Archive for the ‘CLASSIC ALBUMS’ Category

HATCHIE – ” Stay With Me “

Posted: January 16, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The enchanting spell that Hatchie (aka 26-year-old Australian singer/songwriter Harriette Pilbeam) spins on her stellar dream-pop debut, “Keepsake”, is heady and hard to resist. “Obsessed,” easily the most delicious of ear wormy-y melodies here, gets its host toe tapping along instantly. She sings in earnest of an experience of love so innocent and unselfish: “You are the one who told me to run/Give it a try/Just have a life”—that whatever misgiving the album might harbor is happily forgotten in the whir of jangly guitars and the fuzz-drenched wash of her breathy vocals.

Pilbeam cut her teeth in the Brisbane indie scene, playing bass on other people’s songs. After eight years, she stepped out on her own under the Hatchie moniker with her 2018 EP, “Sugar & Spice”. If she was still unsure of her prowess, a remix of “Sure,” the EP’s standout, by Cocteau Twins’ guitarist Robin Guthrie should have dissipated any doubts.

She has a knack of borrowing from the genre’s best progenitors and current practitioners, but also folds in mainstream pop and emo—musical styles that should be at loggerheads—yet in her capable hands, succeed and soar. Her airy vocals can slide satisfyingly from chesty to high, head tones in one breath; and has a timbre remarkably similar to that of Dolores O’Riordan of The Cranberries. Often, as in “Without a Blush” and “Keep,“ songs are anchored in evocative lyrics, rooted in that desire to give voice to emotions once suppressed or fleeting moments that need to be savored over and over again.

“Fate keeps trying to find me/I’m not the kind of/Girl to let it define me,” she coos on the shimmering “Not That Kind.” It’s beyond just a pithy observation of a girl caught up in the machinations of romantic love; it functions as battle cry for how she regards her career in music.

Australia’s Hatchie has shared the new video for ‘Stay With Me,’ a brand new track from her debut record ‘Keepsake’ to be released on June 21st via Heavenly Recordings.

‘Stay With Me’ is taken from Hatchie’s debut album ‘Keepsake’ out June 21st on Double Double Whammy, Heavenly Recordings and Ivy League,

“Stay With Me” may be her most straightforward dance floor pop moment yet.”
– The Fadar – 

“Stay with Me” has the pulse of a Madonna hit from the late ’80s and early ’90s, and fits right in with similarly themed “crying-in-the-club tracks” like the entirety of Lorde’s Melodrama and, of course, Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own”.
– Consequence of Sound –

“It’s a Crying-In-The-Club style sad banger, a real bop that fuses her drifting, hallucinogenic guitar effects with something upbeat.”
– Clash Music – 

“The yearning chorus of ‘Stay With Me,’ punctuated with ethereal stabs of ‘90s synth, is delicious in its desperation and incredibly catchy.”
– Paste Magazine – 

FRANKIE COSMOS – ” Close it Quietly ” Best Albums Of 2019

Posted: January 16, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Frankie Cosmos is the musical pseudonym for Greta Kline, the daughter of Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates. Since 2012, Kline has been releasing an impressive catalogue of lo-fi, often endearing indie-rock songs. “Close it Quietly” is her second full-length to be released by celebrated label Sub Pop and it marks a huge step forward. Indeed, these 21 songs in just under 40 minutes make up her most substantial offering to date, without losing the original homespun appeal of her early records. Her quirky, conversational style is fully on display on “Cosmic Shop,” the sunny “Windows,” the tender and intimate “Marbles” and the key-standout closer, “This Swirling.” Kline possesses a quiet, unique cleverness that is worth finding.

Close it Quietly (Release day: September 6th, 2019)

JADE BIRD – ” 17 “

Posted: January 16, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The charismatic English singer-songwriter Jade Bird found her inspirations in the classic acoustic country rock music of the past (Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen). She transformed the style to the present through her youth (she’s only 21) and creativity. She’s also following in their footsteps by touring heavily and connecting with audiences through live performances. The ever-smiling artist conveys intelligence and heart. Sometimes that grin is a hidden sneer. In some songs, romance is just a knife.

Bird also puts the rock back in roots rock. She has a voice that sounds young and innocent, with an unsteady bottom that suggests experience and pain. Songs such as “Uh Huh” and “Love Has All Been Done Before” reveal her strength while others like “17” show the power in exposing one’s vulnerability as a singer. Jade Bird’s voice may be her greatest asset. However, this is not all she’s got. Bird also writes literate and dramatic material and plays her guitar and piano with energy and bravado. These elements combine to make her an outstanding new talent.

Glassnote Music distributed by AWAL

THE MUFFS – ” No Holiday “

Posted: January 16, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The Muffs - No Holiday

A couple of weeks before the release of “No Holiday,” Kim Shattuck, the Muffs’ leader died. The album was presumably meant to be the beloved punk band’s final statement. If you listen to single “A Lovely Day Boo Hoo,” without crying, hearing Shattuck’s voice singing in a softer, sweeter tone that contrasts greatly from her signature yell, you may be lacking something. Of course, this record does still have plenty of rockers like “Down Down Down,” “Pollyanna “and “The Kids Have Gone Away.” But it is the quieter moments that are the most stirring. Closer “Sky,” particularly lands hard. Kim Shattuck was one of the best power-pop writers around and she was cut down too soon.

After reissuing The Muffs’ three acclaimed first titles (The Muffs, Blonder And Blonder, andHappy Birthday To Me), it’s only fitting that the brand new Muffs album makes its way out into the world via Omnivore Recordings.

No Holiday, The Muffs’ first new album in five years, is a celebration of everything the band has always stood for, and continues to be. Bassist Ronnie Barnett says “I think this new album represents the depth of our band like none of our others. It could have easily been aptly called The Many Moods Of The Muffs. All of our strengths: melody, big rock, sweetness, nastiness… All on display and readily apparent. The three of us, after all these years, are a family. The love between us is well represented here. We laid it all out there on this one.”

Kim Shattuck (songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist) adds “I wrote the songs between 1991 and 2017. We decided to have a long album and use songs that had been in my arsenal but were weeded out for super concise albums. They were all great songs and we didn’t want them to go to waste. No way!” .Kim Shattuck has been described as ‘a force of nature.’ She was even more than that to people like me who love her music. She was a rockin’ performer and a masterful songwriter. It feels like she’s left us too soon.

RORY GALLAGHER – ” Check Shirt Wizard: Live in ’77 “

Posted: January 16, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Previously unreleased live performances • Newly mixed, A new live set from the late Irish blues guitarist and songwriter Rory Gallagher is on the way in March. “Check Shirt Wizard: Live in ’77” is culled from four shows (London, Brighton, Sheffield and Newcastle) and features 20 previously unreleased live performances. 1977 was a great period for hearing Gallagher’s music on Radio 1, with 2 In Concert shows including a Sight ‘n’ Sound simulcast. Both were truly brilliant performances.

Rory Gallagher was on tour in support of his latest album “Calling Card” and the the performances feature live versions of tracks from that album as well as 1975’s “Against The Grain” and others. The original performances were recorded to multi-track tape allowing this release to be newly mixed and mastered at Abbey Road Studios.

The distinctive cover painting used for the cover of Check Shirt Wizard is by a young Irish graffiti artist Vincent Zara who has stencilled Rory’s image across his home country. This is being released as a 2CD set or a well-priced triple vinyl package.

Check Shirt Wizard: Live in ’77 will be released on 6th March 2020.

Check Shirt Wizard - Live In '77 [VINYL]

GENGAHR – ” Sanctuary “

Posted: January 16, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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“I genuinely believe that this is the best record we’ve ever made,” says Felix. It looks like another epic journey is just about to begin…More expansive and ambitious than ever before, Gengahr are a band reborn. A testament to going it alone, “Sanctuary” is the experimental North London alt-pop four-piece’s finest body of work to date, a DIY triumph which welcomes old friend Jack Steadman of Bombay Bicycle Club as producer, adding his distinct brand of symphonic sparkle to Gengahr’s complex, layered sound.

Born of an epic journey, the follow-up to their acclaimed 2015 debut A Dream Outside and 2018’s Where Wildness Grows sees songwriter Felix Bushe tapping into personal pain but coming out fighting.

Mixed by the hugely in-demand Nathan Boddy (James Blake, Nilufer Yanya, Shame), Sanctuary runs the full gamut of human feeling, with the disco-inflected ‘Heavenly Maybe’ heavy with ennui as well as a powerful melody, detailing Felix’s experience of partying in order to distract him from his real life problems, while the soaring ‘Icarus’ sees him further opening up about the “world of pain” in which he found himself. Yet the beautiful, twinkling ‘Moonlight’ hints at a positive future. “I do want the album to be hopeful and ‘Moonlight’ is all about that,” he explains. “It’s a harmonious ending of unison and togetherness.” Written while in Vietnam with his wife, its lyrics turn Felix’s self-doubt into a lush, low-key eulogy for the bad times.

“I genuinely believe that this is the best record we’ve ever made,” says Felix. It looks like another epic journey is just about to begin…

GUSTER – ” Look Alive “

Posted: January 16, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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“Look Alive” is the best Guster album in a very long time. In fact, there is something about this album that makes it feel like an effective reboot of sorts for the beloved Boston band. They just sound reinvigorated, from the beautiful, opening title-track, to the pop-radio-ready “Hard Times.” “Terrified” is among one of their strongest songs to date, as is the bold, slowly building, “Not for Nothing.” The best moment comes, though, on playfully bizarre “Overexcited,” where a tweak-y, strange synth-line is paired with vocals sung in a fake British accent about being nervous about a crush. It sounds weird on paper but it is a bit of a joyous revelation.

This is a really impressive set of songs.

Guster’s new album Look Alive is out now on Nettwerk Music Group & Ocho Mule Records.

The ALLMAN BROTHERS – ” Trouble No More ” 10LP vinyl box set

Posted: January 16, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Universal Music will release a 50th anniversary Allman Brothers Band box set in February. Trouble No More – named after the Muddy Waters song the band first jammed to – will be available as a five-CD package or an extravagant 10LP box set. The 10LP, 61-song set will be available on limited edition orange and red splatter vinyl as well as black vinyl. Each album is a thematic overview of the various stages of the band’s recording and performance history, from their earliest demos for Capricorn Records to the band’s final performance at New York’s Beacon Theatre in 2014.

“The Allman Brothers Band was at their best up on a stage,” writes Lynskey, “playing live music for an audience. The group played with unbridled energy, and without constraints.

“While their set list did not vary all that much from night to night in the early days, the band’s desire to explore, create and improvise guaranteed that each show would be a different listening experience… their marathon concerts became the stuff of legend.” The boxset was produced by Allman Brothers historians and aficionados Bill Levenson, John Lynskey and Kirk West and both CD and vinyl sets take a thematic overview of the various stages of the band’s recording and performance history

The Allman Brothers Band circa 1970

The 10LP vinyl box is incredibly expensive, but does package the five gatefold vinyl sets in a “wood veneer wrapped slipcase with gold graphics” and it includes an 56-page large format book.

The five-CD version includes an 88-page booklet and comes as a 12-panel ‘softpack’ with a slipcase. Both formats contain an 8,900 word essay on the 50-year history of the band by John Lynskey, unreleased band photos along with newly shot photos of memorabilia and a recap of the 13 incarnations of the band line-up. Last week it was announced that the surviving members of the last Allman Brothers Band lineup would play special show in New York in March, billed as ‘The Brothers’.

Trouble No More: 50th Anniversary Collection is released on 28th February 2020.

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PORRIDGE RADIO – ” Sweet “

Posted: January 16, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Birthed from open mic nights around the seaside town, Dana Margolin initially performed bedroom-recorded songs to rooms of polite, unassuming audiences who stared at her quietly while she screamed in their faces. She soon decided to form a band through which to channel her new love of performing and songwriting – and be noisier while she was at it – so Porridge Radio was born.

While the band have self-released numerous demos and a garden-shed-recorded album (2016’s Rice, Pasta and Other Fillers) on Memorials of Distinction, Every Bad is a culmination of what has been in their head for some time; the record they have been waiting for the means to record.

It arrives full of grand, sweeping ambition – with vocals so urgent that it often feels like it is moved by compulsion rather than choice, with all the rawness of early Karen O, and influences as disparate as Charli XCX and The Cranberries.

New single “Sweet” is a creeping self-examination, striking in its minutely observed details, while December release “Lilac” is dominated by a repeated, anxiety-quelling mantra: “I don’t want to get bitter / I want us to get better.”

These mantras and repetitions are something of a signature and nowhere is it more deftly put to work than on Every Bad’s closer “Homecoming Song,” with its decisive, self-awarely poppy percussion, and howling final cry: “There’s nothing inside.”

Though these songs are deeply personal explorations, expressed via a weird, beautiful musical language all Porridge Radio’s own, they extend a hand to every listener who has felt conflicted, held two feelings in their hearts at once, or flailed around the depths of their own choices and relationships. For those of us who know how that feels, Every Bad is a funny, profound little comfort.

Official video for ‘Sweet’ by Porridge Radio, taken from their forthcoming album “Every Bad” due 13th March

CHARLY BLISS – ” Young Enough ” Best Albums Of 2019

Posted: January 16, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Charly Bliss Frontwoman Eva Hendricks’ voice glimmers and chimes like a power-pop cheerleader on  her sophomore record: it’s bubble-gummy, slightly nasal, all girlish spirit and vigor. The Brooklyn foursome’s “Young Enough” is a collection of dark lyrics, poppy melodies, and hooks so murderously catchy they could be used to fish for Moby Dick. Most songs tell of an abusive relationship Eva has since escaped from, and her three bandmates—drummer Sam Hendricks, guitarist Spencer Fox, and bassist Dan Shure harmonize around her pain like buzzing, sympathetic bees.

The record kicks off with synth-fizzled “Blown to Bits,” a track about our ever-present contemporary anxieties over nuclear war and the planet’s looming demise, whose chorus pounds, “It’s gonna break my heart to see it blown to bits.” Closer “The Truth” is no less of a dizzying earworm, though it has also collected an album’s worth of yearning: “Kissing babies / I’m alive, but I’m dead inside / burying my face against the wall,” Eva caterwauls on a song so hyper-specific, I’m not entirely sure what it’s about.

Elsewhere, you get the adolescent ache of teen love on title track “Young Enough,” a slow-burn centerpiece beginning with the thrum of a single guitar note and gathering into a full-blown anthem about what it’s like to have your identity tangled up in another person worse than earbuds in your pocket. On “Hard to Believe,” Hendricks reclaims her life for her own, bursting to leave a bad partner; “I’m wide awake, he’s asleep,” she crows of the mismatch. She grapples with a past sexual assault on “Chatroom” (“I am trusting, well-adjusted / Marked me dormant, I erupted”) and enters the recent emotional labor debate with the prescient “Capacity,” a lesson learner in which she announces, “I used to think I should do right by everyone / now I know I was wrong.”

Young Enough is poppier than Charly Bliss’ debut Guppy, and it’s not hard to understand why: keep those mellifluous riffs flowing, spark-fueled as electricity across power lines, and trauma will have a hard time keeping up with you. And if it does—bouncing as high as Eva Hendricks is clearly able—you’ll leapfrog straight over it.

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