically intense rock track in the vein of Fall Out Boy and Walk The Moon. Supersonic vocals, a catchy clap track and sizzling guitars all unite to make something special. Iconic oozes charisma as LVVRS are able to whip in hints of 1980s rock (The Police, Genesis) to a vibrant and robust guitar and drum dynamic. Listeners will be singing along to LVVRS’s…
On Balance, Leah Jenea is able to call back to the Motown sound of the 1960s as well as the strong vocal style of performers like Angie Stone and Corinne Bailey Rae. The inimitable voice of Jenea is what will draw listeners in to Balance, while the bit of instrumentation that plays at the bottom of the single provides further complexity and drive to the song. There is an honest…
On What Kinda Music, Tom Misch and Yussef Dayes are able to blend together Jamiroquai with Massive Attack, all while booming bass is inserted into the mix. This chill, laid back composition even has time to whip in a bit of a J Dilla sound to the production. It is this eclectic mix of sounds that separates What Kinda Music from other current tracks; refreshing the sound of the late…
On Through the Fire, Shahana Ross is able to craft a track that looks back to the R&B style of the late 1990s while including a current and contemporary sound. Listeners will marvel at the sheer vocal range that Ross is able to achieve here. Through the Fire is holistic, uniting the vocal and instrumental sides into something truly special. With an approach that would work equally well in contemporary…