Album Reviews
It is often said to understand where you are in life, and where you might go, you first have to understand your past. For multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Adrian Younge, the American past seems to be, both too muddied and too sanitized to effectively gage where we even are in society right now. It’s with […]
MoreLock & Key, the new EP from Los Angeles-based Twin Oaks, reveals itself to be an astonishingly beautiful and endlessly haunting collection of atmospheric ballads. The songs, created under the bleak shadow of the pandemic and in the isolation of quarantine, are gentle confessionals delivered via singer Lauren Brown’s piercing vocals — which range from […]
MoreSoft Swells front man Tim Williams dropped his first full length debut solo release under the band name Quiet Canyons. His album, of the same title, is a soft rumble of an album with a heavy acoustic sound. Like echoes ricocheting through a canyon, Williams captures the intangible element of self-reflection — where thoughts ripple […]
MoreIn 2016 Dre Babinski (aka Steady Holiday), coming off her Coachella debut, told Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls that one of the biggest obstacles she’d faced to date was herself; that “allowing [herself] to be vulnerable” had become her “biggest challenge.” Fast-forward four years to the release of her sophomore album Take the Corners Gently and […]
MoreAt just 20 years old, London-born artist Arlo Parks (full name, Anaïs Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho) has proven to be a rare creative storm of youthful courage and insight beyond her years. Though she herself has noted she’s no old soul or voice of a generation, for the past few years, she has garnered acclaim from […]
MoreOn their debut album Goin’ Back, Los Angeles indie-folk trio WILD continues to create for themselves a profoundly moving niche within the genre, intersecting the kind of anthemic alternative and pop hooks that make them such exciting newcomers. Made up of Lauren Luiz (vocals), Tyler Thompson (producer/guitar), and Zach Daegatano (vocals/guitar), WILD emphatically brand their […]
MoreUnfolding as a fever-dream of escape onto the open road, Still Corners Tessa Murray and Greg Hughes’s newest album The Last Exit is a hypnotic journey into the depths of their self-called desert noir sound. Like the dreamy and terrifyingly large natural world of Lord Huron‘s Strange Trails, poised with unexplored expanses and hiding dark […]
MoreCombining laid back beach vibes with a psychedelic lo-fi atmosphere, San Diego native Hether strikes a resonating tone with his newest release ‘Sticky Thumb.’ From echoey reverbs to distorted vocals, the EP pulsates in an interluding fashion; opening with a soft acoustic rumble and building up to the titular track; a driving beat that ramps […]
MoreEnding a year such as 2020 may have seemed surreal, but, LA-based by way of Miami artist Rachel Goodrich did so in style with her new album ‘ibba jibba.’ Laying down springy pop beats and slicing up lyrics like freshly ground bud in the grinder, Goodrich’s latest album touches on themes of inhibition, stagnation and […]
MoreBriskly independent and gushingly intimate, Jordana‘s sophomore album Something to Say to You thrusts you head-first into the mind and world of its creator. Stepping outside of the bedroom-pop she’d so comfortably slipped into on her first album, the songs on Something to Say to You have grown with Jordana, their thematic breadth matching their […]
More