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We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time.
AV
This is an updated Tier List—find the previous version here.
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We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.
AV
2,597 days. That’s how much time will have passed since the release of Taking Back Sunday‘s last album Tidal Wave in 2016 by the time their eight studio project 152 comes out on 27th October. Announced yesterday in conjunction with their defiant and rabid second lead single “S’old“, the LP is slated to feature a scant ten songs, clocking in at just about half an hour and change of new music—officially making this their shortest album to date (for comparison, their seminal and raw emo-punk 10-track 2002 debut Tell All Your Friends is a whole two minutes longer). That is like around four minutes of new music on average for every year that has passed since Tidal Wave. Not exactly freehanded, but we’ll take it.
Riding on the fresh and reinvigorated coattails of the soaring and anthemic comeback single “The One” from a few months ago, the full length reveal broke the ice by way of injecting more speed and grittiness in earnest into the Long Islanders’ projected sound to come. Once again produced by radio-pop mainstay Tushar Apte (a connection via last year’s co-sign Steve Aoki, as it recently transpired) and mixed by Neal Avron, new cut “S’old” increases both pace and aggression compared to its softer and perhaps more agreeable predecessor, all the while relishing in a degree of carelessness rarely seen displayed by lead singer Adam Lazzara before: “You’re going to get s’old / You’re going to get so old / You’re gonna get so old either way“.
Undoubtedly, this second teaser packs a tighter and more nostalgic punch than “The One”, yet succeeds in couching enough of a lyrical arc into itself that ends up becoming even more gratifying, in spite of its shorter runtime—this both cathartically and lyrically: “Science never lies it only learns / I could use a bit of both / A little less your high hopes / A little more your love“. Standing as a spiritual love child between something off the edgiest moments on Happiness Is and Tidal Wave‘s “Death Wolf“, the exploit’s fierce delivery does not come at the expense of melody or replay value. Judging from these first two previews, on account of the somewhat unprecedented range displayed on them, most bets are off as to how the rest of the material on 152 is going to sound like.
That is, aside from the more surface-level remark about seven years having gone by since Tidal Wave (making this the largest gap between any two Taking Back Sunday releases to dare), a whole lot of life has happened for the band and its members in-between. For starters, there was Twenty in 2019, their career retrospective compilation celebrating twenty years as a band while keeping in touch with two previously unheard bonus tracks. Then there was the experimental, off-the-beaten path, vocal-only, lockdown-imposed side project Fuckin Whatever—we’re still owed some more explanation that can’t be chalked up to the pandemic cabin fever. Most importantly for the band, there was the departure of storied founding member and longtime rhythm guitarist Eddie Reyes in 2018. The umpteenth line-up change impacting the alt rock outfit, now officially a quartet (Adam Lazzara, John Nolan, Shaun Cooper, and Mark O’Connell).
In an attempt to make some sense of it all, their new US West Coast imprint Fantasy Record summarizes said ebbs and flows permeating the last seven years as catalysts for an album “[i]nspired by the long layoff and the cloud of uncertainty that blanketed the world (and music industry) these past few years”. Continuing by stating how “152 stands among the most genuinely reflective and emotionally pure efforts of Taking Back Sunday’s illustrious career“. Self-indulgent record industry jargon notwithstanding, a similar earnest sentiment seems to come straight from the horses’ mouth:
152 offers a lot more hope and light than we first realized when we were in the thick of it, putting it all together. We’ve been fortunate enough, through our music, to grow up with a lot of people going through the same things at the same time, and probably feeling the same way. Our hope is that you’re able to find a little bit of yourself in this new collection of songs, because you’re not alone, and neither are we.
You would think after 20 years, we knew what each other is going to do. But there were so many times making this record where I heard the initial idea and thought I knew where it would go, but then I was super surprised. It’s those kinds of surprises that make it so exciting. That’s why we all still want it so badly.
When we’re writing songs, the one thing we ask ourselves, ‘Is it capable of making people feel something?’ You try to make people feel emotion. That’s the one goal we went in with, and we think we did it.
In short: this thing is riddles with incognitos. Fantasy is a brand new label for the band (their fourth), putting out, amongst others, Americana, jazz, and R&B. Australia’s very own Tushar Apte is an unchartered and frankly unlikely choice to executively produce what’s arguably the most highly anticipated project of their career. For context, his production pedigree hitherto includes Chris Brown, Demi Lovato, and Nicki Minaj—not exactly scene pals to the emo rockers. And yet, there’s the 152. Even the occasional Taking Back Sunday fan knows about its symbolism and semantic, and in all likelihood has sculpted their own version of what it truly means. For what it’s worth, Fantasy saw fit to set the record straight by providing a somewhat diplomatic and collectively agreed upon answer, explaining how Exit 152 is “the section of road in North Carolina between Highpoint, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh where the band and their friends would meet up as teenagers“.
Regardless of what version one runs with, the lore surrounding 152 almost seems like the only familiar through line die hard fans can still cling on to, for now. Amidst so much wind of change for the New York group, another two months of patient wait before getting the full body of work looms as an agonizing gust at best. Here’s to hoping another teaser will see the light of day between now and late October. The boys seem very excited about the new record: they’ve been testing as many as the aforementioned two cuts off it live during their recent US headlining run at Sad Summer Fest—something almost unheard of for the band. What’s for sure is that, by and large, Taking Back Sunday has grown up. And that can’t but be a comforting beacon to rely on, still after so long.
We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time.
AV
Metro Boomin might just have churned out the best long-form hip-hop listening experience of 2023. No hyperbole. Thirteen individual cuts, spread across 47 minutes of impactful, unbridled, and envelope-pushing music—all without hinging on tired or predictable recruits such as Drake, The Kid LAROY, or Post Malone. Now a little over two months old, his Across the Spider-Verse (Soundtrack from and Inspired by the Motion Picture) radiates as such a convincing body of work that no other major drop has seemingly been able to top it hitherto (even though Travis Scott’s UTOPIA, albeit irreconcilably different, gets scarily close). Dare we say it, with this compilation, the American record producer, executive, and DJ has sequenced the most accomplished popular soundtrack since arguably Black Panther (2018). But then, he’s so plugged into the cultural zeitgeist that one would be hard-pressed to think of someone better suited to score the marvelous adventures of Miles Morales, constituent of all the righteous values and virtues they emanate.
Sonically, the tight collection of tracks offers both an aptly gelled and unified listening experience, as well as radio-friendly heavy rotation potential from nearly all numbers tracklisted. Believe it or not, this thing weaves one sticky, swaggerish, and memorable exploit after another; all without sacrificing artistic bravery and stylistic exploration (one shouldn’t forget this thing is supposed to be attached to a ginormous Hollywood blockbuster). Modern trap, conscious hip-hop, alt-R&B, neo-soul, and flat out bubblegum pop; they are all welcome and at home here. Even when at times the score dances with devilish accusations of getting phoned in formulaic and a tad one-dimensional—such as on “Danger” or “Silk and Cologne“—enough perspective and a particular appreciation for the motion picture are quick to dissipate such affronts. That is, for instance those two songs might work less efficiently as standalone singles, yet in the context of the whole album they sound just as indispensable and necessary as the other eleven.
Not to mention the deeper cuts on here. Through his flavorsome and balanced taste making on moments such as the exquisite slice of high brow alt pop on the James Blake-assisted “Hummingbird“, the forlorn standout “Calling“, or even the tenderly sweet Coi Leray vocal flex “Self Love“, the 29-year old Missourian sculpted an acoustic stream of consciousness more akin to, say, Frank Ocean‘s Blonde, than the first Various Artists-downgraded Into the Spider-Verse OST. And to think that for reasons allegedly unknown (yet just as easily guessed), the Boominati Worldwide founder had to do without the inclusion of poppy wind in sail of Dominic Fike‘s “Mona Lisa“—released this past 2nd June as lead single for the whole multimedia Across the Spider-Verse venture. Granted, the track was reportedly always set to only be thrown onto the compilation’s deluxe edition. Yet with the benefit of twenty-twenty hindsight, Metro’s herculean creative effort transpired as more focused and zero’ed in without it.
Speaking of deluxe editions, the record’s Disc 2 counts five additional tracks. They are all well and fun, but frankly, do nothing but further prove and solidify Young Metro’s editing capaciousness as an on-demand executive producer. Mind you, none of the bonus joints are bad in and of themselves—they’re all perfectly decent and enjoyable while they’re on. However, the thirteen minutes of extra material are of a cutting room floor affectation for a reason, and did not make the main tracklist’s cut for evident causes. That is not to say that they don’t possess virtues: “Ansiedades” beautifully elevates the dreamy pipes of Puerto Rican singer Mora, potentially introducing him to a limitless audience. With that being said, aside from showcasing the St Louis native’s knack for musical experimentation, the bottom line is that their clubby, vibe-based, electronic prevalence would’ve caused them to stick out like sore thumbs—cases in point, “Take It To The Top” and “Infamous“. That’s a shame and pity a savvy and tasteful curator such as Metro could not have allowed.
Lest we all forget, the Republic Records-earmarked Across the Spider-Verse (Soundtrack from and Inspired by the Motion Picture) stands as mainstream companion piece to the more canonical incidental tunes released under Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Original Score), orchestrated and arranged by English composer Daniel Pemberton. For once, the Universal Music Group’s USA imprint should get its due flowers for the formidable environmental enablement they were able to grant Metro and his ambitious multi-licensing roster vision. As many as sixteen official featured performing acts in total are present on display credit-level here. They range from budding new guard picks like Roisee, EI8HT, and Coi Larey, and journey all the way to bona fide elder rap statesmen such as A$AP Rocky, Future, and Lil Wayne. Oh, and did we mention managing to enlist critical swan song co-sign from none other than genre GOAT Nas?
Not unlike some of the key constituencies of African philosophy Ubuntu, with integrity, responsibility, empathy, and focus, Coach Metro has mastered a call up of a winning sample of carefully functional picks. His team tactics surgically constructed a court tapestry mastering both defense and offense, both below-the-rim paint points and long-range triples. If the earned trust from such a stacked A-list line up—as well as that he placed on them—does not go to prove that the producer born Leland Tyler Wayne doesn’t have the clout and creative vision to claim a marquee seat at the hip-hop conversation table, then virtually nothing else will. As the genre celebrates half a century of cultural impact, appropriations, and misunderstandings on this very day, its spiritual founders and forefathers can take a wealth of comfort from the notion that its future-proofing keys are in safe and capable hands. Now go watch the film. Then re-watch it. More importantly, listen to Young Metro’s synchronized masterpiece, we might need to await another five years for such a good movie soundtrack.
We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time. And happy birthday to hip-hop this time around.
AV
Dominic Fike is fine. He is fine with being back in his hometown of Naples, FL, after Hollywood didn’t need a reason to make him think he looked bigger than he was. He is fine with not pretending his newest album Sunburn isn’t anything other than a scattered collection of old loose tracks. He is fine with having made it out of the dirt, the hardship, and the struggle—rags to riches, felony conviction included. He is fine with survival’s guilt. Where Kendrick Lamar famously pained himself to explain “How Much a Dollar Cost“, Fike’s rebuttal stops at the otherworldly hive mind of “How Much Is Weed?“. He is fine with being a prodigal lonewolf amidst a tragically golden generation—he’s fine even with BROCKHAMPTON being no more.
Proudly and defiantly an anti-concept album, Sunburn is the 27-year old American singer-songwriter and actor’s second major label project, after instigating a cut through bidding war amongst several record companies from behind the cold confines of his penitentiary cell during the latter end of the last decade—with Columbia Records emerging victorious in 2018. So unlike his 2020 genre-mashing debut What Could Possibly Go Wrong, his latest is a warm, fun, and summer-winking compilation of disparate material, stemming from pretty much the same writing sessions as its predecessor. The lightness and effortlessness with which Fike almost dismisses his current excitement amidst Sunburn‘s promotional run, is refreshing at the very least.
Counterintuitively, that is part of what makes this beach mixtape so good. While some might still file it as a byproduct of cool cold-bloodedness, the former SoundCloud rap sensation’s indifference toward stoking fabricated enthusiasm by over-marketing the 15-cut LP actually makes way for the music to speak for itself. It’s not like one could forcibly blame Dominic, either. Almost every record on the Jim-E Stack-assisted sophomore outing dates back to about three years ago. At least a few of them have been floating around the deep Fike lore and ether since 2021, in either live or teaser form. And to think that the eclectic and sticky third lead single “Mona Lisa” wasn’t even written with the album in mind (initially previewing as OST crown jewel as part of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse).
There’s an evident sense of appeasement and resolve in watching the former jailbird and victim of class feudalism speak and carry himself today—frankly, that’s something all of us can count as a dub. Fike exhumes a kind of seasonality and weariness that betrays both his young age and spotless babyface, one that only someone whose adolescence was stripped away by crime, addiction, and poverty-stricken milieus could possibly sport. Much like so many other burdened by similar disenfranchisement, Dominic turned to music for salvation. Owing to such a coping mechanism, he’s now proudly and nonchalantly wearing some of those late Nineties/early Noughties creative influences on his tattooed sleeves.
Thusly, it shouldn’t come as a blistering surprise that tasteful and breezy “Think Fast” at number three on the record sees a loud and loaded co-sign from none other than Weezer‘s Rivers Cuomo—with a true blue interpolation of the Los Angeles pop punk giants’ “Undone — The Sweater Song“, no less. Or that the elusive and catchiest number on Sunburn, “Frisky“, somehow succeeds at pouring out evident echoes of early 00s Black Eyed Peas mixed with Red Hot Chili Peppers. Meanwhile, the overrated and overproduced sensual pop of Justin Timberlake is an undeniable inspiration on “Bodies” halfway through the mixtape. Yet again, fourth lead single teasing the full release “Mama’s Boy” betrays ephemeral Strokes fingerprints all over its instrumental canvas. Get the point?
Dominic Fike is fine with staying true to himself, and not cracking under the ostracizing major label pressure of unnecessarily sugarcoating something that for him, truly, is passé. He is fine with some of his stans’ para-social behavior, stretching as far as digging up a whole other album‘s worth of unreleased material online. He is fine with understanding the subtle and nuanced specifics of latter day capitalism’s diminishing returns, letting the spate of irresistible hooks on the title track and “Dark” speak on his behalf instead. He is fine with reverting home and providing for his mother and siblings, now that he’s a multi-millionaire with a lot more music in the can. Music he’s actually psyched to talk about.
Perhaps Fike’s most telling and poetic middle finger to retrograde major circuit antics has got to be the way he (mis)handled the inclusion of groovy funk-rap standout “Mona Lisa” into Sunburn. Originally released as a standalone single attached to the theatric release of the eponymous blockbuster movie in early June, the cut was also naturally made available as part of the deluxe version of Metro Boomin’s watertight Presents Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse soundtrack album. At least this was the case for about a month. That is, on release day (7th July), the number inexplicably disappeared from Metro Boomin’s OST tracklist (although astute bloodhounds might still dig up idle versions with it on Spotify), only to mysteriously pop up on the 15-track version of Fike’s latest LP again—notably missing from his original 14-track issue.
While adding, removing, and switching individual tracks around on varying iterations of album sequences is nothing new per se in the modern streaming age, alas, one can’t but smile in schadenfreude at the thought of spree of Columbia record executives’ headaches and the wealth of eyebrows raised as Fike urged them to reinstate the track on his own solo project—probably invoking some right of first refusal last minute. One that scrambled lawyers had to hastily retrofit amidst consulting and negotiating with a plethora of sub labels, all contracted by Spider-Man soundtrack’s curator Republic Records. And we all know Sony Music Entertainment (Columbia) and Universal Music Group (Republic) aren’t exactly best friends. Yeah well, Dominic Fike is fine with all of that.
We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time.
AV
Being a bona fide Taking Back Sunday stan has not been a breezy stroll in the park over the past seven years. Since their robust classic rock-indebted LP Tidal Wave in 2016—their seventh—the band’s musical output has all but run on slim picking leitmotivs. Maybe through a little bit of fault of their own. Like it or not, they didn’t capitalize on the latter end of the past decade’s emo revival, fell prey of not one, but two new nostalgia-fueling anniversary traps in-between, kept us trippy during the pandemic with their Fuckin Whatever side-project, and embarked on an eyebrow-raising yet sticky one-off joint with OTT electronic dance DJ Steve Aoki right around this time last year. Today, Friday 30th June, marks the day they’re back with their first slice of new original music in four years.
The Long Island outfit, now officially a quartet after the painful departure of founding member and longtime guitarist Eddie Reyes in 2018, has released “The One“, a number that embodies all guises so as to pass as the lead single in anticipation to a forthcoming eight studio album. Accompanied by a tongue-in-cheek and self-aware DJay Brawner-directed music video, and backed by new imprint Fantasy Records through Nashville-based indie circuit powerhouse Concord, the record finds Taking Back Sunday in a tender and content mood. Billed by the band as a “sweet love song—full-on John Cusack holding a boombox”, the alt rocking cut coasts through a soaring compositional dynamic, culminating in an emphatic post-chorus refrain aptly delivered by lead guitarist and backing vocalist John Nolan: “Now I’m close enough to reach you / All the walls that I could see through / Still the words that I can’t say go on and on and on“.
More than on any other recent sonic teaser dished out by the foursome, the trademark vocal call and response dynamic between frontman Adam Lazzara and Nolan is fiercely on point here. Underpinned by a spacious and expansive electric guitar-led soundbed, it’s the principal vocal delivery that pulls the biggest heavy-lifting for the track, both melodically and performance-wise. The songwriting is injected with a solid dose of romantic honesty, doubling as an unconditional tribute to one’s significant other—a thematic impetus acutely elevated by the broad and big Tushar Apte-assisted production, lending the main chorus a fitting revelatory closure: “Oh, I’m better off for betting / I’d be better off forgetting / Go big, or go home / If I was the one / Like you’re my one / You are the one / You arе the one / The onе“.
The overtly pop-oriented and former Chris Brown, BTS, and Demi Lovato-collaborator Apte is actually a fairly unorthodox production decision for the outfit, and one which could prove enthusing in charting a speculative new artistic direction the whole—yet to be formally announced—project might be leaning toward. After their watertight two-album run on California’s Hopeless Records over the past ten years with legendary underground New York producer Mike Sapone at the helm (2014’s Happiness Is and the aforementioned Tidal Wave), the band looks to be on the prowl for a different and riskier approach, perhaps nudged by the new incubating record label. Safe to say, it’s starting to show from this initial appetizer. Case in point, “The One”‘s got radio-friendly hooks, a lavish and perhaps overly sanitized mix, as well as an overall compositional arc arguably more at home with pop-first material, than a landmark Noughties emo band’s eight career album. The good news is that the overhauled format is neither off-putting nor impulse-warping, allowing for the band’s storied and signature songwriting to still bleed through in earnest.
Speaking of which, Taking Back Sunday had this to say about the initial pre-pandemic gestation of the single:
This song came from a riff that [bassist] Shaun Cooper wrote the day he lost his grandmother while she was in a nursing home at the start of the Covid pandemic. Devastated with overpowering sadness, he found comfort in writing music and initially titled the riff ‘Posivibes’ in an effort to find some light through the darkness. He never shared the story of the title or how that riff came together with us until after it was complete. Shaun didn’t want his story affecting the ultimate meaning of the song, because it’s actually an uplifting one.
The somewhat laid-back and unintrusive instrumentation committed to tape here suits the prime valence of the reclaimed sugary messaging, which takes yield over anything else. Such an understated ethos, slyly laced into the three minutes and change record, concedes only to a mightier and grander chorus—effectively preempting what could’ve been a flashier return to the scene after seven years. While the choice is an unexpected one to say the least, “The One” ultimately stands as an accomplished example of a group putting the song at the core of this tune first, over any embellishment or heady instrumentation—not necessarily something the band has historically always excelled at.
Furthermore, fans ought not mind the seeming void of ancillary leave behinds accompanying this latest single, without much pointing to a larger project coming in our later in the year; for the branding overhaul on Taking Back Sunday’s online properties—as well as a general tangible momentum surrounding this one drop—possesses all of the crucial signaling that past standalone single releases didn’t. If nothing else, with an imminent summer on the road in the USA headlining the touring Sad Summer Fest with fellow scene fixtures The Maine, PVRIS, and Hot Mulligan, it’s high time for the Long Islanders to usher into their next album cycle, with a new line up formation, and a restored creative phase. We missed them so much.
We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time.
AV
TAKING BACK SUNDAY
THE ONE
2023, Fantasy Records
Trailblazing a distinct chronological spate of significant releases coming out throughout June and July—including Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Far From Saints, Killer Mike, Queens of the Stone Age, Dominic Fike, and George Clanton—the mighty Foo Fighters are back. This time scathed. Dropping this past Friday 2nd June, But Here We Are counts as the alternative rock mainstays’s eleventh studio LP—their first since the untimely death of their longtime drummer Taylor Hawkins, early last year. The project comes orchestrated and arranged by returning production consigliere Greg Kurstin, whose royal pop knack and undeniable chemistry with the band made him an obvious choice for such a critical artistic statement in the group’s timeline, even after the mixed bag success collected in the wake of his work on both 2017’s Concrete and Gold as well as 2021’s Medicine at Midnight.
Unsurprisingly, and perhaps fittingly, frontman Dave Grohl traveled back to handling percussive duties on the whole record, marking his first official drum credit on a Foos album in almost twenty years. Not only that, the stickman-turned-ringleader also saw fit to lace a familial spin into the recording process for the first time, inviting his 17-year-old daughter Violet to sing prominent background vocals on the hazy, hollow, and dreamy “Show Me How“—the formidable third single in the lead up to the full album. Unveiled a mere seven days before the entire collection of songs, the track eerily journeys through plateaus of both reverb canvasses and gnarly distorted licks alike, before unboxing an unexpected sense of finality woven into the narrator’s bounce-back arc: “I’ll take care of everything / I’ll take care of everything from now on“.
In the album’s relatively packed and crammed promo roll out, said slow tempo number was preceded initially by the stark and stoic lead single “Rescued” (released on 19th April), as well as the gold-striking throwback grunge belter “Under You” around a month later. Both cuts carry a musical ethos that translates as an earnest return to form for the Seattle-gestated band. Raw and unfiltered aches of grief bleed through the somewhat low-fidelity taped instrumentation on the former, only to be snapped out of their emotional stalemate by two robust sets of verses with lots and lots of teeth (“It came in a flash, it came outta nowhere / It happened so fast, and then it was over; I fell in a trap, my hеart’s getting colder / It’s coming on fast, it’s over my shouldеr“). Conversely, But Here We Are‘s sophomore single triumphs in its catchy, anthemic, and heavily Hüsker Dü-indebted refrain, all the while lodging slews of nostalgic sonic moods that were first successfully forayed into as part of Dave’s inspired first three album run (1995-1999).
Hardly earning enough grandfathered rights to be considered an official single, the RCA Records-affiliates released a final teaser a few days before the arrival of the full length in the form of the 10-minute epic fever dream “The Teacher“. Sequenced as the album’s penultimate cut, before the unplugged, jagged, and forlorn coda “Rest“, the song unfolds and crumbles before the listener’s ears by way of proxying obsessive and thick stanzas atop of an unhinged baseline jam impetus, the latter ultimately binding the whole herculean effort together. It’s indulgent, inconclusive, and far from the most memorable moment on this thing—once again, definitely not single material. Yet this exploit’s biggest merit, standing as the Foo Fighters’ longest recorded track to date, is to allegorize the loose and unconstrained ethos that served as the album’s through line on here, whilst its constituent human parts rebuilt themselves amidst junctures of grief and mourning.
Aside from the aforementioned first two promo cuts, the record’s side A sports quite a lot more to write home about. At number three on the tracklist is “Hearing Voices“, a groovier and more contemplative affair wholly anchored by Grohl’s helpless cries, lamenting whatever part of letting go of someone who’s no longer there somehow still involves unfulfilled promises—in all likelihood reaching for a hybridized and spiritualized pastiche version of both Hawkins and his late mother Virginia (who passed away mere months after the drummer last year): “I’ve seen you in the moon / I wish that you were here / You promised me your words / A whisper in my ear / Every night I tell myself nothing like you could last forever“. The album title track follows suit, with its impervious and claustrophobic gain six-string riffs, pummeling a sense of utter paranoia and unsettlement into the track’s otherwise conventional late Foo Fighters formula. Dave Grohl’s soaring vocals reach husky heights rarely heard on a deep cut before, especially with such a quasi-psychedelic drawl, spookily adding to the tune’s disorienting sentence.
Wrapping up side A is perhaps the poppiest and most sanitized cut on the whole thing: “The Glass“. Flexing evident Concrete and Gold muscles on the peppy beat and flow front (cue “The Sky Is A Neighborhood“), the song does stick out a little bit like a sterilized thumb amidst the sea of musical roughness and lyrical rawness found elsewhere on the project. Don’t get it twisted, it’s far from the worst thing the Foos have ever put out, but the sensation it would’ve felt much more at home on any of their previous two LPs is one to not be easily shaken off—even after repeated listens. But Here We Are‘s flip side picks up strong again with “Nothing at All“, a Frankenstein’d power pop voyage starting off all but approachable and sticky, before completely transforming into an abrasive and savage chorus wave wholly obliterating the previously collected brownie points with casual listeners.
The aforementioned gorgeous ballad “Show Me How” follows on the tracklist at number seven, before deep feels continue to run at full steam thanks to the subsequent “Beyond Me“; an austere and truthful slice of emotional rock and roll, doubling as perhaps the most beautiful track on the record. “If it all just went away / Would you be kind? / Would you be so kind?; Are you well? / I can’t tell / Do tell / Do tell“, asks the former Nirvana percussionist, in a custom and manner that is so believable it hurts. “The Teacher” and “Rest” end the 48-minute runtime listening experience on a somewhat weaker note, although not less honest or compelling. More in particular, the latter cut’s second half suddenly photosynthesizes into a haunting and unsettling wall of distorted sound around the 2:40 mark, moonlighting as the farewell sendoff to this album’s dedicated dearly departed, and anyone else in the listeners’ minds for that matter: “Rest, you can rest now / Rest, you will be safe now“.
Safe to say with But Here We Are the Foo Fighters have made their best set of cohesive songs since Wasting Light. More than a decade and a pandemic later, and one core member down, they attested once again that resilience and defiance are two key ingredients in their raison d’être, whether they like it or not. If nothing else, they both have proven to be powering some of their best and most existential songwriting. With a set of ten new songs under their belts, and after having put to rest most rumors around seeking closure in order to move past their recent hardships by announcing celebrity session drummer Josh Freese (of Devo, Guns N’ Roses, and Nine Inch Nails fame) as Hawkins replacement, Dave, Nate, Pat, Chris, and Rami finally seem ready to move on and go back to being the biggest arena rock band on the planet. To do the easy part, in other words.
We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time.
AV
FOO FIGHTERS
BUT HERE WE ARE
2023, Roswell Records
Standalone singles killed the album star. If it weren’t for a grieving Foo Fighters—now sans late drummer Taylor Hawkins—fitting to the standard industry mould with their lead single-and-LP announcement combo (“Rescued“, teasing the release of their eleventh studio album But Here We Are next month), one would be fooled to think better of the notion that focus tracks need to exist as part of a far-sighted project roll out. Thus, by way of rounding up a batch of recently unveiled solo records, here we dare put forward a non-definitive reflection around the seemingly dissipated importance to lend a monetizable roadmap to new music.
Beginning chronologically and alphabetically with vaporwave heavyweight George Clanton. Nearly cracking under the pressure to follow up his spotless and watertight Slide record from 2018, the 100% Electronica label founder unveiled his latest smash hit single “I Been Young” early last month—only to not be accompanied by an official announcement about a potential full length container. Sure, while it is true that the 35-year old electronic musician has been all but half-jokingly teasing his newest project on social media since his incandescent Nick Hexum collaboration, given his humorous and self-deprecating ethos it’s hard to gauge how founded that pipeline might actually be.
Lest we get it twisted here: prioritizing autonomous singles is nothing inherently new and unchartered. Over the past decade, the complete digitization and platformization of music consumption has made it so that its industry specifics design a clear incentivization scheme benefitting the ‘waterfall’ release of smaller projects (read: singles) over full bodies of work. Partly due to the major music services’s editorial playlisting leitmotivs, partly pushed by the opportunity of creating more ‘release events’ by staggering smaller drops over time, artists and labels alike have not been shy to tap into the predicament headfirst. Whether pundits mess with it or not—such tidal wave is not to be stopped and rather ubiquitous today.
Interestingly enough, instead of selling out to such rabid cheat code demands of the modern streaming economy, Clanton saw fit to take a somewhat different homegrown path, by creating a subscription-like community around 100% Electronica. He then elevated the concept to a whole new level with 100% ElectroniCON in 2019, effectively the first vaporwave music festival in the world. As the planet deranged and all live entertainment ground to a halt, he kept it going through so-called Virtual Utopia gigs, as well as by establishing a weekly VR talk show, THE BIG STREAM. Clearly, an adapted approach to a changing paradigm in the machinery—yet, still no unequivocal announcement to anticipate a next record. Here’s to hoping a Slide follow up does in fact materialize, for “I Been Young” sounds just as dreamy, hazy, and sticky as anything on it. Alas, it is also not exactly the type of material that would sit naturally next to “Fucking Up My Life” (his other standalone drop) on an LP’s tracklist.
This specific sample of latest releases seems to be doubling as something akin to a final straw. Especially on account of the fact that these artists have historically made it a point to curate and elevate full album experiences in their discographies. Let’s take 28-year old Brooklyn, NY MC Joey Bada$$ as further exhibit. His newest R&B-infused joint “Fallin’” quickly followed on the coattails of last year’s brilliant 2000, the highly anticipated spiritual successor to his groundbreaking debut mixtape 1999 (2012). With a street date of 7th April, and featuring production from Powers Pleasant, DJ Khalil, Chuck Strangers, Adam Pallin, and McClenney, the 4:30 minutes-crooner finds the Pro Era founder coasting through a butter-smooth neo-soul canvas for the song’s greasy first-half, before switching gears into sets of convinced and stern 16s that all bring out his spitting prowess on the backend—just in case anyone needed reminding.
The record is a welcome change of pace for the up and coming thespian, who flexes both singing and compositional proficiency on a cut that would have admittedly felt a tad out of place on his jazz rap-indebted third studio LP last year. Most suspiciously though, it’s the lack of cliffhanging substance attached to the headline drop, leaving fans with little to nothing to look for forward to musically past this point. For at this time it is wholly unclear whether “Fallin'” is to lead up to a new sizable project from the progressive rapper, or if it’s to exist as an isolated statement à la his impeccable and faithful Mos Def cover “UMI Says“, performed live for Australia triple j‘s storied Like A Version series at the turn of the new year.
Meanwhile, just mere days ago on 27th April, it was high time for the welcome and highly anticipated return of New Jersey alt rockers The Gaslight Anthem. Their newest track “Positive Charge” represents the first taste of original music after their seven-year indefinite hiatus—and since their lukewarm 2014 fifth studio LP Get Hurt—thanks to frontman Brian Fallon getting them back together to much fan acclaim last year after a successful solo stint. Ever the quintessential album-oriented group, their fans had however hoped their comeback single would be splashed together with a more robust dispatch, hopefully revealing details around their long-awaiting next studio project; tough luck for them too.
Musically, the song plugs straight into Brian Fallon, Alex Rosamilia, Alex Levine, and Benny Horowitz’s trademark punk-indebted heartland aesthetic. Dirty, distorted, ragged, yet undercut by a melodic emotionality that affords them certain of liberties to structure their tune around pop tropes. Thing is: no album release date as of yet. Granted, The Gaslight Anthem are the type of salt of the earth band from whom it would be outright unthinkable to not imagine a full album transpiring from a singles release cycle, especially when it’s a long-anticipated reunion one. What’s particularly uneasy here though is the complete lack of LP forethought in burning such comeback card, unlike say the aforementioned Foo Fighters—a band most people would likely claim The Gaslight Anthem are cut from a similar clot of.
Much like “Positive Charge”, the final record scrutinized today comes courtesy of distribution from Sony Music-owned Thirty Tigers, and marks the surprise-release of a new loose joint called “SentRock” by legendary Chicago lyricist Lupe Fiasco. Named after fellow Chi-towner and visual artist SentRock—real name Joe Perez—the tune is being dished out as part of a cross-media collaboration that resulted in limited-edition autographed prints of his A Westside Bird’s Eye View painting, doubling as its front cover. The abstract and jolty single is the MIT visiting professor‘s first taste of new music since his watertight Drill Music in Zion project last year, and yes, you guessed it right: no indication has hitherto been given as to whether it is to function as teaser to something bigger in the pipe. In Lupe’s defense, he appears to be keeping fairly busy on the heels of his recent nomination as Saybrook Fellow at Yale University—highlighting the conscious rapper’s latest honor in a series in the realm of academia.
As media outlets and online fan communities alike all heavily debate around the likelihood of full length collections of songs by these four acts in varying degrees of speculation, there’s no denying the notion that most artists and labels largely do so to protect themselves and the sacredness of their writing process. Chances are, all aforementioned creatives currently fall into that category. With that being said, there exists a foreboding sense of aftermath from a chasm that was perhaps long bound to happen, and that now seems to be reaching what were once immaculate corners of a revered space, that used to actually care about the craft of an album, and that wouldn’t stick their necks out unless there was one to announce. For as much as we find it convenient to throw around the self-protection argument when faced with their absence, what if the artists themselves have stopped giving a damn?
We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time.
AV
GEORGE CLANTON
I BEEN YOUNG
2023, 100% Electronica
https://www.100percentelectronica.com/
JOEY BADA$$
FALLIN’
2023, Columbia Records
THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM
POSITIVE CHARGE
2023, Thirty Tigers
https://www.thegaslightanthem.com/
LUPE FIASCO
SENTROCK
2023, Thirty Tigers
As if ruled by near Swiss clockwork precision, 48-year old singer/songwriter Ryan Adams once again made good on his unwritten pledge to dish out yet another collection of new music on average about every third month. This time earmarked by his ninth project containing previously unreleased material since December 2020 — tenth, if considering his mid-March Return to Carnegie Hall EP — the alt-folk heavyweight re-ascends into the global ether by way of a full rework of brit-pop giants Oasis‘s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? Offered once more as a download giveaway to newsletter subscribers via his PaxAm label hub, and already slated for a subsequent full blown release on licensed services, the reimagined batch appears as a double-sided 14-cut reinterpretation of the original 1995 rock classic.
Thus wrapping up a wholly uncalled for, yet overall more than gratifying, trilogy of covers, Adams’s Morning Glory follows in the wake of his own personal takes on two other cornerstones of modern folk rock: Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks and Springsteen‘s Nebraska — originally unveiled on last Christmas day, and at the beginning of December, respectively. This latest exploit is handily the most daring and wildest set of liberties the North Carolinian seized as part of the unofficial cover series yet. From the re-sequenced tracklist, the upgrade of as many as four lead single B-sides (“Talk Tonight“, “Headshrinker“, “Acquiesce“, and “Rocking Chair“), to the almost complete de-electrification of the instrumental canvas, Morning Glory sees a worshipping scholar affording himself just enough envelope-pushing inertia to both celebrate and advance the work of art at once.
In-between such heaps of legendary recordings rearrangements, the PaxAm founder also found time to announce to the world that he had gotten his old revered Cardinals band back together earlier in March — aligning the newsflash with the release of their stern piano-led comeback single “Dreams of the Working Class“. In the same breath, he also squeezed in the dispatch of a forthcoming gargantuan US Coast-to-Coast tour accompanied by the band. Their time on the road starts next month and will keep a newly redrafted lineup, inclusive of Brad Pemberton on percussions, Chris Stills on guitars, Daniel Clarke on keys, and A-list record executive moonlighting as bassist Don Was, occupied traveling across America through mid October.
Meanwhile, as he’s wrapping up the final European leg of his year-long solo acoustic run, the former Whiskeytown ringleader made sure to cue up the drop of Morning Glory with his physical arrival in ole Blighty, just before Easter. In great British catholic spirit, he also saw fit to stitch a revised and regionally fitting front cover on the record, tributing folklore Mancunian TV soap opera Coronation Street (see below), aside from of course indulging in the deconsecrated exercise of resuscitating the seminal collection of songs on the margins of Christianity’s parallel antic a few days later.
To humour the analysis a smidge deeper, it’s interesting and perhaps not coincidental to constatate how Adams plucked one cornerstone album for each different decade leading up to the new millennium. Albeit not churned out strictly chronologically, Blood on the Tracks (1975), Nebraska (1982), and now Morning Glory (1995) can all serve as auxiliary stepping stones on a roadmap that charts the impact and influence of watershed rock albums on both the wider cultural zeitgeist, and on Adams himself. Bearing witness to his increasingly exuberant rendering of these musical staples as part of the incubatory artistic heritage that moulded him is to watch a musician having more and more fun doing it (something discussed as early as in the first cover series instalment). It’s a touch tired and microwaved posit, but the key here is in the process, rather than the output.
Progressing from the unassuming and somewhat dejected pound-for-pound rendition of The Boss‘s ten tracker — with only minor compositional personalisations and musical derivatives — to then alight at the braver and aesthetically bolder instrumental coda choices laced into Dylan’s fifteenth studio LP, the Jacksonville, NC-native seems to have come full circle with the Gallagher bros’ magnum opus. By his own admission, this latest two-sided reverb and delay-effected affair stands to pull the curtains on his interpreter phase — at least for a while — an assertion that lends a heightened sense of closure over what some Oasis purists might brush off as iconoclast creative choices on Morning Glory.
With the sole exception of the record’s opener (“Hello“) and closer (“Champagne Supernova“), every single other number on Adams’s Morning Glory is completely refactored and repositioned compared to its reference LP, fundamentally forging a whole different album listening experience—not to mention the seemingly untouchable tracklist contamination through the inclusion of almost 30% of cutting room floor material. So the project is now fourteen cuts long, spanning an hour and five minutes of runtime, as opposed to the brit-pop chart-toppers’ 50 minutes and de facto only ten songs (sans the two “Swamp Song” skits). Parochial absolutists of the Manchester prodigal sons couldn’t necessarily be faulted for being up in arms at the mere thought of it.
This not only warrants the inquiry of whether Adams’s Morning Glory can even be considered a covers album of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? in the first place, but it also refracts a whole new beam of light on what is, perhaps notoriously, the Cardinals frontman’s biggest and most successful track to date: his 2004 Love Is Hell cover of Oasis’s “Wonderwall“. Then smartly and tastefully stripped back to a thin acoustic backbone and drenched in reverb compared to the reference track, his 2023 version is, well, even more stripped back to a thin acoustic backbone, and even more drenched in reverb.
Right from the inaugural announcement that he was working toward his own take on the Manchester heroes’ second studio album last year, the question arousing the single largest amount of curiosity amongst his listenership was, understandably, how he would’ve re-dressed one of the most popular songs of all time. Once again. By sticking to the tried and trued guns of his first groundbreaking recitation, one can’t but feel like he not only missed a brilliant opportunity to breathe new life into what’s almost become a laughing stock within his formidable catalogue, but it also raises a whole slew of questions over how enslaved by that 2004 version he’s become. Almost to the point of feeling pressured to build a whole cover album around it.
In his concluding defence, Adams did introduce his Morning Glory as “[w]eirdly like LOVE IS HELL had a brother from another mother maybe”. Definitely Maybe: with twenty-twenty hindsight, chances are that covering the Oasis debut could have made for a fairer choice to both him and the music.
We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time.
AV
Almost fifteen years after their off-kilter, watershed, and unceremonious split in a Parisian backstage, it’s hard to overstate the amount of influence, longing, and nostalgia English rock band Oasis has propagated in its aftermath. Although most of the attention and money on the heels of their disbandment revolved around shoehorning an improbable reunion by way of reconciling the Gallagher Bros’s insurmountable differences, the britpop marquee fixture’s creative footprint has found boundless ways to permeate inspiratory wells of lots of contemporary acts in its wake—both within and outside the immediate confines of rock and roll.
It could be contended that two latter-day quintessential offshoots of such a musical lineage would be fellow Mancunian indie rockers Shader on the one hand, and Tacoma, Washington-based Enumclaw on the other. Aside from how their music rings and shreds (more on this below), both foursomes sport self-evident signs of worshipping association with their spiritual grandfathers—the shared stomping ground coupled with a parka-punk antic in the former group’s case, the “best band since Oasis” biography tagline for the latter. Yet the apparent similarities between these outfits should theoretically end there.
That is, geographically and socio-economically, the band members’ upbringings and backgrounds could not be more different from each other, at least at first glance. For starters, a planet-sectioning 4,650 miles/7,500 km separate the primordial soups from within which Shader and Enumclaw sprouted. If the artistic extrapolation borrowed from Oasis’s industry-changing sound and aesthetic is more than comprehensible in the Manchester natives’ case, it does require a more substantial cognitive leap for the American Fat Possum Records signees. Not unrelatedly, as the advent of geographically distributed and interconnected nodes of connection went on to annul even the stealthiest of outstanding barriers, a cultural dynamic directly stemming from Benedict Anderson’s imagined communities ensued.
With both acts properly soaked and hard-boiled in guitar-led no frills indie rock—one wouldn’t be too far off in picturing them with a sprinkle of mid-Naughties emo sensibilities on top—their musical crossover pushes past the high regard they each hold the britpop icons in. Refreshingly in the present climate, virtually every creative component baked into each of their collections of songs to date is built in order to thrust the guitar as the lead protagonist instrument, rather than blink-and-you-miss it-bit part in much of today’s tired rock canon. Sticky intro riffs, slews of parallel melodic riffs, main vocal dynamics atop of consonant arpeggios: these all revolve around six-strings, not unlike a certain giant band from the 90s.
However, perhaps Shader and Enumclaw’s most appeasing and earnest value is found in their unabashed and dejected adoption of true blue, tried and true pop rock songwriting formulas. Without ever incurring the risk of coming across as one-dimensional, their verse/chorus/verse/bridge/chorus song-crafting method is of an endearing textbook execution. This results in multiple cuts on either of their debut studio LPs Save the Baby and Everything Is Connected sounding handily and seamlessly like they could sneak into each other’s tracklist without anyone batting an eye (take Shader’s “There Was a Time“, “Time Is Right” as well as “Runaway“—or conversely, their US counterparts’ uncanny sonic adjacency of “Cowboy Bebop” and “Jimmy Neutron“).
Lest we lose our trail of thought here—both quartets wear their singular strain of britpop influence proudly on their sleeves. Hence, the notion that significant portions of their studio-grading recordings come across like they could be covering each other isn’t exactly an affront to the Pepsi test. Yet the set of coincidences start to run deep as soon as one realizes that their aforementioned long-gestated debut projects came out within the span of two weeks of each other, across mid to late October last year. Even more surreally, both bands enlist a member whose surname spells Edwards, and watch this: they both play bass.
We’ll spare you some of the most surface-level traits that could be thrown into the set of explanatory variables in a hypothetical regression analysis indexing Shader and Enumclaw’s interconnected output. Attributing their similarity to the shared frigid and rainy climate, their regions’ insular isolationism from their respective country’s centers of power, or simply their comparable latitude levels leave a lot to be desired. We would rather invite you to delve into the sonic material to make head or tails of this improbable kinship alongside the North England-Washington state axis. Start with—and for now, stick to—their inaugural full length albums: while there is about an additional ten minutes of runtime on the English indie rockers’ project (46 minutes packed into twelve records, versus Enumclaw’s 36 in eleven), there is an immediacy of impact whose deduction is undeniable.
There is something uniquely glamorous and affable in how Oasis presents itself as the center of a phantasmagoric venn diagram between a band hailing from the industrious and sullen birthplace of grunge music, and another cut from the working class cloth of a sanctuary as stricken by its secondary economic sector heritage as it is placed on the global artistic map by the force of post-punk. If anything, such disparate premises speak to the gelling power and impact of the enterprise the Gallaghers created—while it might be true that no check can be fat enough for Noel to acquiesce to a forced industry-planted reunion, for now their musical legacy rests in good reincarnated hands.
We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time.
AV
Below listed are Shader’s complete works since 2020:
Shader
Stu Whiston (vocals, guitars)
Mike Lo Bosco (guitars)
Daz Edwards (bass)
Tommy Turney (drums)
Studio albums
Everything Is Connected (2022)
Singles
Streets Tell Stories (2021)
Runaway (2021)
Don’t You (Forget About Me) [2020]
True to Life (2020)
Lately (Demo) [2020]
Time Is Right (2020)
Be My Saviour (2020)
Below listed are Enumclaw’s complete works since 2021:
Enumclaw
Aramis Johnson (vocals, guitars)
Nathan Cornell (guitars)
Eli Edwards (bass)
Ladaniel Gipson (drums)
Studio albums
Save the Baby (2022)
Singles
2002 (2022)
Everything Must Swing 