Category: reviews

Sharon Van Etten: From Bedroom Balladeer To Fearless Frontwoman On ‘Are We There’

Sharon Van Etten's new album, Are We There, is out now. (Dusdin Condren/Courtesy of the artist)
Sharon Van Etten’s new album, Are We There, is out now. (Dusdin Condren/Courtesy of the artist)

The transformation of Sharon Van Etten has been a joyful thing to witness. When the singer-songwriter first surfaced with her 2009 album, Because I Was In Love, her spare, sorrowful songs exposed a desire to escape from a confining relationship and her own deep-seated vulnerabilities and insecurities. With each record since, Van Etten has built herself up, one harmony, one guitar melody, one gut-wrenching line at a time.

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Jessica Lea Mayfield: Unleashing Gnarled Distortion And Visceral Fury

Jessica Lea Mayfield's album, Make My Head Sing..., is out now. (LeAnn Mueller/Courtesy of the artist)
Jessica Lea Mayfield’s album, Make My Head Sing…, is out now. (LeAnn Mueller/Courtesy of the artist)

Push play on the smoldering opening track “Oblivious,” and that very first gnarled squelch of feedback says it all: this is not the same Jessica Lea Mayfield. For years, the Ohio singer-songwriter trucked in the alt-country circles, crafting intriguing and melancholy songs about complex (i.e. bad) relationships and heartsick regret with an unadorned beauty. Now, Mayfield is still singing about love, restless yearning and jealousy on her latest album, Make My Head Sing…, but with a little less twang and a newfound visceral, blood on the lips fury.

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Conor Oberst, ‘Upside Down Mountain’

It’s wild to think that Bright Eyes’ last, and eighth album, 2011’s masterful The People’s Key, was released when frontman Conor Oberst was then just 31. While still considerably younger than many of his peers that blossomed at the same time in the mid-2000s, the prodigiously talented songwriter has been cranking out confessional songs riddled with internal angst and self-doubt since his teens. But with The People’s Key, Oberst finally embraced an extroverted rockstar persona (well, for him, anyway), and an outward-looking viewpoint, pondering big metaphysical ideas about compassion in a complicated world, and humanity’s place in the wider universe. A sonically captivating, emotionally moving record, it felt like a culmination, and honestly, a celebratory farewell.

Luckily it was not a true goodbye: Here we are, three years later, and Conor Oberst is back, albeit sans the Bright Eyes moniker, with his latest, Upside Down Mountain.

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Gabriel Kahane: A Timeless Vision Of Los Angeles

Gabriel Kahane's album, The Ambassador, is out now.
Gabriel Kahane’s album, The Ambassador, is out now.

Countless musicians have concocted concept albums built around all sorts of subjects, places and artistic influences. But far fewer concept albums can double as tour guide. Enter Gabriel Kahane, the prolific songwriter and composer whose latest work, The Ambassador, draws inspiration from the architecture and culture of Los Angeles. While Kahane was raised on the East Coast and in Northern California, he was born in L.A., and as such, delivers a detailed sense of place in ten songs — each one representing a different location in the city.

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Sylvan Esso: A Fruitful And Shimmering Collaboration

Sylvan Essos debut self-titled album is out now.
Sylvan Esso's debut self-titled album is out now.

The best collaborations bring a push and pull that forces each member out of their comfort zones, and charts new territory they may not have ventured by themselves. Case in point: Sylvan Esso, the new project from singer Amelia Meath, of the mostly a cappella Vermont folk trio Mountain Man, and Nick Sanborn, of the North Carolina rock band Megafaun. Unlike those more guitar-based, acoustic-leaning groups, Sylvan Esso takes a stylistic leap, veering a hard left toward minimal electronic music and taut synth pop. And with their superb self-titled record, Meath and Sanborn perfectly encapsulate that creative spirit of collaboration, equally showcasing their individual talents, and creating a synthesis of their group’s respective sounds in a new way.

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Wye Oak, ‘Shriek’: A Bold Reinvention, Sans Guitar

Wye Oak's new album, 'Shriek,' is out on Merge. (Shervin Lainez/Courtesy of the artist)
Wye Oak’s new album, ‘Shriek,’ is out on Merge. (Shervin Lainez/Courtesy of the artist)

Let’s get this out of the way: There’s no guitar on this album. When Wye Oak revealed this tidbit last fall, many of us surely wondered what the Baltimore duo might even sound like without one of its most important elements. After all, the delight in Wye Oak’s music has always come from the interplay between Jenn Wasner’s blustery voice, her glorious cyclone of guitar riffs and screaming feedback, and skillful multi-tasker Andy Stack, who plays drums and keyboards — and on stage, simultaneously. But after the success of 2011’s Civilian, and countless tours performing within that “indie rock” format, it’s understandable that they’d feel restless and creatively blocked, and need to blow it up to start anew.

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Timber Timbre And Fiver: Two Takes On An Unsettling And Alluring Tale

Timber Timbre's latest album, 'Hot Dreams,' is out now. (Jeff Bierk/Courtesy of the artist)
Timber Timbre’s latest album, ‘Hot Dreams,’ is out now. (Jeff Bierk/Courtesy of the artist)

In my head I have this movie that blends spaghetti Western with noir horror and gritty urban antiheroes — full of stark widescreen landscapes, neon-lit clubs, and unseen creepies lurking in the shadows. That film would be set to the languid cinematic songs of Timber Timbre — a band that embodies both the unsettling and the alluring on its third album, Hot Dreams.

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Eternal Summers’ Swooning And Distorted Record Store Day Track

Eternal Summers are one of many artists appearing on Kanine Records' official Record Store Day compilation, 'Non-Violent Femmes.'
Eternal Summers are one of many artists appearing on Kanine Records’ official Record Store Day compilation, ‘Non-Violent Femmes.’

Well, Record Store Day is almost here again, and if you’re someone — maybe like me — prone to posting up in line obscenely early to get first crack at the goodies on your shopping list, there’s plenty of special releases to be found this Saturday.

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Dum Dum Girls: A ‘Vivid’ And Sparkling Sound

Dum Dum Girls' Too True is out now.
Dum Dum Girls’ Too True is out now.

Dum Dum Girls burst onto the scene in 2008 on the strength of visceral, yet messy songs and the charisma of vocalist Dee Dee Penny. But as the one-woman project morphed into a full-fledged band, that primitive grit has been incrementally sanded down, revealing a new polished side to Penny’s aesthetic.

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Shearwater: Grandiose Cover Songs

Shearwater's album, Fellow Travelers, is out now.
Shearwater’s album, Fellow Travelers, is out now.

Shearwater is no stranger to high concept rock music. Through its first three albums, frontman Jonathan Meiburg built an ambitious trilogy around his interests in nature and science, and ornithology, masterfully marrying indie rock with prog rock grandiosity. Then, with 2012’s Animal Joy, the band totally shifted, downsizing in scope, yet crafting lean and distorted rockers.

So it’s not all that surprising that Meiburg’s next move was another conceptual album: On each of Fellow Travelers‘ ten songs, Meiburg and company pays tribute to an artist with whom the band has toured.

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