December is upon us, and before we dive into year-end list season, the first Friday of the last month of the year has a surprisingly stacked line-up of new releases for our collective consideration. I’ll be highlighting four of them below: new albums from Misophone, The Brights, and Gabby’s World, and a new EP from Get Wrong. This busy week has also featured the November 2023 Playlist/Round-Up and a Monday Pressing Concerns (featuring Neighboring Sounds, Dot Dash, Flat Mary Road, and Colt Wave), so check those too if you missed them earlier. And last but not least: don’t forget to vote in the 2023 Rosy Overdrive Reader’s Poll!
If you’re looking for more new music, you can visit the site directory to see what else we’ve written about lately. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.
Misophone – A Floodplain Mind
Release date: December 1st Record label: Another Record/Galaxy Train Genre: Chamber pop, folk rock, psych pop Formats: CD, cassette, digital Pull Track: All the Ghosts of Evening
Around Christmastime 2017, I discovered The Machine That Made Us by Flotation Toy Warning because somebody (I believe it was Trust the Wizards) had put it on their year-end list. The sophomore album from the cult chamber pop group was like nothing I’d heard before at the time, a collection of grandiose pop statements that seemed to materialize out of nothing and hover around in the ether indefinitely. I bring this up because I’m about to suggest you spend time with a two-hour-long album called A Floodplain Mind that checks a lot of the same boxes that those two Flotation Toy Warning albums do for me. The English band Misophone (led by the songwriting duo of S. Herbert and M.A. Welsh and featuring a host of other instrumental contributors) arose in the mid-2000s, releasing at least seven albums between 2007 and 2013. However, their only release in the past decade has been the archival And So Sinks the Sun on a Burning Sea–but the massive, ten-years-in-the-making A Floodplain Mind more than bridges that gap. The album–being offered as a double CD or double cassette–is as overwhelming in its composition (thirty songs and, as stated previously, 120 minutes) and adventurous in its arrangements as it is friendly and welcoming at its core.
A Floodplain Mind is certainly a lot to take in at once, but Misophone’s sense of pop songwriting makes it just about as “digestible” as something of this size can be. “All the Ghosts of Evening” and “Heart for Hills” ease us all into the album with a pleasing mix of chamber pop, orchestral psych pop, and earnest folk rock–they cite Elephant 6 as an influence, and the record comes off as something like a more-put-together older sibling to that scene’s scattered psychedelia. Featuring over a dozen guest musicians, A Floodplain Mind is more prone to surprise the listener in discrete moments throughout the record than throw everything at you at once–yes, there’s harp and bassoon and hurdy gurdy strewn throughout the album, but the core of Welsh and Herbert’s sprawling but accessible folk-pop writing is rarely flooded. Picking favorite songs from this one is difficult because just about the entire album is made up of legitimately well-crafted pop music and can strike at any given listen, but I will say to make sure you stick around for the second half of the album, because plenty of the most immediate numbers (“Night Comes Early”, “Strange and Sombre”, “Flickering Lights”) come after the break. To every band that’s been away for a decade–the bar for their returns has been set incredibly high with A Floodplain Mind. (Bandcamp link)
The Brights – Oyster Rock!
Release date: December 1st Record label: Meritorio/Stable Genre: Folk rock, indie pop, jangle pop Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Everyone in Town
Between Spice World, The Small Intestines, and Wurld Series, Meritorio Records has dug up plenty of odd but captivating indie pop from the edge of the world this year. Their latest foray Down Under comes in the form of the debut record from Sydney quintet The Brights, who’ve put out a couple of EPs since their origin in the late 2010s. Oyster Rock! contains plenty of the jangly guitars that are a hallmark for their label, but the band (vocalist/guitarist Sunny Blayney, vocalist/bassist Samuel Morris, drummer Cooper Anderson, guitarist Dylan Ferguson, and keyboardist Will Maddock) dress up these dozen tracks in laid-back, wandering folk rock skins that lead to this album sounding even more timeless and stateless than those of their peers. Oyster Rock! is (for the most part) slow-moving, but it’s not exactly “minimal”, with Maddock’s keys and Blayney and Ferguson’s six-strings frequently stacking on top of each other to make an album that’s either on the “ornate” side of “plain” or vice versa.
“Waiting”, the track with which Oyster Rock! opens, feels aptly named. It manages to sound joyous while opting for a hold music level of quietness–we’re almost in Belle & Sebastian territory here. The Brights shift into gear a song later on “Enough of You”, which that takes its time getting to the meat of the track and borrows a bit of drone-y guitar pop charm from their neighbors over in New Zealand. There’s a rainy and melancholy streak that turns up throughout the record–it really comes into focus on the shimmering “Quiet as a Cloud” and the folk strumming of “You Know That I’m Wrong”, but these aren’t the only instances (for example, there’s a song called “Overcast Hangover” on here, and it sounds like it). The swaggering power pop of “Everyone in Town” is the one true rocker on Oyster Rock!, although some of the more hushed moments are also broken up by the country-rock groove of “River Dogs” (which might be one of the most “early Wilco”-sounding songs I’ve ever heard come out of Australia) and the slow-building dream-psych-pop conclusion of “Detour Sign”. The Brights’ primary mode is more casual and subtle than these louder moments, but when taken as a single piece of relaxed but developed guitar pop, everything makes sense. (Bandcamp link)
Gabby’s World – Gabby Sword
Release date: December 1st Record label: Carrot All Genre: Indie pop, synthpop, indie folk, singer-songwriter Formats: Digital Pull Track: Just for You to Hear
Gabby’s World is the project of Gabby Smith, a New York singer-songwriter who initially came up during the bedroom pop/indie folk boom in the mid-2010s alongside acts like Told Slant, Florist, Bellows, and Free Cake for Every Creature. A handful of records and singles led to 2015’s Double Double Whammy-released O.K., a stunning, dexterous album that remains one of my favorites to come out of that entire era, and the just-as-good Year of the Rabbit EP the following year. Smith’s songs could range from delicate folk constructions to grandiose, sweeping indie rock, something that remained true with O.K.’s full-length follow-up, 2018’s Beast on Beast. That album was underappreciated in its time, and preceded a half decade of silence from Gabby Smith the musician. Gabby’s World went on ice for a half-decade as Smith took a break from music, until inspiration from their now-wife, fellow musician Barrie Lindsay, led to Gabby Sword. Released song by song over 2023’s twelve months, the album reflects Lindsay and Smith’s romantic and creative partnerships in the music (which probes new territory for Gabby’s World) and in the subject matter (dealing with Smith’s newfound queer identity and the partner they found in Lindsay).
The thirteen tracks of Gabby Sword embrace the “pop” end of bedroom pop–although it’s not exactly a “studio as instrument” reinvention of their entire style, the indie folk of past Gabby’s World records is largely superseded by a wider-ranging, synth-driven indie pop rock sound. I’d still consider it on the more minimal side of synthpop, and though the prominent drum machine beats of songs like “Just for You to Hear”, “Powerful”, and “Open the Door” are certainly stark, there are plenty of moments more reflecting of their previous output, like the quiet “33” and the electric folk rock of “Restore”. Even as the music changes, however, Smith remains the focal point, and their writing is recognizable even as it covers some different ground. The question that hangs at the end of “Just for You to Hear” feels like a look into their mind as they stepped away from music while at the same time sounding like vintage Gabby’s World, and the piano pop of “Fabby” lets Smith deliver a straight (well, er…) love song in a way I don’t think they’ve gotten to do as of yet. Smith and Lindsay balance the new and familiar on Gabby Sword in a way that makes for a welcome return. (Bandcamp link)
Get Wrong – Get Wrong
Release date: December 1st Record label: Father/Daughter/Alcopop! Genre: Synthpop, indie pop Formats: CD, digital Pull Track: Too Late to Hide
Get Wrong is a new project that brings together two underground indie rock ringers in Naomi Griffin of Martha and Adam Todd of The Spook School–although the duo take a turn away from the fizzy British power-pop-punk that’s defined both of them in my mind on their debut EP as a group. The five-song Get Wrong EP was recorded and produced by Peter Brewis of Field Music, and finds Griffin and Todd diving headfirst into full-on 1980s-inspired synthpop. It’s a bit surprising that these DIY indie rockers have committed so completely to their new sound on the EP, but given that their backgrounds are nevertheless in pop music (whenever Martha comes up, I simply must mention that 2016’s Blisters in the Pit of My Heart is one of the best albums of any kind from the past decade), it’s not a shock to see them excel at it as well.
Although Get Wrong isn’t a lush, oversaturated work of electronic music, it’s not rudimentary either, displaying Griffin and Todd’s intent to actually explore the various new doors and openings that synthpop affords them rather than just plugging in keyboards where guitars would’ve been. Synth accents and flourishes color these five songs, adding to a rich pop canvas that’s already quite strong due to the singers’ emotional, full vocals bursting through the music. Griffin’s hooks on “Something to Tell You” (“…I don’t wanna hurt you, but keeping it in would hurt you too”) and “Crying My Eyes Out” (“…for hours, thinking of you”) are as tangible and potent as anything she’s done with Martha, and while the music is a bit subtler on these slightly rawer ones, it’s still just as polished an exploration of synthpop as the more straight-up anthems found earlier in the EP (although as massive as something like “Too Late to Hide” sounds, there’s still plenty going on under the surface of that one, too). All told, it’s more than enough to make Get Wrong an intriguing starting point. (Bandcamp link)
Rosy Overdrive is rolling full steam ahead into December, but first, a look back at a bunch of songs I’ve enjoyed over this past month. Plenty of miscellaneous 2023 releases in here as I put together the blog’s various year-end lists and give everything I’ve meant to give a listen a little bit of attention before closing the curtains on the year (this will continue into December, don’t worry). Also, we had a Pressing Concerns go up yesterday (featuring Neighboring Sounds, Dot Dash, Flat Mary Road, and Colt Wave), so check that out too if you missed it. Plus, the Rosy Overdrive Reader’s Poll opened up yesterday–go vote!!!
Mo Troper, Teenage Tom Petties, and These Estates have multiple songs on this playlist.
Here is where you can listen to the playlist on various streaming services: Spotify, Tidal, BNDCMPR. Be sure to check out previous playlist posts if you’ve enjoyed this one, or visit the site directory. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.
“Ona”, Hammer No More the Fingers From Silver Zebra (2023, Trinity House/Defend Vinyl)
I hadn’t heard of Durham, North Carolina’s Hammer No More the Fingers until recently, when I read a Talkhouse interview between the band’s Duncan Webster and Sam Goblin of Mister Goblin. That’s an A-tier cosign, so I checked out Silver Zebra–their first release since 2012, as it turns out–and it’s very good! To me, this is “XTC-core”; you could get away with calling this “power pop”, you might be able to sneak “math rock” in there mostly due to the band’s name, but what stuff like “Ona” is more than anything else is immediate, hard-hitting, interesting, and exploratory guitar music.
“Citgo Sign”, Mo Troper From Troper Sings Brion (2023, Lame-O)
Mo Troper! We’ve gotten (at least one) Mo Troper full-length everyyearsince2020, and while this year is no different, the Portland power pop hero has taken a different tack with Troper Sings Brion. The concept–Troper records fleshed-out, full-band versions of cast-off songs that the legendary behind-the-scenes popsmith Jon Brion didn’t include on his sole solo “pop” album Meaningless–is brilliant, and Troper is just the ringer for the job. I hadn’t heard most of these songs before, including “Citgo Sign”, so I don’t know how much of its jangly instrumental and incredibly tight chorus are the creation of Brion versus Troper (I hear a ton of both in all aspects of this song); honestly, it doesn’t matter, it’s a killer single regardless.
“This One’s on You”, Teenage Tom Petties From Hotbox Daydreams (2023, Repeating Cloud/Safe Suburban Home)
Hotbox Daydreams is the second album from Wiltshire’s Teenage Tom Petties in as many years, and the first with a full-on backing band. I’m pleased to say that not only does Hotbox Daydreams retain the spark of last year’s self-titled debut, it’s a leap forward for frontperson Tom Brown and his collaborators in every way. It’s deeper, more energetic, more consistent, and it sounds better. The crunchy power chords, giant chorus, and “slacker rock anthem” vibes of “This One’s on You” maybe make it the best song on the album, although this is a record where every song could’ve been a single, so it’s hard to speak definitively on that. Read more about Hotbox Daydreams here.
“Love, If It Is So”, Maria Elena Silva From Dulce (2023, Astral Spirits/Big Ego)
On Dulce, Wichita/Chicago’s Maria Elena Silva and her collaborators dive headfirst into the realm of experimental rock and jazz; plenty of empty space is here, although a surprising amount of Dulce is quiet yet probing pop music at its core. The slow-burning, blistering psychedelic rock of “Love, If It Is So” opens Dulce in particularly striking fashion–in under three minutes, Silva and her band go from delicately building its precarious structure to burning it down in an excitingly PJ Harvey-esque fashion. Read more about Dulce here.
“Pillbox”, Seablite From Grass Stains and Novocaine (2019, Emotional Response/Dandy Boy)
Between their brand-new sophomore album Lemon Lights and their even-more-brand-new remastered reissue of their debut album, Grass Stains and Novocaine, 2023 is a great year to be San Francisco’s Seablite. Compared to Lemon Lights’ more straight-up shoegaze textures, Grass Stains and Novocaine is more recognizably inspired by indie pop and power pop; songs like early highlight “Pillbox” come off more than anything else as louder versions of vintage guitar pop in the vein of K, Slumberland, and Sarah Records. Read more about Grass Stains and Novocaine here.
“Like Skin”, These Estates From The Dignity of Man (2014, Comedy Minus One)
I discovered Regina, Saskatchewan’s These Estates thanks to Comedy Minus One digitally reissuing their entire discography (two full-lengths and a single) earlier this year; it’s a great fit, as these Canadians bear more than a passing similarity to Comedy Minus One’s flagship group, Silkworm. These Estates get what makes that band so great, though–songs like the cavernous, edge-of-the-earth manifesto that is “Like Skin” would hardly work if the executors of it were just interested in rote copying of their influences.
“Rude Life”, Brontez Purnell From Confirmed Bachelor (2023, Upset the Rhythm)
We checked in on Brontez Purnell back in September, when the lead single from his then-just-announced upcoming solo album, Confirmed Bachelor, was just released. The album is now out in full, and though it’s short, it’s full of moments that deliver on the single’s ambitious but immediate garage-rock-power-pop promise. “Rude Life” is a second-half highlight of the record–I hear what sounds like a violin underneath the classically-Purnell fuzzy rock and roll guitars. Its mid-tempo first half is a bit more subtle than some of Purnell’s other songs, although it eventually kicks into gear and delivers the pure sugar loud guitar pop we’ve all come to expect from him.
“Six Day Sunday”, Model Shop From Check the Forecast (2023, Meritorio)
In hindsight, “Lucky” by Model Shop was probably one of my favorite songs of 2022. The Seattle band really delivered an arresting reminder of just how high the ceiling is for well-executed guitar pop music with that song, and “Six Day Sunday”, while being just a little more low-key and less overtly sweeping than “Lucky”, continues to showcase the best of the band. The song opens up the four-song Check the Forecast EP with the kind of wistful exuberance that the band do very well; I don’t think I want to hear anyone other than them attempt to pull off lines like “Thursday, tied up in office drama / And I lost my grip at happy hour again,” in the middle of a verse that upstages its own chorus in terms of melody.
“Riding with Paul”, The Exbats From Song Machine (2023, Goner)
I’ve been aware of The Exbats for a while–the Arizona group has been making their sunny pop rock since at least 2015, relatively recently sliding onto garage rock kingpins Goner Records’ roster to continue to do so. “Riding with Paul”, a single and the opening track from their latest full-length, Song Machine, caught my attention as I was trawling through new releases–it’s an absolutely perfect piece of retro jangle pop, informed by 60s pop rock but sounding incredibly fresh thanks to everything from the exuberant opening riff to the cheerful backing vocals to the infectious confidence of Inez McLain’s lead vocals.
“Cavalcade of Faces”, Dan Koshute From Intravolve (2023, Magna Person)
Dan Koshute recorded Intravolve entirely on his own in “a secret recording studio in the back of a Pittsburgh yoga studio”–all things considered, it’s a great-sounding collection of power pop/garage rock tunes delivered with an all-in attitude. Koshute (who has also contributed to Jennifer Baron’s Garment District project) is a direct and urgent performer on his fourth solo album and first since 2018–opening track “Cavalcade of Faces” is a cavalcade of energy, gleefully hanging on one chord before the rest of the band (I mean, Koshute on different instruments) kicks out a garage-pop anthem. Read more about Intravolve here.
“La Modelo de Mis Fantasias”, Sandy Pylos From Notas de Voz (2023)
Ana Diaz has previously made music in the Paraguyan psychedelic power pop band EEEKS, but they’ve taken a confident step away from that sound on their new solo project Sandy Pylos, which embraces an atmospheric synthpop sound on their debut record. Nota de Voz’s track “La Modelo de Mis Fantasias” gets off to a sprinting start with its bouncy, EEEKS-ish power pop. However, almost as if to assert that this is Sandy Pylos, the song then deconstructs itself, shifting into a more low-key but still catchy pop rock tune in its midsection, and ending with a sound collage of hushed music from the song, bird sounds, and ambient noises. Read more about Nota de Voz here.
“Lord of Shelves”, Wurld Series From The Giant’s Lawn (2023, Meritorio/Melted Ice Cream)
The third album from New Zealand’s Wurld Series feels like the full realization of their always-apparent promise and talent–on The Giant’s Lawn, they meander through a patchwork sound for seventeen songs, displaying themselves as masters of delicate pop music, indie guitar jams, and spacey acoustic psych-folk detours. Early highlight “Lord of Shelves” is an impressive piece of power pop, giving off an especially Guided by Voices-y air of shit-kicking melancholy that definitely falls on the more immediate end of the record’s spectrum. Read more about The Giant’s Lawn here.
“Old Death – 12” version”, Car Colors From Old Death (2023, Absolutely Kosher)
Instead of the fourth Wrens album that so many of us waited for for over twenty years, we have instead gotten a public break-up, Kevin Whelan’s Aeon Station, and Charles Bissell’s Car Colors (and, in what should register as more than a footnote in all of this, the revival of stalwart California independent label Absolutely Kosher). Aeon Station put out a full-length back in 2021; Car Colors have moved at their own pace, but, finally, the three-song Old Death EP is out into the world. Two of these songs will appear on a Car Colors full-length…eventually…but there’s more than enough to chew on right now with this single, particularly the title track and A-side. “Old Death” is pretty damn close to what I imagined a fourth Wrens album would sound like–seven minutes, intricate and emotional, surprising and familiar. Looking forward to hearing more of this.
“Willow Springs”, Tristan Dolce From Medium True (2024, I Love Camping!)
Who’s ready for 2024? Not me–I still have a bunch of music from this year I want to explore before 2023 closes its doors. Still, if the new year brings more music that’s as good as the lead single from Tristan Dolce’s upcoming Medium True–well, it’ll be another year to remember. “Willow Springs” is an excellent piece of wistful, ornate-but-lo-fi power pop, with Dolce’s high and conversational, Ben Gibbard-ringer vocals leading a memorable lyric and several excellent moments of pure melody.
“Giddy Up!”, Molly O’Malley From Noise Beyond the Mantle: A Mixtape (2023, Mollywhop Record Shop)
The eight-song Noise Beyond the Mantle “mixtape” is the most we’ve heard from Cleveland’s Molly O’Malley in one sitting thus far, and what we get with it is a blurry but undeniably recognizable snapshot of a talented pop singer-songwriter helming a catchy, messy collection of material with a center that feels sharper and fuller than ever in the midst of it all. The mixtape’s second song, “Giddy Up!”, chugs along, its dreamy, reverb-y rock slightly obscuring but unable to hide some of the most interesting writing I’ve heard from O’Malley yet (everything in that second verse could be the line that sticks with you on any given day). Read more about Noise Beyond the Mantle: A Mixtape here.
“Can I Borrow Your Lighter?”, Spiritual Cramp From Spiritual Cramp (2023, Blue Grape)
Ooh, boy. Spiritual Cramp. I heard 2021’s Here Comes More Bad News EP and enjoyed it, although I definitely didn’t see Spiritual Cramp coming based off of those four songs. I admit, I didn’t listen to these (quite catchy!) Bay Area punks and think they had a British-buzz-band-bait album in them, but their self-titled album is full of completely nuts, overdriven dance-post-punk-rock-and-roll-pop-whatever stuff. I have to say, the weird stutter that the main guy is doing in the verses completely works for me–it might even be catchier than the big, all-out gang-vocal chorus.
“Bang”, Melenas From Ahora (2023, Trouble in Mind)
I’m not sure if there’s that much to say about Pamplona, Spain’s Melenas, their third album, Ahora, or single and highlight “Bang”. It’s just good pop music! Trouble in Mind Records is, of course, one of the most respectable outlets for rock music today, so it’s hardly surprising that I found something worth sharing on Ahora, but “Bang” is truly a breath of fresh air every time I hear it. The sparkling and droning synths and organs, the simple but transfixing vocals, the solid, slow-moving five-minute structure–this is continental European indie rock at its finest.
“Renter Not a Buyer”, Dead Gowns From How (2022, VMP)
Geneviève Beaudoin is a Portland, Maine-based folk-country singer-songwriter who self-released the four-song How EP last year. I first heard it thanks to an expanded vinyl reissue that it got this month, although “Renter Not a Buyer” is a track that’d appeared on the original version as well. It’s an excellent piece of electric, sauntering country rock that kicks off the EP in pleasing fashion, featuring some notable New Englanders in the band (Pretty Purgatory’s Peter McLaughlin on drums, Nat Baldwin on bass) but, to be clear, this song is Beaudoin’s show and she’s great in its starring role.
“Junk Drawer Heart”, Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band From Dancing on the Edge (2023, Sophomore Lounge)
On Ryan Davis’ first solo-ish album and first “song” record since the last album from his country rock group State Champion in 2018, the Louisville singer-songwriter is as sprawling and as “country” as ever. On the surface, both Davis’ unbothered Kentucky tones and the Roadhouse Band’s post-post-country rock and roll sound brilliant, but the core of album highlight “Junk Drawer Heart” is equally striking. The chorus (“Maybe there’s something of use deep down in the matchbox bottom of my junk drawer heart / Maybe there’s nothing there but joker cards and keychains”) is obviously a headliner, but the lines about chewing on an apple in an archery range and the “Sultans of Swing”-stuck jukebox should be up there as well. Read more about Dancing on the Edge here.
“Oh No!”, Physical Congas From Oh No! (2023, Stress Test)
Late November? Doesn’t matter. I’m still hearing good new-to-me music daily out here. Allow me to introduce you to Physical Congas, a pair of Montreal pop weirdos (Adrian Popovich and Alexander Ortiz) who just put out their debut release, the all-too-brief four-song Oh No! EP. These tracks zip by with a lo-fi, offbeat pop charm–the opening title track is a little over two minutes long, but it still finds time to offer up bizarrely memorable synth bursts, a pleasingly plodding bass guitar part, and surprisingly all-in lead vocals.
“Into the Atlantic”, Mo Troper From Troper Sings Brion (2023, Lame-O)
Another selection from Troper Sings Brion, because, Jesus Christ, it’s Mo Troper singing Jon Brion. “Into the Atlantic” is the first proper song on the album after the forty-five second “Heart of Dysfunction (Excerpt)”, and it sets up a lot of what makes Brion a great songwriter (and what makes Troper a great translator for him, as well)–intricate construction, lethal melodies, bizarre turns both musically and lyrically (leave it to Troper-Brion to make “raw sewage and seagull excrement” sound brilliant), and above all a striking determination–we are going into the Atlantic. We’re going down.
“Away from the Castle”, Video Age From Away from the Castle (2023, Winspear)
Away from the Castle is my first full-length experience with the laid-back, dreamy indie pop of New Orleans’ Video Age, although I’ve encountered Ross Farbe (who is half of the band, along with Ray Micarelli) before due to his recording work. The gorgeous title track to Away from the Castle certainly sounds like the work of a couple of musicians who know their way around the studio, although Farbe and Micarelli also know that, when they have a brilliant pop song on their hands, some targeted streamlining is the best course of action with regards to presenting it. It’s kind of an odd place to hear one of the best jangle pop songs of the year, but that’s exactly what “Away from the Castle” is.
“Chance Occurrence”, Postal Blue (2023)
“Postal Blue” is a great name for a dreamy jangly indie pop group; I’m surprised nobody had claimed it before. Not that they’re a new act, mind you–I was surprised to learn that Brazil-based Adriano do Couto has been making music under the name since 1998 (first as a full band, eventually as a solo project), and “Chance Occurrence” is actually the first new Postal Blue material in eight years. For a comeback single, it’s a bullseye–it starts off fairly low-key, then shifts into gear for a giant indie pop chorus indicating that do Couto is certainly a veteran at making this kind of music.
“Turquoise”, Jon Winslow From I’m Here Now (2023, Shiny Boy Press)
Jon Winslow is not a guy, but it is the project of a guy–specifically, Baltimore-based folk singer Taylor DeBoer, who just released I’m Here Now on cassette. He seems linked to experimental pop group Surf Harp–he contributed layout and design to their latest album, four out of five Surf Harp members play on I’m Here Now, and both records are out through Shiny Boy Press. Some of Surf Harp’s offbeat art pop shows up on DeBoer’s album, although in the catchy slow-folk-rock of “Turquoise”, it’s more of a tamped-down undercurrent to DeBoer’s acoustic foundation.
“Hiding in My Home”, Uni Boys From Buy This Now! (2023, Curation)
It’s just good pop music, you know? The Uni Boys’ latest, Buy This Now!, has a bunch of effortless-sounding power pop hooks, but I decided to go with the introvert anthem “Hiding in My Home” as the highlight. Singing about how they absolutely don’t want to go outside–now that’s how you prove that you’re true power pop fans. Handclaps, soaring lead guitars, slick keyboards–despite all of this, “Hiding in My Home” is still able to sound as laid-back as a night staying in should sound. Ordering takeout food is the maximum level of social interaction booked for the evening!
“Baciami”, Mel Stone From Princess (2023, Honey Machiine)
There’s a lot of music in this world, and it can provide the listener with an infinite possibility of experiences. For example, sometimes you want to listen to a trans woman absolutely sing her heart out for an entire album’s worth of music–if you find yourself in this cohort, Princess by Mel Stone is certainly for you. Princess (initially released as a pair of EPs in 2021 and 2022) is a ton of maximal rock and roll anthems in a row–Stone’s Bandcamp bio mentions Ezra Furman, who I absolutely hear in my favorite song on the album, “Baciami”. As bold as that title (as well as the subsequent English translation of it in the chorus) is, Stone more than backs it up in this song’s performance.
“Center of Attention”, Summer Set From Summer Set (2023, Fort Lowell)
The members of Wilmington, North Carolina’s Summer Set have played together in some form for over twenty years, although this self-titled album is the first full-length to have surfaced yet under the Summer Set name. It’s a breezy, timeless collection of indie rock of several stripes–some heavier and spacier than others, but consistently interesting. Opening track “Center of Attention” sets a high bar with its deft rendition of alt-country, folk rock, jangle pop, and power pop–a bunch of ingredients to make a song that sounds incredibly simple and incredibly catchy.
“Rain”, The Chills From Brave Words (1987/2023, Flying Nun/Fire)
The Chills! Statistically speaking, you probably like The Chills, or at least some Chills-inspired bands (Lord knows I’ve covered plenty of them on this website). Despite their beloved status in this particular corner of indie rock, the New Zealand band’s first album, 1987’s Brave Words, has been long overdue for a remastered reissue–thankfully, their recent home of Fire Records has finally done so. There’s plenty on this album I could highlight here, but “Rain” is a great picture of early The Chills–almost perfect pop magicians, but still holding onto a Flying Nun-ish oddball, “zany” streak in the song’s presentation.
“Blue Shadows”, Lower Plenty From No Poets (2023, Bedroom Suck)
I hadn’t heard of Melbourne’s Lower Plenty before the release of their most recent album, but apparently the band has been around since 2010 and features members of a bunch of notable Australian groups (Dick Diver, Total Control, Deaf Wish, UV Race). The quartet has actually been on something of a hiatus as of late; their fifth album, No Poets, is actually their first since 2016 (busy with all their other bands, I’d imagine). “Blue Shadows” is a nice, representative track from early on in the record–it’s got that enjoyable casual Aussie folk-pop sound, informed by Flying Nun but with a more open, straightforward twist.
“Put the Poison in My Body”, These Estates From Triumph, Reign (2014, Comedy Minus One)
I’m not sure which These Estates album I like more–The Dignity of Man probably has more “hits”, but the darker Triumph, Reign has a pleasing amount of meat on its bones. The upsettingly-relevant “Stolen Blues” nearly made this playlist, but opening track “Put the Poison in My Body” is such an incredible indie rock anthem that I had to get this one on the playlist somewhere. The title line is a wrecking ball–as is the absolutely boundless guitar solo that the band let loose halfway through the track.
“Dandy”, The Smashing Times From This Sporting Life (2023, K/Perennial)
This Sporting Life might be the most fully-released The Smashing Times have sounded yet. It’s the Baltimore jangle-psych group’s most pop-forward material to date, even as they haven’t abandoned the exploratory streak that made them stick out in the first place. The sparkling “Dandy” is a hidden gem that This Sporting Life saves towards the near conclusion of the record–the first half is uncharacteristically repetitive for the nonlinear popsters, but it does switch into a different (but no less catchy) kind of pop song in its second half. Read more about This Sporting Life here.
“Til It’s Over”, Marnie Stern From The Comeback Kid (2023, Joyful Noise)
We’ve been waiting for this one for a while. Marnie Stern took a decade-long break from releasing music after 2013’s The Chronicles of Marnia (but not from music as a whole, as she’s been a longtime member of The Late Show with Seth Myers’ band), and the aptly-titled The Comeback Kid does not disappoint. Stern’s all-over-the-place, math-y-pop-rock guitar hero stuff was part of a mini-scene in the late 2000s, but I’ve always seen plenty of substance in those albums outside of that context, and the success of a Marnie Stern album in 2023 serves to confirm this. “Til It’s Over” is low-key…for a Marnie Stern song, which means it’s still a pretty intense rocker, just in a less confrontational way than one might expect.
“All into the Day”, Forestlike From Forestlike (2023, Patsy Presents)
Joshua Wayne Hensley will probably be most familiar to Rosy Overdrive readers as one half of undersung northern Indiana indie rockers The Rutabega, a band that released a solid album last year. Hensley also self-releases music under his own name, and now he’s started a new band with a long-time acquaintance in Jared Myers (of Daytime Volume). With Forestlike, the duo explore folk rock music of several stripes, including the delicate but fully-developed “heartland” indie rock of opening track “All into the Day” whose deliberate pace and wandering melody hew true to the project’s woodsy title.
“Dipshit”, Teenage Tom Petties From Hotbox Daydreams (2023, Repeating Cloud/Safe Suburban Home)
I’ll say it yet again, because it bears repeating: everything on Hotbox Daydreams is a hit. Just massive power pop success after success from Tom Brown and his gang of Teenage Tome Petties. Is “Dipshit” the best of all of them? Perhaps–it’s an instantly memorable lo-fi showtune with one hell of a chorus hook, and the only thing stopping it from dominating the airwaves is probably its title. Read more about Hotbox Daydreams here.
“Maybelline”, Frog From Grog (2023, Audio Antihero)
Listening to Grog, the fifth album from Queens-based sibling duo Frog, kind of feels like dropping in on an alternate-universe oldies station. It picks and chooses sounds from throughout the past to create a new listening experience, pulling from freak folk, piano pop rock, space-y psych rock, power pop, and scuzzy lo-fi indie rock. “Maybelline”, towards the middle of Grog, is a vintage Frog experience–its power pop is perhaps more sped up than some of the record’s more exploratory fare, but it’s no less intricate. Read more about Grog here.
“Hey, Useless”, Quitter From Monument Road (2023, GoldMold/Heavenly Creature)
Kenny Bates is a Glasgow-based lo-fi indie rocker who’s been making downcast pop as Quitter (an appropriately glass-half-empty name) since 2016. I believe that Monument Road is the third Quitter full-length, and Bates is joined by a full band for a good portion of this one, giving an extra kick to Bates’ songwriting. “Hey, Useless” is my favorite song here–it’s an undeniable power pop single that’s as chilly as it is catchy. The first verse of the song is about having a rough emotional moment in an ice cream parlor, which feels just about right.
“W”, Handturner From Works and Shoots (2023, Steno Pool)
Somebody needs to do one of those in-depth scene reports to figure out just what’s happening in Kalamazoo, Michigan these days. Handturner is led by the duo of Franki Hand and Ike Turner, who also play together in the experimental krautrock group Wowza in Kalamazooand the Kalamazoo Drone Society. At the same time, three Handturner albums have turned up since last December, the latest of which, Works and Shoots, is a thorny collection of experimental, almost-industrial crossed-wires rock music. “W” is the only thing on the record that’s even sort of a pop song, with Hand’s sung-spoken vocals balancing precariously over a warped noise rock/post-punk instrumental.
Hello, Rosy Overdrive readers! Rosy Overdrive’s year-end lists are just around the corner (just as soon as I, you know, make them), but first I wanted to ask y’all what you thought the best of 2023 is. So, this year I’m trying out doing a Rosy Overdrive Reader’s Poll! Wow! The question I’m most interested in is: What are your ten favorite albums from 2023? This is the only question that you’re required to answer in order to submit (please, choose at least five), but I’ve also included questions for your favorite songs, EP, and record label of 2023 that are optional but encouraged to be filled out as well.
If you need help remembering what came out in 2023, here’s a list of everything that Rosy Overdrive wrote about in Pressing Concerns this year. Obviously, it’s a not comprehensive list of the year’s best (and you’re more than welcome to vote for albums I haven’t covered), but it’s a starting point!
The deadline to submit your choices will be atmidnight (EST) on Christmas Day, and the results will be compiled by the end of that week. And remember: this is the most important election of our lifetimes.
I’m hoping all U.S.-based Rosy Overdrive readers had a nice holiday weekend. Since I’m guessing a lot of you missed the second post from last week (it went up the day before Thanksgiving and featured The Veldt, Feeling Figures, The Ground Is Lava, and The Anderson Tapes), I’ll go ahead and re-share it before we dive into today’s Pressing Concerns. Caught up? Great–now it’s time to look at some great new albums from Neighboring Sounds, Flat Mary Road, and Colt Wave, as well as a compilation from Dot Dash.
If you’re looking for more new music, you can visit the site directory to see what else we’ve written about lately. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.
Neighboring Sounds – Cold in the Smart City
Release date: October 13th Record label: Friend of Mine/Adagio 830/Friend Club/Lilla Himmel/Sound Fiction/BCore/strictly no capital letters Genre: Emo-y indie rock Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Grandhotel
Cold in the Smart City is the first full-length record to bear the name of Neighboring Sounds, but the roots of this Bergen, Norway-based emo-indie rock band go back more than twenty years. The band formed as Crash (n) in 2000 and were then known as The First Cut for a few years afterwards, releasing at least one album under each name. After a lengthy hiatus, the band (vocalist/guitarist Arild Eriksen, guitarist Kristian Gundersen, and drummer Thomas Milford) reconvened as Neighboring Sounds in 2014, putting out a few singles before finally (after adding Flight Mode’s Anders Blom on bass) getting their debut album out last month. In what I’m certain is a Pressing Concerns record, Cold in the Smart City is being put out by seven different labels across various nationalities–between this fact and its long gestation time, there’s a certain weight attached to Cold in the Smart City. Thankfully, Neighboring Sounds have put together an album more than up to the task of bearing it.
Norway has been a fertile ground for emo-tinged anthemic indie rock bands in recent years (Blom’s other band being but one prominent example), and Cold in the Smart City similarly falls along an “early Death Cab for Cutie to 90s emo-punk” axis. Although they’re clearly inspired by it, I’d hesitate to call Neighboring Sounds “punk” here–there’s energy here, to be sure, but they’re refined in a way that comes back as relatively slick (but still emotional and not cheap-sounding) alternative rock. The quartet gives these ten songs a gravitas that makes it feel much grander than its 30-minute runtime–from the chilly opening title track to the fast-paced “No Commons” to the giant chorus of “Grandhotel” to the steady-building crescend-emo of “Of the Woods”, Cold in the Smart City establishes itself as an animated and all-in record. An incredibly tight album, its only true breather is the 90-second interlude “Moss/Pine”, after which Neighboring Sounds gear up for another side of rockers. “Polis” is the band at their most blistering, and the one song where their hardcore roots really show (although it’s more in the form of fiery post-hardcore). No steam is lost as Cold in the Smart City chugs to its conclusion, although “Sleepercar” does end things on a somewhat pensive note. Leave it to Neighboring Sounds to sound purposeful and inspired singing about sleep, though. (Bandcamp link)
Dot Dash – 16 Again
Release date: October 13th Record label: Country Mile Genre: Power pop, college rock, jangle pop Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Holly Garland
I received my introduction to Washington, D.C.’s Dot Dash last year in the form of Madman in the Rain, a brilliant collection of jangly power pop that nevertheless contained a bit of post-punk ruminations on death and mortality and would probably be even higher on my year-end list if I redid it today. Even though they were new to me, however, Dot Dash (vocalist/guitarist Terry Banks, drummer Danny Ingram, and bassist Hunter Bennett) have been amassing a pretty impressive back catalog over the past decade or so–Madman in the Rain was actually preceded by six other full-length records since 2011. All seven Dot Dash full-length albums received CD releases through The Beautiful Music, but they’ve never put out a vinyl record, which seems like a major missing piece for a band that so deftly makes music that sounds straight out of the vinyl era. Thankfully, Country Mile Records has rectified this with 16 Again, a compilation of fifteen songs selected from across Dot Dash’s discography (plus one new cover)–the band calls it “a ‘greatest hits’ album by a band with no hits”, which is, frankly, the best kind.
16 Again makes the intriguing decision to go in reverse chronological order, which means that it starts with four selections from Madman in the Rain. I won’t go too much into them since I already covered that one (I might’ve found room here for “Dead Gone”, but it’s already the most well-represented album so I can’t complain), but the band keep the quality consistent as they plow further backwards. The three songs from 2018’s Proto Retro are all ace (particularly the soaring New Order-jangle pop “Unfair Weather”), and the one song from Searchlights (“Holly Garland”) packs enough energy for three. By the time we get to the selections from Half-Remembered Dream, we’re a decade back, showing that the band was always fully capable of delivering transcendent pop rock anthems (“(Here’s to) the Ghosts of the Past”) and slightly weirder but still hooky pieces of guitar pop (“The Sound in Shells”). If you stick around to hear the two songs from their 2011 debut spark>flame>ember>ash, you get to hear the only “rough-around-the-edges” moments on the record, with the garage-mod “The Color and the Sound” and the somewhat pained post-punk of “There and Back Again Lane” being curious but still worthwhile offerings. The whirlwind tour complete, Dot Dash end with a new cover of Television Personalities’ “Jackanory Stories”, which is an appropriate sendoff to this summary of Dot Dash–not shy about their debt to the past, but nevertheless continuing to offer something new. (Bandcamp link)
Flat Mary Road – Little Realities
Release date: September 22nd Record label: Whatever’s Clever Genre: Folk rock, college rock, psychedelic rock, singer-songwriter Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: The Grifter
Flat Mary Road is a quartet from Philadelphia, led by guitarist/vocalist Steve Teare and also featuring a pair of Alexes (Alex Irwin on drums, Alex Lewis on guitar) and bassist Dan Papa. The band has been around since the early 2010s–their latest album, Little Realities, is at least their fourth full-length. Little Realities showed up earlier this year on Whatever’s Clever (Dave Scanlon, Keen Dreams, Office Culture), and while there isn’t exactly a shortage of indie rock records coming out of Philly these days, Flat Mary Road have an interesting and striking sound that helps them stick out from the pack. Some of Little Realities‘ ingredients are familiar–one part folk rock and alt-country, another part jangly power pop–but there’s also an almost-psychedelic, Paisley Underground-like fullness to the album, and Teare’s distinct vocals help the band land somewhere in the midst of Miracle Legion-like college rock as well.
Little Realities cheerily rejects a “band record” versus “singer-songwriter” record dichotomy–it clearly builds itself around Teare’s writing across its eleven songs and 45 minutes, but it also devotes plenty of time to lengthy instrumental passages and lets the musicians wander on plenty of occasions (even two entire songs’ worth in “Running the Tape Back” and “A Lofting Song”). Busy opening track “The Announcement” gets mileage out of Papa’s plodding, prominent bass, Irwin’s brisk drumbeat, and Teare’s strangely-veering but no less effective melodies. It feels like a more contemporary indie rock single, while the song that follows it (the laid-back, relatively more straightforward “The Grifter”) is more of a vintage college rock radio hit. “Friends” balances simplicity and intricacy, and sides one and two are buffered by two of the strongest choruses on the record (the surprisingly urgent-sounding “The Gardener and I” and the starry power pop of “Change Is Not Enough”). These are some of the more immediate ones, but the other end of Little Realities–best exemplified by the record’s final two songs, which combine to reach over twelve minutes in length–contains plenty to enjoy as well. Once the melodic guitar solo kicks in about halfway through closing track “Landscape”, it becomes clear that there isn’t so much daylight in between them, anyway. (Bandcamp link)
Colt Wave – On Call
Release date: November 3rd Record label: Too Deluxe Genre: Lo-fi pop, jangle pop, post-punk, dream pop Formats: Digital Pull Track: Deep Regret
Colt Wave is the California-based project of Colby Mancasola (best known as the drummer for Knapsack) and Ken Lovgren (who is occasionally a touring member for The Wind-Ups). The two of them are longtime musical acquaintances–they apparently first played together before Knapsack even emerged in the mid-90s, and with On Call (which appears to be the fourth Colt Wave album since 2021), the duo confidently take on a genre of music very different from the emo-punk of Mancasola’s other band–lo-fi, dreamy, jangly guitar pop. It’s a casual but nonetheless substantial-feeling album–Mancasola and Lovgren float through eleven songs in twenty-two minutes, declining to add too many bells and whistles to any of them but displaying a knack for writing memorable pop hooks which are more than enough to carry On Call.
“Dark Night Soul” opens up the album by sounding just a tad offbeat–there’s just a bit of 60s psychedelia in here, even as Colt Wave still keep the song barebones enough to let the melodies reverberate completely. The folk-y undertones of “Cold Cold Heart” back up On Call’s strong start, while the lo-fi basement pop of “Deep Regret” feels like a more West Coast version of early Guided by Voices’ hidden retro-pop. On Call breezes by, not spending too much time overthinking any of its offerings, but there are certainly plenty of moments that stick out on the quick but unhurried journey–the upbeat “Shaking You” is Colt Wave mustering up just enough zeal to nail their version of power pop, “Survive You” balances handclaps and hovering guitar lines to marry “dream” and “pop”, and “CALL U” feels just a bit more “full” than the rest of the record as Mancasola and Lovgren add a bit of Western desert rock to it. Colt Wave wrap it up with the 75-second “Only Night”, which goes from the “Be My Baby” drum intro to a piece of hazy jangle pop and then ends with a chorus of crickets. In spite (or perhaps because) of how low-key On Call is, it remains engrossing right up to its close. (Bandcamp link)
Welcome to a Wednesday Pressing Concerns, the rarest of Pressing Concerns! Due to “Thanksgiving”, this post is going up a day early, so (to residents of the United States, at least) enjoy the holiday, and read about new music at the same time below. In this eclectic post, we have a new album from Feeling Figures, a new EP from The Anderson Tapes, a full-length reissue from The Ground Is Lava, and a previously-unreleased thirty-year-old shelved debut album from The Veldt. See you next week!
If you’re looking for more new music, you can visit the site directory to see what else we’ve written about lately. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.
The Veldt – Illuminated 1989
Release date: November 24th Record label: Little Cloud/5BC Genre: Dream pop, shoegaze, post-punk, jangle pop Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Willow Tree
One of the more intriguing bands from the initial wave of shoegaze was formed by two twin brothers in the mid-80s in Raleigh, North Carolina. Guitarists Daniel and Danny Chavis are lifelong musicians who began making music inspired both by the gospel and Motown of their youth, the burgeoning “alternative rock” and “post-punk” scenes, and the just-as-wild world of Sun Ra. One of their biggest influences was the Cocteau Twins, so it’s not surprising that the Chavises enlisted the band’s Robin Guthrie to produce their debut album in 1989. Their label was apparently unhappy with what they produced together, however–they shelved the recordings, and some of the songs ended up on their debut EP, Marigolds, in 1992. The Veldt went on to release the acclaimed Afrodisiac LP in 1994, and they never really went away–the brothers made music as Apollo Heights for a while, but brought back the Veldt name for last year’s Entropy Is The Mainline To God. Illuminated 1989, however, returns us to that time thirty-four years ago–collecting these initial Guthrie-helmed recordings, this finally-released album is a snapshot of a strong partnership, a confident group effort, and a still-in-development genre that’d be come to known as “shoegaze”.
As much of a curiosity that Illuminated 1989 is, it’s also very strong devoid of all this context, something which becomes apparent almost immediately. “Aurora Borealis” opens the record on a very Cocteau Twins note, with dreamy, reverb-y guitars chiming–but instead of Elizabeth Fraser’s impenetrable vocals, we’re instead greeted by a completely different but equally compelling frontperson in Daniel Chavis. Clear where Fraser is unintelligible and right in front of the music where many of their contemporaries buried their vocals, Chavis brought a clear soul influence to his singing that is perhaps the most immediately striking aspect of the record. Chavis gives it his all in songs like “C.C.C.P.”, an emotional piece of Cure-ish post-punk-pop that might be the missing link between Robert Smith and shoegaze. The floating “Angel Heart” is The Veldt at their most dream pop, but Chavis is no less restrained vocally here, and there’s plenty of other interesting incorporations (like “It’s Over”, which feels like The Veldt’s version of the jangly college rock that was more prevalent in the American South at this time than most of their other influences). Pointing to an exact moment and saying “Aha! There’s the shoegaze!” is a bit reductive, but the pummeling pop of “Shallow by Shallow”, the steady noise of “Willow Tree”, and parts of the experimental rock opus “Heather” all feel like examples of what was about to come down the line. Like I alluded to earlier, though, regardless of historical value, Illuminated 1989 sounds fresh and inspired. (Bandcamp link)
Feeling Figures – Migration Magic
Release date: November 24th Record label: K/Perennial Genre: Post-punk, 90s indie rock, lo-fi pop, garage rock Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Pour Un Instant
Feeling Figures are a quartet from Montreal–those Canadians got their Thanksgiving out of the way last month, and are certainly not going to be deterred from putting out new music on an American holiday weekend. The band was founded by the songwriting duo of guitarist/vocalists Zakary Slax and Kay Moon in Sackville, New Brunswick a decade ago, and picked up bassist Joe Chamandy and drummer Thomas Molander after relocating to Quebec. Migration Magic is Feeling Figures’ first album, following a debut self-titled three-song 7” single back in 2021. They may hail from the wrong coast, but Feeling Figures certainly feel at home on K Records with Migration Magic–it’s the work of a band steeped in several decades’ worth of underground indie rock, and one that doesn’t see why rock and roll, controlled chaos, and pop all can’t go together in one neat package.
Nothing exemplifies the range of Feeling Figures more than how Migration Magic’s opening track–the fiery, fuzzy garage punk anthem “Dream Death”–gives way to the C86-literate guitar pop of “Across the Line” one song later. Once the initial jarring feeling passes, it starts to make sense–after all, “Dream Death” has one hell of a chorus in the middle of it, and “Across the Line” meanders in its guitarplay in a 90s indie rock kind of way. Although “Across the Line” is relatively polished, the percussion-led, psych pop drone of “Don’t Ever Let Me Know” and the piano-in-a-basement charm of “I Should Tell You” indicate that the band can deliver pop music of various fidelities and states of undress. Feeling Figures bring some muscle to pull off “Pour Un Instant”, a giddy piece of straight-up power pop right in the middle of the record, and “Movement” in Migration Magic’s second half similarly finds the band at full capacity. Their primary mission accomplished, Feeling Figures close up shop by getting weird towards the end with the post-punk blaze of “Sink” and the Ramones-y fast-pop-punk conclusion of “Remains”. Migration Magic is just as entertaining while knocking down what Feeling Figures built up earlier in the record. (Bandcamp link)
The Ground Is Lava – Bottle Rockets (Reissue)
Release date: October 24th Record label: Really Rad Genre: Midwest emo, emo-punk, pop punk Formats: Cassette, CD, digital Pull Track: Willow Tree
From 2009 to 2015, the Brunswick, Ohio emo trio The Ground Is Lava put out two full-length records and multiple compilations’ worth of loose tracks before calling it a day. The second of those albums, 2013’s Bottle Rockets, appears to have gotten a Japanese CD release through Waterslide but was otherwise just self-released digitally by the band (vocalist/guitarist Jon Rogers, vocalist/bassist Jordan Valentine, drummer Eric Sandt). Punk/emo label Really Rad Records has commemorated the tenth anniversary of Bottle Rockets by putting it out on both CD and cassette, successfully arguing that it deserves to be heard beyond its initially limited reach a decade ago. I’ve heard more than enough emo of both the 2013 and 2023 variety, but listening to Bottle Rockets for the first time, The Ground Is Lava immediately stuck out to me. It has a polished sound (the album was co-recorded and mixed by Joe Reinhart, who also contributes vocals to the record) and a sturdy, song-first writing style that perhaps helps it connect beyond emo diehards, even as it declines to ditch any of the signifiers of the time–math-y midwest emo guitar riffs, emotional, soaring pop punk vocals, and dramatic, crescendoing instrumental flare-ups–to get there.
Opening track “Not Tonight, Jeff” is an ace submission to the “fun-sounding but meaty” emo-rock hall of fame, as the twinkly guitars give way to the sweeping chorus, which begins with “I wanna have the most intimate moments, where we share in laughter”. Some other highlights of the record’s first half use various tools to chisel their way there, from the prominent pop punk bassline that undergirds “Look, Babe, an Island (We Can Live on It)” to the gang-vocal-emo-anthem-overdrive of “Willow Tree”. Over the 32 minutes of Bottle Rockets, The Ground Is Lava work to keep it consistent with the deployment of emo balladry (“The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Being Stupid for Dummies: A Self Help Book”, the one true concession to the emo title gods, and “Driving Through the Mountains at Night (Tight)”) and slick rock (“Smashers”, “Excuse Me, Can You Fill My Void?”). A decade out from Bottle Rockets, “emo” music looks pretty different at this current moment; to be clear, I’ve covered and enjoyed plenty of new emo groups the past couple of years, but it’s nice and even refreshing to be reminded of this era of the genre, where something like Bottle Rockets could come out, make a small but real impression, and that was enough. (Bandcamp link)
The Anderson Tapes – Broken
Release date: November 9th Record label: Self-released Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, garage rock, indie pop, 90s indie rock Formats: Digital Pull Track: Something You Wanted
The Anderson Tapes are a quartet from London (via Argentina, Poland, and Middlesbrough) who have been stubbornly releasing EPs and singles since 2019. The five-song Broken is, I believe, the fourth EP from the band (comprised of guitarist/vocalists Olga Ambrosiewicz and Delfina Davaro, bassist/vocalist Martin Keane, and drummer Chris Taylor), coming on the heels of 2021’s Everyday Again and last year’s “Fed Up” single. “Fed Up” appears on The Anderson Tapes’ newest record along with four brand-new tracks that show the band’s appreciation of guitar pop music both lazy and loud. Out of the various bands they cite as influences, Throwing Muses and Sonic Youth feel like the most accurate ones, although, really, Broken runs the gamut from fuzz rock to slowcore in twenty minutes.
On the more electric side of things, Broken offers up “Something You Wanted” to begin with–its initial guitar intro gives way to a mid-tempo piece of garage-punk that saunters with a Detroit energy and sounds impressively confident in its assets. The other straight-up rocker on the EP is the other bookend, “Fed Up”–that song similarly comes out fuzzy and blaring and emanating classic rock-and-roll coolness. In between these two tracks are three more probing, less in-your-face songs, although the bass-driven fuzz-pop of “The Great Outdoors” has some louder moments. The heart of Broken is probably the five-minute title track, which slowly moves across the timeless pop song from which it’s built at its core. The icy “The Game” is the one song where The Anderson Tapes let themselves be consumed with downtrodden 90s indie rock sentiment–although they can’t help but shake off the uncertainty and roll out a fantastic, rolling guitar solo to cap it. As much as Broken has a “found, underground” quality to it, it’s hardly blurry or distant-sounding–it’s an EP that’ll grab you by the collar and decline to let go. (Bandcamp link)
We’re kicking off the holiday week with a traditional Monday Pressing Concerns! We have a new compilation from The Terminal Buildings and new albums from Long Hair in Three Stages, Psychic Shakes, and Dan Koshute to look at today. Just a programming note: due to the American Thanksgiving holiday, the normal Thursday Pressing Concerns will be going up on Wednesday instead.
If you’re looking for more new music, you can visit the site directory to see what else we’ve written about lately. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.
The Terminal Buildings – Coming to Terms with the Terminal Buildings: Best Ones 2021-2023
Release date: November 17th Record label: Self-released Genre: Lo-fi pop, power pop, bedroom pop Formats: Digital Pull Track: Forgettable Guy
The Terminal Buildings are a one-person guitar pop project led by a Glasgowian home recording enthusiast named Finlay. If you’ve read Pressing Concerns long enough, you’re familiar with the type–a project with a huge back catalog on Bandcamp recorded entirely by themselves, usually available for a name-your-price download, containing a ton of hidden pop gems in the vein of Robert Pollard, Martin Newell, Mo Troper, et cetera. Taking in a band in this exploratory kind of way is exciting for certain listeners, but the good news for the rest is that The Terminal Buildings have done this for us, in a way. Coming to Terms with the Terminal Buildings: Best Ones 2021-2023 is indeed what it sounds like–fifteen songs from the past two years of The Terminal Buildings, culling tracks from a half-dozen different releases and presenting them in an easily-digestible 28-minute package. The Terminal Buildings of Coming to Terms sound fairly humble, with the songs often containing the bare minimum amount of instrumentation required to qualify as “power pop”–nevertheless, it’s a compilation absolutely stacked with successful pop music.
The compilation hits the ground running with the basement-version-Big-Star track “Cruel World” and “Struck Me Down”, a lazy-sounding piece of C86-ish jangly indie pop with some melancholic undertones. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where Coming to Terms cements itself as something special, although some point around the handclap-baiting “More Like That” and the undeniable rock and roll (in spite of itself) of “Forgettable Guy” might be where to set the stake. Tony Molina feels like an obvious point of influence for The Terminal Buildings, which the brief brilliance in songs like “Knew It from the Start” (which darts from casual college rock to guitar-hero power pop in about 60 seconds) and “There’s Still Something About You” serves to underline. With less than thirty minutes to spare, there’s no time for filler here–“Mr L.A.” has some odd moments, but the payoff is more than worth the journey to get there, and Coming to Terms certainly ends strongly with the surprisingly fully-realized pop rock of “Your Dance” and acoustic ballad “I Don’t Want to Wrong My Baby” (recorded to cassette and sounding like whichever folk-pop troubadour feels the most “intimate” to you). Regardless of how many people had heard these fifteen songs before now, Coming to Terms has plenty of material worthy of a real-deal “greatest hits” collection. (Bandcamp link)
Long Hair in Three Stages – The Oak Within the Acorn
Release date: November 18th Record label: NoiseWave Genre: Noise rock, post-punk Formats: CD, digital Pull Track: Dunning-Kruger-Voight-Kampff
A Sicilian noise rock band who’s named themselves after a U.S. Maple song, huh. Don’t mind if I do. The Oak Within the Acorn is the third full-length album from Catania quartet Long Hair in Three Stages (drummer Giovanni Piccinini, bassist Santi Zappalà, vocalist Giuseppe Iacobaci, and guitarist Fabio Corsaro), and the first album from the group in nearly a decade (following 2014’s Burn/Smother and their 2008 debut, Like a Fire in a Cave). Although the band have certainly learned a bit from U.S. Maple’s guitar squall, they’re more comfortably in the realm of post-punk and art-punk than deconstructed post-rock–Iacobaci’s vocals are more Jello Biafra than Beefheart, for instance, and they’ve probably listened a good amount to their fellow Europeans in The Ex as well. Similarly, Iacobaci doesn’t let any language barrier get in the way of his fiery lyrics–largely in English, his topics range from fascism to Alternative Nation to misogyny to extraction capitalism in a way that is refreshingly not self-serious but hardly a “joke” either.
Honestly, the most “U.S. Maple moment” on The Oak Within the Acorn just might be the clang of feedback that begins the album, before the song launches into an Ex/Kennedys-ish piece of agit-punk. The album is lean but slippery, with Corsaro’s winding guitar coiling and striking over top of Piccinini and Zappalà’s razor-sharp rhythm section. Iacobaci, meanwhile, is all over the map–he’s referencing Karl Popper, Kalergi, and Qanon in “Dunning-Kruger-Voight-Kampff”, then he’s name-dropping Tindersticks and Sonic Youth in “1991” and on “Mysogynocyde” he’s–well, use your imagination on that one. While this is certainly an album with a good deal of appeal to those of us who know what Alternative Tentacles and Amphetamine Reptile are, I do want to emphasize that Long Hair in Three Stages are, more than anything, a fun and driven rock and roll band on The Oak Within the Acorn. The musical and lyrical references swirl about, but one doesn’t need to catch them with any regularity to get something out of this record. (Bandcamp link)
Psychic Shakes – Forever Now
Release date: November 17th Record label: Good Eye Genre: Bedroom pop, jangle pop, indie pop, dream pop Formats: Digital Pull Track: Little One
Psychic Shakes is the project of Plymouth, England’s Max McLellan, who’s been making music under the name since 2016. Despite this, Forever Now appears to be the first Psychic Shakes full-length, as McLellan’s output had been restricted to EPs and singles up until now. On his first album, McLellan embraces a wide-sounding and sincere version of jangly, dreamy guitar pop (putting Psychic Shakes right at home on Good Eye Records, and it also reminds me of the recent Lost Film album). Forever Now is a short album, at nine songs and twenty-five minutes, but feels full and self-contained due to both the expansive sound that McLellan is able to pull off despite the “lo-fi” origins of the record and because of its driven, purposeful writing. Brought on by pandemic-induced instability and the impending birth of his daughter, Forever Now is deliberately constructed as a snapshot of McLellan’s past and present as he looks at the future.
Forever Now begins with a collection of huge, unstoppable pop songs. The first proper song on the record, “Little One”, starts off as a trebly piece of Cleaners from Venus-sounding jangle pop (Martin Newell is assuredly a big influence on Psychic Shakes), although it develops into a confident and modern-sounding piece of bedroom pop from there. “Fifteen Forever” and “Home” chase that song by offering up a similar level of energy and hooks–the former song in particular is a deft piece of wide-eyed new wave pop rock, and what “Home” lacks in a giant chorus it makes up for with a brisk tempo and a great ratio of melodic guitar parts for its relatively short length. Earning its “full length” status, Forever Now steers us into a contemplative midsection (the probing ballad “When We Die” and the spare instrumental “Island”) before rousing itself with the curious distorted folk of “Embrace”, one more dream pop hit single with “Unfold You”, and the acoustic epilogue of “My Baby Girl”. McLellan is skilled at articulating where he’s at in his life, and his use of arresting guitar pop to do so is a big part of why Forever Now works. (Bandcamp link)
Dan Koshute – Intravolve
Release date: July 26th Record label: Manga Persona Genre: Power pop, glam rock, garage rock Formats: Cassette, digital Pull Track: Cavalcade of Faces
I first became aware of Pittsburgh musician Dan Koshute via his contributions to Flowers Telegraphed to All Parts of the World, the latest album from The Garment District, a collective led by The Ladybug Transistor’s Jennifer Baron. He contributed guitar and sang lead vocals on two of the tracks (including highlight “The Starfish Song”), his piercing and confident singing providing a nice counterbalance to the swirling psychedelia of the music. As it turns out, 2023 has been a big year for Koshute–it also featured the release of Intravolve, his fourth full-length album and first since 2018. On his own, Koshute is a much more direct singer-songwriter and performer–on this album, he puts his foot on the gas for a breathless collection of power pop/garage rock tunes delivered with an all-in attitude reflecting someone who doesn’t know how many fully “on-his-own” statements he’ll be able to make.
Koshute recorded Intravolve entirely on his own in “a secret recording studio in the back of a Pittsburgh yoga studio”–all things considered, it sounds great. Opening track “Cavalcade of Faces” is a cavalcade of energy, gleefully hanging on one chord before the rest of the band (I mean, Koshute on different instruments) kicks out a garage-pop anthem. “For Reasons”, “The Mysteries”, and “Till Then” rival the runaway-train spirit of the opening track, delivering hooks and speed in equal measure, and the record’s final two songs (“Leonids” and the title track) ensure that Intravolve ends with just as much zeal as it begins. Koshute does find a little bit of time to deliver something that’s slightly less frantic–“Glow Area” and “Coeternal” are still loud and fuzzy enough, but the mid-tempo power pop of the two of them do work as more than just moments of relative levity. Perhaps most importantly, nothing on Intravolve serves to dampen its identity as a record absolutely bursting with hooks deserving to be heard beyond the confines of a yoga studio. (Bandcamp link)
This Thursday in November, Pressing Concerns rolls on uninhibited, offering up new albums from Frog and Wurld Series, a new EP from Major Awards, and a “mixtape” from none other than Molly O’Malley. Read on!
If you’re looking for more new music, you can visit the site directory to see what else we’ve written about lately. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.
Molly O’Malley – Noise Beyond the Mantle: A Mixtape
Release date: November 17th Record label: Mollywhop Record Shop Genre: Dream pop, power pop, noise pop, synthpop, emo Formats: Digital Pull Track: They Don’t Sing All the Time
Last time we checked in with Louisville-originating, Cleveland-based Molly O’Malley, it was October of 2021 and they’d just put out Goodwill Toy, an ambitious little four-song indie pop EP that snuck onto my best of the year list. O’Malley has kept busy in the interim–the three-song Nobody Parties (Like Molly) EP last year, a few demos on their Bandcamp this April, a song on a Blink-182 covers compilation for Smartpunk–but Noise Beyond the Mantle is their most substantial release yet. The eight-song “mixtape” is the most Molly O’Malley we’ve had in one place thus far, and what we get with it is a blurry but undeniably recognizable snapshot of a talented pop singer-songwriter. The songs here are as catchy as they are messy, given a full dose of controlled chaos in their presentations, and O’Malley’s writing feels sharper and fuller than ever in the midst of it all.
Listening to the opening power pop hooks of “Don’t Say When”, one gets the sense that Molly O’Malley could be a genuine pop hitmaker if they wanted to be, even as the rest of Noise Beyond the Mantle resists being so straightforward, instead letting noise and friendliness alternate for control of the record. “Giddy Up!” chugs along, its dreamy, reverb-y rock slightly obscuring but unable to hide some of the most interesting writing I’ve heard from O’Malley yet (everything in that second verse could be the line that sticks with you on any given day). The biggest vocal hook on the entire record just might be “I just don’t know what I’d say at your funeral / When they ask me to speak,” from “They Don’t Sing All the Time”, and the biggest hook of any kind is probably the blaring, Rentals-y synth that stakes out a position smack dab in the middle of “I’ll Guess I’ll Get Going (If Going Is What I Need to Get)”.
There’s a sort of lightness-darkness balance going on in that latter song, with O’Malley delivering “Either way I’ll be disappointed in you” with all the emotion they’ve got in the chorus. “I’ll Guess I’ll Get Going…” guest vocalist Karah Goldstein of Smol Data is in unfamiliar territory here, eschewing the cartoon-y dramedy vibes of their most recent record for something that’s more “unblinking stare” and less “winking” (Goldstein and O’Malley may have used up all that song’s silliness with its Brak Show-referencing title). When O’Malley sent me this mixtape, they mentioned that they were working on their debut full-length as well, and while I’m certainly interested in hearing what that eventually sounds like, there’s more than enough on Noise Beyond the Mantle to enjoy as more than an appetite-whetter. (Bandcamp link)
Frog – Grog
Release date: November 17th Record label: Audio Antihero/Tapewormies Genre: Experimental pop, folk rock, psychedelic rock, freak folk, prog-pop Formats: Digital Pull Track: Maybelline
Frog are a Queens-based duo of brothers (Danny & Steve Bateman) who have been making music since 2015 to a fair amount of acclaim, even as their fifth album, Grog, is the first I’ve heard from them. I know that the band’s first four albums are beloved by a fair amount of people, and from my limited knowledge, their first new music since 2019’s Count Bateman is something of a departure for them, but from someone bringing no history or baggage to Grog, it sounds like an excellent collection of music from collaborators operating at their peak. It’s a pleasingly divergent record, with nearly every song taking a different tack than the track coming before it, even as the Batemans hold it together with shaky but intact pop hooks and Dan’s timeless-sounding, surprisingly versatile voice. Listening to Grog kind of feels like an alternate-universe oldies station in how it picks and chooses sounds from throughout the past to create a new listening experience.
This feeling is more pronounced than ever in Grog’s opening stretch, where the opening snippet track gives way to the space-y psych pop ballad “Goes w/o Saying”, a fascinating song whose falsetto vocals evoke a highly specific time period where bands like Mercury Rev, The Flaming Lips, and Grandaddy were incorporating the piano-pop-songwriting side of Neil Young into their indie rock. They follow that one up, of course, with the freak folk of “420!!”, a track that reminds me of the same feeling I get listening to Bruiser and Bicycle’s Woods Come Find Me, an indescribable campfire experience–and then after that comes the cascading, vintage power pop rock of “U Shuld Go 2 Me”. More twists keep coming, like the Grifters-y guitar möbius strip that is “Doom Song”, but by the second half of the record, something of a distinct “Grog style” starts to emerge in the form of folk-y, poppy journeys like “New Ro” and “Gone Back to Stanford”, one that can be slowed down (“So Twisted Fate”) or sped up (“Maybelline”) to best fit the song. As a document of a band developing a particular sound in real-time, it’s both successful and highly enjoyable to hear. (Bandcamp link)
Wurld Series – The Giant’s Lawn
Release date: November 17th Record label: Meritorio/Melted Ice Cream Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, jangle pop, 90s indie rock, psychedelic pop Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: World of Perverts
Christchurch’s Wurld Series seem like a band made in a lab to appeal to me–a New Zealand guitar pop group that is inspired both directly by the classic Flying Nun bands that put their country on the indie rock map and indirectly via the American 90s indie rock groups that made the Dunedin Sound into something heavier and thornier. That being said, although I liked their 2021 breakthrough record What’s Growing, it didn’t end up fully “sticking” with me–but their follow-up and third full-length, The Giant’s Lawn, caught my attention just about immediately and has only rewarded this sleeve-tug since. Luke Towart, Brian Feary, Ben Woods, and Ben Dodd meander through an impressive patchwork sound throughout the album’s seventeen songs, displaying themselves as masters of both delicate pop music, indie guitar jams, and spacey acoustic psych-folk detours.
If thinking about The Giant’s Lawn as an Alien Lanes-ish mix of hits and strange interludes helps you understand it, Wurld Series certainly invites you to do so, especially early on, when the quartet offer up more than a few perfect guitar pop songs (the alt-rock chug of “Friend to Man and Traffic”, the especially Guided by Voices-y shit-kicking melancholy of “Lord of Shelves”, the deceptively affecting mid-tempo sparkle of “World of Perverts”) interspersed between the instrumental “The Giant’s Lawn Part I” and the warped piano snippet of Britishness that is “The Pugilist”. Particularly in the record’s second half, however, The Giant’s Lawn starts to melt in the sun, and the oddball and pop sides feel more likely to be directly intertwined. Not that, say, “Resplendent Fortress” isn’t as poppy as anything on the record’s A-side, but stuff like “Alive with Flies” and “Illustrious Plates” can’t be dismissed as interstitial even as they decline to be “normal” indie rock tunes. The last two songs of The Giant’s Lawn feel to me like divergent endpoints–on the one hand, there’s the multi-part prog-alt-rock-folk-swill of “Soft Ranks” and on the other one, the starkly beautiful acoustic/strings Pollardesque ballad “The Cloven Stone”. Both are highlights, and both represent The Giant’s Lawn well. (Bandcamp link)
Major Awards – It’s a Good Night to Have a Bad Time
Release date: November 17th Record label: Self-released Genre: Power pop, alt-rock, college rock Formats: Digital Pull Track: Dial Direct
Los Angeles’ Major Awards are a “sunshine punk” group made up of the core trio of Dylan Hensley (guitar/vocals), Mario Carreno (drums), and Josh Abarca (baritone guitar/trumpet), and joined on their debut EP by bassist James Bullock and pianist Tony Ramirez. It’s a Good Night to Have a Bad Time, which follows their debut single, September’s “Luxurious Sarcophagus”, is a four-song slow-burn of an EP with a familiar-seeming but nonetheless intriguing sound. Abarca’s prominent trumpet reminds me a bit of Fixtures’ most recent album in how just a single instrument is able to elevate a traditional “rock band” foundation beyond its starting point, and there’s a bit of Menzingers-y weary heartland punk (sapped of “attitude” to the point where only trace elements of “punk rock” can be ascertained) mixed in as well.
I’m not sure It’s a Good Night to Have a Bad Time could’ve started any more laid-back than with “Psalm 151”, whose mid-tempo power chords and Fender Rhodes accents give way to a lazily floating chorus (“Carry my thoughts and prayers to Heaven / On a plume of cigarette smoke,” Hensley sings alongside Abarca’s trumpet). Major Awards muster up just a bit of pep for “Let’s Be Resentful Again (Like We Were Last Year)”, although the cyclical, simmering emotions featured in the song keep the track from pushing the heat past “medium low”. Major Awards’ sound is just right to pull off “Red Eyes on the Red Line”, whose chorus feels like it’s frozen in time. It’s a Good Night to Have a Bad Time closes with “Dial Direct”, the EP’s busiest moment, and the one that feels like it most takes advantage of the newly-minted quintet lineup. Pretty much every instrument gets a moment in the spotlight throughout that track’s four-minute roots rock finale–a punctuation mark that only bodes well for Major Awards going forward. (Bandcamp link)
About a year ago, I made a blog post called “Rosy Overdrive Label Watch 2022“, in which I checked in on what a dozen of my favorite still-active labels had been up to during that year. I really enjoyed doing it (last year I wrote that “[small, independent record labels have] consistently been a key way to find good, varied, new-to-me music, and they remain a valuable, people-based resource for music discovery in an age where the ‘industry’ is openly trying to steer us away from such things,” which, frankly, feels even more relevant now than it did then). I hadn’t planned on making it an annual tradition at the time, but continuing it into this year feels very natural, so here we are.
Like I said last year, this is not a “best record labels of 2023” list (although there would, of course, be some overlap). These are the labels that I’ve grown to love over the past decade or so, some of which were quite active this year (looking at you, Feel It Records), while others were less so. Still, everyone on this list put out enough music for me to choose both a favorite record and a worthy “honorable mention” (which can be either my second favorite, something I thought didn’t get as much attention as it should’ve, or something I didn’t have time to review in Pressing Concerns but still merits a closer look). Also, I added Candlepin Records this year! Much deserved.
To read about many more records, some released by these labels, as well as by many other great ones I didn’t have space for here, visit the site archive.
In addition to reissuing their 2019 debut album Grass Stains and Novocaine this year, San Francisco’s Seablite also unveiled their sophomore record, Lemon Lights. The shoegaze quartet offer up a sharp collection of fuzzed-out pop songs–some of them whip up more of a wall of sound than others, but all of them display the band’s ability to pull off effortless-sounding but still substantial pieces of indie pop. (Read more)
Honorable Mention: XDS, Bicycle Ripper
On what appears to be their first new album since 2009, Chico, California’s XDS (formerly Experimental Dental School) come back with a vengeance via a delightful, experimental, but accessible rock record. The duo eagerly mixes in bits of dub, psychedelic rock, post-punk, synthpunk and more across Bicycle Ripper, sharpening their noise into something quite pleasing. (Read more)
RO Pick: The Reds, Pinks & Purples, The Town That Cursed Your Name
Let’s not take Glenn Donaldson for granted. With a Reds, Pinks & Purples record, one can expect exquisite jangle pop marked by gently-strummed chord progressions, generous melodies, and wistful, melancholic vocals. The Town That Cursed Your Name is no different, even as Donaldson sounds a bit louder, more electric, and fuzzier than he has of late on his full-length ode to fledgling bands and musicians. (Read more)
Honorable Mention: Blue Ocean, Fertile State
The hazy, fuzzy Fertile State is maybe one of the less immediate records Slumberland has released in recent memory–indeed, it took me a while to wrap my head around this one. Blue Ocean marry the “avant” side of shoegaze with loud indie pop in a fascinating way here; this one is for the adventurous guitar pop devotees out there.
It took Teenage Halloween three years to follow up their excellent self-titled debut album, but I’m happy to report that Till You Return is every bit that album’s equal in terms of massive power pop hooks and electric punk rock energy. The Asbury Park quartet offer up a murderer’s row of emo-punk songs–just about every track here reaches “anthem” status.
Honorable Mention: Dusk, Glass Pastures
Glass Pastures is the first proper Dusk album in a half-decade, although it finds the Appleton, Wisconsin sextet in just as rare a form as they were on 2018’s Dusk. It’s a timeless-sounding collection of vintage pop music in the form of enjoyable country rock and roll. It’s a summer windows-down album to be sure, but I’d imagine no amount of poor weather would dampen these songs.
On their first album in five years, Columbus’ Connections sound like reinvigorated power pop warriors. They’re alternatively massive and purposeful, suave and effortless, and subtle and pensive at various points on Cool Change. They’ve recently expanded to a six-piece, which helps it feel like the second decade of Connections’ existence just might be as thrilling as their first. (Read more)
Honorable Mention: FACS, Still Life in Decay
Sometimes it feels like FACS has been making one, long, apocalyptic song their entire career. After putting out four records in four years, the Chicago trio took 2022 off before roaring back with Still Life in Decay, resuming their empty-space-flavored post-punk, noise rock, and experimentalism with a palpable force.
RO Pick: Washer, Improved Means to Deteriorated Ends
On their first album in six years, Washer haven’t abandoned their core sound (a barebones blend of punk, post-punk, post-hardcore, and noise rock), but what they’ve been working on, it seems like, is packing it with as much as possible. Improved Means to Deteriorated Ends grapples with a lot of heady subject matter, but the Brooklyn duo do it all over spirited rock and roll. (Read more)
Honorable Mention: Shady Bug, What’s the Use?
St. Louis’ Shady Bug are still making frequently noisy and unbridled indie rock on What’s the Use?, their first new record in four years. However, the trio sound more streamlined and focused on this EP than on 2019’s Lemon Lime LP, dialing back just a bit of their insular and exploratory sides to deliver some thorny but melodic hits. (Read more)
RO Pick: Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band, Dancing on the Edge
Last decade, Kentucky/Indiana’s Ryan Davis made four great records as the leader of sprawling country-punks State Champion. On his first album of “songs” since 2018, Davis delivers seven tracks in over fifty minutes–Dancing on the Edge is as much a country record as he’s ever made, even as he continues to stretch out his writing even more than I thought possible. (Read more)
Honorable Mention: Bilderine, Split Seconds
Sophomore Lounge have dug deep and unearthed an underheralded New Zealand classic with this one. The second album from Bill Direen (rechristened “Bilderine” here), 1984’s Split Seconds, would certainly appeal to fans of more well-known Flying Nun works, although the record’s excitable deconstruction of 60s garage rock with post-punk precision gives it a distinct and unique feel apart from most of the other Kiwi albums of the time.
As North Carolina musicians like MJ Lenderman and Indigo De Souza have grown in stature, it’s been nice to see a bit of that spotlight hit Durham’s underappreciated Fust. Both Lenderman and De Souza play on Genevieve, which tightens up some of their last album‘s looseness and comes across as a quite deliberate statement of country-folk-rock. (Read more)
Honorable Mention: Florry, Sweet Guitar Solos
Their full-length album, The Holey Bible, rightfully got some accolades in August, but I wanted to spotlight this digital-only Florry EP that came out back in January. Two absolutely bursting versions of songs that would appear on the full-length, a Drive-By Truckers cover, and an original tune that lives up to its unwieldy title–it’s hard not to be “all in” on Florry after visiting Sweet Guitar Solos. (Read more)
Nothing else I’ve heard in 2023 quite sounds like House of Jackpots. As Rocket 808, Austin’s John Schooley combines a minimal drum machine with surf rock and Western guitar playing to evoke a Frankensteined past that never actually existed—although songs like “21st Century Boy” certainly make me favor this parallel universe.
Honorable Mention: Weak Signal, War&War
Weak Signal’s War&War was one of my favorite albums of 2022, so I’m happy to see 12XU give it a vinyl release this year. There’s a cavernous quality and vocal interplay that makes WAR&WAR sound like a fuzzier, edgier Yo La Tengo at times, and there’s also straightforward garage rock stompers that feel loose in a way distinct from Bianca, their previous record.
In what feels like a historically stacked year for Feel It Records, it only makes sense that the gold goes to what I’d consider to be one of their flagship bands. On Sultan of Squat, The Cowboys dive even further into polished, gleaming power pop than before, although they do it with an exuberance and energy that reflects their garage rock roots. (Read more)
Honorable Mention: Corker, Falser Truths
Corker comes out of the exciting Cincinnati garage punk underground (much of which has been documented by Feel It). Their first full-length, Falser Truths, is some fiery basement rock owes that just as much to blunt noise rock as the more “art punk”-indebted sound of much of their peers. (Read more)
RO Pick: Slaughter Beach, Dog, Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling
Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling, the fifth Slaughter Beach, Dog album, is a laid-back folk rock record that finds bandleader Jake Ewald completely in his element. It’s an album made by someone who’s always had a knack for songwriting, but it feels like he’s getting more comfortable and trusting in his work (and in his band, who more than do these songs justice). (Read more)
Honorable Mention: Provide, For Me
Evan Bernard has been playing in Philly-area bands for quite a while now (if you listen to a decent amount of music from that city, you’ve almost certainly heard a record he’s had a hand in creating). With Provide, it turns out he’s more than capable of making hits on his own as well–For Me is a snappy and brief record of punk-y power pop that nails a particular niche of this kind of music very well, and very enthusiastically.
I’ve extensively documented my love of Silkworm on this blog; Comedy Minus One didn’t release much in terms of “new” new music this year (something that looks likely to change in 2024), but even if they’d put out more “proper” albums this year I still probably would’ve had to have gone with this excellent unearthed radio session from Silkworm’s Tim Midyett and Andy Cohen (with drummer Michael Dahlquist “out scoring”–”drugs, I don’t mean sex,” Cohen clarifies). The duo pick and strum their way through eight selections from the Silkworm songbook, most of which are from 1996’s Firewater, but the opener, Developer outtake “Ogilvie”, is a rare treat.
Honorable Mention: These Estates, The Dignity of Man & Triumph, Reign
Since Comedy Minus One digitally re-released The Crust Brothers’ Marquee Mark, I could’ve gotten away with an all-Silkworm-related list here. Instead, however, we pay tribute to a band that sounds a lot like Silkworm, Regina’s These Estates. The Dignity of Man (originally released in 2013) and Triumph, Reign (2014) are albums that really get what made Silkworm great, and in the realization of this create two stunningly deep works of indie rock that transcend their influences. They’re both superb; why choose?
Really fun experimental post-punk/art punk stuff out of Olympia, Washington. Debt Rag (from the ashes of Wet Drag) break the world down and rebuild it all wrong on their sub-twenty-minute debut record Lost to the Fantasy–it reminds me of the clang-punk of Handle’s In Threes, although any “punk” album with no allegiances other than “rhythm” is in the same realm as this one.
Honorable Mention: Blue Dolphin, Robert’s Lafitte
Some more Texas oddness here with Robert’s Lafitte, a posthumous collection from Houston/Austin’s Blue Dolphin. Apparently the quartet only lasted for one year (2016) and this album collects their entire recorded output–they had enough to make a somewhat lo-fi but certainly on-target garage-y post-punk album that still sounds fresh in today’s guitar music climate.
RO Pick: Leor Miller’s Fear of Her Own Desire, Eternal Bliss Now!
On Eternal Bliss Now!, Leor Miller pulls in some non-rock influences (hip hop, electronica, and hyperpop) to compete with her more typical dream-shoegaze-distorted-indie rock. As disparate as the touchpoints are, Miller remains laser-focused on interpersonal connectivity and other big but interconnected subjects throughout the record. (Read more)
Honorable Mention: Parister, Here’s What You Wonder
Louisville’s Parister have enough of a twang on Here’s What You Wonder to put them in the realm of modern fuzz-country, although Jake Tapley’s songwriting is the main draw here. It’s a generous album–its thirteen songs all feel full and complete, unfolding with Tapley’s unassuming but steady vocals guiding them to either polished or noisy conclusions. (Read more)
New Monday, new Pressing Concerns! This is sort of an odds-and-ends one, which are always sneakily my favorite ones to do: new albums from Royal Ottawa and Lonesome Joan, a previously-unreleased new-old album from Cosmo Jimmy, and an EP from Still Submarine are what you can expect below.
If you’re looking for more new music, you can visit the site directory to see what else we’ve written about lately. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.
Royal Ottawa – Carcosa
Release date: October 17th Record label: Self-released Genre: College rock, folk rock, psychedelic rock, Paisley Underground Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Ontario Baby
Recently I was introduced to the music of Royal Ottawa, an elusive Canadian band whose members have been sporadically releasing and playing music since the 1980s. Their origins lie in the early punk/post-punk band Bugs Harvey Oswald, who spawned in Ireland, played shows with The Fall, Mission of Burma, and the Ramones, and who disappeared in the mid-80s having only ever released one single. According to Wally Salem of The Beautiful Music, Royal Ottawa arose in the 90s and put out a CD in 1996, although there’s no record of this on the Internet that I could find. After another period of inactivity (in the public eye, at least), Royal Ottawa entered the modern world with 2015’s The World We Know, and this time they took under a decade to return, materializing again this year with a double album called Carcosa.
For a band that’s existed under the radar for so long, Royal Ottawa are pretty good at selling themselves–their website describes Carcosa as “sand-blasted through time to create a sonic experience that is at once familiar and hauntingly alien”, which probably captures the record more than anything I could possibly write. Listening to the album, it’s clear that Royal Ottawa have been playing the long game, following a unique, winding path to arrive here in the form of a nineteen-song, eighty-minute behemoth. To me, Carcosa sounds like a miracle. There are some reference points, but this is a subgenre of rock music that is fairly hard to classify because so few bands make it to this point. It reminds me a little bit of the most recent Eleventh Dream Day album, the dense psychedelia of recent The Church, and there’s also some of the later work from Paisley Underground groups like The Dream Syndicate here.
As opening track “Slipping Away” comes in and out of focus, Royal Ottawa set up their hawk’s nest they’ll come to inhabit for the rest of the record. A lot of double albums are the product of young, eager bands darting from one style or idea to the next, unable to sit still–Carcosa is not that. It’s musical channeling–Royal Ottawa let the music come to, and through, them. This isn’t to say that the album isn’t varied, or that it doesn’t rock in places–plenty of songs, like “Try” and “Three Seven Zero”, are impressive electric guitar workouts, while tracks like “Rideau Street” and “Ontario Baby” have sharp hooks that are all the more impactful having emerged from the rest of the record’s dust storm. This side of Royal Ottawa stubbornly rears its head all the way to the end of Carcosa–some of the record’s final tracks, from “AK-49” to “Soul on Ice” to “Ground”, are some of its hardest-hitting. At some point, eighty minutes starts to feel like effectively nothing–Carcosa continues to resonate long after it draws to a close. (Bandcamp link) (Vinyl link)
Lonesome Joan – On North Pond
Release date: October 23rd Record label: Self-released Genre: Folk rock, singer-songwriter, lo-fi indie rock Formats: Cassette, digital Pull Track: Hermitage
Lonesome Joan is Amanda Lozada, a Boston-based singer-songwriter who’s been steadily releasing music under the name for nearly a decade now. Judging from their Bandcamp, On North Pond might be their first full-length album of original material, but whether or not it qualifies as a “debut album”, it’s a quietly impressive collection of folk rock with a depth that reveals itself to me more and more on repeat listens. It’s explicitly a concept album about the North Pond Hermit, a recluse who lived in the titular area of Maine with virtually no direct human contact for 27 years until 2013. Lozada clearly found a wellspring of inspiration in this figure; they wrote the entire album over “one weekend in 2019”, although it took them until earlier this year to finish recording these songs. For a mostly self-recorded folk album (aside from the spoken word soundbites in the opening track and some drum contributions from Matt Vuchichevich, it’s all Lozada), On North Pond is pleasingly dynamic–quiet and intimate, yes, but also rousing and rocking in more places than one would expect.
As opening track “Completely Free” gets at, there aren’t any easy answers to the story of the North Pond Hermit (Why did he abandon society? Why did he stay away for so long?); this grayness can either be a disappointment for those hoping to find some sort of larger universal truths in this remarkable story, or the inexplicability of the whole thing can, perhaps, be the whole draw in the first place. Likewise, On North Pond resists an easy readthrough–the degree to which Lozada is intentionally inhabiting the life of a different person compared to just how much they see themself in this figure varies based on where you’re at in On North Pond. The first track Lozada sings on the album, “Hermitage”, reaches its climax with them declaring “I’ll give my dead name up / To a dead world,” and it’s hard not to read autobiographically into that, but the duo of “Lord of the Woods” and “Lady of the Woods” both emphasize questions over observations, which I don’t believe is an accident. Several of these songs let a line or two linger in the air; one of these is “Fink”, in which Lozada sings “I’m tempted to say, ‘nothing personal’ / But these kinds of things are always personal”. In the midst of On North Pond’s blurriness, that might be the clearest picture we get. (Bandcamp link)
Cosmo Jimmy – Under That Dress
Release date: November 10th Record label: Feel It Genre: Power pop, pop rock, new wave Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Punch
Earlier this year I wrote about The Toms’ 1979 self-titled home-recorded debut, a power pop classic that’s perhaps one of the most beloved records to ever grace the pages of Pressing Concerns. The occasion of the review was a deluxe double vinyl reissue of the record via Feel It Records, a partnership that (as I said at the time) makes a lot of sense. The Toms was written, played, and recorded entirely by one man, New Jersey’s Tom Marolda, who, it should be noted, went on to create a lot more music after that debut, of varying stages of renown and availability in 2023. One of these records was Under That Dress, the sole album from the project Cosmo Jimmy, which was recorded at Marolda’s Songgram Studios in 1987 and scheduled to be released on Scorpio Records. For whatever reason, however, it was shelved until Feel It got their hands on it, releasing it for the first time ever nearly forty years later. What they’ve unearthed is a remarkable album, one that shows Marolda still at his power pop iconoclast best but not unaware of what was happening (80s pop, new wave, college rock) around him.
Under That Dress is perhaps a record with more extremes than The Toms. Opening track “Punch” is definitely one of the more “power pop anthem”-y songs here, and it packs a…well, a punch in a wide-screen 80s rock kind of way, too. It’s definitely still Tom Marolda, but it’s also not entirely removed from the world of slick “alternative” radio bands like The Smithereens, Hoodoo Gurus, and even the U.S.-commercial era of XTC. “Call of the Wild” also mines this territory gleefully in the record’s second half, and even as “Water on the Brain” is slightly harder to timestamp, it belongs in this category, too. Elsewhere on the album, though, Cosmo Jimmy look under different stones–the title track, for instance, is the group’s take on swaggering 70s rock and roll, and “Window” just as eagerly explores the world of synthpop. The B-side of Under That Dress bounces around between these points, locking into Marolda’s power pop world but still adding touches of these other elements to these songs. Cosmo Jimmy closes the record with “The Trend”, featuring a chorus that wraps up Under That Dress better than I could: “No matter what the trend might be, I’m still me”. (Bandcamp link)
Still Submarine – Warmer Shades of You
Release date: September 30th Record label: Self-released Genre: Dream pop, indie pop, shoegaze, jangle pop, twee, noise pop Formats: Digital Pull Track: Photos I Never Took
Still Submarine are an “indie pop/tweegaze” duo from New York, comprised of two people known only to us as Marcus (guitar and vocals) and Xuan (bass and vocals), who co-wrote the five songs on their debut release, the Warmer Shades of You EP. The band recruited drummer Steven Holmes and keyboardist/synth player August Smith to contribute a few extra layers to their first record, which is an intriguing collection of classically C86/melancholy jangle pop songs with a dreamy and distorted delivery. I would imagine that Marcus and Xuan have spent a lot of time with Sarah and Slumberland Records’ discographies (much like one of their closest-sounding contemporaries, New Jersey’s Lightheaded, who recently graduated from “being inspired by Slumberland bands” to “releasing music on Slumberland”). Still Submarine balance their pop side with Sweet Trip/Lovesliescrushing-ish shoegaze-y textures, although the duo don’t really let the latter side overwhelm the EP until its big finish.
The bouncy indie pop of “Photos I Never Took” kicks off the recorded era of Still Submarine with a friendly beginning, featuring a brisk drumbeat and cheerful guitar chords that are balanced by melodic but slightly downcast lead vocals. “Still Alice” is the song on Warmer Shades of You that comes closest to rivaling the pure pop charm of the opening track, with its jaunty instrumental dragging along the similarly understated but more-than-enough vocals. The sleepy ballad of “Yi’s Song” is as clear-sounding as the aforementioned two songs, although Marcus and Xuan choose to take the track in a more casual, lazily sprawling direction instead of tightly-constructed pop rock. Of course, those more interested in shoegaze-y distorted pop will gravitate towards the EP’s other two songs–the smoothly flowing noise pop of “Just Kidding” and closing track “More Glass”, which steadily takes a fuzzy indie rock foundation and layers some more instruments on top of it for a hazy but sturdy finale. Still Submarine let the noise take over, but not until after they’ve gotten their pop hits through. (Bandcamp link)
The third and final installment of Pressing Concerns this week sets you up with three albums set to come out tomorrow (new long-players from Wet Dip, Blue Stoplights, and Layperson) and one that came out two days ago (the new Grapes of Grain album). With one major exception, this edition features a lot of laid-back, folk-y, alt-country-y autumn-appropriate music. I’d also recommend going back and checking out Monday’s post (featuring Seablite, Means and Ways, Sandy Pylos, and No Drama) and Tuesday’s post (featuring Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band, Maria Elena Silva, Rory Strong, and Fortunato Durutti Marinetti) if you missed those.
If you’re looking for more new music, you can visit the site directory to see what else we’ve written about lately. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.
Wet Dip – Smell of Money
Release date: November 10th Record label: Feel It Genre: Post-punk, garage punk, no wave, art punk, surf punk, noise rock Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Rollercoaster
Just when you think that Feel It Records couldn’t possibly have any more surprises up their sleeves this year, they’ve unleashed the debut album from an exciting, classic Texas weirdo punk band. Wet Dip are an Austin-based trio whose roots stretch back to the Lone Star State’s northern panhandle, where sisters Sylvia Rodriguez (vocals/guitar) and Erica Rodriguez (drums) grew up before moving to the state capital and meeting Daniel Doyle (bass/guitar). After releasing a demo EP in 2019, the Rodriguezes and Doyle met up with another garage punk/post-punk band that’s been terrorizing the Great Plains as of late in Sweeping Promises and recorded Smell of Money, their first album, at Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug’s Lawrence, Kansas studio. The first full-length statement from Wet Dip is another entry in a long lineage of hot-to-the-touch Texas oddball rock and roll, but it’s not constrained to even that large of a state line–shades of vintage New York no wave, Pixies/Breeders (they cover the former band’s “Silver”), and even the punkier side of Deerhoof all color Smell of Money.
Like any good no wave band, the elements of Wet Dip’s sound on Smell of Money can be counted on one hand, all serve different functions, and all come together to form a unique torrent. The rhythm section always has one foot on the gas pedal, the cacophonous guitar drops in and out, causing destruction and chaos anywhere it makes landfall, and Sylvia’s vocals (which range from flat post-punker to seething conversationalist to damaged crooner) are equally remarkable. Rodriguez conveys rage in a much more interesting way than your typical one-note punk frontman–her lyrics in the English-language songs here (“Black Friday” and “Emperor” particularly) are delivered in a fascinatingly nervous yet furious fashion, and her increasingly frantic repetition of the title line in the closing title track is the final ingredient in a piece of fiery industrial punk horror. Of the album’s two covers, it’s notable that Wet Dip turn the Pixies song into a desert noise-ballad with what’s probably Sylvia’s most melodic vocal, and it’s their version of Gloria Trevi’s “Pelo Suelto” that they turn into a basement no-wave garage-stomp. Wet Dip’s Spanish-language originals are no less effective either, particularly the western-surf experiment of “Stray” acquitting itself quite nicely in the record’s number two slot. Some moments on Smell of Money are more noisy than others, but absolutely none of them are boring. (Bandcamp link)
Grapes of Grain – Unaware
Release date: November 7th Record label: Drag Days Genre: Alt-country Formats: Digital Pull Track: Front Steps
At the beginning of the year, Dutch band Grapes of Grain returned after a decade-plus hiatus to release the five-song Getaways EP. The Utretcht-based quartet released three records before breaking up in 2009, but singer/songwriter/vocalist Alexis Vos had written some new material in 2022, and he reassembled the band (Berend Jan Ike, Stefan Breuer, and Arno Breuer, in addition to contributions from Niel van Heumen and Tammo Kersbergen) to put together that EP’s tranquil mix of jangle pop, folk rock, and indie pop. Vos’ return to music turned out to be more than a passing moment, and (after the standalone “Homebound” single in June), Grapes of Grain have released an entire full-length record merely months later. Unaware feels like a continuation of and an expounding on what the band had begun on Getaways, with Vos taking cautious but palpable steps forward as a songwriter and the music of the album (largely provided by Jan Ike this time around) equally cautiously and palpably molding itself around Vos’ writing.
Vos mentions listening to a lot of Tom Petty and Paul Westerberg while writing these songs, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Unaware is more or less a straight-up alt-country album. That being said, their earlier influences of R.E.M. and a bygone but not forgotten era of college rock are still here–the link between the two maybe being the subtle folk rock of Westerberg’s solo career, or even the quieter moments of early “alt-country” Wilco. Although Unaware starts off with the upbeat folk rock of “All I Want” and it also features “Moonshine”, a decidedly “all-in” embrace of country rock, the meat of the album is much more melancholic. The pedal steel in “Send My Heart” and the piano-led “No Lie” have some rousing moments in them, but they’re certainly too pensive to be “anthems”–to say nothing of the affecting acoustic folk of “The Yard Sale” and the vintage singer-songwriter soft rock-y appeal of “Raining in December”. Vos has plenty of pop instincts even as Grapes of Grain go for an album that deliberately feels less “immediate”–the horn-aided closing track “Worries” and (especially) the mandolin-pop “Front Steps” snag bittersweet melodies impressively. What Grapes of Grain end up with is a record that’s instantly likable but quietly substantial enough to endure. (Bandcamp link)
Blue Stoplights – Bouquet
Release date: November 10th Record label: Self-released Genre: Alt-country, lo-fi indie rock Formats: Digital Pull Track: October Light
Blue Stoplights are an alt-country trio from Chicago–I was somewhat surprised to discover that this band has been around since the mid-2010s, releasing two full-lengths and two EPs in the latter half of that decade. The group (vocalist/guitarist/bassist/banjoist Robby Biegalski, vocalist/guitarist/bassist Dean Jepsen, and drummer Conor McKenzie) had been away for a few years, but their third album and first new music since 2019 is a warm reintroduction to Blue Stoplights. To say that Bouquet is the sound of Blue Stoplights roaring back to life wouldn’t exactly be accurate, given that the band’s brand of alt-country is clearly informed by 2010s lo-fi basement/bedroom indie rock and folk like Hovvdy, Spencer Radcliffe, and Elvis Depressedly. That is to say, we’re closer to slowcore than to ‘country punk’ here, and Bouquet is subsequently a record that requires a bit of patience–which is rewarded in due time.
The first half of Bouquet is the more “traditional”-sounding one–like any good A-side, it offers up five pieces of folky indie rock that don’t go out of their way to make themselves sound overly friendly but are more than enough on their own. The melodic guitar lines flowing through opening track “Fistful” and the trumpet (provided by Christian Torres) on “Katydid” and “Easy on Me” are far from showy, but Blue Stoplights nonetheless spin compelling music out of them and their base ingredients. The other five songs of Bouquet are, upon closer inspection, the band experimenting a little bit and stepping out of their sleepy comfort zone. “October Light”, “Hang Around”, and “The Fence” in particular feel like the work of a different band–one that offers up short (all three are under two and a half minutes), electric, but wide-open takes on 90s indie rock. Not that these numbers are incongruous with the other version of Blue Stoplights, mind you–they sit well next to tracks like folk-y closer “Coconspire”. There’s more than enough open space in Bouquet for all of it. (Bandcamp link)
Layperson – Massive Leaning
Release date: November 10th Record label: Lung/Bud Tapes Genre: Folk rock, dream pop, alt-country, singer-songwriter Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital Pull Track: Black Pool
Layperson is Julian Morris, a Portland, Oregon-based singer-songwriter who has played with experimental post-rock group Post Moves in the past, among other bands. As Layperson, Morris makes more pop-forward music–on the latest release under that name, Massive Leaning, Morris dresses his songwriting in several ornate layers encompassing classic folk rock, dream-y indie pop, and even soft rock to a degree. It reminds me of the most recent Papercuts album, an artist who, like Layperson, has been steadily releasing lightly psychedelic guitar pop for quite a while now (Morris put out several EPs and a full-length under the name in the previous decade, but this is his first new material since 2019). It’s a laid-back, less immediate version of pop music–if it’s taking some time for you, try listening to Massive Leaning after a long day at work, because that’s what worked for me.
There’s no shortage of indie folk records cropping up these days, but Massive Leaning uses a combination of Morris’ excellent, heartfelt, melodic vocals and some smartly-deployed pedal steel courtesy of Sam Wenc to ensure that there’s more than enough for the listener to hold onto. Once you’re on Layperson’s wavelength, the opening title track and “Black Pool” feel like massive, undeniable pieces of indie rock (the latter in particular has an electric country-rock foundation and a positively stunning chorus). Those are the most obvious ones, but the downstroked Pacific Northwest indie rock of “Beginner’s Mind” and the dark toe-tapping of “Soft” break the record open in a completely different way following its strong start. The second half of the record is perhaps Layperson at their most “jangle pop”, although the orchestral pop of “I Want To” and the brisk folk-country tones of “My Loneliness Rings Like a Bell” give further color to Massive Leaning–every time I go back to this one, there are even more shades. (Bandcamp link)
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