Album Reviews

Women in Music: What We Can Learn from Hop Along

Hop Along is a part of the conversation. This past year saw the takeover of indie by women, and Frances Quinlan is another prime example of this. Her band’s most recent release, Bark Your Head Off, Dog, has consistently ranked across many major music publications’ best of 2018 lists, including the likes of NPR, Billboard, and Rolling Stone. Rightfully so, as the group’s third record is their most powerful yet. Quinlan’s unique style of world-building storytelling shifts to the forefront on this album, a necessary move given the extent and consequent of the issues she works hard to tackle and contextualize here. The line ‘strange to be shaped by such strange men’ appears on multiple tracks and is repeated like a mantra across the record, a tactic that is intentionally unavoidable and jarring (especially when put to words by Quinlan’s hair-raising voice). This powerful motif unites the project around a common theme of social reflection and reconciliation— one that is about as 2018 as you can get.

Goes West – An Instrumental Odyssey from William Tyler

The worlds of folk and Americana music are, at best, in constant struggle between the future and the past.  While some folk bands cling to what is familiar, the finest artists see the past as a springboard into fresh new sounds.  This was the case with Bob Dylan’s iconic Newport Folk Festival controversy, as it was the case with Fleet Foxes’s breathtaking 2017 album, Crack-UpGoes West by William Tyler joins this pantheon by continuing not only to push the envelope, but also to open it and slide a letter of his own inside.

Lala Lala Opens Up about Latest Album in WRVU Interview

Back on September 26th, myself and WRVU’s station manager Morgan Levy had the opportunity to sit down with Lillie West of Lala Lala before her gig opening for Mothers at the 5 Spot. In the parking lot across the street from the venue we talked about the band’s history, writing process, tour life, and anticipated upcoming album The Lamb, which has since been released. Her first LP, Sleepyhead, was put out on Bandcamp back in 2016 in what she considers to be a moment of “boredom.” You wouldn’t guess this by listening to the record, however, as its sound is anything but monotonous. 

iridescence & Brockhampton’s Experimental Melancholy

From the opening track, BROCKHAMPTON shows that iridescence is a different beast from their previous endeavors, while still retaining the same backbone that propelled them to quick success and a dedicated fanbase. The SATURATION trilogy has concluded in both style and name, and I’m okay with that — iridescence is complicated and superb.

What You Need to Know About Kamikaze

I thought Eminem was done. We all did. I can remember listening to “Arose,” the last track off of Eminem’s Revival, released this past December. In this song, Em takes us back to 2007, where he recounts a play-by-play near death experience in the hospital after an overdose. This is truly an emotional track, with Bette Midler’s “The Rose,” sampled under Eminem giving goodbyes to his family and apologizing for not being there for Hailie and the other kids.

Tranquility Base; or, How to Stop Worrying and Shake Up Your Vibe

Still from music video, dir. A. Brown, B. Chappell

Alex strolls into his apartment building, walking stick carried nonchalantly over his shoulder whistling along with a piece of classical music. Sprawled across the vibrant early-70s décor are the words “SUCK IT AND SEE.” This is a point in Alex’s life when he will begin to impose more of his synthesizer-loving, retro-vibe-oozing will on his followers, and shake things up in the process.

Sunflower Bean’s Twentytwo in Blue, Reviewed

Sunflower Bean turned heads with their first full length album Human Ceremony, released back in 2016. Their debut’s breadth and urgency was illustrious of the band’s burgeoning appetite for a life beyond New York City’s DIY scene, and was ultimately successful in helping them realize the musician’s cliched dream of making it out of one’s hometown. After putting out music for only a year prior, the record was an impressive start for bassist and singer Julia Cumming, guitarist Nick Kivlen, and drummer Jacob Faber. The Brooklyn based trio were young and ambitious then— as they still are now, although their energy has become undeniably more harnessed— and these characteristics were central to Human Ceremony’s sound and thesis. The album was appropriately all over the place musically, with tracks ranging in style from shoegaze to surf rock to psych pop, and influences like the Velvet Underground and Black Sabbath obvious (in some cases on the same songs). Now, Sunflower Bean is back and more polished than ever on their sophomore release Twentytwo in Blue.

April Artist Retrospective: Sidney Gish; Ravyn Lenae

(courtesy of https://sidneygish.bandcamp.com/album/no-dogs-allowed)

As we start on a new month and this truly, unexplainably terrible Nashville weather seems to be slowly improving, I thought it might be a good opportunity to take a quick look at two artists who are leaving the youth™ movement in music at the moment. Both Ravyn Lenae and Sidney Gish have blessed our ears with some excellent music in the last few months, and exciting things are surely in store for them as they progress and develop their skills. I’m going to limit things to one standout track from each respective project, but both of these releases are great front to back.

New Dr. Dog singles hint to Most Experimental Album yet

Despite starting out back in 2003 with the album Toothbrush, most music fans know Dr. Dog for its funky fresh 2016 album The Psychedelic Swamp or its mellow, slightly folkly 2017 album Abandoned Mansion.  And if you aren’t a music listener at all, there’s still a 99% chance you’ve heard Dr. Dog’s version of “Heart It Races” from 2007, the band’s most played song that features one of the recognizable, catchiest bass lines.