Taylor Swift: "Midnights"

 

Imagine a pop album not overrun by an assembly line of producers and outside songwriters. Taylor has got you covered with that. Having started off as a musician and song writer before fully wading into the pop waters, she has an advantage over her peers with whom she shares the radio waves.  She opens the album with slick and smooth pop with more substance than the rest of the shit kids are dancing to on Tik Tok these days. More introspective and less booty shaking than "Reputation", there is something familiar about "Maroon" yet new enough that it doesn't feel like she is recycling her songs. She has perfected melodies that move around grooves and sings in odd timing just right.  "Anti-Hero" might be the most beat driven banger of them. However, it's her penchant for clever lyrics that makes this one great. 

I first heard a version of "Snow on the Beach" where Lana Del Rey had taken over the entirety of the song. Their voices work together well. Taylor proves she can do more with her voice rather than Lana who sticks to the one sound the bulk of the time. "You're On Your Own Kid" is the first song that feels like it could have been on "Red".  The guitar keeps a simple tension with little hint of her previous life as a country singer. More organic than most pop music today. "Midnight Rain 'has a catchy beat to juxtapose the moodiness. Her vocals bob in and out of the atmosphere that coasts along with the song. "Question?"  continues this more mature path she has been on since "Folklore". It seems the world has jaded her just like everyone else. She however seems pretty willing to look at the part she plays, rather than point fingers the whole time. 

"Vigilante Shit" is another clever lyrical jab, that leans the closest to what she did on "Reputation".  She gives herself more room to open and sing on this one. She continued making sultry slappers with "Bejeweled" which seems to reflect on the social scene in Hollywood these days. "Labyrinth" finds her voice floating over an understated beat.  This almost sounds like a middle finger to anyone who has tried to claim she sings in the same register as her drifts up into her head voice for half the song.  "Karma" is another pop song that glides with the high hat. Vocally the melodies are not unlike what she began doing back on "1989". The melody to "Sweet Nothing" is more hopeful than the bulk of this album. Her melodies stick and move as the dodge where most beats would fall, like she is taking a note from Joni Mitchell. The last song might need a few more listens to grow on me, but I will give this album a 10 as she continues to excel while making music in a genre that normally vomits up disposable jingles for audiences who fall for anything sold to them, so imagine pop music with some thought behind it, what a concept.    

9

Gothtober : Ayria : 'This is My Battle Cry"

 The opener thump is pretty on point for what this artist does. She fuses future pop with dark wave, it has been a minute since I have given any of her work a listen as despite the goth trappings, she is pretty sugary sweet. "Stranger Danger" owes more to Madonna than other dark wave artists. There is a marginally darker pulse to "Why Aren't You Dead Yet" where she ponders what things might be like if she could get away with murder. The 89s runs deep in the synth riffs. The darker steaminess simmers to maximum effectiveness for her, on "Irreplaceable". The melody works much better to slither around the synth grooves. 

"Erase Me from You" is the first song that feels like filler. More formula than feeling, despite the personal lyrics.  "We Can't Love Here Anymore" works where the previous song did not. Alot of the weight falls on Jennifer Pankin and what she decides to do with her voice. I am fine with this sounding more like Lords of Acid on " No One Asked You" . It's got some pretty dope strip club booty bass in it. The Tik Tok kids should be twerking to this in no time. It's stupid fun, but well done and might be the album's best song. The vocals are more refined on "the Next Time" but the synths backing her are less inspired. 

There is a more of a new wave feel to "Too Much Noise". The sounds are better than previous song, but the vocals do not fit as airtight with the hooks. The verses are almost rapped.  The retro 89s beat to the last song works really well, though it becomes another sound vs song battle, the hook does not feel as sharp as what she has shown us she is capable of earlier on this album. I will give this one a 9, despite owing a huge debt to the 80s I think it works better than most of what is on the radio these days,   

Gothtober - Then Comes Silence: " Hunger"

 

This Swedish band bring an industrial strength rock to the table with enough gothic pageantry to satisfy most. There are less aspirations to stalk the Sunset Strip than their Finnish counterparts 69 Eyes. Synths play a much larger roles in the driving crunch of their sound.  Sonically they share a great deal of common ground in the vocal department, with the Alex Svenson, sounding like a cross between Billy Idol and Iggy Pop. Two songs in and he has yet to power out the kind belted growl that Idol is capable of. We pretty much just get his baritone croon. Their formula seems to work of milking the chorus for every bit of hook they can muster from it. 

There is a melodic catchiness to the more dialed back rock of "Cold from Inside".  "Worm" falls into more of an Iggy Pop like take on post-punk. The pulse of "Chain" is more compelling, but the vocals fail to prove they are more than a one trick pony.  They go for another more punk tinged guitar focused number with "Weird Gets Strange". I like how the female vocals double up the lead vocals, but with the lead vocals had more range or power.  They are beginning to give the songs to uniform of a feel. I like the lyrics to "Days and Years", which has a new wave feel, but the vocals continue to stagnate these songs. Not to the point of it being a deal breaker, but I can feel the tedium setting it. 

They get closer to 69 Eyes neighborhood with "Blood Runs Cold".  The guitars to "Pretty Creatures" are more dynamic, but this one picks up where the previous song left off. They have catchy song and are working off of sounds I like, which are typical in goth music, so I am their target audience. At just under six minutes "Close Shot" is the album's longest song. The last song sounds like Dollar Store Fields of the Nephilim. I will give this album an 8, it works for what it is, if you have a high tolerance for less than dynamic vocals, this might work better for you but even in its current state if you like middle of the road goth rock, then you will dig this.    

link to band camp below...

 

Hunger by THEN COMES SILENCE

Karin Park: " Private Collection"

 

I have been a fan of Park's earlier pop album and kept an open ear toward the work she has done since. I do not normally review collections, but these are songs she has re-envisioned and decided to record again with new arrangements that lay her vocals bear with only a piano or organ accompanying her.  She has a great deal of integrity as an artist to embark upon making an album like this when given today's current pop landscape we have artists when two dozen producers and another dozen songwriters helping them create product for Tik Tok, with not true artistry. 

The dramatically stripped-down minimalist approach does high light here voice. For the first two songs this formula works really well and showcases a richness to her voice I had now notice before and propels the tracks on raw talent.  "Bending Albert's Law' begins to remind me a little of Kate Bush. Which is a compliment in and of itself, though the song itself is not as compelling to me as the first two. "Tokyo by Night" has Kjetil from Arabrot landing his voice. The adds a darker tension to things. The synth pulse also creates a more dynamic range of sound. If Fever Ray made a folk album, I think it would hold a similar urgency. There is a sultrier torch song swagger to "Blue Roses". I would expect this more for Nora Jones, but Park does it well. 

The smoky lounge balladry continues with "Shine". This is the first track where I still hear the skeleton of the original. 'Give" shows off her pipes which goes a long way with me, but the arrangement is not as compelling as some of the others we have heard. The more stripped-down feel works more like a remix of the pop song "Look What You've Done". The last song sets her up as Norway's answers to Sinead O Conner. I will give this album a 9. Not what I would listen to as much as one of her pop albums, but it is a bold artistic statement that asserts herself as a singer on her own terms.  

Gothtober- Black Math Horseman : "s/t"

 

Sera Timms of Ides of Gemini is back with this project that features Chelsea Wolfe's live guitarist Bryan Tulao. Marginally less goth than Ides, they occupy a more metallic space that succeeds in brewing up tension that is dark enough to feel heavy. They occupy a shadowy sonic space that blends elements of many genres. They waste little time building the tension, like clouds gathering over the ocean. Her voice cries out in a melancholy moan. The guitars carry a buzz that is not metal enough to be black metal but is more aggressive than post-rock. In many ways the often-droning tension reminds me of the Swans in how they attack your ears with the pounding they bring. 

I enjoy the mood wrought from their tortured instruments, though they tend to use similar colors to paint these songs with. "Boar Domane" lingers a little more in post-rockish atmosphere, before the attack. Her vocals are allowed more space to simmer in. Like Siouxsie her coo provides a juxtaposition to the darkness when at it's less urgent plead. It took a couple listens for this song to full grow on me an distinguish itself from the previous song. They do not attack your ears with the more explosive shift of dynamics until well within the four-minute mark of the song, so more than halfway into it. Then they do not smack you with the guitars like they do on the first song. It is what post-punk sounds like with a metal drummer. 

There is a gloomier more plodding feel to "the Bough".  A song that does not work off the same tension of the first two songs and makes it apparent her singing style on this album is less focused on melody and works off of a series of atmospheric chants that accent where the music is hitting. Compared to the other 7-minute songs on this album the three minute closer, feels more like an outro. It is dreamy, though works off similar dynamics just less amplified.  This album works for what it sets out to do, I will give it a 9.  

Alvvays : "Blue Rev"

 With a sound that is from a woozy corner of the 90s, this band from Canada manages to fuse quaint pop ditties with a swirl of ambiance. What is going to be key for them going forward is how well they blend to the sides of what they do. There are melodies that emerge which at times can be happier than what I normally listen to . However, when tempered to the more surreal drug drip of effects for the disenfranchised lyrics to ponder over things work out for the best as heard on "Easy on Your Own". The jangle of Smiths like guitars on "After the Earthquake" keeps the song coasting in a more organic indie rock direction. This works better than when they just default to the most likely sounds of the 90s. Thought even on default mode there ingrained sense of melodies keeps them from falling into mediocrity. 

They begin to lean more in an indie rock direction with "Pressed". The jangle of the guitar flowing like a lazy wine on a fall afternoon. Sometimes this feels more dialed in than others. The thoughtful guitars of "Many Mirrors" ambles hopefully on, though the colors the use are beginning to sound more uniform halfway into the album.  I appreciate the new wave quirk to "Very Online Guy".  They knock it out of the park when going for the bigger pop melodies on "Velveteen". This shows all the hipster edges aside, when it comes down to it, they can write songs. They are also pretty versatile mood wise when it comes to pop as heard on "Tile by Tile". The more poppy garage rock on "Pomeranian Spinster" is not my thing. They split the different on "Belinda Says " that marries youthful optimism with mature songwriting. 

All of their songs are three-minute ditties so when they do not vibe with me as much, it is pretty harmless in regard to time invested in listening to them. With 14 songs there is a bigger margin for error. It feels like some of the steam in waning by the time we get to the languid "Bored in Bristol". The first ballad that eases into a more folk sound is "Lottery Noises" they amble out of this with an almost country feel, the last song sounds like a demo Lana Del Rey might have made if she was really stoned. I will give this album that was five years in the making a 9, could have been trimmed a couple of it's songs, but there are some excellent pop moments that are hazy enough to appeal to bong smokers more than Taylor Swift fans.   

Brutus : "Unison Life"

 Thankfully this Belgian band is back. I was a big fan of their last album. This time around they are leaning more into the atmosphere and when they do decide to kick into things on "Brave" there is a bigger more rock like sound. A Bjork like quality still lingers in her voice. They pick up momentum, blending melody with the ringing echo of the guitar. It is hard to define what they are doing here genre wise which speaks to the unique nature of their sound. It is almost more shoe gazing. Not really as much hard-core punch. There song writing has matured as heard on "Victoria". The pulse of the song is more urgent, but almost hooky. They jangle along with more of a indie rock feel at times. 

"What Have We Done" might be the album's best song as it is so emotionally explosive. In a way that feels real. You can tell when they are not faking this sort of thing. "Dust" is a more punk like charge forward with a great deal of drive and kinetic energy. The atmospheric tension of the guitars is not unlike something Deafheaven might have done at one time. "Liar" is also pretty driven, though more melodic than the previous song. This balance is also felt in her vocal delivery which carries at little growl around the delicate edges. The interplay of the drums and bass is pretty impressive.  "Chainlife" was a song I had to give another listen to in order to fully digest. It first sounded like it could have been a break down coming off the previous song. It is more deliberate in its pacing and thicker in the ambiance. These arrangements and their dynamic pay offs make a lot of sense when you consider the singer is also the drummer. 

If AC/DC had been an indie rock band in the earliy 2000s, then the riff to "Hell's Bells" might sound more like the guitar to "Storm". This song finds her drumming has really stepped up. The drums to " Dreamlife" are punk manic, while the rest of the band is soaring off into the atmospheric collage of sound they have woven.  Perhaps gaze-core, is the sub-genre that best suits them these days, as this album goes off into its own star filled place in the sky.  They get frantically blasty building up the last song, though the guitar makes things interesting along the way to balance out when she gets too caught up in the moment. I will give this album a 9.5, as it's an improvement over how much the previously impressed me with the previous album and cements them as a creative force to stand shoulder to shoulder with any band in this scope of sonic heaviness.