I Saw First Light - Anna McClellan

 

Third album from Omaha singer/songwriter via Father/Daughter Records

This new album by the Midwesterner was recorded over two weeks with a multitude of local cohorts in her hometown of Omaha; it is a love letter to collaboration and how you become a sponge through engaging with influences.

Original in its context, unique in its execution this is an album full of perception and piano driven indie pop songs which has led to people compare McClellan to one Fiona Apple.

McClellan reminded this listener of another Anna, that being Anna Burch, another solo star who engages us with tales of relationships and social issues but with a strong individualistic slant to her songwriting.

The rollicking 'Feel You' is a call to arms of wanting someone to hold but remaining a personal identity; these go hand in hand with the ruminations found on tracks ranging from 'Raisin' and 'To Prove'.

These little sub-three minute nuggets also recall a band she toured with in 2016/17, one Frankie Cosmos, not to mention the work of Tony Molina a similar artist who did not waste time with song construction eager to share playful bitesize portions of energy .

There is a real tenderness as well to the album harking back to a bygone era somewhat with stalwarts of country music being channelled such as Lynn and Wynette seeping into this Nebraskan's work such as the beautiful violins on 'Gone'.

This album is about connecting with the outside world; her wistful vocal delivery coupled with the lush instrumentation of the compositions marks McClellan as one to watch.

While this may be her third album you to get the feeling this is merely the tip of the iceberg and there is so much more in terms of potential and ability at her disposal.

I Saw First Light is out from Father/Daughter Records on 20th November.

You can follow Anna McClellan on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Bandcamp.

Galaxians - Chemical Reaction

The second album from Leeds disco funk trio, Galaxians, out via Stargaze, on 26th June.

During the lockdown period and Covid-19 crisis, the music I have reviewed has been mostly works of internal reflection and contemplation, there has not been that music which has been reactionary in a sense of letting your hair down. We forget that the weather has been glorious throughout this period of personal isolation with temperatures soaring to nearly 30 degrees.

This new album release from Leeds' Galaxians is the album this period of prolonged sunshine has been asking for, a burst of potent sunshine that we need for these periods of barbecues and gardening.

Starting off with the title track not merely as a statement of intent, it is a statement of direct persuasiveness, Chemical Reaction is a jolt of five plus minutes of funk that does not give you the vocals of Emma Mason until two plus minutes into the track. The track is a burst of vibrant energy full of retrospective sounds but full of influence and the DIY scene.

Mason along with Matt Woodward (drums) and Jed Skinner (synths) are a band that they themselves refer to as fuelled by 'too much coffee and too many donuts'.  It is this carefree nature that feeds into the tracks ranging from 'Heartbreaker' about female empowerment to 'Not the Money' about working for the pride of working.

This harkens back to old-school summer vibes of Montell Jordan, Coolio yet with the influence of Roisin Murphy in the vocal delivery of Mason; there is the 80s post-disco funk of Evelyn King for example along with boogie, garage and basslines aplenty.

Tracks remind this listener of that other great disco album of the 21st Century, that of the Scissor Sisters debut album which had that infusion of pop and disco cred, this is more akin to that band's apex along with Moloko - a titanic female lead vocalist with cool production chops to match.

Chemical Reaction is out from June 26th and is available here.

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.

Gum Country 'Somewhere'

The debut album from the duo of Courtney Gavin (The Courtneys) and multi-instrumentalist Connor Mayer, is released via Bandcamp on June 19th.

The album is a buzz of fuzz, feedback ricocheting off of walls and eardrums a plenty, Garvin’s open-tuned guitar has a warmness reminiscent of The Breeders and Mayer’s accompaniment is the perfect compliment of piercing percussion with gritty guitars.

There is a richness to the melodies being explored by the group, with a mixture of highs and lows in terms of expressions amidst the mundanity of normal life but touching upon love, loss, tennis and gardening.

All topics though are treated with sincerity and her dry delivery helps touch a nerve with the listener be it an instrumental portion of a song that concludes ‘There’s A Crumb’ or the vibrancy of ‘Talking To My Plants’.

In conclusion, this is an album that is ripe for listening and offers plenty of joys amidst the twelve track album. Gum Country are a band to keep an eye on and leaves you salivating at the thought of what they could become in years to come.

From the ferocity of ‘It Lives It Breeds It Feeds’ to the rightly so pomp and circumstance of ‘The Queen Rules’, this album serves as an entry point for punk and indie rock in this most uncertain of years.

The album is available on the band’s bandcamp page here.

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.

This review first appeared on Backseat Mafia on 18th June 2020.

Katie Malco 'Failures'

The debut album by UK based singer-songwriter Katie Malco.

The much anticipated debut by Katie Malco, is released by 6131 records, and is both a personal soul-bearing record and an album about the power of connecting with relationships; marking this out as a record of this time and by this time.

The ten song album touches on subjects ranging from body image to anxiety to figuring out life, and during the prolonged period of self-isolation due to the ongoing global pandemic, Malco's work is more expressive of the individual in this changing world. For good or better, the world has changed but what about the lonely soul within it.

Take the track 'Fractures' a song where Malco comes to terms with becoming who she is supposed to be, in contrast to the world's expected view of her. She admits that she struggles with how people perceive her and embracing her true self as this introvert but gifted individual.

Starting with the fiery opening track 'Animal' Malco provides a bolt of bracing rock and roll showing her knack for a good riff and winning vocals while telling a story about being looked at and being unnerved.  Malco is writing as much about personal experience as well as universal themes for all women.

This is another remarkable album by a female singer-songwriter following in the footsteps this year of Margaret Glaspy and Jane Herships, seemingly the most appealing works of this year about identity and belonging are coming from women with a guitar. There is a power to this individual standing proud and saying look at me, this is me, take it or leave it.

The next track is the sumptuous 'Brooklyn', a gorgeous track about friendship and this place that will come between people with ambitions and those who are happy to settle where they are. Sometimes people have to spread their wings and leave the bosom of home, for others it is scary to leave that comfort of home.

On her bandcamp page it mentions she has toured with luminaries such as Bob Mould and I was struck at how her playing and sound is reminiscent of Mould in that the songs start of contemplative before becoming this roar of emotion and determination. If you have never heard of Bob Mould, check out his album 'District Line' which is a great forgotten album - raw emotion embues through that record.

One of the more unsung tracks of the album could well be 'September' a song that has a stand alone sound of defiance 'I don't care about you, you sure don't care about me' ringing out as the song reaches the crescendo.

In conclusion, this is an album of great intent, passion and fearlessness by a songwriter willing to bear their soul on a record.

Fractures is out from 6131 records on 5th June.

My thanks to OneBeatPR for the opportunity.

Doomshakalaka

The debut album from former Hot Club De Paris frontman Paul Rafferty via Moshi Moshi records

Rafferty has constructed a collection of ten songs that work as both a great piece of work but also a piece of archive material as he looks back on his life in and around music starting with the album opener 'One Last Saturday Night' a song he originally wrote in 2011 about the feeling of possibility and invincibility that would come with a weekend night out as he refers to.

 

‘James Asleep’ is one of those driving melodies reminiscent of other Liverpudlian bands with a jingle jangle guitar with a bassline to match. The bass may be a bit sombre but the prevailing mood is one of hope and happiness by the end.

Befittingly, the album is of this era, with tracks such as 'This Is War (And I'm So Bored)' about negative thought and having to cope with them in this difficult time for everyone and this is backed up by the final track of the album 'Black Balloons'.

As Rafferty states in an exclusive interview, the process of the album was to describe a tough time, an album that is as much for himself than for others, but the universal appeal of this work speaks large.

All in all this album is one of genuine passion, of recalling past glories not for yearning but for embracing those memories as a moment of expression and how it expresses you.

Doomshakalaka is out from Moshi Moshi Records on 5th June

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.

Spice 'All My Best Shit'

The new single release from Californian band, Spice, this is a rip-roaring piece of grungy, fast adrenaline rock.

This is a song as much about anger and how to express it compared to sitting upon your emotions. In this day and age of mental awareness and being expressive about feelings, this is a guitar-driven indie rock song seeking to be heard amidst this pandemic of epic proportions.

The single 'All My Best Shit' is released ahead of the self-titled album out on July 21st from DAIS records.

The album is a nine track 30-minute cut of sonic infusion sparking discussion about co-existing with spikes of loud and soft, short and long but yet full of sparky punch and authority in this world of unrest.

The group comprise of Ross Farrar (vocals) and Jake Casarotti (drums) from the band Ceremony, along with Cody Sullivan (bass), Ian Simpson (guitar) and Victoria Skudlarek (violin) the band have honed a sound from the Bay Area pedigree full of modernity and anthemic yearning.

Spice is out from DAIS records on July 21st

Melenas - Dias Raros

The long awaited mainstream release by Spanish four-piece Melenas is released by Trouble in Mind on Friday 8th May.

A bracing shot of adrenaline for the senses following a long period of docileness, this is a winning formula for fans of indie rock music.

For the band this is a step in the direction of more mainstream awareness across Europe following a long period of admiration in their native Spain.

From album opener 'Primer Tiempo' the intent is clear and what resonates most for the first time listener is to hear the tightness and unity of the group, the level of musicianship on display is a wonder to behold. 

There is a hum an energy that thrusts through the album from the indie-pop jangle of the album opener to 'Los Alemanes', but there is also opportunity for melody and slower moments on this swelling work.

The waltz of album closer 'Vals' is testament to this as is the gorgeous 'Ciencia Ficcion' that offers a chance for the band to engage with melancholic content with great cascading voices coupling with guitar waves.

This is a punk album for indie fans, and an indie sounding album for the stubborn punk fan.  The band hail from Pamplona, a region of Spain most famous for people being chased by bulls through the streets.  In this case, Melenas take the bull by the horns announcing themselves to the world and created a foundation full of influences both musically and culturally in a space full of promise and bursting verve.

Dias Roras is released by Trouble in Mind records, and the first label outside of Spain to release Melenas to the world.

Jane Herships - The Home Record

New album from artist formerly known as Spider, The Home Record, released Friday 28th February

Jane Herships has shed her alias, and has made a highly personal album entitled The Home Record; away from her alter ego of Spider she has crafted a collection of songs that are both personal yet universal, an artist rebuilding a persona in public by baring her soul to all to hear.

Opening track 'Resembling the Neighbors' sets her stall out with this wistful ballad that is tuneful, soulful and yet full of the undercurrent of more to it than on the surface.

While the songs she would write with Spider and as bassist of Teen would concentrate on the sound, this series of songs are all about falling in and out of love.

Lead single 'Best Friends' something that harkens back to late 1980s feel bad ballads, is about breaking up with someone you considered your best friend, the first person you would tell anything to anyone and in this instance who do you talk to.  This is a notion you are sure songwriters have considered before without as much success as Herships has conveyed.

This is followed up by the gorgeous 'Caroline' a track about a friend who has gone off the radar; this wistfulness of the album as a whole makes this album a great companion piece to Annie Hart's A Softer Offering that was reviewed earlier this year.

Both albums are kindred cousins from the Twin Peaks album, this music is both hypnotic yet enticing to the layman ear, music to share and rejoice in the fact that such good music is being produced.

'Small Town Girls' is one of the more jangly songs but the message is that the more things change, the more they stay the same and you can spread your wings and leave a town but those things you remember will remain.

Best single off the album is final track 'Scott Carpenter' a love letter to the eponymous astronaut whose thirst for knowledge brought him to prominence bringing wonder to the masses, by being inspired by him, Herships hopes to inspire others.  The song also has a whimsical but beautiful video directed by Arielle Sarnoff to boot.

For fans of Joni Mitchell, Iron and Wine and Fleet Foxes, this is an album that will ear worm its way into your consciousness in this most tumultuous of years.

The Home Record is available from Jane Herships' bandcamp website.

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.

The Sprinters 'Struck Gold'

The new album Struck Gold is released by Meritorio Records on 15th November

The second album from the Mancunian four-piece is led by Neil Jarvis who initially conceived the band as a solo project; yet the injection of band mates culminated in the release of the self-titled album on the Icecapades label in 2017.

The follow up Struck Gold released on Meritorio depicts new territory for the band but nevertheless still incorporating Jarvis' love of surf and indie pop.

While the general feel of the album is one of rose-tinted summer feels, there is an underlying air of melancholy in the subject matter; none more so than on single '3's & 4's' a song about in Jarvis' words, 'about accepting an awful situation, though it catches you off guard becaue its pretty upbeat and poppy', this is encapsulated in the lyrics, 'It is what it is. There's no escaping'.




Throughout the album, there is a heart on your sleeve element to the construction of these sumptuous compositions, and Jarvis is not afraid to let the listener know of his influences; this listener was smiling at the borrowed riff of Cornershop's Brimful of Asha to open the album on the title track.

The other day this blog posted a review of the compilation by The Springfields, and that American group were heavily influenced by the Hollies and Byrds with the 60s feel of nostalgia resonating.

This exudes throughout again in this album with a combination of shoegazing internality with sunshine externality - none more so than the one-two punch of tracks 'The Light' and 'Ending' which appear halfway through the album. The richness of the tracks calling back to each other is a wonder and infuses the album with a real sense of belonging in the big time.

It is a shame that this album has been released in November and not the end of March when a summer release would have been better suited to the general feel of sunshine throughout the release, calling back to indie pop stalwarts The Coral and Guillemots; bands who were buoyant yet not afraid to call out their swinging sixties influences.

The ambition is seen most in 'Undone' and the desire to go bolder is heard on 'Scream 2' a song of real bite which is in contrast to the softness of the majority of the album, yet this juxtaposition of tones is not a criticism but more a greater anticipation of what this band will have in store in the future, and this is a band you cannot wait to see live when they do go on tour in the not too distant

However, this is an album of real confidence and tightness, a band in not afraid to show fragility for the cause of melody touched by sunshine and displaying a heartfelt intimacy throughout.

Struck Gold is released by Meritorio Records on 15th November

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.