Review: Chvrches, The Bones of What You Believe

I’ve made it clear that electro-pop/techno music isn’t my thing.  A lot of it just feels like a guy playing his ipod to a crowd of people, with a severe lack of talent.  However, there are always some really exciting exceptions that make me eat my words.  Last year, the most notable of these exceptions was Chvrches.  I discovered them at a Two Door Cinema Club gig and have been avidly following their career ever since!

“Lies” and “Recover” had both been released prior to their debut album, The Bones of What You Believe.  At such an early stage in their career, their ability to produce strong, catchy songs like these was so exciting!  There was so much that they could have done with this album, so when the 24^th came around, I was pretty damn excited.  The album features “Lies” and “Recover”, as well as 12 songs and 2 remixes.  There are 6 additional songs available, depending on your edition.

The opening song is a break-up anxiety ridden electronic gem.  From here, the songs only get catchier.  “We Sink” has an addicting chorus: “I'll be a thorn in your side, till you die” and “Gun” is the clear single.  It’s upbeat with great lyrics and is just angry enough to get you chanting them (think Robyn meets Passion Pit).  The beginning of “Tether” reminds me of a lighter version of Florence and the Machine; it’s mesmerizing and enchanting.  “Lies” has been re-recorded for the album and I think this new version has lost the raw, authentic, punchy charm that the original recording had. 

The male vocals, provided by Martin Doherty in “Under the Tide” and “You Caught the Light” add a really nice change-up in the layout of the album.  The chorus of “Night Sky” is M83-intense and, like the intenseness of a lot of other songs on this album, masks the inner complexity.

Considering their lack of instrumentals, Chvrches are able to create some really incredible hooks.  Their music proudly represents the emerging electro-pop genre.  It’s innovative with fantastic songwriting and infectious harmonies.  It’s certainly not the most creative or experimental new album I’ve heard recently, yet that allows them to create seamless arrangements.  It’s layered with constant synth waves and high energy.  Having said that, I think they should have stuck with the electro-pop sound.  The slightly more macabre “Under the Tide” and “Science/Visions” seem out of place and don’t match up to the general pop-grandeur of the rest of the album.

Chvrches are a fiery combination of Passion Pit, Depeche Mode and MS MR. Believe the hype and listen to this album!  They’ve certainly got the potential to be one of the best things to hit U.K. pop music in a while!

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Wilder Maker Part 1: Year of Endless Light Review

For the past 2 months, I’ve had Highs on repeat – surprising after my slightly obsessive review, huh?  In timing somewhat akin to fate, I recently discovered Wilder Maker and Highs have acted as the perfect warm-up for them.  Lead singer Gabe Birnbaum contacted me and very kindly sent me a copy of their new LP, Year of Endless Light – is there a better kind of mail to get?! 

A quick read through his bio said that he, like me, is from Boston so I may have had a slight bias when I went to listen the 8-track LP.  At first glance, I was a little taken aback as the tracks range from 4 to 12 minutes!  That’s a bold move, given the emerging ADHD generation.  While people will listen to all 8 minutes of “Stairway to Heaven” there are endless songs that just aren’t compelling enough to convince people to stick them out.

So, in order to prevent myself from completely making my mind up about them before having heard a single note (this is a legitimate problem I have with music!), I moved on to the first track: “Float Us Through the Barroom”.

The song begins with soft guitar and each syllable beautifully stretched out.  A duet soon emerges that seamlessly weaves into the accelerating guitar.  I find Birnbaum’s voice so fascinating as through each song it seems to seesaw between strength and desperation.  Each word is passionate and warm, and it feels like the words are being drawn out by the instrumentals, which results in a very pleasant tone.

The next track, “Wasting my Time” changes up the tone completely!  Suddenly, you’re a fly on the wall in a dustbowl jam session with Woodie Guthrie – Birnbaum’s voice even conforms to the change in genre.  The song finishes with a 70s-inspired guitar riff.  This is the type of song that I picture M. Ward producing if he spent a few years in Alabama!  I’m generally not a big country fan, but this is a great track.

“Hangs Hooks” then darkens the mood with ominous harmonies and is followed by “Song for the Singer”, perhaps my favorite song off the LP!   It’s a little slow, and definitely not the most exciting track off the album.  However, this is the music at its finest for me.  My favorite song of all time is “Uncertain Smile” by The The.  It’s caulk-full of solos leading up to a very longwinded crescendo with the best kind of lyrics: poetic and ambiguous.  While “Song for the Singer” sounds nothing like “Uncertain Smile”, it’s still that type of song and is a win in my book.  However, it could definitely be shortened (it’s 12 minutes and 30 seconds!), not that I felt myself thinking that throughout the 12 minutes.   “Invisible Order” is another one of those types of songs.  It begins with an unexpected saxophone; the first 15 seconds are suitable for a plot change in an Audrey Hepburn movie!  The vocal doubling on the track is really well done and there are some beautiful trumpet and piano solos weaved in.

At first, “Slow Life” reminded me of Bon Iver, but after a few more listens the song is actually very unique.  Usually the easiest way to describe an artist or a track is to compare it to another artist or track… but with this one I really struggled!  It has mesmerizing lyrics, harmonies so strong and passionate it sounds like a full choir and a captivating chorus.  This is the best song off the album, no question.

“Lullaby” preemptively slows you down for the end of the album and for the last song, “Holy Night”.   This is perhaps a slower way to end the album then I would have liked, given the more upbeat beginning.  “Holy Night” is peaceful track, however, calling a song “Holy Night” and including jingle bells makes a little out of place! It’s a great song, but it probably should have been saved for a Christmas album – and this is coming from a Jew!

Year of Endless Light is a music genre roulette wheel where you win at every outcome.  I’ve previously said how I love bands that can venture out into a new genre without losing what they quintessentially are.  Yet, this usually happens across separate albums… not throughout a single LP!  On YoEL, each song literally changes genre, but I never found myself disappointed.  This makes it difficult to know much about the band as I’m not sure I could even place them in a genre (it’s going to take me ages to write the labels for this post!).

As I listened to and experienced a multitude of instruments, vocals and genres, I found that it was all accompanied by a bizarre feeling of understanding.  Even though you won’t completely know what’s happening to you as you hear each track… you’ll just get it.  If that’s not the sign of an impressive musician and lyricist, I’m not really sure what is.

Year of Endless Light was released today!  It can be heard and downloaded here.  I was lucky enough to get to chat with lead singer Gabe Birnbaum and ask him a few questions about the album - all this to come tomorrow!  In the meantime, you've got 8 fantastic tracks to get your hands on.

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If You're Going to Listen to One Indie Band This Year - Make it Highs!

I don’t even know how to begin to explain my excitement over this band.  They’ve released one self-titled EP with a total of five songs and I am literally jumping up and down with excitement over it as I type this!  The band is composed of 5 musicians from all over Canada and has a fresh, modern sound with an unexpected afro-beat inclusion.  I previously wrote about Little Comets and I was talking about how they had some unwelcome genre changes with a few songs that I didn’t think flowed with the rest of their album or their work.  Sometimes, artists should just stick to what they know.  Unless you’re Highs… and you apparently know everything!

To prove this, I’ll go through each song on their EP and you won’t believe that I’m talking about the same band!

“Summer Dress” is a summer anthem, no question.  It’s cheerful, catchy, and romantic and honestly sounds like the beach.  Don’t ask me what “sounds like the beach” actually means, as I won’t be able to give you an answer… but it really does!  It starts off with a Foals-style guitar intro that leads into a quick and up-beat percussion.  Bands like The White Stripes and She & Him have developed the modern duet.  In this song, Highs introduce their fresh take on that, with a trio comprised of lead singer Doug Haynes, Karrie Douglas and Joel Harrower.

The first Highs song that I heard was “Nomads” and I think it’s their most beautiful song to date.  The stunning duet between Haynes and Douglas demonstrates their highly compatible vocals weaving together in a crescendo to the final chorus of “Yeah, I know it hurts you when I’m leaving, but I must because it’s something I believe in”.  Their lyrics are simple, yet powerful; the true sign of a fantastic songwriter.  Also, prepare to have “Give it up” echoing in your head after a few listens!  Probably not that best message, but catchy nonetheless.

“Harvest” slows things down even more with a dreamy intro, only to break into a catchy indie-pop beat about halfway through.  The control demonstrated in the vocals here is really incredible.  If you’re not already a fan at this point in the EP, then music probably isn’t for you.  Just kidding, but how could you not be?!

Even though “Fleshy Bones” sounds nothing like TV Girl, the combination of the lyrics and melody reminded me of them.  This is because the dramatic nature of the lyrics, where the narrator is questioning every aspect of their relationship and the alternative motives that their partner has for staying with them, while retaining a poppy, up-beat melody.  I absolutely love when bands do this and I think it’s such a cool way to present a dark theme.

“Cannibal Coast” is a perfect song to conclude this EP as it really encompasses Highs' style, tone, and most importantly, skill.  The arrangement is beautiful and the vocals are addictive.

A lot of new music today begins as catchy, but soon becomes repetitive and boring the more you listen to it.  Highs have produced an EP full of songs that need to be listened to over and over again in order to appreciate intricate aspects that aren’t apparent at first listen.

Highs epitomize everything that I love about music and I can’t wait to follow their career and see what they do next!  Their music is available for free, here, but it's an EP that's really worth buying and a band that's worth supporting!

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Introduction to TV Girl

I really love hearing stories about bands whose members had day jobs and did music on the side – until their music became their day job.  This is what up and coming band, TV Girl, did and I don’t see them reverting back to their day jobs any time soon.  The band is comprised of vocalist Brad Petering and keyboardist/guitarist/vocalists Trung Ngo and Joel Williams.  While growing up together they had participated in small music projects, but their major music attempt is TV Girl.  They have previously released mix-tapes and their first official album is called Lonely Woman.

Their music feels like easy listening with a garage band touch – and a little pop thrown in.  However, they add a unique, urban touch by sampling the likes of Todd Rundgren, Bob Dylan and Tracy Chapman.  In this sense, their style is vaguely reminiscent of JJ, who take modern rap songs and create songs like this or this.  TV Girl do something similar, albeit with a garage band touch, while sharing the chill vibes that both bands produce.  Honestly, their sampling it good but doesn’t produce anything special, the way JJ does.  That being said, their original songs are really great and if they keep producing these then I’d be surprised if they remain as unknown as they seem to be!

If you’re just getting acquainted with TV Girl, I recommend starting with their mix-tape from 2012, The Wild, The Innocent, the TV.   My favorites from this include “Loud and Clear”, which is a catchy summer tune featuring some of my favorite TV Girl lyrics, “Look at us now, aren’t we all so fabulously clever? - Don’t we all just have such witty things to say - Have you noticed how it all just blends together - And melts away?”.  It also features “Sweaters” which is short and sweet and “I Wonder Who She’s Kissing Now” is a perfectly uplifting vintage pop song. 

I’ve said this before, but I have a tendency to be hugely biased towards songs that mention my name.  Regardless of this mention, “Sarah (Meet Me in The Sauna)” is a great song and really demonstrates the merging of their vintage pop influence with their garage band style.

Their newest release was on June 18^th, entitled Lonely Woman.  Unsurprisingly, each song is about girls and features the increasingly recognizable, intentionally lazy sounding vocals of their previous work.  I really like the first of five songs on the album, “She Smokes in Bed”.  The light-hearted tone of the song is quite facetious as the lyrics depict the slow demise of an insecure woman.  The next song, “Laura” reminds me of Matt & Kim with its singsong melody.  “My Girlfriend” has been on repeat while I’ve been writing this.  It tackles the depression of the narrator’s girlfriend with that facetious humor that TV Girl likes to use “My girlfriend – always leaves a mess – she says she’s going to clean – but she always forgets”.  “Easier to Cry” continues with their dark tone and lonely themes and explains how crying is a favorable alternative to suicide, purely based on its lack of difficulty!  The final story discusses the very replaceable “Melanie” and portrays her anonymity by comparing her to a myriad of women with ordinary names (Stephanie, Jane, Amy, Emily, etc.).

What’s really standout about TV Girl is, to me, the mixture of complex lyrics with happy-go-lucky melodies.  This is most apparent on Lonely Woman, which obviously implies that the band will be heading in this direction in the future.  I would recommend listening to the songs here, as you have the option to open the lyrics while listening.  I say this particularly with TV Girl because the deceiving melodies make it easy to overlook the serious content of the lyrics.  Also, the lyrics are very clever and well written, which makes this band so special compared to the endless new indie bands out there today!  Seriously, this band is awesome - check them out!

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Review: MS MR, Secondhand Rapture

I was halfway through making a playlist for this summer when I remembered that MS MR’s debut album, Secondhand Rapture, had been released on the 14^th.  I quickly found it on iTunes with the intention of listening to a few songs to get an idea of what they had done on their full album after their previous few EPs.  After sampling 3 songs I bought the album and have been listening non-stop all day. I certainly will not need my summer playlist – this album is all I see myself listening to for at least the next month!

When I was younger, I remember being elated when a new Avril Lavigne or Green Day album would be released.  I would convince my dad to drive straight to Best Buy the morning of the release and then he would have the pleasure of listening to that and only that for the next 6 months.  With the sheer amount of music that is so readily available now, I don’t get the feeling of being that excited over a band very often.  Yet, MS MR has given it to me once again, and I think they’re going to have the same effect on a lot of other people.

Recently, all of the new music I’ve heard has been one of two things: synthesizer-laden pop music where the listeners are provided the challenge of differentiating between songs or a guy essentially playing his ipod to a stadium full of people.  Yet, throughout Secondhand Rapture, each song does not blend monotonously into the next.  Each song is different, coherent and addicting!  With the similar name and male-female duo, the obviously instinct is to compare MS MR to She & Him.  Yet, about 30 seconds into the first song, their sound is so unique and strong that the resemblance is immediately forgotten.  Still, lead singer Lizzy Plapinger’s voice reminds me of Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine and MS MR do sound quite like a darker version of F+TM.  

While the dark lyrics and tones of each song are what initially draw you in, the unique addition of echoing and heavy drums makes it impossible not to listen to these songs over and over again.  I love the use of drums on “Salty Sweet” and the openness of the lyrics along with the vivid orchestra of “Hurricane”.  While “Bones” and “Hurricane” are the obvious singles off the album, “Fantasy”, “Ash Tree Lane” and “Head Is Not My Home” are also very strong.

With the option of buying only one or two songs, rather than an entire album (thanks to iTunes), bands have been under more and more pressure in the last 10 or so years.  This means that there is less leeway for filler songs.  Clearly, MS MR has not been fazed by the idea of using filler songs and I believe that Secondhand Rapture is the strongest debut album so far of 2013! 

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Chvrches

When I first heard this band at Alexandra Palace, opening for Two Door Cinema club, I wasn’t too impressed.  At first listen they seemed like another uninspired 80s techno impersonator group.  That being said, upon further listening of their hit track ‘Lies’ I’ve changed my opinion!  I really like the industrial tone of the song (it reminds of me Depeche Mode), and the strong female vocal is great!  When they first came onto the stage and the music began, no one was particularly enamored with them.  However, as soon as lead singer Lauren Mayberry began to sing there was something so booming and attention grabbing about her voice that heads were constantly turning and watching her performance.

The band originates from Glasgow.  It consists of synthesizers/vocalists Lain Cook and Martin Doherty, with lead vocalist Lauren Mayberry.  Their full album will be released in September of this year!

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Shimmering Stars // "I'm Gonna Try"

Starting a song with the words, “Walking down the street and I wanna kill everyone I see” makes it inherently amazing.  This British Columbia-bred group has stated their influences as a mixture of 50s and 60s bands, including the Everly Brothers, Del Shannon, Phil Spector and Bo Diddley.  The unique tone of this song, and their first album, Violent Hearts, accurately represents these icons.  They have the sound of a pop band, but with a sock-hop beat.  Such a cool band - definitely worth checking out!

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The Colourist

Little Games (St. Lucia Remix) could not be more different from my usual taste in music.  Nevertheless, with summer coming up (although you wouldn’t know it with London weather right now!), the excited sweetness of this song has been getting me through exams.  I’ve checked out some of their other releases and have been hooked on “Wishing Wells” and “Yes Yes”!  This band is definitely on the up and up – so it’s worth keeping an eye out for them!

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