Tag: Indie

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New Music

BROCKHAMPTON – Ginger

The internet’s favorite boyband is back with the release of their highly anticipated fifth album, GINGER. The rap collective returns to the spotlight after a year-long hiatus, an unusual gap for the notoriously productive group, that was used to recover from the various pitfalls that came along with their rapid rise to fame. The recent struggles endured by Brockhampton’s members are openly expressed throughout the project, with Joba summing up the artists’ mutual feelings best on NO HALO with the lines, “been goin’ through it again…lost a part of me, but I’m still here”. Fittingly, the album has a gloomy, dejected feel, and much of the track-list seems to have a dark cloud hanging over it. Songs like DEARLY DEPARTED and LOVE ME FOR LIFE clearly establish overarching themes of depression, nihilistic self-reflection, and abandonment, among others. Despite their inherently disheartening subject matter, certain tracks like BOY BYE  and IF YOU PRAY RIGHT retain some of the group’s signature style and energy, featuring the catchy choruses and bouncy instrumentals they’re known for. All things considered, this record is by no means Brockhampton’s best, but it fits their current situation, and for that reason I respect it for what it is.

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New Music

Bad Child – Sign Up

Preceding his forthcoming debut album, Canadian singer-songwriter BAD CHILD has released a nine track EP titled Sign Up. Meant to be a pseudo-instructional guide for love in the digital age, the album features  “instructions” that attempt to help the listener navigate the complicated world of online dating that has defined courtship in this generation. This digital theme carries over to the music, with a tracklist full of electro-pop bangers that help establish this rising artists’ sound. Tracks like Pretty Girls and Desert Island Lover are reminiscent of bands like Glass Animals, with eclectic, experimental instrumentation and vocals stylistically similar to Dave Bayley’s. At the same time, other vocal performances, like those on Bad Child and Payback, get intensely gritty and emotional, illustrating how deeply personal and heartfelt these songs are to their creator. He aimed to create tracks “true to his soul” and I believe that shines through. Underneath the passionate vocal delivery, the production throughout the project is full of arpeggiated synths, and simple, yet effective drum beats, with the occasional acoustic guitar loop, like on Picking Cherries. All things considered, every aspect comes together to form a piece of work that is contemporary in all the right ways.

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New Music

Bon Iver – i,i

Justin Vernon’s latest record, i,i is alternative folk at its finest. With three albums under his belt, the Wisconsin native still manages to expertly navigate new worlds of sound, mixing old styles with new to create unique compositions full of texture and vibrancy. Acoustic instrumentation meshes well with intermittent synthesized sounds that come together in a way that only Vernon could have orchestrated. Tracks like Jelmore have elements reminiscent of electronic artists like Flume and What So Not, with glitchy, jittery production and ambient vocals, while others stay true to Bon Iver’s folk roots. The production remains simpler on tracks like Hey Ma, where a spacey background vocal performance floats around during an emotional track that makes for one of the best songs on the album. The vocal layering on this project stands out more than anything else, in my opinion. On tracks like iMi, U (Man Like), Naeem and many others, angelic choirs, guest features, and, more often than not, multiple layers of Vernon’s own voice form rich, full vocal soundscapes that add to the albums dynamic musical repertoire. After over a decade of recording and releasing music, Bon Iver continues to redefine genres and create truly refreshing music.

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New Music

Clairo – Immunity

Almost exactly two years after posting the video for Pretty Girl that brought her from Syracuse house shows to headlining festivals, bedroom pop pioneer Claire Cottrill (a.ka. Clairo) has released her debut album, Immunity. After a meteoric rise to fame, the 20-year old musician has accomplished an incredible amount in a surprisingly short period of time. Some critics dismissed her as a fleeting sensation, but this project proves them wrong. These 11 tracks are full of emotional storytelling, relatable angst, and the proof of Clairo’s songwriting chops and stylistic range that her breakthrough hits couldn’t showcase. At times, the album’s production breaks away from her signature “bedroom pop” sound and explores a cleaner, more polished sonic palette, likely due in part to Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij having a hand in its creation. Songs like Closer to You show Clairo in a completely new light, with a dreamy trap beat full of ominous synths and ticking hi-hats accompanying a tastefully auto-tuned vocal performance. Other tracks, like Softly and Sinking, stick closer to Cottrill’s roots, with simple instrumentation and a nostalgic, lo-fi sound. Overall, Clairo has truly proven herself with this album, and I’m excited to see where she goes from here.

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New Music

Ada Lea – what we say in private

A culmination of 180 days of journaling after a break-up, Ada Lea’s debut album, what we say in private, is an exercise in self-discovery and self-reflection. This appropriately titled, incredibly personal project brings the listener into the mind and emotions of its creator in a time of turmoil. Over 10 tracks, Lea recounts her experiences with her significant other, reflects on their flaws, her flaws, and the inherent imbalance of affection in the relationship that ultimately contributed to its failure. The instrumentation on this record is refreshingly simple. Songs like just one, please consist of little more than a guitar and Lea’s voice, but still manage to convey so much passion and feeling, making it easy to relate to and empathize with the story being told. Certain tracks, like for real now (not pretend) and what makes me sad, get unexpectedly turbulent and chaotic at certain points, capturing the ever-changing cycle of emotions experienced by Lea in the period of time that the album was written. This turbulence applies to her lyrics as much as it does her musical arrangement, making what we say in private a rollercoaster of emotion, and a strong debut for the Montreal songwriter.














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New Music

DOPE LEMON – Smooth Big Cat

Angus Stone’s second solo album, Smooth Big Cat, released under his DOPE LEMON alias, is a psychedelic journey through a hazy, Wild Western fever dream. This record will keep you swaying to the music with its mid-tempo grooves full of reverb-soaked guitars and an ever-present twangy synth that always seems to come back. Stone’s cool, calm, and at times lazy, delivery flows like molasses over Santana-esque guitar riffs, bongo-backed beats, and everything in between. The album’s sound remains consistent throughout its 46-minute run-time, adopting a style of music that would appeal to John Wayne as much as it would Cheech and Chong. Each track tells a story, with Lonely Boys Paradise detailing an island you can never leave, and Smooth Big Cat chronicling the adventures of the album’s aptly named mascot. This is clearly Stone’s most personal project to date, seeing as he wrote, recorded, and arranged the entire thing himself.  This is evidenced in the music as well, as he professes his relationship troubles on Hey Little Baby, and even includes recordings of his girlfriend in the heartfelt outro, Hey, Man Don’t Look at Me Like That, adding intimacy and vulnerability to the fitting end of this musical journey. 
















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New Music

Benee – Fire On Marzz

On her new album, Fire On Marzz, New Zealand singer/songwriter Benee joins the ranks of artists like Clairo, Mallrat, and others in proving once again that new-age, “bedroom pop” is helping mainstream music move in the right direction. The Auckland-born songstress flows smoothly over up-tempo drumbeats and groovy basslines on tracks like Soaked and Evil Spider, with other songs taking a more relaxed and smooth R&B tone, as shown by Wishful Thinking and Want Me Back slowing things down and taking it easy. At only 19, Benee creates a seemingly vulnerable and reflective project full of emotion, while still maintaining the radio-friendly style and sound that got her close to the top of the New Zealand Hot 40. While it’s not an artistic masterpiece by any means, this album has undeniable mass appeal, which is partially what makes it so great. It is a glimpse into the future of the radio, if there is one, and one of those albums that you could turn on at a kickback and nobody would complain. Benee is an exciting new face in the industry, and she’s clearly just getting started.








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New Music

Sure Sure – What’s It Like

L.A. based band, Sure Sure, have released their new album, What’s It Like? The self-described “experimental pop” group is exactly that, bridging the ever-growing gap between classic and modern popular music. Incorporating the most enjoyable aspects of today’s indie music with a crooning, sometimes-psychedelic sound, the band creates a timeless feel-good record that spans generations of sound. Layered vocals, Moog-style synths, and catchy guitar riffs blend together to form a soundscape that would be fit seamlessly into the repertoire of countless decades. Certain tracks, most notably Good Thing, are incredibly reminiscent of pop music’s golden age, inducing memories of Elton John, while others, like Might Might Not, sound more similar to new-age bands like Parcels. The album boasts enough of a gritty tone at times to consider it rock, with fuzzy guitars chords filling songs like Warm Animal and What’s It Like. My favorite piece of this project came early, with the guitar solo in Good Thing blowing me away and instantly becoming one of my favorite riffs in recent memory. This album is the soundtrack to a non-existent summer, with warm tones and bright sounds making it perfect to listen to on that weekend drive to the beach. 






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New Music

Chinatown Slalom – Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Liverpool’s own, Chinatown Slalom, have released their incredibly diverse and eclectic debut album, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? To say the least, it is next to impossible to nail down this band’s “genre”. The project features sample-heavy boom bap beats on songs like Where U At? and Dr Marvelo & His Best Friend Corkie, while also including crooning, guitar-laden ballads like Just Love, and more synthesizer-driven electronic tracks like Ricky’s Song. Vocally, the band adopts an incredibly unique style, alternating between heavily filtered and processed verses, layered vocals, and certain tracks, most significantly 8:30 and Dreams, that sound more like Paul McCartney and Jai Paul took hallucinogens together and recorded an entire album in the desert (but in the best way, of course). If there could be one track to sum up their sound, it would be one that bears this project’s title, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. It incorporates all of these distinctive aspects of their music in a way that comes together to form one of the most refreshing and progressive pieces of music in recent years. All things considered, more people need to be listening to Chinatown Slalom.


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New Music

Jai Paul – Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones)

Elusive and influential producer Jai Paul has returned following a lengthy absence from the spotlight. His hiatus came after the 2013 leaking of his debut album that was to follow his breakout demos titled BTSTU and Jasmine, which received widespread acclaim and praise. On this formerly leaked, newly released album, Paul gives listeners a glimpse into the bright future of “pop” music. Combining elements of numerous genres into his production, including electronic, R&B, hip-hop, jazz, and funk, Paul weaves unique webs of sound unlike anything in existence. He is a sidechain aficionado with a powerful kick cutting through most layers of each track and driving the beat and rhythm of each song. Synth breakdowns, stuttering plucks, and harmonious layered vocals like those included in 100,000, Baby Beat, Desert River, BTSTU, and others define the sound of the album and are likely to shape a generation of pop music that follows. The fact that a majority of the tracks on this project are considered “Unfinished” or a “Demo” in the eyes of Paul speaks to his raw talent and songwriting/producing ability. Jai Paul is absolutely a force to be reckoned with and I, for one, am ecstatic he’s back.