Sneaks "Highway Hypnosis (Merge)"
Eva Moolchan aka Sneaks has been dazzling us with her singular hip-hop/post-punk sound for a few years now. It turns out that as talented as she is is also as prolific as she is (I apologize for that “is” heavy, super clunky sentence). At her current rate, she’s releasing one album a year, and I couldn’t be happier about it. No other artist is making music the way she is. She has really expanded her sound from her original releases to include pop music, ‘90s grunge, dub, R&B, and everything else you can think of, yet it all comes out the other end sounding just like Sneaks. Check out the vibey, late night “Money Don’t Grow On Trees.”
Tim Presley's White Fence "I Have To Feed Larry’s Hawk (Drag City)"
If you aren’t already a massive White Fence fan, then I don’t know that there’s much I can do to change your mind. Seeing as I’ve been a huge fan of his pastoral psychedelic sounds for years now, news of I Have To Feed Larry’s Hawk (Drag City) was greeted by a grin on my face bigger than the one on Larry’s hawk when Tim stopped by Larry’s house with a shoebox filled with mice. A little like early Pink Floyd (heavy on the Syd), a bit like The Kinks, but mostly Tim Presley. Check out the disarming “Lorelei.”
Pedro The Lion "Phoenix (Polyvinyl)"
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Pedro The Lion is back! Phoenix (Polyvinyl) is the first Pedro The Lion album in 15 years… Oh wait… I can’t start the blurb with that line, the album is called Phoenix! The metaphor was already made! Emergency! Emergency! Uhh… Like a, uh, oh! Like a cicada returning… nah, that’s bleak. Oh well… Too late! David Bazan has dusted off his lion costume and is Pedro The Lion once more (it’s been 15 years, but I’m pretty sure that’s how I remember this working). Back are the labored over arrangements, the meticulous lyrics, the uplifting chord changes, everything. Sure, there have been David Bazan solo albums since the last PTL record, but nothing was going to satisfy fans like a return to form like this. So let the past decade and a half wash away in an instant as you check out the nostalgia of “Yellow Bike.”
Palmer T. Lee "Winebringer (Team Love)"
As one half of The Lowest Pair, Palmer T. Lee has been releasing americana and folk leaning music for years now after falling in love with the medium as a young man. On Winebringer (Team Love), he takes advantage of the decision he made with his musical partner Kendl Winter to devote 2018 to solo projects. Featuring what sounds like every stringed instrument known to man (guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, others) and pouring his soul into every line delivered (in a way that is reminding me a bit of Tallest Man On Earth) this is surely the unfiltered mind of the sensitive soul of Palmer. Check out the twangy ballad “Rag.”