These 2018 indie albums you should hear include exciting and original releases from artists on opposite coasts of the continential United States. They are:
EllaHarp – Half Moon Bay, California
Roam Like Ghosts – Virginia/North Carolina
The Iron Sailor Project – Compton, California
EllaHarp – Who Asked You Back
San Francisco Bay Area musician EllaHarp‘s remarkable debut album, Who Asked You Back, reveals a genuine and talented young artist with her own unique style and brand.
When it comes to one-of-a-kind musicians, Harp – whose actual name is Ella Jenkins – makes that list, even in the famously creative, multicultural, and individualistic culture of the Bay Area.
After listening to this album again and again over the course of many weeks (the only way to truly become familiar with a piece of art), we are convinced indie music lovers, or anyone who enjoys music, will appreciate Jenkins’ music as much as we do.
She says of the album: “Got your ‘screw you’ songs, your creepy stolen baby songs, and sometimes, I play an unremarkable banjo.”
As far as we can remember, there has never been an artist who has taken the harp and re-imagined it in such a refreshing and dynamic way.
Not only does the Royal Academy-educated and trained Jenkins master the harp, but she also has written and recorded a collection of exceptional songs on her not-to-miss debut release.
And yet just as compelling is Jenkins’ voice. She can sing almost angelically at times; take songs like her latest single, “Who Asked You Back,” with its terrific hook, and then flip and sing straight blues, with the harp front and center on other tracks like the mysterious, “Dirty Money.”
The bluesy, even folksy, riff-driven track features “a hint of creepy, stolen baby mythology,” Jenkins writes. Plus, she had electric guitar contributions from alt. rock band Smash Mouth’s Sam Eigen.
The common theme that runs throughout Who Asked You Back album is the pain and heartache of love, relationships, and break-ups.
Take the angst-ridden, bluesy song, “It Ain’t Working,” where the lyrics combined with Jenkins’ convincing and stern vocals, not to mention her amazing instrumentation, make it a standout song on the album.
There is also the whimsical, but sad, “The Widow of Glasgow Green,” the story of a woman living in Glasgow whose had a life of hard times. Jenkins beautifully expresses and channels this pain in her vocal arrangement in particular.
Many folks will relate. But that’s not even necessary because the music, fueled by Jenkins’ unique talents, emotes the pain effectively. And still, it sounds so right. Don’t miss songs like the descending notes of “Time” and the introspective, “Changeling.”
A key reason for the success of Jenkins’ release is her amazing harp. A significant person in her life helped her craft an aluminum custom-made harp (she also built her own tiny house) in order to achieve the exact sound she wanted.
But of course, the main reason for Jenkins’ success is her all-around talents and skills as a songwriter and musician. We can only expect her to keep getting better.
Jenkins regular performs as EllaHarp in the Bay Area and the west coast. Check her official EllaHarp website for more information.
Roam Like Ghosts – Yesterday and the Day Before
After a two-decade hiatus, the indie rock acoustic duo, Roam Like Ghosts, has returned with its debut album, Yesterday and the Day Before.
Time has a way of coming back around. The acoustic duo is made up of Virginian songwriter and vocalist Mathew Daugherty and North Carolina guitarist Bucky Fairfax.
The pair decided to complete a number of songs they’ve been working on for many years, as well as some newly-written songs, mixing genres like rock and folk to create an alternative sound that they like to say is “post-grunge acoustic ballads with a progressive, swampy flair.” That’s actually an apt description.
The album, which one could surmise is something of an anthology, includes standout songs like the opening track, “When The Wind Blew,” plus “The Quiet”; “If Walls Could Talk,” and “Smile.”
The latter track, “Smile,” is a single waiting in the wings thanks to its beautifully layered harmonies and musical instruments creating magnificent melodies.
One listener of the album wrote: “Great album. It just so happened I was on a road trip for my first listen and this was an excellent soundtrack. Heartfelt; great harmonies; very pleasant listen [that is] reminiscent of major label acoustic acts such as Alice In Chains [with] hints of [the] lighter side of Led Zeppelin.”
Last year, the duo developed a new sound and writing style that they say has more “subtle intensity and reflection…delicate guitar playing and restraint coupled with vocal strength, ghostly melodies, and sober thoughtfulness forms songs of love and loss, life and death, hope and fear.”
RLGs is a reincarnation of the duo’s former Richmond, Virginia band, SEDAH, active during the 1990’s.
While the pair continued as members of other bands, Daugherty (Drivelink, 3STARKARMA) and Fairfax (Radio Silent Auction, Something for Now) continued to collaborate on a half dozen or so songs over the years.
The album, which has a wonderfully crisp acoustic and finely calibrated percussive element throughout, was recorded at Osceola Recording Studios in Raleigh, North Carolina with producer Dick Hodgin (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Cravin’ Melon, Corrosion Of Conformity, Johnny Quest) at the helm.
Iron Sailor Project – Get Your Feet Wet
It’s not a mistake that Compton, California indie rock band Iron Sailor Project, sound a lot like Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys.
Bandleader Tony Michael Ellis is an enthusiastic Brian Wilson fan. So much so that he purposely emulates his music via his band’s intricately recordings.
The 1966-68 genius period of recording style by Wilson comes shining through on ISP’s wonderful album, Get Your Feet Wet.
Further, Ellis points out, despite the amazing technology and tools available today, it would be impossible and wholly unlikely for a DIY artist to re-create – or to be so presumptuous as to even think one could re-create – a musical undertaking like Pet Sounds without the budget; the number of professional musicians; the top-notch studio; the industry’s best engineers, and the full backing of a giant record label.
And it as also the late 1960s, when vinyl sales were through the roof and labels were making out like gangbusters, to use an old phrase.
So, that is a good starting point, and perhaps even more fair to Ellis and his bandmates, when listening to the band’s track.
Interestingly, on the intricately recorded Beach Boys-emulating track, “It Soothes My Soul,” Ellis, and his back up band, manage to complement Wilson’s musical brilliance with a bit of his own.
The studio band included an actual member – Scott Bennett – of Wilson’s former band. Bennett helped Ellis record his own interpretation of Wilson’s Pet Sounds era pop-rock breakthrough.
And the results are quite impressive. Even the hard-core Wilson fans have to admit the guy and his band has something here worth a good listen. If you love ‘beach music’ of the late 1960s, this is your type of sound.
Ellis is fully aware of the criticism people – most especially Wilson’s and Beach Boys’ fans – will throw at him for “copying” Wilson’s style, format, techniques and re-arranging them into his own. Others will scold him for daring to even slightly compare himself to Wilson.
We don’t think either is a legitimate argument; every musician borrows – knowingly or not – from their favorite musicians. There’s not a musician who would – or could – deny that, unless they lived underground in a cave and never heard any music before.
The difference is that Ellis freely admits his cause. He is not in any way trying to compare himself to Wilson nor are the bandmates attempting to pose as The Beach Boys group.
Instead, they are exemplifying Wilson’s (the ‘Beach Boys’ had little input since Wilson already knew what he wanted to do before he hit the studio) legendary Pet Sounds.
It’s very hard to find the band’s music online in one comprehensive platform or anything about the band of import online which is strange in 2018.
Other contributors to the recording included Adam Marsland (Adam Marsland Chaos Band); Barbara Harris (The Toys); Sharon Jordan (Sound Explosion); Peter Green and Ellis.