Slipped Discs

John Hiatt - Terms of My Surrender

Not going down without a fight, “Surrender,” delivers swinging pulp-fiction prescriptions inside stinging country-blues and Cajun-flavored folk blending broken souls howling in backwater train-yards with scrappy jackals laughing at obsessive confessors. The tender-hearted Haitt assisted by his savvy touring band, slow-cooks his character-driven narratives in vinegar and molasses; each tune brimming with simmering wisdom and affectionate connections to foolish pursuits.

The History of Apple Pie - Feel Something

Raucous frosted Britpop anarchy glazed in porcelain voices, buzz-saw guitars and rampaging bass, bull-riding china-dolls THOAP grind through divine side-show glamour with fuzzed-out jousts around wiry New Wave may-poles. Capturing frazzled carousels spinning in paisley mayhem, “Feel,” reels in snap, crackle and pop, unfastening gung-ho poses around reckless psychedelics; coy, turbo-charged laments played cool, laid low and catchy as hell.

Alexis Hightower - Girl Next Door

Jump-rope jive, smoldering ballads, relevant reflections and soothing Afro-Cuban moves lift feet, seduce ears and raise spirits while, “Girl,” gurgles and surges in languid refrains, painting satin captions beneath fiery desires and unnamed pains. A strong, luxurious voice supported by smart solos and solid playing, Hightower soars in classy soul-sister poses, sultry, poised and ripe in casually fashionable emotional fortitude.

Jenny Hval - Apocalypse, girl

Beached speech from holy oceans pitch articulate wit enunciating eerie lists inside art-rock lyrics; Hval’s celestial rhetoric voice secular specters planted in arctic marvels, angelic swells and cyber-spanning panoramas submerging swirling performances in frosted positivity. Aloof truths fan fancy tangents inside incandescent stanzas impaling flailing white-whale fairy-tales rendered in contemporary serenity as, “Apocalypse,” sips nuclear-winter symphonies from willful children’s imaginations.

The High Llamas - Here Come The Rattling Trees

Sleepy bossa nova teases tweaked in breezy rose-colored twee, “Trees,” plants lounge-bound jazz under intimate fictions harvesting fizzy individual vignettes afloat in arpeggiated patience from mellow bedfellows. Caressed in pleasant sentiments washed in soft somnambulist magnificence, pedigreed harmonies squeeze quaint counterpoint into subtle unhurried melodies as THL’s sedate landscapes welcome warm organs, sunny marimbas, titillating harpsichord and shy nylon-string guitar.

Holy Esque - At Hope’s Ravine

Seething in bittersweet seizures, Scotland’s Holy Esque harbors karmic carnage beneath emotional oceans, dredging ominous concoctions from feverish allegiance and schizophrenic penance. Ravaged embattled cadavers roaring in glorious indie-rock flourishes, “Ravine,” careens around lean fiends screeching disturbing reverberations, shuddering and sputtering while tortured six-string scorchers parlay embryonic sonics lit in brazen flames into staunch conquering monarchs fueled by turbulent urgency.

Heliotropes - Over There That Way

Girl-group gloom meets indie-rock pillow-talk via collegiate beach-party harlots sparking surf-twang bangers for disconnected intellects; Heliotropes’ co-ed dread spreads weighty vagueness over bittersweet ennui as suspicious kisses swollen in swan-song bygones swallow existential squalor. Born from cross-hair glares floundering in pale beauty, “Over,” smolders with melancholy melodies wrung from deep, dark jangle then dipped in misfit grit and romantic pandering.

Hand Habits - Wildly Idle (Humble Before the Void)

Nodding cosmic odysseys bottling wide-eyed sighs, gently picked riffs and cyber-guided lullabies, “Idle,” drives prime prairie-land fantasies adrift in intoxicating promises spritzed with feathery innocence and foggy prophecy from banshee-teased feedback. Delicate chamber-rock shredder and pliable dream-pop diver Meg Duffy leads Hand Habits down cozy, fur-lined rabbit-holes, roping glowing psych-folk with heavenly six-string lassos, wrangling persuasive angels in alluring reverberations.

Hollow Everdaze - Cartoons

Rockin’ cosmopolitans, over-the-moon psyche-pop crooners and fab gentlemen tripsters, Australia’s Hollow Everdaze indulges in nostalgic pageants soaked in Sixties mystery, injecting hallucinogenic benders sprinkled in continental splendor and cat-burglar nerve. Touched in lush xylophone and champagne strings, “Cartoons,” draws curious augmented chords while artful guitars melt melancholy melodies into fuzz-pedal buzz and furious indie-rock exhaustion plunges into chronic symphonic sonnets. 

Marika Hackman - I’m Not Your Man

Wary, unsparing post-modern fairy-tales gilded in silky will and sugar-coated thrills, “Man,” fans cozy smoldering love-potions into rampant vampire fires; sensuous gender-politics slipped into breezy indie-pop hospitality explores coy detours enticing ulterior queries from brazen phrases. A fertile mind bursting with intrepid methods, Hackman tactfully reels from servant to serpent, engaging both sides to pit and outwit her divided desires.

Emily Haines - Choir of the Mind

Poignant disappointments holding idle recitals splendidly blend feisty crises cushioned in lush chamber-rock options and unblinking piano-driven minuets; speckled in stirring worries and ecclesiastical harmonies, Haines’  languid refrains spotlight timely reminders, reexamined regrets and metaphysical riddles. Open to mystery, the slyly blithe, “Choir,” fires vexing questions into races already run, excavating past masks to uncover memory gems inside unexplored stories.

The Huntress and the Holder of Hands - Avalon

Willful pilgrims slashing past locomotive basses, stalking cellos and soaring violas, goth-folk Huntress kindles simmering myths with tarot-card charges. The solemn, promising, “Avalon,” snakes damning incantations over thundering tundra draped in phoenix-fired wakes, spinning earthy dirges into palpitating dares while lusty percussion dance beside nimble strings swimming in savage passion and warrior beats.  THATHOH play Milwaukee’s Shank Hall September 27th.

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