“Off My Mind” follows “Shaking,” which English released back in November 2019, and like that track before it, the new song finds her moving from muffled dream-pop to polished, nostalgic rock that still overflows with breathy melody. “Every time we talk / I just don’t know what to say ‘cause / I’m caught in a moment in between,” sings English over chiming guitars, marching drums and soft electric piano stabs—meanwhile, the video’s whimsical retro footage takes us back through the decades, to simpler, sunnier-seeming times.
For Off My Mind I made a video using archival footage. I wanted to juxtapose scenes of mundane and repetitive activity with moments of pure joy and spontaneity to show the value of creating authentic experiences in our own lives.
It’s been awhile, huh? After the Australian psych band led by Kevin Parker dominated the first half of the decade, particularly with its back-to-back classics Lonerism and its poppier sibling Currents, we haven’t heard much from Tame Impala since 2015. Sure, they’ve headlined virtually every major music festival and the biggest stages across the world over the past five years, new music has been few and far in between. This is the band that headlined Coachella and played SNL on the heels of releasing two singles and nothing else, after all. Now almost a year since the poppy groove of “Borderline” was dropped, we’re finally getting to hear The Slow Rush, a record that sounds like the logical progression from Currents’ embrace of psychedelic modern R&B and Parker’s work with Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson and Travis Scott. But don’t worry, you Innerspeaker and Lonerism purists: There’s lots of psych rock jams to love here underneath the shimmering synth, too.
Arbouretum’s mystic folk-rock collapses a continuum of 20th century music into decidedly classic song structures. English folk, country blues, Americana and 70s psychedelia all serve as touchpoints in their singular and distinctive sound. The Baltimore-based band have perfected the craft of storytelling using the delicate interplay of melodies and prosaic lyrics to tell vivid stories that engage the listener and transport them the way an immersive novel would. Let It All In stands as their most accomplished and evocative album to date. Guitarist and vocalist Dave Heumann’s melodies and solos still remain a central focus bolstered by the hypnotic rhythms of bassist Corey Allender and drummer Brian Carey and enhanced by Matthew Pierce’s substantial yet understated keyboard figures. Each song is a vivid scene or tale; meticulously detailed and crafted, transporting the listener to another world and time.
Recorded at Wrightway Studios with Steve Wright, the record’s elaborate, delicate and interlocking melodies expand with improvisation as in the relentless forward-motion of title track “Let In All In”, or the slow cosmic churn of “No Sanctuary Blues”. Let It All In features two drummers on nearly every track. David Bergander worked with long-time core member Carey to develop complementary parts, blended together as if they were a single player rather than two separate instrumentalists. New sounds are nowhere more evident than on “High Water Song”. With its raucous honky-tonk piano laid down by Hans Chew and walls of layered saxophone, trumpet and flugelhorn played by Dave Ballou and Matthew Pierce, it is a striking new addition to their catalog of songs.
Heumann’s deep sense of spirituality and command of storytelling through myth and metaphor resonates through Arbouretum’s music. Let It All In invokes nature as a backdrop for exploring humanity’s relationship to time, history, and the present socio-political climate, often highlighting water as a ubiquitous if often unconscious presence in our lives. It acts as a subtle connecting thread through each piece’s imagined landscapes, as well as taking on a symbol for change and spirit. The “black and deepest crimson” of sunrise over the Atlantic ocean on “How Deep It Goes” reflects on current political turmoil and the obfuscation of truth. “High Water Song” follows a narrator whose home is washed away by the effects of climate change and struggles to integrate into a new homeland. Title track “Let It All In” acts as a thematic thesis to the album, musing on both the pitfalls and benefits of letting the outside world into one’s inner life.
Let It All In is as instantly arresting as it is deeply reflective, with layers of sound and metaphor for the listener to unravel and interpret in their own way. It is a beautiful album that lives in and reflects the present moment while sounding as if it were forged in another era. The group has always centered around Heumann’s remarkable voice and songwriting. His skill as a vocalist and guitar player have led to playing with artists such as Cass McCombs, WillOldham, and many others. Heumann’s songs are transportive and decidedly album-oriented, and Let It All In is an invitation to jump into an album rich with timeless elegance. The rarity of their live shows and the other worldliness of their music have made Arbouretum a cultish band, a treasure for those that discover their albums. Their profound music endures and rewards fans both old and new. Arbouretum has added to their catalog another exceptional work that will weather changing fashions and reward those who explore their entirely unique world.
Indie-rock quintet Real Estate have announced their first new album since 2017’s In Mind, previewing their fifth LP The Main Thing with the track “Paper Cup,” is a danceable, strings-accented search for purpose that features background vocals from Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath—the 13-track album, first teased a year ago, is Real Estate’s first time recruiting outside instrumentalists and special guests like Meath.
Real Estate – “Paper Cup”, from ‘The Main Thing’, out February 28th on Domino Record Co.
Record company scouts spotted Alexandra Savior at just 16 but she balked at plans to turn her into the next Katy Perry. The arty Portland teenager decamped to LA where she met her songwriting soulmate, Arctic Monkey’s Alex Turner. With producer James Ford, they have created a debut that captures Savior’s preternatural self-possession. Blessed with a crystalline, intimate voice – think a less cabaret Lana del Rey – she channels the outsider cool of the cult 70s Japanese anime the album is named after. However, Turner’s retro snap, crackle and pop and Ford’s studio shimmer polish Savior too much out of the picture, leaving her sounding like an imitation, rather than the real thing.
Pop-noir tinged by desert rock. Imagine Lana Del Rey and Josh Homme charging feverishly into the sunset. An all-star line-up of Alex Turner and James Ford lent a hand, but it’s Savior’s idiosyncratic, dark charisma that ranks this as one of the best debuts of 2017.
“Alexandra Savior has a penchant for clever wordplay and a voice that can hypnotize, terrorize, or both in four measures or less.” – PITCHFORK.
“Her ability to create something evocative, sedating and sultry, all at the same time is uncanny”- PASTE.
“It’s a sound that should catch on in a hurry with fans of Lana Del Rey, Dead Man’s Bones, Zella Day and similar artists with a retro flair.” – FORBES
Orla Gartland’s upcoming EP “Freckle Season” features “Heavy,” a gracefully delivered breakup song. Soft piano accompanies Gartland’s beautiful, stirring vocals in what initially sounds like a classic, lofty lament.
However, a closer look at the lyrics suggests that this track is concerned with the somewhat more secondary side effects of a love lost. Longing to do things like “hang with you / and watch Grand Designs” and wishing that “your mum and I could be friends / I think about her now and then / How we drove up to her house / I’ll never see that dog again.” Gartland eventually reaches the titular question, delicately asking “So tell me why this has to be so heavy / Tell me why this has to be / ‘Cause I really thought that we’d be cool / Some exception to the rule”. This song wisely embraces one of the duller pains of parting ways: the loss of all the little things that one can find solace in. We all wonder, do we really have to let these things go all at once? Does it have to be this heavy? Gartland answers, “But honestly, I think it has to be this heavy.”
listen to ‘Heavy’ from the upcoming EP ‘Freckle Season’ now
Philadelphia based Maya Bon, frontwoman of Babehoven, released her first musical delicacy of the new year with “Only So”. Bon carries pain like a wounded songbird, making beauty out of the despondency of life. Crooning vulnerabilities such as, “There’s only so much I can take of this destruction,” Bon invites her listeners into a sacred space of learning exactly how much she can take, and how much she will no longer allow to be set upon her. Clothed in a simple instrumental accompaniment, her lyrics are the apex of the track, pointing all attention toward them.
She uses her songwriting as a way to process the struggles of daily existence, of familial trauma, of the processes of letting go. Her music is lyrically driven, but held together by intentionally minimalistic chord progressions. By singing songs painful in subject, though simple in sound, Babehoven rides the line of comfort and strain, pleasure and pain, that is palpable to the listener.
On February 7, Babehoven will be releasing an EP called Demonstrating Visible Difference of Height.
On this day in history First released February 4th, 1983) Echo and the Bunnymen released their 3rd album “Porcupine” featuringthe tracks The Back Of Love and favorite, The Cutter, it became the band’s highest charting release.
This album was produced by Ian Broudie, who later went on to form The Lightning Seeds.
IanMcCulloch’s comments, I think Porcupine was a classic autobiographical album, the most honest thing that I’d ever written or sung. I found the material from it really heavy to play – like, really oppressive. That’s the only reason why I didn’t like the album. The songs were great but it didn’t make me happy. A lot of songs are about coming to terms with the opposites in me.
When presented with the finished album, WEA Records rejected it as “too uncommercial”. The band agreed to re-record the album, despite Sergeant’s complaints. Using the original version of the album as a blueprint, the follow-up recording sessions went more smoothly. Drummond brought Shankar back to add strings to the other tracks on the album. It was these sessions that produced the band’s next single, “The Cutter”, which was released in January 1983 and went on to become the band’s first Top 10 hit.
A better listen than its predecessor, Heaven Up Here. Songs are intriguing and elaborate, often featuring swooping, howling melodic lines. Arrangements here owe a lot to 1960s psychedelia and feature lots of reverb, washed textures, intricate production touches, and altered guitar sounds. Ian McCulloch’s vocals are yearning, soaring, and hyper-expressive here, almost to the point of being histrionic, most notably on “Clay,” “Ripeness,” and the title track. Listen to the epic neo-psychedelia of ‘My White Devil’ or ‘Heads Will Roll’ as examples ,
Driving bass and drums lend the songs urgency and keep the music from collapsing into self-indulgence. Parallels between the group’s U.S. contemporaries
The recording session for “The Back of Love” went well, but the relationship between the band members was strained, with them either not speaking to each other or, when they did, arguing.Their manager Bill Drummond was aware of the tensions within the band and so arranged a tour in Scotland for April 1982. This was done in an effort to make the band work harder, write some songs, and to communicate with each other. Drummond’s plan failed to work as following the tour there was still tension between the band members.Two other album tracks – “Clay” and “My White Devil” – were first played during the tour of Scotland.
Echo & the Bunnymen
Ian McCulloch – vocals, guitar, piano
Will Sergeant – lead guitar
Les Pattinson – bass
Pete de Freitas – drums
Porcupine deserves a place in the canon of classic rock albums that are regarded as ‘great art’.
