The
countdown continues…
15.
Drakes Hotel
Love’s Not Lazy EP
(DH Music)
Drakes Hotel
is on a hot streak! This five tracker,
their first EP, comes a little over a year after their last full length, Logic Adopts Senses, which is ahead of
their release every 2-3 years track record.
They must be feeling inspired, because this EP includes some of their
best work yet and word has it that they will be releasing a series of EPs in
the near future, as well as doing some touring in the new year. The EP starts off with the extended
melancholic “The Night Train Home,” where Amy Drake’s unique, strong and
stellar vocals are placed fully out in front of the mysterious and haunting
soundscape underneath. This song would
make a perfect soundtrack for a night time train ride - lost in thought,
because it absolutely evokes that feeling of reflection and decompression. The upbeat “Young Taste” is up next and finds
DH getting right to the point with a fairly straightforward rock song that
screams single! The lyrics are thought
provoking. It seems to be spelling out
some relationship troubles within each verse, while the chorus (which includes
near power chords!) stretches the theme to a potentially more universal problem
with relationships in general in a world of social media and over sharing. The centerpiece, “Leave It Dark,” includes
everything there has ever been to love about this duo. The sing-a-long chorus is not only full of
wisdom, but is catchy as hell, while the simple repeated piano refrain creates
a solid tuneful base for Chris Y’s stellar guitar work that reaches for the
stratosphere throughout – reminding of the graceful striving cascades that the House of Love created with “Love in a
Car’ oh, so many years ago. It’s amazing
how much variety Drakes Hotel achieves with their modest recording tools, but
“Sense Non Sense” is a huge sounding song that is full of open space and an
atmospheric keyboard line that instills a sense of intrigue that is so
attractive about their music. Maybe this
song would be better served as the hit single with its huge musical climax and
its tale of a dying relationship, which is succinctly and memorably told (“We
had a lack of progress / on a bed of promise / all we used to be got all fucked
up”). Finally, the EP closes with the
dramatic and hopeful sounding “Sick Apart,” which again addresses relationship
issues and miscommunication or lack of within, but seems to find that there can
still be a strong enough core to survive and even thrive. When Amy sings near the end “Keep holding
me…I’ve wanted you for so long,” it feels as though everything will be alright. Please do yourself a favor and track down
this music (their last three albums can be found at CDBaby.com). It is a journey well worth the price of
admission.
14.
Northern Portrait
Pretty Decent Swimmers 10” EP
(Matinee)
Was it
really 2010 when Danish band Northern Portrait released their debut album Criminal Art Lovers? How can it have been that long? Time goes by way too fast, but at least they
are back and they started out 2013 with this beautiful ‘swimming pool blue’
colored 10” vinyl EP – ensuring that no matter what, this year would be a good
year for music. No, Northern Portrait
has not lost their similarities to the
Smiths, but you know what? I’m
glad. I miss that energetic effortless
sound they created, and NP come as close as one can get to such excellence! They also bring to mind the pop explosion in Sweden from the
early 90s from bands like Popsicle, Wannadies This Perfect Day, Happydeadmen and Easy, with their seeming limitless tunefulness. These guys are so good at writing catchy
tunes with lighter than air guitar intricacies and downtrodden lyrics that
still exhibit a sense of flair and wit.
“Happy Nice Day” opens the EP perfectly with what sounds at first glance
like an honest to God ode to the beginning of a happy nice day until we hear
vocalist Stefan Larsen ask “Is that a possibility?” all while listing off a
literal travelogue worth of lonely lost moments around the globe (“I lost my
heart in Hamburg and then my breath in Nice”).
It’s a fantastic piece of pure pop filled with “oohs and aahs” and “la
la la las” that cannot avoid improving my day.
The travels continue with “Greetings from Paris,” which weaves a fascinating snapshot
story of lost souls trying to find meaning from dashed dreams. The opening refrain “Delayed by an
opportunity to cause a firm and effective mess” gives a hint at the quality
storytelling within. “Bon Voyage!” kicks
off side two with a dancey shuffle beat and some sharp guitar strums atop some
tasteful organ and occasional piano interludes and another travel tale
(“destination: good time”). Finally (and
sadly it has to end), the EP closes with “I Feel Even Better,” which absolutely
glides with a sparkling and yet somehow purely melancholic sound. This one seeks solace in escape instead of
familiarity (nice play off of the old Cheers
TV theme: “Sometimes I want to go where nobody knows my name and they couldn’t
care less if I came”) and I’m not so sure any hope is found by the end (“I’m so
tired of this uninspiring life”). It is
damn refreshing to hear this band’s music and to be allowed to wallow in the
superbly told stories of real sadness and disappointment.
Matinee
recently released a new collection that compiles all of Northern Portrait’s EPs,
B-sides and compilation tracks – entitled Ta!
– which includes this 10” EP. Great
stuff!
13.
The Ocean Blue
Ultramarine
(Korda)
The Ocean
Blue has always held a special place in my heart. They came along with 1989’s debut as a rare
American installment in the 80s UK
raincoat rock I loved so much. They fit
nicely with the Echo and the Bunnymen,
the Smiths, and so many more. David Schelzel had a knack for writing deeply
affecting guitar leads and the band could always provide a stellar
landscape. They never had the huge ego
or edge to their music, which always felt like it kept them from attaining a
bigger profile, but it was when they focused on their nice guy reflective songs
that they were always at their best. For
me, their 1991 second LP Cerulean was
their high water mark. Gone was the
gauzy rainy haze of the debut, instead they focused their attention to details
and provided us with a sublime and immaculately crafted album full of sad and
reflective songs and crystalline melodies.
It was an album that captured my imagination and comforted me through a
rough and terrible year. Well, four
albums and 22 years later, they are back with another blue themed album, and
though, not quite as perfect, this is a hugely welcome return to the fold
(their previous release being 2004’s very solid Waterworks EP – whose opening instrumental, “Fast Forward Reverse,”
has been expanded and improved and included here). I hate to say it, but this is the Ocean Blue
that I liked so much originally. Their
1999, 60s pop influenced Davy Jones’
Locker, was okay, but not full of the big pristine sound that they always
excelled. Aside from the fine sounding
filler that is “A Rose is a Rose,” every song here is strong. The opening “Give it a Try,” has a huge low
end and may be the most roughshod this band ever gets (which isn’t a lot) and
about as political as well. “Sad Night,
Where is Morning?” and “Ground Gives Way” are both songs that could easily have
supplanted a couple of the good ones from the masterful Cerulean, and not surprisingly both have been selected as singles
to promote the album. “New York 6AM” and “Sunset-Moonrise” are also
standouts with their lush warmth and beauty, while the acoustic strumming of
“Blow My Mind” and “If You Don’t Know Why” remind more of their exciting debut
album. Again, it pains me to say this,
but their ability to recapture some of these old glories that has me
buzzing. I should be embracing their
growth and continued change, and though I have stayed with them through thick
and thin, it has always been their first three albums that shone the brightest,
so this return to form – so to speak – feels so damn right. Here’s hoping that this band thing becomes a
more full time entity once again, so we don’t have to wait so long between
releases.
12.
The Chambermaids
Whatever Happened Tomorrow
(Old Blackberry Way/Guilt
Ridden Pop)
After
offering up two free downloads peeks at their new material early in 2012, Minneapolis’s The
Chambermaids finally released their third album (mini album?) with this remarkable
Whatever Happened Tomorrow. I first learned of this band with their
second collection, 2009’s Down in the
Berries, whose seven songs fly by with a serious urgency and discordance
that hinted at early Poster Children
crossed with the dreamy dual vocals (provided by siblings Neil and Martha Weir)
and atmospherics of Slowdive. But it was those two songs last year,
“Whirlpool” and “China Blue,” – both included here - that hinted at new
possibilities and a big step forward.
“Whirlpool” opens this nine song album with its disjointed beat and
simultaneously edgy and atmospheric guitar layers and spikes, while “China
Blue” crashes in at the end of side one with its massive onrush of noise and a
menacing low end bass rumble. There’s no
doubt that they’ve taken huge inspiration from the tremolo bending exploits of My Bloody Valentine, but they’ve
retained their Midwestern sensibilities throughout – making this sound fresh
and different somehow. The acoustic
strum that opens the powerful “I Wonder Why” leads to a verse that fights not
to be overwhelmed by the beautiful haze of feedback that swirls in from all
sides. Similarly, the Martha fronted
“Scraped Away” is steeped in buzzing noise, but hints melodically like the 60s
influenced Primitives. Meanwhile, “Electric Sky” has the rough hewn
forward motion of Kiwi bands like the early Verlaines or more accurately, the
Straightjacket Fits, or the UK’s
late great whatever-happened-to Venus Beads, all the while concluding with an
addictive cooing repetitive lyrical harmony that is guaranteed to stick in your
craw forever. The penultimate track, the
ebbing and flowing” “Flight of Cranes” is another ground shaker. It’s filled with splashing cymbals, a lazy
low end bass crawl and walls of guitars that bring a striking interlude between
the moody instrumentals that close the album.
Somehow I think this band has absorbed everything I’ve liked musically
over the last 25 years and crammed at least a little bit of it all into a brief
25 minutes. This is a must have and it’s
inexpensive in any format!
11.
Cheatahs
Extended Plays
“Cut the Grass” 7”
(Wichita Recordings)
This year
has had me all in a flux with music. I’m
confused. I have always prided myself in
not allowing myself to get stuck in a time period musically. I always bristle inside when I hear someone
say, “They don’t make music like they used to,” because generally in my age
bracket that’s coming from someone who stopped paying attention to new music
after the Outfield broke up. I’ve always believed that every year is
crammed with fantastic music, no matter what, it may take more effort to track
down sometimes, but it’s out there. But
more and more, I’m starting to wonder if I truly am stuck in a time long gone,
just in a different way. Am I simply
listening to new music by the same old bands (see Kitchens of Distinction, Swervedriver,
My Bloody Valentine, The Ocean Blue, and many more – see
elsewhere on this list!!)? Or am I
listening to only newer bands that remind me of times gone by (The History of Apple Pie, Chambermaids, Just Handshakes, Ex Cops,
and many more – see elsewhere on this damn list!!)? It’s starting to seem clear to me that I am
stuck in a rut, or is it simply because there’s really nothing new anymore to
begin with? When I first heard Extended Plays by Cheatahs (a
compilation of their two four song EP releases during 2012), I was stunned and
still am how perfect of a melding their sound is of Ride and Swerverdriver.
There’s no way around it. It’s
almost as if Swervedriver stepped in to perform Ride’s Smile compilation (their US debut was similarly a grouping
of their first two EPs). It is that
exacting. They have the big pounding
rawk and blistering feedback of Swervedriver and the more tuneful and melodic
touches of Ride and the abandon of both.
The songs are all generally about escape or desire to escape, sometimes
with a loved one, sometimes without.
So, how do I judge this? Well,
I’m trying to take off my “Oh my God I’m getting old!!” hat and just enjoy it
all for what it is. And damn, I enjoy
this! I have listened to the teeth
rattling riff of “The Swan,” the teetering on the edge of control “Fountain
Park,” the tight and endlessly addictive guitar hook of “Flake,” the two minute
bursting at the seams “Ripper,” and the music collector nerd junkie escape fun
of “Jacobi” (“Do you wanna ride tonight?
Do you wanna go inside? I got
loads of 45s?”) over and over again and it gets my pulse pounding and makes me
bounce my head around and wish I could still grow the mop of hair I used to
have back in the day. When it all comes
down to it, these eight songs are fun to listen to, and isn’t that what it’s
all about?
The double
A-sided single released toward the end of this year features a snapshot of what
we might expect from Cheatahs debut album due out in February. “Cut the Grass” continues their thread of
upbeat buzzing fire, but this time with a kind of spooky keyboard line that
floats around the intro and the conclusion.
This sudden fade out of the song is a bit of a disappointment, but
another great song nonetheless.
Meanwhile, “Kenworth” is a full on blaster of guitars and dreamy vocals
that simultaneously floats and feels unleashed and chaotic. Wow.
Not as immediately catchy as their other material, but maybe more of
this is to come. Looking forward to the
debut, whether or not my mind will ever wrap around the idea of how old this
stuff sometimes makes me feel, despite reigniting my old energy and fire for
this music.
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