Alright, alright, alright. So we took the spring off. Fine. FINE. THAT IS THE END OF THAT SHIT.
In honor of the three lazy butts that run this website, we bring you FOWR FOR FLINCHING: where each of us pick two to four albums that we should have done some kind of gushy content about, but we were too busy getting into trouble or something. So instead we’re giving short reviews, to get the narrative back in line and keep moving.
AND HERE ARE MINE!
Mesita – Here’s To Nowhere
In a discussion of the year in music so far, my brother Dave pointed out that this is my favorite record to be released so far, and that it was obvious: “It was free, and you paid for it.” True. Here’s To Nowhere is the album I needed to hear when it showed up in my life, much like Bon Iver Bon Iver for Andrew (see Podcast?11). There’s a strong theme of Run in the whole record, of needing to escape cities and strangers and daylight, only to see what would be left at the end. I feel that all, every moment I’m awake. It’s beautiful and humanizing like only one or two albums ever have been for me.
You can find Here’s To Nowhere at mesita.bandcamp.com
Personal fav: Lose The Plot
tUnE-yArDs – w h o k I l l
As a white dude, I feel pretty unqualified to talk about this record. To cite one specific review, it’s an album that’s about identity politics, about femininity, sex and violence as one coin and a whole hell of a lot else. However unequipped I am to really discuss those ideas, what I can say is that the album addresses it all with such ease and dexterity that it’s not at all alienating. Not because of some generality that would cause ambiguity of meaning- it’s all relatively obvious- but because Merrill Gibbus is so god damned clever and talented that it works. Joyous, lovable, smart music that doesn’t sound like anything else while sounding like what you’ve wanted to hear for years.
w h o k i l l is widely availible. Although, Insound sucks. They sent me this really annoying booklet and some 3D glasses the last time I ordered from them.
personal fav: You Yes You
Roommate – Guilty Rainbow
Similar to both albums, the centerpiece is lyrics. Difference being that where Mesita talks about peace inside through being outside, and tUnE-yArDs poses difficult questions from a passion for the world, Roommate skips right to the endgame: Earth’s end and what you can hold onto on the way out. From lamenting the lives of the faithful and foolish, the inherent privilege of distracting pop artists, to the release nihilism can bring, Guilty Rainbow is a fucking grim document. On top of all of the devastation of the original songs, the album also takes two already somber songs and covers them with such a keen ear that they fit in with the rest of the laid out hellscape. Of course, this all probably makes the music sound a lot more tonally harsh than it is. A Tom Waits quote applies: “Everyone loves bad news from a pretty mouth.”
You can find Guilty Rainbow at roommate.bandcamp.com
Personal fav: Ghost Pigeon
Fermata over Whole Rest 