Fred Thomas "Aftering (Polyvinyl)"
Fred Thomas is a man of many moods, and his latest release Aftering highlights many of them. Bad mood? How about opening your album with a slow drone tune “Ridiculous Landscape”. However right away the guitars are turned up and song two roars in like SST era Dinosaur (sorry no Jr. yet)… “Aftering” keeps the where is my Xanax ride going like Harry Chapin hanging out with Ira Kaplan (now that would make quite a great episode of “Dead Guitar Guys Driving Live Guitar Guys”). Check out the Lee Renoldo-esque “Altar” featuring Anna Birch, or the beautiful “Mother/Daughter Pharmix” – the cats are in the cradle for sure.
Future Generations "Landscape (Frenchkiss)"
Like a lot of bands, Future Generations are based in Brooklyn and are writing ‘80s-tinged electro-pop with lots of modern flair. Unlike a lot of bands, however, they aren’t afraid to let their songs be super catchy, and they also aren’t afraid to write a chorus! Imagine that! A song in 2018 with a chorus that you can (gasp!) sing along to! What will our robot overlords think?
“It’s got a good beat and I can dance to it.”
-Robot overlords
Oh. Well, there we go… So couple all that with their ability to imbue their jams with enough left-field art-school touches, and the Landscape (French Kiss) is like a Talking Heads meets MGMT meets Hall & Oates meets modern dance music sort of thing. All pop music should be this much fun. Check out the electric feel of “All The Same.”
Sarah Davachi "Gave In Rest (Ba Da Bing!)"
It’s sometimes difficult to describe in words the moving experience of listening to music like Sarah Davachi’s. Somewhere between post-modern classical and ambient, her compositions are ethereal, glacial. Since our pals at Ba Da Bing already did such a good job of it, I’ll let them do the heavy lifting here: “Gave In Rest is a modern reading of early music, reforming sacred and secular sentiments to fit her purview and provide an exciting new way to hear the sounds that exist around us.” Nice job BDB! And nice job Sarah. This album is simply lovely, as is evidenced by the haunting “Evensong.”
We Were Promised Jetpacks "The More I Sleep The Less I Dream"
So this is 30? Yup, when We Were Promised Jetpacks started they were four blokes (dudes) from Scotland with guitars, dynamics and all the things that made them the great band they are. Now upon entering the studio as 30 somethings, the boys decided to bring it back to the sound/feel of their debut These Four Walls. Sounding almost like the most powerful live album – (overdubs? pffft) The More I Sleep The Less I Dream hits some hot aging topics like self-doubt in album opener “Impossible” to the emotionally heavy “Hanging In”. Check out “Make It Easier” and hear what 30 something sounds like (“I have no idea, where to go from here”)….Can’t wait to hear what they record when they turn 40 (i’m guessing it won’t be a comedy album…)