The Notwist, Vertigo Days

It's hard to categorize The Notwist's music. For more than twenty years, this shape-shifting German band has moved from Alt-Rock to Indietronica to what today would best be described as Post Rock. Much like bands such as Talk Talk or Radiohead, The Notwist's evolution has been remarkable.

Vertigo Days, the band's latest album, has them moving forward once again. Much like with 2002's Neon Golden, the band is playing with ever changing sounds, rhythms, and instrumentation, creating musical collages and sonic landscapes that are ever shifting and changing. While always experimental, the band's music is here to intrigue and charm and not so much to challenge. It's a remarkable balance act and I found myself coming back to this album many times to experience this unique musical space. Vertigo Days is a noteworthy album that will leave a lasting impression long after listening to it. 

The Pretty Reckless, Death By Rock and Roll

I miss good old fashion rock. Thank goodness for The Pretty Reckless. At one time they were tagged as the next 'big' thing in rock. Then, the band was upended by the deaths of two people close to them. Drugs, booze, and depression then followed for lead singer and co-songwriter Taylor Momsen. Writing and recording new songs helped bring Momsen out from her darkness and earlier this year Momsen and the band returned, and in a BIG way, with their fourth album Death By Rock and Roll. 

'Freedom found me when I first heard the Beatles sing. Music surrounding me. Church bells start to ring. I stole my Daddy's vinyl. And burned that needle out. Jimi, Janis and Morrison. A garden full of sound.'  

Paying homage to the bands and music that influenced and impacted Momsen, she said in an interview that she really poured herself into this album in the most literal way possible-physically, mentally, blood, sweat, and tears. Listening to The Death by Rock and Roll you can tell that this is the case.  The album, as Classic Rock Mag wrote, 'is proof that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.' And this is a band that is stronger and better than ever. This one fantastic, super-charged album.

This Circus Life, The Vast and Endless Sea

For some, life's road traveled can be more winding and unimaginable than others. For a few it can boarder on the truly far-fetched. This is definitely the case for This Circus Life's Charlie Mear, if his life's story is believed to be true. Regardless, Mear is an image rich writer and storyteller.

On The Vast and Endless Sea, the second album by This Circus Life, Mear and this English Band don't so much tell stories as capture moments of reflection of life's big and little...moments. And they are image rich and emotionally full. With song-structures and musical arrangements that remind me of The Leisure Society and Crowded House, The Vast and Endless Sea is pure listening enjoyment.

Pearl Charles, Magic Mirror

I will acknowledge that I'm a pushover for music that has a '70's soft-rock vibe and ethos to it. Add a strong female singer with vocal leanings towards a Christine McVie or Karen Carpenter and it's just about over. I'm sold. The problem is that so often the new music that fits in this lane lacks originality or heart. It just seems to copy and mimic what has already been. So in the end, I am left feeling disappointed after my initial enthusiasm. This is not the case with Pearl Charles.

Charles came onto my radar a few years ago with her 2018 debut album, Sleepless Dreamer. It was an intriguing album and while it did not make it onto my favorites list for that year, I have come back to it a number of time. Now Charles is back with her follow up, Magic Mirror, and I have to say that this a significant leap forward for her in terms of songwriting, musical arrangements, and production. Most important, on it, Charles has nailed just the right that balance between the past and the present demonstrating that 'the old can still sound new and refreshing.' As The Revue wrote, 'Charles is a 21st century rarity - a modern artist creating timeless music.' 

The Weather Station, Ignorance

If you have never familiarized yourself with Tamara Lindeman, who records under the name The Weather Station, you should. Over the past ten years, Lindeman has established herself as being an exceptional singer-songwriter. But what has been truly exciting to hear and experience is the evolution of Lindeman's sound. From the fingerpicking folk songs on her early albums to the 'sonically adventurous and rhythmically dense (NRP) songs on Ignorance, it's been 'a breathtaking sonic shift' (Record Collector).  

Lyrically speaking, Lindeman's writing has never been stronger. On Ignorance, Lendeman's fifth album, she is consumed 'with and bewildered by a compulsion to care.' (NPR). Lindeman sings "There are many things you may ask of me, but don't ask me for indifference. Don't come to me for distance." It is all in response to the album's title. As Lendeman has explained in interviews, there are so many people who refused to hear each other and refuse to understand. "People destroying things before they know them, people not wanting to know, people pushing and wrecking and breaking, and unable to see. Not seeing. Not wanting to see."There's a lot of ignorance in the world and it's all over the record to." She says that the album is in part about the process of moving through denial into understanding.

From the opener 'Robber' to 'Subdivisions', which closes it out, Ignorance is an impressive album and one that I was glad to have experienced. 

Typhoon, Sympathetic Magic

One of the most haunting and mesmerizing songs that I have ever heard is Typhoon’s Summer Home. Since I first heard it back in 2011, I have been a fan of the art and artistry of this Portland, OR band. Lead by Kyle Morton, this very large at times band (11 members) has released some remarkable albums over the years. Now, this past week without any prior notice, the band released their fifth album, Sympathetic Magic. 

 

This is a much more gentle and intimate album than their last album, Offerings. And that’s just about right, right now. As Morton wrote on the band’s website, ‘Back to basics. Compelled to isolation by the global pandemic, I wrote most of these songs in the summer of 2020 while quietly sitting in the backyard, contemplating the strangeness of life….. As the title suggests, the songs have to do with that specifically human magic - the symbolic world that we co-create and inhabit just by being a person among other people, through our countless, complex, and beautifully, painfully ordinary interactions.’

 

I got lost in this album and I suspect that you will too. Sympathetic Magic is another outstanding and memorable album by a very special band.