…Omnivore Recordings reignite its longtime series of Knack collections with Knackology: The Zen Recordings, a 19-song collection from the archives of the label founded by the band’s main songwriter and lead singer, the late Doug Fieger. The set boasts demos, live recordings, and studio rarities from the band that’s so much more than just “My Sharona” and “Good Girls Don’t.”
Knackology rounds up demos from Fieger and Berton Averre – the pair began collaborating in 1973, six years before the release on Capitol Records of Get The Knack – of “That’s What the Little Girls Do” and “Rock & Roll Is Good for You,” as well as the band’s live performances from various venues of “My Sharona,” “Good Girls Don’t,” “Baby Talks Dirty,” “(She’s So) Selfish,”…
Category: pop
…Wild at Heart is composed of outtakes recorded with producer Rick Rubin in 2007 for the Home Before Dark album (which was released the next year). Diamond has recently completed the tracks for this release.
Diamond and Rubin – whose production credits at the time already encompassed Johnny Cash, Tom Petty, Donovan, Run-DMC, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and numerous others – first teamed up for 2005’s 12 Songs. Rubin encouraged Diamond to go with a raw, minimalist sound for the album, echoing back to his earliest recordings on Bang in the 1960s. Crucially, he also encouraged Diamond to once again pick up his guitar and center the songs around the instrument. With songs including the anthemic “Hell Yeah” and jubilant…
Fuzz Club are becoming one of the key hubs for all sounds psychedelic – whether it is the music that is fully in vein with the original psych of the late sixties or any of the updated versions from there on to current times. In that respect, to all who follow all things psych, it will probably be no surprise that one of the modern purveyors of psych that are Minneapolis’ Jason Edmonds and his Magic Castles, have found their way to this label with their new offering Realized.
Edmonds, as the bad’s principal songwriter, has always favoured that trippy, dream-like thread that original psychedelia introduced (not much fuzz or energy rush there), giving it that shoegaze/dream pop veneer, but then updated for the new century. Of course, many critics have…
Keith Forsey is often remembered for writing Don’t You (Forget About Me) for Simple Minds, and – ironically – for little else. That hit song from a memorable 1985 movie (The Breakfast Club) is by no means something you’d want others to forget, and yet there are many other blockbuster moments of note in a blistering career.
Survey the producer, songwriter and drummer’s many credits – running into several thousand contributions over half a century – and you will discover a Zelig-like figure who was present and often instrumental in the creation of assorted epoch-defining music. If his name is rarely mentioned, then you suspect he likes it that way.
You’ll not find interviews with him should you go searching on the internet.
There’s a sense in Misty Coast’s fifth album Always Sun that the Norwegian band has opened the curtains a little. Just enough to let the light in more easily this time around.
The familiar elements are all still there, with arrangements that drift and blur their soft-edged melodies, but now they’re put together with more space and less gauze. It’s not a seismic shift in their sound, but it changes what it’s like to sit with: unusually textured, more gently outlined and, ultimately, not quite as intense.
That softer instinct has been there from the beginning of this project. Formed by Linn Frøkedal and Richard Myklebust after their time in The Megaphonic Thrift, Misty Coast has always worked by easing melody out from beneath…
…“Embers Edition” features instrumental versions of all album tracks.
“I knew a girl who wrote ‘Silent All These Years’,” spits Tori Amos with startling venom, as ‘Shush’, the stentorian opener to her 18th album grinds to a close. “Where is she?” It’s a good question, since the Tori Amos who wrote ‘Silent All These Years’ all those years ago is in her sixties now and there are those who still favour its parent album, 1992’s magical Little Earthquakes.
So, yes, a good question, but not an entirely fair one and Amos is clearly irked by it. She’s moved on of course, but by the closing ’23 Peaks’, she’s admitting, “I need your help to change me back/Back into the woman I want to be”.
She remains a woman with a distinctive voice…
Ana Roxanne‘s second Kranky release is far more personal and emotionally direct than her previous recordings. While her earlier records could easily be categorized as ambient or perhaps new age, and had a certain element of playfulness along with their meditative qualities, Poem 1 is stark and unobscured, doing nothing to disguise Roxanne’s heartbreak and vulnerability. Nevertheless, her music is still highly hypnotic, and the arrangements draw the listener in and make it easier to focus on her lyrics.
On brief opener “The Age of Innocence,” she expresses the desire to travel and find home over glacial synths and mournful strings. The piano-based “Berceuse in A-flat Minor, Op. 45” is so intimate that it sounds like…
Throughout their career, Halsey has been lots of different things to different people.
She was the blue-haired 19-year-old singing about her Brooklyn boyfriend and lilac skies (‘Badlands’); the 23-year-old offering an elaborately stylised ‘Romeo and Juliet’ concept album (‘Hopeless Fountain Kingdom’); the 25-year-old navigating the blurring lines between Halsey, the art, and Ashley, the artist (Manic); then the 27-year-old delving into a Westwood-clad, Nine Inch Nails-produced world of rock and childbirth (‘If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power’).
Her fifth record, The Great Impersonator, carries the imprint of those versions of her. Perhaps because it also took a step closer to ‘Ashley’, there are several links to ‘Manic’ in particular:…
It’s probably no accident that Weird Nightmare is releasing its sophomore album, Hoopla, on May 1st via Sub Pop. If ever there was a record primed and ready to inhabit the experiences of a carefree summer (ideally the one after your senior year of high school), it’s this one. Even if your summer is full of life’s painful realities, like funerals or the consequences of tax evasion, Hoopla may yet be the album on repeat wherever you listen to it.
Weird Nightmare is the solo project of Canadian musician Alex Edkins, guitarist and singer of the noise rock trio Metz, which is on an indefinite hiatus. Drop in on almost any point of any of the five studio albums Metz has released on the Sub Pop label since 2012, and you will hear a nearly exact antithesis of what…
White Flowers, the long-running collaboration between Joey Cobb and Katie Drew, exists within what they call “the realm” – a shared creative space, wherein time, rather than being a restrictive force, is fluid and boundless, and music exists as an endless conversation with their past and present selves. Adopting what the band describe as a “sketchbook” approach to writing, White Flowers is the product of a decade’s worth of recordings – snippets nestled away on hard drives, only to truly make sense years later.
On Dreams For Somebody Else, the Preston duo expand upon the dark-hued dream pop of their debut, channelling the catharsis of dance music via repetitive structures and “sad, euphoric sounds”. Working alongside…
Michael: Songs from the Motion Picture is the official companion album to the brand-new biopic, Michael. This album highlights 13 songs showcased in the film, spanning from The Jackson 5 to The Jacksons to Michael’s chart-topping solo success with “Off the Wall” and “Thriller.”
…Filling the superstar’s shoes is his nephew (and son of brother Jermaine) Jaafar Jackson, who reportedly will do some of his own singing in the film. Despite that, the soundtrack features only Michael’s original vocals. The movie’s screenplay has been penned by Academy Award nominee and Tony winner John Logan (Gladiator, The Aviator on film; Red, Moulin Rouge! on stage) and also stars Colman Domingo as Joe Jackson, Nia Long as Katherine Jackson, Kendrick Sampson…
Until recently, Riya Mahesh’s biography nailed nearly every beat of all-American academic achievement, following a familiar arc from early piano lessons to being crowned prom queen, like Olivia Rodrigo’s well-adjusted Wario. But after hitting a snag and failing to get into Juilliard (happens…), the musician regrouped during the pandemic with a SoundCloud account, a trial run of Logic, and nothing to lose.
As Quiet Light, the Texas-born, Boston-based producer has gone on to release multiple albums of increasingly accomplished art pop, along the way nabbing opening spots for Nilüfer Yanya, Chanel Beads, Ana Roxanne, and Hovvdy. Naturally, she’s managed all this while also powering through medical school.
Kahan surprise dropped The Great Divide: The Last of the Bugs – an extended version of the new album, featuring four new tracks and bringing the track list to a massive 21 songs.
Instead of tacking the new songs at the end of the album, Kahan decided to sprinkle them throughout. “Lighthouse” is the first of the new songs, landing at No. 5 on the tracklist, sandwiched in between the already released “Downfall” and “Paid Time Off.” The next track added is “Staying Still,” which comes after “Paid Time Off” and before the album’s titular track. The final two new songs, “A Few of Our Own” and “Orbiter” land much further down the album at No. 19 and No. 20, respectively.
The Great Divide serves as the follow-up to Kahan’s breakthrough hit album…
Doug Gillard’s formidable body of recordings is as impressive as it is voluminous, encompassing his work as a key member of such notable combos as Guided by Voices, Nada Surf, Death of Samantha, Cobra Verde, and Gem, as well as an array of noted collaborations with the likes of Richard Buckner, Neko Case, Bill Fox, and The Hold Steady. Parallel Stride is the Ohio-bred, New York-based singer/songwriter/multi- instrumentalist’s fourth official solo album.
Although he’s well established as a luminary of the American indie-rock community, Gillard’s musical sensibility is firmly rooted in the time-honored old-school virtues of catchy melodic craft, emotionally resonant lyrics and emotion-charged performances. Parallel Stride standouts…
With every successive album she makes, Carla dal Forno‘s songwriting becomes clearer, more upfront, and more emotionally direct. She actually intended her fourth solo effort to be more abstract, perhaps closer to the mystery-shrouded experimental work of her earlier group F ingers, but as she was writing the songs, she found that they only made sense when she wrote about her emotional experiences in plain language. Her recording environment also helped shape the directness of the songs. Instead of living in a busy city, she had relocated to a small country town which offered stillness and solitude, making it easier to reflect on her life situations and focus on the truth. That said, even though Confession lays deeply guarded feelings bare,…
…With his highly influential band Shoes, Gary Klebe’s been a veteran of the power pop scene since the 1970s. But now, in his 60s, he’s putting out his debut solo record. And it is truly solo: Klebe performs all the vocals, plays most of the instruments, and produced and mixed the album, largely in his basement.
The result is a refreshingly mature take on the genre. Klebe’s hooks and melodies are as bright as ever, but that contrast between music and lyrics is more pronounced and complicated. Gone is idealism; in its place, lived experience. Klebe’s distinct tenor remains robust, but now there’s also a soulful weariness to it on songs like “Invading My Space,” akin to how Brian Wilson sounded on his later solo work. It adds a gravitas to…
Electronic dance music and the church might seem like unlikely bedfellows, when in fact they are not. Both share a sense of reaching the divine, of collective worship, of mantra and sacred rites. DJs, like the clergy, aren’t the focal point but the messengers, bringing the congregations The Word from on high. You’ll hear “take me higher” on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Diamond Cutter, the new album from Eve Maret, doesn’t interrogate faith in an overt way, but the trappings of faith offer a framework for understanding why it is electronic music of the highest order.
Maret, an electronic musician based out of Nashville, was raised as Christian, went to Mass three times a week, and has spoken of the “feeling of transcendence” she got from…
Fans of the darker side of modern musical forms, particularly Swans, have Jarboe somewhere in their minds and surely in their music collections. As a solo artist, Jarboe has made a series of career-defining recordings, 15 in all, before Sightings, her latest. Yet, it took her some eight years between The Cut of the Warrior (2018) and her latest offering, so what is there to expect?
Well, the musical direction is the one Jarboe followed from the beginning of her career, and in that respect, there’s nothing new to report. Yet, what did change is that the quality of her songwriting and performance has grown for the better as time passes. There is a sort of assurance that comes along with experience that exudes here, with practically no lapses in…
Los Angeles power-pop specialists The Pretty Flowers are back with a grand return, and there is a reinforced edge to the melodic pop sound that marks Never Felt Bitter as the group’s transition into exceptional new territory.
The opening salvo of “Thief of Time” and “To Be So Cool” set the picture out for what this group are all about, both tracks are a complete bolt from the blue, endless ringing guitar and the drumming from Sean Johnson is absolute perfection, who keeps the entire album searing forward in a relentless pace. Never Felt Bitter marks the group’s debut on Forge Again Records and was written in the aftermath of guitarist and vocalist Noah Green’s change of surroundings, making the switch from the bright lights of Los Angeles to…
As David Lowery, the director, was writing the fictional pop star Mother Mary for his new film of the same name, he spent a lot of time studying the last 25 years in music. He listened to Taylor Swift (whose Reputation concert film inspired the performances in the film), Lorde and FKA twigs, who appears on screen as a medium named Imogene. But as the film’s haunted love story between Mary (played by Anne Hathaway) and her former best friend and designer Sam Anselm (Michaela Coel) emerged, his listening habits shifted.
“The pop music fell away and other music started to enter that sphere,” he says in A24’s New York offices. He’s sitting beside twigs and Hathaway the day after the trio attended…