Slipped Discs July 2019
Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd
Generationals play High Noon Sept 18th
Initial Thoughts
Strong wills fill July with obstinate albums. Witness deep-sea spell-caster CARMEN VILLIAN’s instrumental voyages, “Both Lines Will Be Blue,” lush ghosts THE SOFT CALVARY’s narco-romantic anthems, “The Soft Calvary,” and gallant captains JACO’s pop-rock joyrides, “You Know.” Also digging in their heels, incorrigible alt-rock explorer ADA LEA’s panoramic, “What We Say In Private” action-packed love-cats GENERATIONALS’ glossy tumble-pop, “Reader As Detective,” and socio-political live-wires NECKING’s intentional frenzy, “Cut Your Teeth.”
Disc Reviews
Moonsign - Okay You First
Moonsign
Album title: Okay You First
Record Label: Yes Rave
Idiosyncratic dispatches scattered among huggable house, organic shape-shifting refrains and optimistic bridges, Moonsign’s symphonic flocks dot percussive pre-dawn clusters enveloping soft synth-pop centers. Compassionate sci-fi ballads and epic odes to growth hold ecological and interpersonal implications, giving, “First,” a fistful of hopeful musical utopias cradled in faith, lined with calm ethereal choruses while placid interstellar harmonies announce vigilant wind-tossed prophecies.
(869) Page Views
Moonsign online:
• Website • Facebook
Bleached - Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough
Bleached
Album title: Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough
Record Label: Dead Oceans
Defiant irony twisting old-school crate-digging into cheeky wordplay, bratty challenges and revved interrogations, “Enough,” stuffs sleek struts, switchblade raves and California daydreams inside curt verse, short-fuse grooves and shook hooks. Churning out fully formed ear-worms storming beat-seized brains, party-crashing Bleached seeks reckless connections between indie-rock assaults and punk-pop perfection with flirtatious verve and flashy bombast re-mastered into exquisite day-glo retro.
(715) Page Views
Bleached online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
• Purchase Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough on Amazon
• Download Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough
Joanna Sternberg - Then I Try Some More
Joanna Sternberg
Album title: Then I Try Some More
Record Label: Team Love Records
Wonder and innocence surrounds Sternberg’s deceptively simple wisdom. Articulate, level-headed folk holding honest hearts to a pure light, their rare clarity warmly embraces piano-parlor harmonies and front-porch choruses. Minimal instruments bring twinkling whimsy, devotional emotions and authentic tenderness to the precious, “More,” whose unadorned charms feeds sincere needs, encouraging fair human communication and providing fearless focus in a distracting world.
(779) Page Views
Joanna Sternberg online:
• Website • Facebook
• Download Then I Try Some More from Amazon
• Purchase Then I Try Some More on Amazon
Jesca Hoop - Stonechild
Jesca Hoop
Album title: Stonechild
Record Label: Memphis Industires
Traipsing in thorny fields with lantern-lit lyrics peering into family histories, “Stonechild,” rides rustic percussion over choral swarms with dainty language framing prancing enchantments and Arcadian chamber-pop cascades trotting past fascinating pagan parades. Electro-acoustic dreaminess decorates spirited philosophical operas while Hoop swoops in bewitching chills and prog-folk thrills, cross-stitching tranquil fables from mischievous melodies bending sensitive menace around maternal concerns.
(726) Page Views
Jesca Hoop online:
• Download Stonechild from Amazon
• Purchase Stonechild on Amazon
Julio Nickels - Feeling Fickle
Julio Nickels
Album title: Feeling Fickle
Record Label: Like Literally
Deadpan sanity laid over digital glitter, Nickels dips dystopian hopes into eclectic sound events; percolating havens harboring freedom-seeking frequencies alongside disembodied observations. Passive existential happenings suggesting fence-sitting lessons, the slow and steady, “Fickle,” builds post-rock whispers from timid wizardry into royal stories patched with faded twang and masterful crackle, centerless methods yielding tenuous collections infusing genuine tension with abandoned vengeance.
(764) Page Views
Julio Nickels online:
• Website
Imperial Teen - Now We Are Timeless
Imperial Teen
Album title: Now We Are Timeless
Record Label: Merge
Concept-pop fraught in frosted power-chords, cautious providence and brokered commotion, “Timeless,” blinds with radiant New Wave cravings wound around sultry, sugar-coated irony; sinister minor-key majesty painted in aloof brooding and kaleidoscopic bop. Princely resistance weathering post-modern regrets, Imperial Teen’s smug rug-cutters reach near-boils to ratchet passions into seething teases cooled by smooth well-oiled grooves then reheated into steamy paperback dramatics.
(715) Page Views
Imperial Teen online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
• Download Now We Are Timeless from Amazon
• Purchase Now We Are Timeless on Amazon
Final Thoughts
From celestial-rock beacon LISEL’s glistening mid-throb, “Angels on the Slope,” to prog-operator HERON’s glorious four-horsemen scorcher, “Sun Release,” and crafty rascal KYLE CRAFT’s glam-punk razzmatazz, “Showboat Honey,” July albums tell us it’s all good. Whether giving into swanky jive ambassadors DAVINA AND THE VAGABONDS’ blues-bruised finger-popping, “Sugar Drops,” or hanging with lovesick grifters CAAMP’s riverside roots-revival, “By and By,” just let go. Consider joining scuzzy funk-bombardiers MINI MANSION’s whip-smart trip, “A Guy Walks Into A Bar,” or finding your space with sky-soaked trance-folk poet FLORIST’s acoustic guitar-fed meditations, “Emily Alone.”