Review

A PRELIMINARY INTRODUCTION TO: THE 2024 PAXAM ALBUM TETRALOGY | 2023-11-27

Safe to say it’s been an eventful 2023 for Jacksonville, NC-native singer/songwriter Ryan Adams. The current calendar year began on a tributary note for the 49-year old country rocker, with back-to-back releases of three significant cover albums in the shape of Bruce Springsteen‘s Nebraska, Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, and Oasis‘s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory, all between Christmas and Easter. In-between unveiling those reimagined collections, he also found the time to get his old Cardinals band back together after over a decade of hiatus (with a supergroup-worthy line up, no less), drop a new single with them, and take them on a nationwide US tour over the summer. Before all of that, he managed to squeeze a limited leg of solo shows in the UK and Europe. Meanwhile, sometime later in spring, he saw fit to announce the highly-anticipated live acoustic sequel to his 2015 Live at Carnegie Hall compilation—aptly titled Return to Carnegie Hall. Recorded during his acclaimed return to the storied New York City namesake venue last year, the tape was eventually released on music outlets worldwide on 25th August.

You’d think that would do it for even the hardest-working artists in the business, but nope. It’s the most prolific songwriter of his generation we’re talking about here. So halfway through the feel good heat of July, the PaxAm founder came through once more and gave away another new live album. This time couching a highlights reel of salient performances recorded during the first round of shows with The Cardinals, Alive — Vol. I remained available as a free online download for a few months. Then in early fall, a cancelled run of solo shows due to poor health between September and November followed suit, only to be trailed by the surprise announcement of “I Was Here”, a purported new instant-gratification single teasing toward a previously unannounced forthcoming project, named Sword & Stone. Surely, this should be enough for a year-in-review round-up? Well, here comes the kill.

During the first week of November, the former Whiskeytown leader revealed what might be his biggest milestone of the year yet: the majorly hyped ‘PaxAm Relaunch’. Touted as a fresh new clean slate for the artist in anticipation to its d-day, skyrocketing new creative enterprises such as book publishing as well as a slew of previously unreleased original music, the big reveal turned out to be a bit of a chimera to most. Granted, Adams did stay through to some of his prior advertisements. Excitingly, included at launch there was indeed his first ever fiction novel, 100 Problems, on top of your regular update of merch capsules, ranging from fine grade tees to scented candles. However, what built out to be the crown jewel to the buzzed PaxAm reset, his latest tetralogy of albums, ended up leaving fans eagerly salivating, and still mostly dissatisfied. At best. While he did unveil the title of the four new bodies of work in said tetralogy—Heatwave, Star Sign, the aforementioned Sword & Stone, and the long-rumored follow up to his hardcore punk Hüsker Dü worship 1984, 1985—the catch is that at the time of this writing, those projects are only available for vinyl pre-order, with a tentative mid-January 2024 shipping date.

For the full record (pun probably intended), the bells and whistle-y PaxAm comeback also came with the dispatch of five additional products. Still, vinyl pre-orders all the same. Most notably, these encompass an exclusive live unplugged rendition of Adams’s exquisite Prisoner LP from 2017, as well as the second pressing of his remarkable and patchworked 2022 album quartet (Chris, Romeo & Juliet, FM, and Devolver). Just for shits and giggles, inclusive of the upcoming tetralogy, yet sans his bunch of live records in-between, this projected music pipeline would bring his accrued tally of music projects released since his 2020 return to an otherworldly thirteen studio efforts (!). All within just about three years of time.

In the midst of it all, the 2024 PaxAm album tetralogy appears to be happening. The aforementioned four outings all have (somewhat graphically questionable) respective cover art, as well as an official track listing. In lieu of formal chronological release timelines, the album sleeves are embedded below in alphabetical order, whereas according to the label/publisher’s website all of the projects’s sequencings range from Star Sign‘s compact ten songs to a whooping 29 (!) on what’s poised to be a rabid and hard-hitting 1985. Yet, not official street date in sight—whether that goes for the nominal release of vinyl, or for the highly-demanded streaming outlets’s sales availability. For all we know today, these four exploits are all slated for a 2024 release. So while it is true that their announcement and promotion fall on this side of the year, this is legitimate enough a reason for this to be considered as a 2024 tetralogy, for all intents and purposes.

And then there’s the Grammy Award-nominated act’s typical set of scattered, contradicting, and excessive marketing of upcoming music. Now wholly contained on the author’s own Instagram page—alas, with the store relaunch, even the nail-in-the-coffin PaxAm newsletter updates appear to have been indefinitely nixed. The promotional roll out of well, basically everything and anything all at once, has hitherto been an outright spray and pray. With all its shows and tells, uploads and takedowns, and hodgepodge of juxtaposing information, not one soul would admittedly have been able to even commence to make head or tails of it all, if it weren’t for the benevolent Ryan Adams archivist vigilante graciousfew. To date, almost thirty different track previews have been rolled out by the alt-country mainstay within the projected tetralogy. For the most part, without much rhyme or reason as to what kind of picture one is to expect from each of the four full lengths.

Adams has been most generous with 1985, teasing as many as ten cuts from the expected twenty-nine. Undoubtedly the most focused and cohesive-sounding of the four new LPs, the record appears to be building and expanding on the distorted, fast, and zany street-rage displayed on its almost ten year-old predecessor. The more somber and reflective Star Sign follows suit with a whole eight records out of the available then having been peppered and then recanted throughout the pinball cult leader’s IG feed within the last year or so. Here, the picture appears to be clearer, one painted by way of a more refined, song crafted, and lush brush. A vastly ambitious affair, Star Sign enlists the richest arrangements and the longest track runtimes of the bunch (with its title track previewed at as many as eleven minutes of playtime, and another four teasers clocking in longer than five minutes). As far as an early guessing is concerned, this might end up being the best received and most gratifying of the four projects by the lion’s share of DRA’s fanbase, with evident callbacks to a wide range of back-catalogue issuances, such as Jacksonville City Nights (“Shinin Thru the Dark”), Love Is Hell (“I Lost My Place”), and his self-titled (“Darkness”).

Regrettably, Heatwave and Sword & Stone are both rougher around their edges, and more of a mess. At least on paper. Going off its first six teasers, the former appears to pick up from the power-pop and alt-rock inklings Adams left us with both FM and Devolver last year. While the latter—beefed up with an additional quartet of previews (“Blown Away”, “I’ll Wait”, “I Can See the Light” and the title track) to complement the aforementioned official lead single “I Was Here”—sounds more like a spiritual successor to last year’s brotherly tribute Chris. The issue at face value here, with the benefit of doubt tied to the missing full album listening experience, is that both projects tend to blend into each other à la mixtape—not always in a flattering way. Take for instance the minute and change fire and fury of “Lies”, Heatwave‘s opening tune, and you might be wondering how on earth it didn’t make the 1985 cut to round up its track listing to thirty songs.

Meanwhile, when listened to in isolation, records like “Mercy”, “Why”, “Sword & Stone” and “I Can See the Light” absolutely sound like they would belong on the one and same body of work. An upbeat, catchy, and fun one at that. A companion piece to FM of sorts. Too bad the first two are sequenced on Heatwave, and the other two appear on Sword & Stone. No harm no foul—it’s not like the LA-transplant hasn’t repurposed and recycled a wealth of material across his numerous, numerous records. Especially so in his more recent spate of third act career releases. For instance, Chris and Romeo & Juliet have a lot in common, musically and lyrically. His comeback 2020 full length Wednesdays brings it back all the way to a post-Whiskeytown, early solo DRA era. Not to mention his past B-sides and bonus tracks; all systems go as far as where they truly fit amidst their up- and downgrading across deep cuts and official tracklisting slots. Whether deliberate or not on Adams’s part, that is all definitely part of the charm and allure of his fine craft. A little bit like remaining uneasy and on edge until the godforsaken day his 2024 PaxAm album tetralogy finally becomes available for listening. The only assurance we have at this point, is that that will be a good morning.

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

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): TBS – 152 | 2023-10-28

Taking Pop Sunday. After almost 2,600 days since the release of Tidal Wave in 2016, Long Island alt rockers Taking Back Sunday choose modern pop over alternative, making their triumphant return to the scene with 152. And it worked wonders. Eight years of absence is a lengthy time off for any musician, all the more so for a band approaching a quarter of a century of age—and boy did a revolution and a half take place during those years. Both societally and for the band members. Inter alia, the American outfit celebrated the twentieth birthday of both the band as a whole (2019) and their trailblazing studio debut Tell All Your Friends (2022) with corresponding deluxe record reissues, peppered one-off non-album singles here and there—including a cover of Weezer‘s “My Name Is Jonas“, an improbable co-sign with the Wu Tang Clan, and the late-stage emo wet dream “Love You a Little” assisting both The Maine and Charlotte Sands—and let go their longtime founding member Eddie Reyes (2018). Crucially, considering how their second coming of a self-titled turned out to be, last year TBS also unexpectedly partnered with megastar DJ Steve Aoki, an unlikely long shot that yielded the sticky and defiant dance-rock number “Just Us Two“.

Such a link up was a sole degree of separation from glossy pop production extraordinaire Tushar Apte, who ended up getting enlisted to orchestrate and execute the group’s eight studio album in its entirety. Side-kicked by Neal Avron on mixing engineering duties, the Australian sound crafter—whose previous production pedigree includes BTS, Blackpink, Nicki Minaj, and Adam Levine amongst others—ended up exerting a perhaps greater musical moulding than any other producer TBS previously worked with. Each of the ten records bundled as part of this full length is enveloped in a thick membrane of sanitization unprecedented for the outfit. Even on grittier and more punk-adjacent cuts, such as the fierce and galloping second and forth single respectively (“S’old“ and “Keep Going“), there permeates a layering of lavishness as well as a tender loving care for sound that only a mystical mind such as Apte’s could instil into the pioneering alt rock quartet’s imprint. Conversely, a juxtaposition contributing to arguably the single biggest success factor of this project, lead singer Adam Lazzara’s lyrical flair remained as disarrayed and perturbed as ever, aptly demonstrated on the aforementioned fourth teaser track: “You could forget about the devil / But the devil won’t forget about you / Just because you’re winning / That don’t mean you’ve got nothing to lose“.

As a whole, 152 sounds big, expansive, and very polished. Musically and recording-wise, this half hour and change committed to tape stands as an outing more akin to the latest Thirty Seconds to Mars record, than say this year’s Paramore or Foo Fighters rock and roll canon offerings. Yet once again, perhaps counterintuitively, this is not a bad thing for TBS. For they pulled this off. With the benefit of twenty-twenty hindsight, the electronic and dance-affine sonic leakages on “Just Us Two” last year now resplend as a true blue litmus test for it all—a canary in the coalmine of sorts. Two of the album’s highlights, the gentle soft pop touch of “Lightbringer” at number seven and climactic soaring coda “The Stranger“, are washed up in synthesisers, clean effects, and pitch-correctors. This is something flat out unthinkable if one is to call back to their last record in time Tidal Wave—a no-frills affair dabbling in early punk tendencies and heartland rock inclinations. Well, perhaps unpopularly so, 152 is an overall better album than Tidal Wave.

Don’t take it from us, you ask the core fans. Correcting for recency bias handicap, their reception and hype so far for the new record seem to be at their most glowing since the quartet’s 2011 self-titled, a record that brought the original Tell All Your Friends line-up back together—drafted today counting Lazzara on vocal duties, John Nolan on guitars/keyboards/BVs, Shaun Cooper on bass guitar, and Mark O’Connell on drums and percussions. Case in point, as part of the Concord-distributed Fantasy Record’s sneak peek listening party that took place a few days before the album’s street date on 27th October, the label saw itself forced to go back for seconds to give the full playthrough another unplanned spin, on the heels of thunderous positive vox populi in webchat. Having attended said event first-hand, we can attest that particularly the aforementioned “Lightbringer” and the sticky groove of Spotify SEO-finessing “New Music Friday” struck as immediate first-listen standouts (aside of course from the four previously available singles).

Clocking in as the shortest LP in TBS’s discography—Tidal Wave, their longest, has almost twenty more minutes of material by comparison—152 is groomed by mainstream pop formulas through and through. Fascinatingly, there seems to be a runtime sweet spot optimized around 3:15 of playback, with as many as six out of ten tracks adopting the format—if this isn’t pop craftsmanship down to a T, then we don’t know what is. Even more intriguingly so, all these songs happen to make up the core backbone of the record, by being evenly woven along the ten-slotted tracklist. As a net positive externality, less constrained than inspired by similar machinery blueprints, Lazzara and Nolan found ways to muster up enough wherewithal to step up their lyrical game. Whether it’s post-mess up regret bars on the musically lukewarm intro “Amphetamine Smiles” (“Half-drunk Messiah with a smile on her face / She told me not to take them pills / I said “Girl, you got no faith in medicine“), romantic liberation on arena-sized lead single “The One” (“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“), or free mundane mad libs-like associations on “Quit Trying” (“Something safe words make you vibrant / Northern lightning, ultra violet / I just quit trying“).

With all that being said, the best song on the album is “I Am the Only One Who Knows You“. Sequenced halfway through at number five, the tune not only has the most convincing songwriting at its core, but everything enveloping it, from its execution to individual performances and production, is of a spotless persuasion as well. On the track, lines such as “Keep ’em out, let ’em in / Unrepentant, unforgiven / Holy hell, high heaven / It’s a destination wedding” and “Give a smile, give a nod, find yourself / Find your god, holy hell / Tell yourself it’s a match made in heaven” transcend even the most literate of Lazzara’s sometimes corny lyrical leanings of the past, thrusting them into more legitimate poetic waxing conversations. Meanwhile, Apte’s white glove production is ethereal, formidable, and immaculate. As a big plus, something about this cut’s X factor makes it one of (if not the) most easily listenable songs in the band’s entire catalogue—no matter a listener’s walk of life. Sure-fire classic potential, hands down.

Yet by no means is this a pitch perfect album. While not enough credit could possibly ever be given to TBS for going so pop with this—lest we forget, they had something to the effect of a scene crown on their emo veteran heads to lose—there are lowlights to be found on this thing. For one, album opener “Amphetamine Smiles” feels like a misstep placed where it is, at least musically. This is the one instance where Apte’s radio-ready production chops didn’t translate as well on a creatively raw, acoustic, and soulfully unplugged composition. It’s also neither fish nor fowl as it builds up into a more traditionally rock track on its back-end, never quite managing to shake off a somewhat subpar packaging. We would’ve loved to have heard this on Tidal Wave instead. Along similar lines, the intentional pop dimension adopted on 152—led by such guiding principles as brevity, punch, and conciseness—could’ve caused certain tracks to leave listeners wanting more from them. Particularly on “Lightbringer” and the undeniably sticky “Juice 2 Me” as penultimate on the tracklist, the feeling is that both could’ve used more fleshing out, and that an even better song lurked beneath the glossier surface of theirs that ended up making the cut.

No harm, no foul—overall, for TBS this is not just an A for effort, but it’s also an A- in execution and output. Handily one of their best albums hitherto. Undoubtedly an outlier in the band’s discography. Here’s to hoping Adam, John, Shaun, and Mark keep on leaning in, pushing this new-found creative endeavour further and further in projects to come, without taking another eight years whilst at it. After all, TBS is back with new material after almost a decade (without the influence), their handsome faces are slapped on the album’s front cover for the first time, and in Fantasy they have finally found a record label that genuinely supports and elevates them. Chances are they now feel comfortable enough to keep scratching their true artistic itches going forward—irrespective of scene, industry, and peer pressures. For what it’s worth, best we can do as fans is to keep not treating TBS like a stranger.

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

152

2023, Fantasy Records

https://takingbacksunday.com

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): BLINK-182 TIER LIST | 2023-10-20

Support blink-182:

https://www.blink182.com
https://music.apple.com/se/artist/blink-182/116851?l=en
https://www.instagram.com/blink182/
https://twitter.com/blink182

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

FAUX DIRE | 2023-10-09

Drake finally dropped For All The Dogs, so we guess it’s as good a time as any to talk about Thebe Neruda Kgositsile, the 29-year-old rapper, singer, and songwriter better known by his stage name Earl Sweatshirt. His latest Alchemist-produced LP VOIR DIRE, the highly-anticipated follow up to last year’s hermetic SICK!, has now officially come out. Twice. The first time on 25th August, exclusively as a ledgered transaction in its blockchain-powered non-fungible version, offered via decentralized peer-to-peer platform Gala Music. Yup, you read that right. While the 11-cut project still remains fully free to stream on said project’s site, for all intents and purposes that record is solely being offered as a digital collectible. With any additional content, merch, or experiences having to be purchased at an additional crypto-cost.

Well, VOIR DIRE came out again last week—this time in its altered licensed DSP-version. Albeit still sequenced with eleven individual tracks, as many as three of them fell on the cutting room floor (“All the Small Things”, “My Brother, the Wind”, and “Geb”), in order to make room for “Heat Check” at number four, as well as a combo of superb Vince Staples-assisted collabs (“Mancala” and “The Caliphate“). These tweaks, in addition to the previously included staccato-beat feast “Dead Zone” upgrading its tracklist sequencing by one slot, tacked on another minute of runtime to the official Tan Cressida/Warner Records distributed version—yet still keeping the project lean and compact, clocking in at less than half an hour of material.

This kind of two-pronged roll out antic does warrant the question; which of the two versions, tracklists, and musical narratives does the Some Rap Songs MC hold for true? Or truer? Does his standpoint differ from that of The Alchemist? Is there a fake rendition of the LP at all? Aside from fanning flames of contemporary discussions around albums becoming subject to continuous updates in a way not dissimilar from software and apps, the intrinsic semantic valence of its veracity fits like a glove on a record like VOIR DIRE. The clue is literally in its title (‘voir dire‘ is an old French expression translating to ‘telling the truth’). Although alluding to the legal standard of prospective jurors being questioned to determine whether they can be fair and impartial as part of their trial duties, one could argue that by unveiling two different varieties Earl Sweatshirt is superimposing a heuristic interpretation to VOIR DIRE‘s creative meta-state. It’s either that, or dude’s simply covering his bottom due to “All the Small Things” taping a potentially unprotected lyrical interpolation from blink-182‘s namesake smash hit.

Musically, the newest version, the one dropped this month and widely available for streaming and download, is superior. It flows better, has a harder crop of tunes, and does without the more pronounced highs and lows of its fluctuating NFT counterpart. Even its front cover looks like a more accomplished and thought-through graphical affair (compare both artwork versions below). “Heat Check” is plain and simple a stronger joint than “All the Small Things”—albeit eerily similar in its blueprint and sound, raising more suspicion around this being some kind of elaborate art installation. Elsewhere, Thebe and Staples masterfully feed off each other’s energy and pockets with unparalleled chemistry on “Mancala“, while their penultimate heart-on-sleeve confessional “The Caliphate” is a top five all time Earl Sweatshirt song. Period.

Without getting too ahead of ourselves, it’s worth mentioning how the former Odd Future fixture has historically set an awfully high yardstick for himself, with his last two studio exploits in a row making both the 2018 and 2022 Albums of the Year shortlists around here—the October version of VOIR DIRE does have everything it takes to be considered for such accolade again. Yet, this bears the natural query: which one is the true VOIR DIRE up for nomination? Had the second public availability edition not come out, its AOTY merit and buzz would admittedly falter a smidge more (plus, part of us feels it wouldn’t even deserve it, by virtue of the tacky and cornball-y distribution method chosen…).

Should one only zero in on the core constituent parts found on both versions, it’s not like the conundrum naturally dissipates, either. Sure, the MIKE-cosigned “Sentry” as well as “27 Braids” contain some of the coldest and rawest bars Earl’s ever committed to tape, but it’s not like deeper cuts “Mac Deuce” or “Sirius Blac” don’t get topped by more exciting moments on each single one of his past four records. Yet again, album bookends “100 High St” and “Free the Ruler” are exactly the Alchemist-type beats of spineless and concentric sampled pockets that couldn’t call for a better rapper’s flow to be enveloped in than Earl’s. And then “Vin Skully“, at number two on the project, is perhaps the most triumphant belter upon repeated listens, not least on account of its fervent lyrical poignancy: “I don’t know what it is / I remember the ghost inside the crib / Hosin’ down the problem with gin and tonic / How to stay afloat in a bottomless pit / The trick is to stop fallin’ / Only option to start with a step, bet“.

Whether Earl and Al devised this in a deliberate way or not, one thing no one can take away from VOIR DIRE is its gnarly existence across multiple dimensions. There are of course the two sonic plains, embodied by both the non-fungible and licensed DSP version of the full length. Then there’s the greater performance art piece of the album assuming its title’s form, by thought-provoking the epistemological materiality of its meaning. Maybe, the whole point of it all is that there even exists an Earl Sweatshirt version, and an Alchemist one—who knows, perhaps even more? Nonetheless, we can’t quite shake off the feeling that the revered abstract hip-hop producer/rapper duo wasted a giant pun by not naming the record FAUX DIRE. Regardless, we think the joke’s on all of us.

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

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS TIER LIST (UPDATE) | 2023-09-15

30STM_Updated Tier

This is an updated Tier List—find the previous version here.

Support Thirty Seconds to Mars:

https://thirtysecondstomars.com
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/thirty-seconds-to-mars/2307416
https://www.instagram.com/30secondstomars
https://twitter.com/30SECONDSTOMARS

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

ONE-FIVE-TWO | 2023-08-31

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

IF YOUNG METRO DO TRUST YOU | 2023-08-11

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 IS FINE | 2023-07-10

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

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): TAKING BACK SUNDAY – THE ONE | 2023-06-30

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

https://takingbacksunday.com

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): FOO FIGHTERS – BUT HERE WE ARE | 2023-06-04

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

https://foofighters.com