100 words music reviews
The opening licks on ‘Breadcrumb Trail’ do not imply the sprawling jam of ‘Spiderland,’ nor do they show any signs of its nocturnal ambience. This record flooded from the basement of a band not doing as well as they could, while playing with a pointed creative privilege. The introspection means that they cannot flail outwardly. […]
Clarice Lispector’s 1973 work ‘Agua Viva’ is written in the syllabic flow of a perfect novel, but expressed through streaming narratives and hellishly opaque metaphor. An outline. I think Bob Dylan had the same idea on ‘Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands’ – to write passively with lyrical latitude and have faith that between alien […]
We expend a lot of energy trying not to be irritable, so when anger rises it rouses the question of whether to silence it or push forward. That, of course, depends on stimuli. For 7 Year Bitch, the stimulus was the death of their guitarist, Stefanie Sargent, and the brutal murder of their friend, The […]
Of all the terms I read when scanning the mixed user reviews for Loaded, ‘lukewarm’ struck me the most. This was the Velvet Underground record that intended to leave the warehouse and make love to the radio (almost literally on Rock & Roll). The blueprint foretold breezy, warm, and painless tracks, where the droning sonic […]
We never entirely trust the ostensible positivity of Flaming Swords. It’s a disarming album of very smooth jazz, which it then cuts up into unpredictable, coltish motions. The septet have an infectious sense of play that – forgive the middle-class dad analysis – the French do very well. Fievel is Glauque succeed less in producing […]
LA has its own unique psychedelic environment which can be seen today through the surreal lives of influencers and those scratching at the door of hot, empty fame. But in the mid-1960s, there was a genuine fascination for where the mental boundary was and how it could be snapped in two. The Human Expression never […]
Tom Greenhouse sounds like the coworker you never know beyond the timesheet; or the man who takes your details while setting up a council tax account; or the guy who accidentally drops his satchel on your feet on a crowded bus. This is an account of a soul-sucked eyeline and it’s hope for spiritual revival. […]
Glam-punk tends to reference characters who fight, fuck, self-destruct, and at some level, love. The various dichotomies across Endure inevitably become codependent: the glam doesn’t pour glitter over the punk and the punk doesn’t take a shit on the glam. They unite, and it works in a special way. The externally questioning half of this […]
The cover of Exile poses two possible scenarios: the person is being thrown, or they are raising their head as an expression of openness. The status of ‘exile’ holds the same dualism—free, in theory only, to go anywhere but your home. The record is a story of youthful longing, and we imagine the protagonist walking […]
100 words music reviews 