The first in a series of EP releases, Pro*Whoa! finds Nikka Costa cooing and screeching over six freaky funk tracks reminiscent of Prince and Stevie Wonder.
Sondre Lerche’s latest new self-titled release is a musical kaleidoscope filled with a plethora of stops, starts, and turns. Filtered through his trademark classical pop sensibilities, Lerche’s album will ring a few bells of familiarity to listeners. He pays homage to McCartney-esque Beatles: the dreamy “Coliseum Town”, Belle and Sebastian theatrical leanings: the lead single, “Private Caller”, and even hits a Chris Martin type falsetto on “Domino” before borrowing Wilco’s searing guitar squeal for the song’s ending.
Throughout the entirety of Ben Sollee’s second solo album, Inclusions, there’s a struggle waged between genre, between metaphor and the literal, between engaging and utterly distancing. Over the course of the album’s eleven tracks, Sollee presents music that jumps between traditional pop/folk and atonal structures with the ease and whimsy of a single chord, revealing Inclusions’ central investigation of aesthetic pollination. If anything, it appears that Sollee desires to question the experience of listening to and identifying with music.
A collection of old rhythm & blues and rockabilly tunes lovingly re-made by the likes of Wyman, Charlie Watts, Andy Fairweather-Low, Kenney Jones, Jimmy Page, Paul Rodgers and others, it was warmly received at the time of its release and holds up surprisingly well to this day.
The Sin City Sinners are a bunch of fun misfit rockers from all over the continent: Todd Kerns, who is currently Slash’s bass player of choice, hails from Canada, drummer Rob “Boom Boom” Cournoyer was born and bred in Louisiana, bad ass bass player Doc Ellis is from Southern California, as is former Faster Pussycat guitarist Brent Muscat. Put them together and you’ve got a band that drips rock & roll.
News of their split took many by surprise, but like a number of talented and introspective songwriters that have come before them, Ivan and Kelly have taken their unfortunate circumstances and turned them into a work of great art, emotion, and perhaps even catharsis. The result is Loud Planes Fly Low, ten bouncy, yet emotionally stark tracks that acknowledge, critique, and examine the delicately affecting emotions that result from a relationship in crisis.
Poor Rich Folk lead singer/songwriter, Luke Brawner worked for over a year researching and writing his debut solo album, Flannelgraph Sessions LP. The end result is a concept album that involved Brawner researching and visiting locations, stories, and characters of the Bible in an attempt to write songs from those perspectives and offer a fresh take on the Old Testament stories and people.
The Brooklyn three piece Grooms sophomore release, Prom, is an entanglement of twists, off kilter timings and hot pop injections.
In 2008 Ernest Green’s moniker, Washed Out, became a touchstone for the influential “chillwave” micro-genre, known for its tendency to morph lush and hazy atmospherics with 80’s synth pads, mournful vocals, and a hearty dose of modern R&B bump. With his new offering, Within and Without, Green proves himself capable of moving forward while the expected hype surrounds the release.
Those who listen carefully and instinctively know when the soul of music has revealed itself. It’s an honest fabric that can be sewn from a live performance or a single recording and can be sought out behind diverse layers in many different sound forms. This summer, New York-based trio The London Souls, add to that vibration with the release of their debut self-titled record, produced by Ethan Johns at Abbey Road Studios in London.
