MELOMANIA with FOUR stellar new releases for your weekend
check the playlist for the remainder of your forecast.
WASHER - Improved Means To Deteriorated Ends [LP/CD](Exploding In Sound/Redeye)
In the six years since the searing "All Aboard," Brooklyn's Washer has been refining its sound. Unlike the Chavez-meets-Guided By Voices sound of their earlier albums, "Improved" is a giant leap toward their own. Mike Quigley's songs have grown closer to Wednesday (that brilliant single "King Insignificant") in their biting humor (the Meat Puppets-esque hop-skip of "Death of An Empire") and Dinosaur Jr in structure ("Coward.") With only Quigley's guitar and the driving drums of Kieran McShane, Washer fill the (necessary) space in every song. The riffiness of "All Aboard" has been replaced with an upside-down Pop structure. The best Washer songs typically twist the verse/chorus/verse around their spartan guitar/drums/vocal format. "Blammo" builds to its peak much more effectively than the barn-burner "Enough Already" that ends "All Aboard." For the first time, Washer has learned to make three minutes feel epic. Quigley and McShane squeeze everything out of the winding riff but do not leave you drained. Washer would be a natural for 80's SST and early 90's Matador. Slinky guitar riffs meet crunchy parts and every squeak is indicative of Quigley taming his guitar enough to communicate both his emotion and frustration. Most "Improved."
BEDROOM - Thread [LP](Danger Collective)
Noah Kittinger's fourth album is an almost ethereal Folk exploration of music as "feeling." Bedroom songs are typically designed around simple lyrics (so Kittinger can languidly sing them and extend them musically into lo-fi Beach House-ish layers like on "Poppies.") However, Kittinger really displays an inventive method for using tape trickery to both renew his songs and create continuity. "Better Friends" is his best example yet. The crying steel, the hint of synth, and the ease of its acoustic riff are largely used to generate that sense of never-ending ennui many of us just endured. Toward the end when Kittinger arrives at his fingerpicking Nick Drake-ish peak, there are several beautiful "washes" of sound that appear quickly and randomly. Later, the lengthy, reverberated end of "Gold!" drifts into the wavy "Can I Just Say?" where Kittinger puts his whole life into this holding pattern of single notes stretched to infinity. At the point where "Thread" begins to resemble clouds effortlessly floating in the sky, Kittinger next brings in a recording of a little girl that ties it all together beautifully. "Thread" proves that Bedroom is really onto something.
TERRY - Call Me Terry [LP/CD](Anti Fade AUS/Upset The Rhythm UK)
Australia's Terry manages to get even more subversive on their latest riddle of an album. "Call Me Terry" is a beehive packed with hooks, melodies, and coded political transmissions. Unlike their last album "I'm Terry" (and even the singles going back to our first writing about them in 2019,) "Call Me Terry" is purposefully aiming for both Pop structure and Outsider Pop sound (Young Marble Giants, The Raincoats, and Beat Happening on the Glam-y "Gronks.") "Centuries" is possibly the best door to open from "I'm Terry" to understanding where these spidery songs are bound. Tracks here are all shimmer and their bright parts leap out at you (a la Stroppies.) However, just like Stroppies, "Call Me Terry" unleashes a real grower. "Gold Duck" and its squirrely synth could have been an MTV hit in 1986, while the Fox smackdown on "Balconies" adds sax and mixes all their harmonies to concoct a sweet treat with a real spiky aftertaste (think of it like Monty Python's legendary "spring surprise" from the Whizzo Chocolate Company.) The naive keyboards, weird beats, and sugary-almost-too-sweet melodies veil real doubt and a loss of faith. Like The Clash's immortal "Lost In The Supermarket," the strings and high harmonies of "Golden Head" smuggle in a story of loss, confusion, and a system that is simply not working for the people. With its weird Fun Boy Three-ish feel, Terry’s sunshine Pop makes a bold statement that is a toe-tapping, hummable statement of protest.
UBOA - The Origin of My Depression [LP/CD](The Flenser)
All things dark and desperate make themselves known in the shadows of this Australian experimental tour de force. Xandra Metcalfe somehow both chronicles her battle with depression (the unsettling peace of the out-of-tune piano closer "Misspent Youth") and captures it (two soul-crushing minutes of "Please Don't Leave Me" that give the voice within you the full Captain Howdy treatment.) However, if you are brave (and we know you are,) Metcalfe's staple music is a bit like Tim Hecker playing in front of a Doom Metal band. "Detransitioning" is a haunting opener that unfolds like the first act of a horror film. The title track is a most uncomfortable descent and perhaps the most disturbing use of bells and/or windchimes ever. However, if you must choose a single track to invest in, let it be the thrilling "An Angel of Terrible and Great Light." Metcalfe has a real gift for building tension slowly and drawing upon her aural resources without sounding like she is merely mixing ideas in and out. "Great Light" takes you over by its grinding halfway mark and refuses to let go. If this was the feeling "Depression" wishes to communicate to those who wander into this abyss - this is painfully accurate.
We sincerely hope that this was time well spent. We thank you for reading, listening, subscribing, and most of all supporting the artists listed here. Thank you.
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