Monday, August 28, 2017

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - My Only


Brooklyn shoegaze group The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart have an album coming out next month and have released a few singles in advance. This one, My Only, I really enjoy - nice wall of sound guitars (very shoegazy :) and lovely harmonies. Can’t wait to hear some more from the upcoming The Echo Of Pleasure album.

Friday, August 18, 2017

Carl Craig - Sandstorm (Versus Version)


Carl Craig is an electronica wizard that has been putting out sounds for a long long time (debut album came  out in 1992!). His 2017 release, Versus, is pretty great. I guess him and bunch of other musicians (like a pianist and a French orchestra!) put on this fantastically well received live show and, rather than just create a live recording, they went into the studio and refined the sound for almost 10 years before releasing this. And it is well worth it. My electronica album of the year so far. This is the song Sandstorms which you can immediately tell features the orchestra, with some intense horns and some great synthesizer mixed in.


Wednesday, August 16, 2017

The Dollyrots - I Do

Well, looks like Courtneys II could have some competition for album of the year. The Dollyrots, a duo out of LA, has a power pop/punk sound that just demands playing on repeat. On their fifth album, Whiplash Splash, this duo of singer/guitarist Kelly Ogden and bassist/sometimes drummer Luis Cabezas pounds out a great sound, keeping the pedal to the metal and not letting up for the entire album. Just love it.
I Do is the album opener and will give you a great idea of their sound:

And the ending song is my cover of the year this far. What a smashing job they do with Walking On Sunshine:

Friday, August 4, 2017

Anathema - Ghosts

I finally got my Google Music playlist finished for the June(!) 2017 AllMusic Editors' Choices. It is over 13 hours of music, with nearly 200 songs from the Alt, Rock, Pop, Country, Folk, Blues and Electronic genres. Well worth a listen!
One of my favorite tunes so far (done listening to about half the songs so far) is the song Ghost by the veteran Liverpool rockers Anathema. I guess they have changed their sound quite a bit over the past 30(!) years, from death/doom metal to the current introspective prog rock. And it is right up my alley. I immediately listened to the entire album, The Optimist and I think it will end up on my Top 10 album list. I guess it tells the tale of the unnamed protagonist from their 2001 release, A Fine Day To Exit, but each of the songs is a whole story unto itself. Ghost has Lee Douglas’ vocals hovering over a sad beat and dark piano, singing of, I think, a glimpse of the character:
Take after light
Start from the night
Tired and confused
Saw you. Saw you
Give it a listen: