The Antlers, Green To Gold

After seven long years, The Antlers are back with their sixth album, Green to Gold. It is a welcomed return. And a sunnier one? 

Unlike past Antlers albums, Peter Silberman has said that he didn’t feel compelled to turn a human experience into a circuitous mythology and all the eeriness that goes along with it. He chose a more direct approach, documenting two years in his life, without overthinking or obscuring what the songs were about. The shift in tone he said is the result of getting older. 

“It doesn’t make sense for me to try to tap into the same energy that I did ten or fifteen years ago, because I continue to grow as a person, as I’m sure our audience does too. Green to Gold is about this idea of gradual change,” he sums up. “People changing over time, struggling to accept change in those they love, and struggling to change themselves. And yet despite all our difficulty with this, nature somehow makes it look easy.”

 

Conceived and written almost entirely in the morning hours, Green To Gold shimmers like sunlight pouring through the kitchen window on a Sunday morning. It’s an album that I would not have expected from The Antlers, but one that I am grateful to have.

William The Conqueror, Maverick Thinker

After a decade as a solo artist, Ruarri Joseph had lost his inspiration to create. It was rekindled when he connected with Bassist Naomi Holmes and Drummer Harry Harding and began creating new music as William The Conqueror, a sort of teenage alter-ego to Joseph which he has used to explore themes from his childhood. 

Over three albums, including their latest, Maverick Thinker, Joseph and this Cornwall based trio, have channeled a Southern Rock sound to best help convey and explore those childhood themes. Yet, as a loose 'trilogy', each album feels quite different. In an interview Joseph noted, that the themes of this trilogy grew out of something he had read by Herman Hesse about the three stages of life being innocence, disillusionment, and faith. The idea 'that we all go through that kind of journey.' 

On Maverick Thinker, which the band recorded at the famed Sound City recording studio, they turn up the swampy-blues a bit more which brings a new and different edge and energy to William's storytelling. It matches up perfectly to the themes explored throughout the album and I think that the band has found a great new musical footing. 

Adam Melchor, Melchor Lullaby Hotline, Vol. 1

So you're a musician stuck at home for a year. What do you do? In the case of Adam Melchor, he committed to keeping up with a hotline that he had set up in February of 2020 that encouraged people to text or email him each Sunday to receive a new song. If they did, they would receive one at 5pm. By the end of the year, Melchor had sent out 44 songs. 

Along the way, his lister group grew to ten thousand and he racked up over 40 million streams. This all brought new attention to Melchor including Warner Records who came knocking and signed him to a record contract earlier this year. So why all the fuss over Melchor? Because he is a damn fine songwriter and musician. In fact, I will say that he is one of the more impressive artists that I have heard in quite some time. 

Now after a year of recording Sunday songs, Melchor has released a selection of them as a mixed tape. Entitled Melchor Lullaby Hotline, Vol. 1, Mehchor's artistry is on full display, showing a level of craft that is unusually strong...this is especially the case when you understand that some of these songs were literally written and recorded in a few hours...at home. 

I suspect that big things are in store for Adam Melchor. We shall see. I will say that I will be rooting for him all the way.

Sad Night Dynamite, Sad Night Dynamite

I have always been a bit enamored with artists who can mash-up samples and music genres successfully to create something new and moving. They're a bit like music magicians with me asking 'how did they do that?" Enter Sad Night Dynamite. 

Childhood friends Archie Blagden and Josh Greacen love film scores and film makers like Quentin Tarantino who play with contrasts between beauty and violence. They also 'adore' bands like The Clash, Stone Roses, Portishead, I Monster and MIA. So why not throw all of this together and see what happens? So they did. The result is Sad Night Dynamite, the duo's debut mixedtape.

Described as a nightmarish trip through hip-hop, dub, Britpop, punk, electronica, and beyond, Bladgden and Greacen have created a fully realized other-world. It's one that 'tries to pull you out of real life and take you somewhere else.' Ever evolving and changing, but always 'dark and sexy' the duo's music is a thrill to listen to. And while it doesn't take itself too seriously they say, it has heart which is ultimately what they hoped to achieve.   

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.