The Weather Station’s How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars is an album that is thoughtful, insightful and stunning. Compared to previous albums by the folk-indie artist, this release is more simplistic in which instruments it focuses on, making the lyrics the main attraction.
Unlike All of It Was Mine or The Weather Station, the piano in this album replaces multi-instrumental songs that were previously included such as banjos, fingerpicking acoustic guitars, drums and synths.
Tamara Lindeman’s voice is quieter, more subdued— almost parallel to Linda Perhacs’ feathered voice in “Chimacum Rain.” Staying within folk tradition, Lindeman’s lyrics focus on expansive stories with nature and animal motifs.
“Taught” feels like a piano is slowly trickling in, with Lindeman’s angelic voice taking center stage. This track is dramatic and all-feeling. It’s one of those rare songs that is both deeply emotional and touching, completely enthralling you in its rarity.
“Endless Time” is vocally reminiscent of Fiona Apple and Florence and the Machine. Lyrics such as “Lemons and persimmons in the December rain” are sweet and thoughtful, although sung with deep pain.
“Ignorance” tries to find meaning as it reaches out for an answer. The piano almost thuds with quick sincerity and a flute-like instrument plays in the background. This track lyrically showcases a deep connection to nature and the wrestling of the categorization of animals by human bearers.
“Sway” exemplifies a variance in tone, as the lyrics “I move too” is followed by a higher pitch vocally as well as instrumentally. The song is upbeat, yet ethereal. It is reminiscent of Neko Case’s “Star Witness” in buildup and subtle sound, specifically in how certain vocals are carried out.
Lindeman’s intelligent lyrics and melancholic sound, particularly within this album, mark deeper mysteries not yet finished. Details from the environment are picked up and carried out to meet the listener’s ear. Taking with it, sorrows of earlier times, and earlier lovers.
Night Owls is the fourth album from North Atlantic Explorers, a DIY indie project/collective lead by Glenn D’Cruze.
The nine-track album is comprised of elaborately produced and decidedly more uptempo songs than on previous releases while retaining an undercurrent of sadness, beauty and atmospherics that permeates throughout.
The songs incoporate elements of classic pop, orchestral, 60’s psychedelica and “an understated mid 70’s Young Americans/Royal Scam-style groove.”
Night Owls intersperses grandiose choral harmonies, a horn section and mind-bending improvisational jams alongside moments of ambience – inspired by The Beach Boys’ classic 1968 album Pet Sounds, D’Cruze states.
The album contains songs about northern winter nights, deceptive lovers, out of body experiences, catastrophic weather events and vampires. The album title is a reflection of D’Cruze’s solitary and nocturnal nature and his affinity for the tranquility and mystery of the pre-dawn hours.
Unfortunately, the release of Night Owls is a bittersweet event.
Andrew Arida, who performed the incredible Rhodes, Wurlitzer and organ solos on “Dreams of Flying” sadly passed away shortly after the recording session.
Night Owls was recorded, mixed and mastered by Jonathan Anderson (Foxwarren; Javelin; Teen Daze) and dropped DIY on January 7th, 2022.
Increasingly popular indie rock duo Ducks Ltd. will set out on a months-long tour of North America and the U.K. starting next Wednesday in their official homebase of Toronto.
Band members Tom McGreevy (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Evan Lewis (guitar, bass, drum programming) possess a boundless love for 1980s jangle-pop. They put their own spin on the post-punk era via Ducks Ltd.’s debut album, Modern Fiction.
The duo is heavily influenced by overseas and North American 80s post-punk and indie pop bands like Close Lobsters, Felt, Orange Juice, McCarthy, the Clean, the Bats, the Feelies, and The Go-Betweensetc.
Ducks Ltd. stitches together layers of intricate melodies and lively, nostalgic pop/rock elements to create an irresistible combination of energy, bliss and introspection.
The duo built a reputation in the Toronto scene sharing the stage with bands like Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Weyes Blood, The Goon Sax, Juan Wauters, and Yowler. Their DIY debut EP, Get Bleak, dropped in November of 2019.
Get Bleak was widely praised by the press and blogosphere. Pitchfork wrote: “Ducks Ltd. understand that dancing through misery is healthier than dancing around it. Their brand of lilting, throwback jangle-pop makes that seem like the easiest thing in the world to do.”
In 2020, Ducks Ltd. signed to Carpark Records & Royal Mountain Records
As one of our favorite releases of 2021, Modern Fiction, keeps ringing into the new year.
Like so many others, The Zolas had their plans to release an album in 2020 scuppered by COVID-19. Instead of just retreating and pushing back the release date, the Vancouver band launched a campaign they called ‘Z Days’ which promised a new single on the second day of each month. Fans of the band could rest happy on getting their Zolas fix (especially since it was back in 2016 they released their last album, the bright and infectious Swooner) as well as plentiful cuts that would appear on their delayed album.
The extra time also brought about a little extra focus for The Zolas into how to shape and sound the album. Inspired by 90s Britpop and described by frontman Zachary Gray as a “21st century heir” to Trainspotting and Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, Come Back To Life borrows generously from the the era of Definitely Maybe and Screamadelica. There are smears of Oasis and nostalgic hat tips (and psychedelic waves) to the Happy Mondays across the album, but Gray and his band never get too lost trying to recreate the past.
If anything, props have to be given to Gray (and new bandmates, bassist Dwight Abel and drummer Cody Hiles, filling the gap left by departed keyboardist Tom Dobrzanski): they are a pretty convincing replica of the inspiring era. “Miles Away” jangles pleasingly as Gray ushers you to “lean back / don’t worry ’bout the feedback”, while “Let It Scare You” has a blissful summery air about it, channelling nostalgia from its echoey vocals through to its little hits of glockenspiel. If they were released 25 years ago, then tracks like these could have easily found an audience.
Elsewhere, they sound amazingly convincing as another band who made their name trying to replicate this era, namely Kasabian. Opening track “Violence On This Planet” cynically swaggers while “I Feel The Transition”‘s throbbing bass charges along as Gray takes on the topic of wealth disparity. Give either of these tracks that radio-ready shine on the trip hop beats and up the fuzz on the bass a little and you could have a track taken from somewhere between Kasabian and West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, if not just something ready to soundtrack a sequence of lads boasting their way down a street in a Guy Ritchie movie.
Gray’s old habits don’t die easily though, and if there’s a past he seems fond of recreating then it’s the flashy strut of Swooner. He has a certain way of inflecting his voice in the final bars of each of his lines, like he’s directing your attention to a particular clever word. It’s most evident on “Yung Dicaprio”, which manages to fuse together a bleary 90s “la la la” rush with that LA-like wearied glimmer; it sounds like two songs stuck together, but the trio do make it work. “Energy Czar”, on the other hand, has plenty of likeable features with its backing vocal touches in the chorus and stylish preppy guitar sound, but it also sounds like a rehash of familiar territory.
Where the album does excite is when Gray steps that bit more out of his comfort zone. Sometimes it’s a little feature, like on “PrEP” where there’s a noticeably emotional snarl in his voice as he shouts “I wanna scream until I burst,” addressing the HIV epidemic of the 1980s over thick, chugging bass. “Reality Winner” is a welcome instrumental turn that sounds equal parts indebted to trip-hop rave streaks from the Prodigy as it does to a modern dubstep pioneer like Burial. “Another Dimension” gets locked and lost in a gritty groove, but an elongated verse from Cadence Weapon is a highlight and surprise – it’s only a shame it doesn’t go on longer, especially when he starts to hit his lines against the snare with a pointed viciousness.
Final track “Wreck Beach/Totem Park” is also worth a shoutout, not just for broaching the difficult topic of Canada’s deplorable treatment of its First Nations, but also in how it manages to do it through a personal lens. “Songs I love to sing reveal themselves as requiems,” Gray carefully offers at one point as hazy synth chords blear in and out of view, like a fuzzy childhood memory coming to the front of your mind. The rise of the chorus is sweet and wistful (even though it’s tinged with darkness), but Gray sounds he’s retreating away from bleeding an intense emotional peak out of the song, like he’s aware this isn’t his area to broach. He’s reminiscing with a more informed mind, remembering fondly but with fuller context of life around him.
Like the album’s opening track, the closing “Wreck Beach/Totem Park” takes some six and a half minutes to spread out and explore the terrain, and it’s musical ventures like this that make Come Back To Life that few steps above the band’s previous efforts. The tone feels less pandering and hollow, and they’re actually sounds like there’s real weight and meaning behind some of Gray’s lyrics for once (which, thanks to the less airbrushed production, aren’t riding front and centre). While the album’s not without some clunky moments (mostly around the middle) and at points just feels like a continuation of what came before, Come Back To Life does an admirable job of balancing 90s sentimentality and the band’s own signature approach to writing. It’s a hard task to look backwards and forwards at the same time, but The Zolas do a pretty good job of it here.
The post Album Review: The Zolas – Come Back To Life first appeared on Beats Per Minute.
Canada’s Arkells have just announced their sixth studio album Blink Once will be released on September 30th.
Coinciding with this news, the band has also shared a brand new single and video for soul pop banger “One Thing I Know” .
Blink Once follows on from the acoustic album Campfire Chords, a collection of re-imagined Arkells classics, as well as recent singles Years In the Making, All Roads and You Can Get It. The latter features K.Flay on vocals and was featured in the launch trailer for the video game “Forza Horizon 5”.
The track charted at #1 at Canadian Alternative Radio where it remained for four weeks.
Speaking about Blink Once, frontman Max Kerman commented:
Now more than ever, it seems our lives can change in the blink of an eye. We began working on this album before the world changed and this title felt right given where we’ve collectively landed. Everyday you wake up and you think you know a lot of stuff, then it turns out – you don’t.
On new single “One Thing I Know” the charismatic singer adds:
This song is about not being ashamed of who you are and where you come from. The best version of yourself lets your colours show – to feel free, weird and unburdened by all the things out of our control.
Blink Once artwork and tracklisting
Liberation
You Can Get It (ft. K.Flay)
All Roads
Strong
One Thing I Know
Truce
Nobody Gets Me Like You Do
Swing Swing Swing
No Regrets
Years In The Making
Arm In Arm
The post Arkells reveal new album ‘Blink Once’ appeared first on Indie is not a genre.
