Last week was a rare miss on my part. Itās more more than a few months of doing this and Iām quite shocked that Iāve stuck with it this long. Sure, I still got a list of new music out there to you but it was rushed and I didnāt feel great about it the following day. Habits! Habits are hard to develop and super easy to break. So just like the hundreds of times that other life-improving or life-enriching activities that Iāve tried to incorporate into my daily and weekly have seen some stumbles, Iāll get right back on the musical horse and get another note out into the world!
š Goings On About Music
Let us take a look at some new(ish) albums and singlesā¦
šæ Albums
Skullcrusher - Storm in Summer EP ( Apple | Spotify )
There have been a few instances this year where Iāve included a single from an upcoming album but by the time the album was released it didnāt really hold my attention. When I included the single Song for Nick Drake previously I was fairly certain that would be the case for Skullcrusher but I am happy to announce that was not the case. This album isnāt upbeat but itās still energetic with a good amount of melancholy - itās a neat tension. I was a bit shocked to see that Phoebe Bridgers was not listed in the āSimilar Artistsā section of Skullcrusherās artist page because it seems like an obvious comparison to me.
Home Is Where - I Became Birds EP ( Apple | Spotify )
I took a few different albums for a spin this week but other than the Skullcrusher EP nothing else really caught my ear this week so I tried something new - I scrolled through the recent reviews on Pitchfork and looked for an album cover that seemed interesting. Then I listened to the album. This is that album. Even though the EP gets started with a pretty mellow musical approach, the vocals are raw and, for me at least, acceptably screamy (think grunge screamy vs metal screamy). There were occasions where it veered off into emo screamy and approached my tolerance limit but never quite exceeded it. Track-by-track the aggression definitely picks up as you progress towards the end. Pretty happy with how this little experiment turned out - hope you like it as well!
šµ Tracks
The Darcys - Swerve
Iād forgive you for thinking this was a Chromeo song off the jump. I included The Darcys most recent album in my year-end review and noted that the music was a bit more subdued and considered than previous releases - not this track. This single brings out all of the synths and funk that I have come to really like from The Darcys.
fanclubwallet - Cāmon Be Cool
Sometimes when a song features a prominent looping bass- and drum-line I canāt tolerate it. I havenāt quite figured out why thatās the case but Iād be willing to consider that it might just be my mood when Iām listening. This track came on when I was in need of something to pep me up and I was almost immediately drumming along on my desk as it played. For the most part, the vocals tend to hide in the music but every now and then they break through as the music drops away.
Lone Waves - My All
The thing that initially caught my ear on this track was the bleeps and bloops in the music and I couldnāt stand them. I made note of the song and moved on with my musical exploration for the week but when the track came up later on a shuffle I actually found myself enjoying them - further evidence that perhaps one of the biggest drivers in me liking new music is my mood when I hear it for the first (or second) time. Thereās nothing particularly stand-out about this track - itās definitely upbeat and danceable but just thought it was neat to do a 180 in such a short time.
š§ In My Queue
My typical MO for this section is to include songs that I heard - and liked - but didnāt have much to say about but since I didnāt specifically highlight any of the music from last week, Iāll take the shortcut and do that this weekā¦ when I first included the song Automatic from Motorbike James in a previous note I had very specific expectations for the album but after listening it was something else entirely. Go back and listen to Automatic first and then the rest of the album and perhaps youāll agree. I think Optimisms highlights some of the differencesā¦ Pretty straight-forward guitar-driven indie rock on the Major Murphy album but there are no rules against really enjoying thatā¦ I got a bit of a CHVRCHES vibe from The Joy Formidable, just considerably less electronic - and Iām a sucker for a pendulum-style back-and-forth of the chords in a songā¦ and, as usual, songs from the singles and albums noted above.
The Joy Formidable - Into the Blue
Skullcrusher - Storm in Summer
fanclubwallet - Cāmon Be Cool
Motorbike James - Optimisms
The Darcys - Swerve
Lone Waves - My All
Major Murphy - In The Meantime
Home Is Where - The Scientific Classification of Stingrays
Subscribe to the In My Queue playlist on Apple Music or Spotify. Itās updated weekly with the new tracks.
Check out my profile Apple Music or Spotify for links to the playlists from previous weeks.
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