WHITELANDS, NIGHT-BOUND EYES ARE BLIND TO THE DAY

Back in 2019, guitarist and singer Etienne Quartey-Papafio stumbled upon the reformed Slowdive’s KEXP session on YouTube. He immediately connected with the band’s shoegazing sound. It became the new reference point for Whitelands, the black four piece band that Etienne had formed with guitarist Michael Adelaja, bassist Vanessa Govinden and drummer Jagun Meseorisa.  

“There’s an underlying narrative that it’s OK for white men to be romantic, sensitive, emotional and make dreamy music and, by contrast, young Black men should be making angry music. We’ve all grown up with these stereotypes and therefore I think people are mystified when they see Whitelands.”.  Vanessa Govinden

Five years on, the band arrive with their debut album, Night-Bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day.  On it, the band play with beautifully layered, swirling, and etherial walls of sound that harken back to the late ‘80 and early ‘90’s when shoegazing bands were peaking. Set back and obscured by this wall are lyrics dealing with everything from vulnerability, unbalanced relationships, and personal struggles to racism, tokenism, and imperialism. Listening to Night-Bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day has been such a treat. It is everything that I want from a shoegazing album and have found myself lost in it more than once.

CLOTH, SECRET MEASURE

Twin siblings, Rachael and Paul Swinton, have been making restrained and minimalistic synth dream pop music for a number of years now. On their latest album, Secret Measure, the Glasgow duo take a major step forward, refining every aspect of what it is that they do best. With Rachael's breathy vocals, delicately floating over elegantly constructed, symmetrical, and restrained music, Cloth envelops its listener and carries them off to a celestial-like space where themes explore the idea of reassurance. That 'things will be OK when things are tough in life.' And one can work towards being a bit more self-sufficient. It's a wonderful way to spend almost 45 minutes and I suspect that many will not want to come back down to earth so soon.

TOP ALBUMS OF 2020

This past year was not the one that any of us expected or wanted. And I think that it's safe to say that everyone experienced such a wide range of thought, feels, and emotions as we all moved through it. This was certainly the case for me. Fortunately with each passing month, there were new albums that provided me with outlets to escape...with any hope to my happy place. 

At different times, I reach for each one of these albums again and again. Here are my top albums of 2020!

10. Airbag, A Day At The Beach

I got excited when I first learned that Airbag was back in the studio recording a new album. Since 2009, the band, hailing from Oslo, Norway, had only released four albums. Each one has become favorites of mine. I was ready for more. Almost a year later, A Day At The Beach arrived back in June and I got my Airbag fix.   

One would never say that Airbag has a totally original sound. Influences of bands like Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree have always been present. On A Day At The Beach, the band does move in a bit of a new directly with the addition of electronic elements which they say were inspired by the resurgence of ‘80’s electronica and new wave. In this regard, they have tapped into a bit of The Cure circa Disintegration.

With six songs clocking in at almost fifty minutes, there is plenty of music to consume here. I cannot recommend A Day At The Beach enough. This is a fantastic album. 

9. Creeper, Sex, Death & The Infinite Void

WOW. WOA?! WOW! That was my reaction listing to Creeper's amazingly original, inventive, and over-the-top sophomore  album. Since then, I have been trying to figure out just how to describe this one. Then I read Kerrang!'s perfect review; 'If the coquettish camp of The Rocky Horror Picture Show is your idea of a good time, or you’ve enjoyed the morbid-idiosyncrasies of a John Waters movie, the lovingly-crafted universe evoked by Sex, Death & The Infinite Void might just feel like home. Imbued with endless passion, colour and a carnival of glorious sound, it’s a musical marvel.' A marvel indeed.

8. Glass Animals, Dreamland

Four years after the release of their Mercury Nominated album, How To Be A Human Being, Glass Animals are back and better than ever. A much more personal album, ‘Dreamland is the awakening moment from a turbulent time’ for the band and the ‘nostalgic personal journey of front man and producer Dave Bayley.’ (OMH) 

In the hands of other bands, exploring difficult childhood memories, relationships, and the topic of recovery might weight down an album, but not with Glass Animals. Dreamland’s heavy topics are disguised with psych-pop upbeat tones and by ‘referencing people and/or characters as food.’ Using these tactics, the band creates a dream-like state that allows the reality of Bayley’s past to ‘seem a little less intense’ (MFN). 

7. The Haar, The Haar

The story goes that Irish folk and traditional percussionist Cormac Byrne and fiddler Adam Summerhayes were on holiday in Inis Oírr when they walked into a pub and were silenced along with everyone else as Molly Donnery began to sing unaccompanied. Fast forward some time and the three meet up in a studio along with accordionist Murray Grainer to record some Irish traditional songs. The four made no plans in advance of entering the studio. As they explained, they just let the music create itself. 

What resulted was the creation of a truly stunning collection of songs captured on their first and only takes. As Folk Radio wrote about The Haar, it's 'a very evocative record, bringing senses of the pain and futility of war and the salt of the ocean, as well as the beauty of the land and the strength of human relationships through its works and music. We need more music like this; spontaneous, alive and affecting, The Haar will take you on a journey and have you appreciating the purest of life's pleasures. Wonderful stuff.' I so agree.

6. Eric Hutchinson, Class of 98

In the press release for Class of 98, Eric Hutchinson explains that sometime last year, he came to a strange realization: he kept daydreaming about high school. It had been over 20 years since the singer-songwriter had graduated, yet the adolescent dreams, hopes, fears, anxieties and emotions he faced as a kid began flooding back. Suddenly, he felt transported back into his teenage self and those years filled with the kind of alienation and private angst that is recognizable to most anyone who’s ever been 16. 

Now, years later, he has chronicled those adolescence years. Wrapping them in ’90s inspired alt-rock-pop music from bands like Fountains Of Wayne and Weezer, Hutchinson has crafted a memorable set of songs and album.

5. Dua Lipa, Future Nostalgia

Having no idea who Dua Lipa was when I first listened to Future Nostalgia, I got all excited that I had made some great musical discovery that I would share with my kids. The album fits squarely in their musical lane. Turns out that I'm about the only one who doesn't know about Britain's biggest female musical artist. 

I will just say that I love Future Nostalgia. As Variety wrote, "It's an impeccably crafted, gleefully executed half-hour plus of pop perfection that does meet the moment, maybe, in just reminding you how good it feels to be human, And to be in love. And to be in Studio 54." This is modern pop at its best. 

 

4. Siv Jakobsen, A Temporary Smooth 

Gentle and calming, Oslo-based singer-songwriter Siv Jakobsen’s ambient, folky tunes belong in an independent coming of age film, or at very least, a heartbreaking scene in Normal People. Poised with an unhinged rawness, Jakobsen’s sophomore album ‘A Temporary Soothing’ does just as the title says, acting a security blanket to offer shelter during those blue Sunday evenings or summer thunderstorms. Clash Magazine 

I was immediately drawn to this album and have come back to it many times. It's captivating and hard to escape.

3. Lime Cordiale, 14 Steps To A Better You 

What a FUN album! Australian brothers, Oliver and Louis Leimbach, along with their bandmates are back with another gem of an album. With their sound that blends 'summery vibes and harmonies and bouncing melodies' (Billboard), Lime Cordiale's catchy sing-along-songs are second to none. 

Listening to this album will put a smile on your face and bounce in all 14 of your steps...to a better you. This is one of those albums that we all could use a bit more of this year. 

2. Katie Melua, Album No. 8

Katie Melua is one of the UK's best selling artists of all time. Yet, here in the states she is not widely known. It's really ashamed. Melua is that rare artist who's music radiates and captivates while remaining quiet and gentle. These are two qualities that we don't see too much of anymore. Being loud, shocking, and controversial seems to sell more albums these days. 

Now in her mid-thirties and recently divorced, Melua's lyrics go deeper and get more personal than on past albums. Wrapped in a beautiful cinematic melancholy soundscape, Melua reflects on  thoughts and feelings of loss, of heartbreak, and of appreciation for what has been and what is to be. While Album No 8 is Melua's story, passages throughout are recognizable and relatable. It all makes Album No. 8, Melua's most special album to date.   

1. Motorpsycho, The All Is One

I was not familiar with Motorpsycho when I first sat down to listen to The All Is One. I also had no idea of it's running time. Turns out that the album, the last in a trilogy by the Norwegian trio, clocks in at one hour and twenty four minutes. It’s a good thing that I did not know or I probably would have never started listening. But honestly, when I go to the end….I was truly disappointed that it was over. I just wanted more. And I wanted to learn everything that I could about this band that has produced 24 albums over the past 30 years.

 

As Everything Is Noise wrote about The All Is One, ‘Truly, this is an album you give yourself up to. It can be a demanding task to surrender your whole attention and time to just listening to music, no matter how good it is – albums like The All Is One not only make it simple, but incentivize you for doing so. The reward is the experience itself: a swaddling of progressive, psychedelic (called ‘psychodelic‘ by the band) rock that’s equal parts calming and transcendent. It’s a portal to another world or dimension, one with technicolor skies, drinkable air, and tingling currents that prick your corporeal form to remind you that you’re the most alive you’ve ever been, all while floating on a magic carpet.'

Listening to The All Is One, I could not help but reflect on the truly epic albums that I listened to as a kid and absolutely devoured as they transported me someplace that I had never been. It is exactly what I needed this year...or any year. 

Widowspeak, Plum

Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl, the duo behind Widowspeak, have crafted an album that their record label best described as feeling comfortable and lived-in: humble in structure, heavy on mood. This all gives Plum a restless yet breezy feel that I just love.

At its core, Plum was a way for Hamilton to summarize ideas that were helpful for her in coming to terms with things that she could not have control over, the ‘existential angst that she was sitting with a lot’.  “From songs such as the title track, which illustrates the passing of time through the metaphor of bruised fruit, it’s clear that Hamilton spent a lot of time thinking about that very existential angst. The tracks “Money” and “Breadwinner” discuss earning a living even when we might not want to.” (Under The Radar)

Hamilton says that the songs on Plum reference life cycles of plants and fruit decay—these really simple symbols that are everywhere, that everybody understands. She said that she has been drawn to simpler things in the last couple of years..."Maybe it’s because everything feels really chaotic.”

Everything may feel chaotic for Hamilton, but it is the way that she and Earl have managed to tame and reframe them within this set of songs that makes Plum so good.