Friday, 23 May 2025
Black Country, New Road - "Forever Howlong" (2025)
Wednesday, 23 April 2025
Lucy Dacus - "Forever Is A Feeling" (2025)
With Forever Is A Feeling, Lucy doubles down on this very lowkey, stripped back approach; swapping out the slightly more harder edged, fuzzy blues rock elements of her sound for gentle acoustic guitars and delicate chamber pop instrumentation. This is all to service the records narrative, which is very obviously about Dacus' blossoming romance with Baker following the closing out of the Boygenius era. The lyrics are sweet and saccharine, filled with the tepid excitement and hope alongside the worries and risk of falling for a friend. Following a short string prelude, the opening cut Big Deal tells the story of the growing feelings between the two, and that how Lucy was not prepared to take that risk and was surprised that Julien was. Set against gentle strumming and swooning strings, the song is beautifully bittersweet and really acts as the tone setter for the record.
The following track and lead single, Ankles, dives headfirst into euphoric jangle pop as Lucy indulges in fantasising about the exciting possibilities and potential futures this new relationship presents. The other teaser track, Best Guess, is similarly sweet and summery although takes a more grounded and pragmatic approach to the new relationship. Dacus frames the idea of romance as a best guess and that you never know if it will work out in the long run. It is an interesting idea for a song that is still incredibly positive and forward looking. Limerence was released as the B-side to Ankles and has a very different vibe. It's a slow and sparse, piano driven break up ballad. I'm not sure how it fits into the records narrative; whether this break up occurred immediately before Lucy's new relationship to Julien or sometime before. But lyrically, it is so dry and funny as Lucy describes falling out of limerence with this person while watching her friends chat and play video games. It's so nonchalant while also being quite heart aching, really. Lucy doesn't want to hurt this person, but she just doesn't love them anymore.
While it starts and ends quite well, the record's breezy and listless atmosphere unfortunately floats off into the clouds during the middle section. The subtle vocal approach and twee instrumentation sands off pretty much any tension or drive behind the tracks. Talk is on paper the heaviest track on the record, and while it does feature a couple of great lines, it is one of the most tepid interpretations of 90s alt rock I have heard in a long time. And its not like Lucy is out of her ball park here, there are plenty of tracks from her past couple of albums that go for this style and have way more bite to them. For Keeps through to Come Out just breeze by leaving little impact, and its only when Best Guess kicks off the final third of the album that I come back round to being engaged.
Bullseye is a jangly folky ballad with Hozier that I think works out. Hozier tends to dominate his duets, and with how tame the instrumentation is here that could've been the case on this one also; but he remains restrained and overall I think the song works out quite well. Most Wanted Man, similarly is a duet with Baker. The track initially presents itself as a twangy vintage rocker reminiscent of Revolver era Beatles, but as it progresses it morphs into more of a slacker rock jam with it's loose lo-fi guitar riffs and hazy vocals. You can really feel the energy and chemistry between the two on the song. Lost Time is an earnest and heartfelt slowburn to close out the album. The song starts as a gentle acoustic ballad, but slowly builds into a thick and heavy climax that once again brings back Julien for backing vocals.
Much like Lucy's previous records, Forever Is A Feeling doesn't rewrite the indie playbook - but is a solid, well written album that is a good time from start to finish. It does feel a little lightweight in places, so I don't think it tops Historian as her best. I still like it quite a bit and I think its a great record to have in rotation for the chill summer evenings or slow weekend mornings this year.
Top Tracks: Big Deal, Ankles, Limerence, Modigliani, Best Guess, Most Wanted Man
7/10
Sunday, 26 November 2023
boygenius - "the rest" (2023)
Black Hole comprises of the first verse from Julien and then jumps straight into the climax of the song before finishing rather abruptly. Afraid of Heights is a more complete song, but beside the country-twang of the guitar, there's not all that much noteworthy about it. Voyager is definitely the best song here, being a text-book Phoebe ballad with gut-punch self deprecating lyrics. The song is slow and spacious, allowing the atmosphere to sink in. The EP closes out with Powers, and the rough mixing and breathy vocal performance from Julien give demo vibes from the song. The song is a good minute and a half longer than the other songs so has some more time to build up an atmosphere, but it still only has a handful of ideas and sort of fizzles out after the climax - with a horn outro bolted on to give some sort of conclusion to the song and EP as a whole.
the rest is exactly what the title suggests, some unfinished studio leftovers. It's fine, but nothing more than a footnote in each artist's growing discography.
Top Tracks: Voyager
5/10
Monday, 22 May 2023
boygenius - "the record" (2023)
The first taste of the album we got was three tracks, one with each member on lead vocals, dropped at the same time as one single. Each track of three captures a unique style and what each of the three members bring to the table. The first is $20, where Baker takes the helm, leading a noisy and chaotic indie rock jam that has vintage feel to it with its jagged lead guitars and dramatic shoegazy climax with hazy washed out backing vocals from Phoebe and Lucy. Following this is Emily I'm Sorry, which is very much a textbook Phoebe Bridgers' song. The lyrics gently mourn a lost relationship over pillow-y acoustic guitars and a gently pulsating drum beat. It is quite a beautiful song that removes itself from the deflective metaphors and bitterness that comprises a lot of Phoebe's solo work, which is why I can see how it's landed on a record that's got a more uplifting feel and vibe to it. The third of these songs is True Blue, led by Dacus. The way the chiming guitars open up the track after the very low key and murky previous song always reminds me of that feeling you get when you wake up on a warm summers morning and the sun peaking through the curtains and the day is yours to seize and do anything with. The track builds up in layers as it progresses, and just feels very wholesome throughout.
These songs sit in sequence at the start of the record as a showcase of the breadth of the album as a whole. They're preceded by the short intro track, Without You Without Them. The track is a simple vocal harmony piece with no extra instrumentation and feels quite stark compared to the three track that follow. I can't say I love it, it just feels a bit bare and without much connection to the rest of the record. The vinyl version softens this a little with a building synth transition into $20, and I really don't get why its not on the streaming version (maybe to make it more playlist friendly, I guess?).
The two songs at the centre of the record are full-on collaborative efforts, with each member getting their own verse. Cool About It is a damn catchy twangy acoustic country / Americana tune where each member takes turns singing about there own interpretations of what 'trying to be cool' with an ex is. Subsequently the chorus changes each time it rolls around, but maintains the catchiness of the melody. It's an incredibly well written song and has grown into one of my favourites over the couple of months since the album was released. The following song, Not Strong Enough, is the big bombastic centrepiece of the album. The song starts out as classic jangle pop throwback, with quintessentially 'indie' free-spirited lyrics about life bombing past you at a rate you can't keep up with. The track goes at a breakneck pace, building and building with more and more layers of reverb and backing vocals. It's the big, festival ready single of the album.
Revolution 0 kicks off the second half and would fit perfectly on Punisher. It features that same sense of morbidity and spookiness as that record, with the washed out instrumentation and slow, restrained climax of strings and horns and some really sweet backing vocals from Lucy and Julian. Leonard Cohen is a short but sweet blast about the joys of friendship sung by Dacus, focused around the time the trio took a wrong turning on a roadtrip because they were too busy jamming out to the titular musician. Satanist is such a fun 90's power pop tune, with the same playful, tongue in cheek nihilism as the likes of early Weezer. My favourite part is when Bridgers ad-libs "You know what I should do?" right before the cathartic guitar solo. You can just tell how much fun the group are having on this song. It then transitions into a reverb-y, dream pop outro as if the band has tired themselves out on this reckless escaped.
The final leg of the record slows things down, starting with a beautiful lovelorn ballad from Dacus, We're In Love. It's incredibly earnest, wearing its heart firmly on its sleeve. It would work perfectly as a closer, but there's still two more tracks to come. The first is Anti-Curse, which is very late-2000's arena indie. While I like the lyrics of the song, the musical side just feels very played out to me, from the the chord progression, to the pulsating base and drums which kick in the second verse, to the loud shouted final chorus. It doesn't really do anything for me and fills a bit like filler. The final song is a Phoebe one, called A Letter To An Old Poet, and is one of the most brutal she's ever written with lines like " You're not special, you're evil". I love the song in isolation, and it would not work anywhere else on the record, but it's just so jarring compared to the rest of the album which is so much more carefree and forward looking.
That's the only real flaw with the record in my eyes, that it jumps around a lot between styles and doesn't necessarily feel like the most cohesive experience (compared to Phoebes solo output, which is my main frame of reference for the group). But there's a whole heap of great songs on here and it's been in constant rotation for me ever since it's come out. I'm really excited to try out Lucy and Julian's solo work also now, as the vintage indie aesthetics are right up my street.
Top Tracks: $20, Emily I'm Sorry, True Blue, Cool About It, Revolution 0, Leonard Cohen, Satanist, We're In Love, A Letter To An Old Poet
8/10
Friday, 26 August 2022
Wolf Alice - "Blue Lullaby" (2022)
While still technically all acoustic versions, stripped back is sort of a miss-label of the EP, as there is still tons of reverb and choral backing vocals in the mix here. However, the change in instrumentation does really change the vibe of these songs, in most cases offering them up as equally good (and justified) as the original album versions. That's a testament to the songwriting, that they still stand up in a different context. Lipstick on the Glass comes off far more moody and brooding in this context, and the pure heart and earnestness of How Can I Make It OK? still shines through - even though it sounds more reflective than the blast of endorphins provided by the bombastic original.
I think I actually prefer the twangy guitars of Feeling Myself to the album version. It feels a whole lot more personal than the cinematic, sweeping synths and fits the themes of self love way more. The Last Man On Earth, likewise feels closer and more intimate, which certainly works with the introspective lyrics. Its an equally good alternative to the building layers of drama in the original. The only track which doesn't make the transition so brilliantly is No Hard Feelings. The track is already the most stripped back on the album being an acoustic cut, so the guitar is swapped out for a soft keyboard tone. This change in instrument doesn't really change the song up all that much so it ends up having pretty much the same vibe as the original.
Blue Lullaby really shows Wolf Alice's talent by throwing these songs in a different context and they still stand toe to toe with the originals. It's a really great EP, check it out.
Top Tracks: Lipstick on the Glass, How Can I Make It OK?, Feeling Myself, The Last Man On Earth
8/10