Ulver, Flowers Of Evil

I was unfamiliar with Ulver during their early, dark metal years. I first discovered them with their 2017 release, The Assassination of Julius Caesar. It was one of my favorite albums of that year and continues to be a regular listen for me. Now on their 25^th anniversary, they have released Flowers Of Evil. 

With influences of Depeche Mode and New Order, the band has officially moved as far away from their earlier music and sound as possible. Yet, they have managed to maintain the dark and doom undercurrent that has always defined their sound and storytelling.

As Allmusic exclaimed, 'The music on Flowers of Evil traverses with jarring effectiveness both past and future. Its songs explore grief, hysteria, madness, vulnerability, and romance as inseparable and indelible aspects of the human spirt, resulting in a masterwork of the familiar and the disorienting.

It all makes for thrilling listen.

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 Sex, Death & The Infinite Void. 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.

Picks Of The Week

Circa Wave, Sad Happy

Evening Hymns, Heavy Nights

Oddisee, Odd Cure

Oddisee, aka Amir Mohamed, arrived home from touring in Thailand as the Covid-19 pandemic was hitting the US in March. While in self-isolating, he began writing and recording new music. Like many of us, he also spent time checking in with his family. Unlike most of us, he recorded a number of those conversations. Four months later, he has dropped a surprise EP that weaves six new hip-hop, jazz-soul tinged songs that came out of that period of time with some of those recorded conversations. 

Oddisee has always explored socials issues and judgements that cause inequalities in our society in his music. In this this time of Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter, Oddisee's music has never been more relevant. On Odd Cure, the interwoven family conversations bring a new dimension and relevancy to his art. It also brings a level humanity that I have not heard on another album so far this year. While I have been a big fan of everything that Oddisee has done to date, Odd Cure is something special.

Eric Hutchinson, Class of 98

In the press lease 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 or one of the most memorable albums of the year.

A.A. Williams, Forever Blue

The first time I listened to A.A. Williams' Forever Blue, it happened to be on a cloudy, rain soaked filled day. It provided the perfect backdrop for listening to this dark and striking album. Williams, who is a classically trained cellist and pianist, started playing the guitar after becoming hooked on alt-metal. It was the beginning of her exploration into fusing elements of classical, post-rock, and metal into something uniquely her own. On Forever Blue, that fusion with its moments of quiet and explosiveness, creates the perfect mood for Williams' 'rumination on feels of isolation, autonomy, and the anxieties surrounding love and lost.' (The Line of Best Fit). It all makes for a spine-tingling album that grabs you, draws you in, and won't let you go.