Tag: Singer/Songwriter

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Playlists

Playlist: New tunes from 2023, part three

Ok. Fine. I’m really late with this one. I typically try to post my quarterly updates to my ongoing playlist featuring new tunes of the year within a couple of weeks of the end of the quarter. We’re getting near the middle of November and it’s already starting to feel like winter. Summer would normally be a distant memory… except…

Except it was an excellent summer.

I started off July at Ottawa’s Bluesfest and saw some excellent sets of music over the course of its just over a week and a half duration. Then, a road trip at the end of that month brought new experiences, beaches, a hike on a mountain ridge, great food, and craft beer. In August, there was a hiking trip in Algonquin park and in September, a quick getaway to squeeze in the last dregs of summer. Definitely one to remember, especially with all the other craziness going on in the world.

Musically, there wasn’t a lot of new music that came across my desk that caught my ears and attentions. However, and as you will see below, what there was was all very excellent and in fact, many of the albums in which these songs appear will likely find their way on my on to my year end best albums list*.

If you want, you can check parts one and two of the playlist before you peruse further or you can just skip to the new songs below. If you’re one of those that find twenty-five tracks overwhelming and you just want some highlights, you could do worse than start with these:

      • Canadian singer/songwriter, Colter Wall, and his deep, deep voice are back with a new album and “Corralling the blues” is just a tumbleweed blowing across the deserted highway
      • “The narcissist” by one of my all-time favourite bands, Blur, spearheads a surprising new twist and turn for the band on its latest reunion album
      • Speaking of returns of favourite bands, the eight and half minutes of “Fables of the silverlink” shouts The Clientele from far and away and allows the echoes and reverb speak for themselves
      • Drab Majesty recently toured with Slowdive while supporting their new EP of dark and shadowy dream pop, of which “The skin and the glove” is the most upbeat and accessible
      • “Simmering” by Pale Blue Eyes is anything but – boiling over is more like it and like it a lot I do
      • Canadian indie pop quartet The Beaches invoke a lot of memories and laughs with “Shower beer”, just one of the many fun tracks on their latest
      • Soccer Mommy has released an EP of great covers by bands like R.E.M. and Slowdive but I am really digging her version of Sheryl Crow’s “Soak up the sun”

Here is the entire playlist as I’ve created it:

1. “Portrait of a clear day” Julie Byrne (from the album The greater wings)

2. “Independence day” Palehound (from the album Eye on the bat)

3. “Corralling the blues” Colter Wall (from the album Little songs.)

4. “The narcissist” Blur (from the album The ballad of Darren)

5. “Fables of the silverlink” The Clientele (from the album I am not there anymore)

6. “Close to the clouds” Art School Girlfriend (from the album Soft landing)

7. “Jaws” Dizzy (from the album Dizzy)

8. “Too far gone” Islands (from the album And that’s why dolphins lost their legs)

9. “The skin and the glove” Drab Majesty (from the EP An object in motion)

10. “Home” Hannah Georgas (from the album I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care)

11. “Morning zoo” Ratboys (from the album The window)

12. “Kisses” Slowdive (from the album Everything is alive)

13. “Simmering” Pale Blue Eyes (from the album This house)

14. “What’s the point in life” Coach Party (from the album Killjoy)

15. “Weak in your light” Nation Of Language (from the album Strange disciple)

16. “Between the past” Woods (from the album Perennial)

17. “Shower beer” The Beaches (from the album Blame my ex)

18. “Bug like an angel” Mitski (from the album The land is inhospitable and so are we)

19. “Stop talking” Will Butler + Sister Squares (from the album Will Butler + Sister Squares)

20. “Soak up the sun” Soccer Mommy (from the EP Karaoke night)

21. “Foreign land” Teenage Fanclub (from the album Nothing lasts forever)

22. “Dead man” Postdata (from the album Run wild)

23. “Everything at once” Bleach Lab (from the album Lost in a rush of emptiness)

24. “Cramps” Slow Pulp (from the album Yard)

25. “Snowman” Blonde Redhead (from the album Sit down for dinner)

Apple initiates  can click here to sample the above tracks as a whole playlist.

And as always, wherever you are in the world, I hope you continue to be well. Above all, enjoy the tunes.

*If I ever get it pulled together and drafted…

If you’re interested in checking out any of the other playlists I’ve created and shared on these pages, you can peruse them here.

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 2013: #24 Steve Mason “Oh my Lord”

<< #25    |    #23 >>

My maxim for a number of years now has been “So much music, so little time.” As focused as I’ve been over the last couple of decades on keeping on top of the best music available, rather than settling in on the heap of proven music already in my collection, I often find myself behind and missing out on some great releases. Just as an example, I have a running playlist for which I post a part every quarter year, that includes songs from some of my favourite releases for those three months, but inevitably I discover a song or album or EP after the fact that I could have easily included.

Steve Mason’s brilliant sophomore solo album, “Monkey minds in the devil’s time”, was one of those albums that I originally missed out on when it was originally released in March 2013. I came upon it months later, kicked myself after listening to it and catching interest mere moments after the spoken word intro faded into the reverberating and haunting “Lie awake”. And even now, I often lose sight of how compelling of a listen it is, until I come around to it again. Thank goodness I have these lists that I create that force me to go back and revisit all the music I’ve loved over the years.

…But I am digressing…

In the decade that passed after Steve Mason abdicated his post as frontman of indie buzz group, The Beta Band, he suffered bouts of poverty and depression, released a variety of material under multiple pseudonyms, and most importantly, seemingly rediscovered his joy for writing new music. And thank goodness for such small mercies. “Oh my lord”, the first proper single off of “Monkey minds in the devil’s time”, appeals to my penchant and weakness for a good groove. The piano lays a jaunty riff and the drum beat jives easily with the laid back bass line while Mason leaves it all laid bare, a soulful turn on vocals. It just bleeds old-school psychedelic blues rock, à la Primal Scream’s “Give out but don’t give up”, but with more sincerity.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2013 list, click here.

Categories
Albums

Best albums of 2022: Five honourable mentions

This year will mark the sixth time I’ve done one of these end of the year, best album countdowns. Last year, even lacking the energy and the real will to pull it off, I still managed to do a more toned-down, two-part series. This year I wanted to try and do my usual six part effort, even if the word counts for each post don’t get as lofty as usual*. My goal is to share my favourites out of all the great music released this year.

On any other year, this particular post wouldn’t even exist but for some reason, this year, I couldn’t get my list down to just ten albums, no matter how hard I tried. I just had to shout out a handful more. These five are not ranked but instead, listed in alphabetical order by artist name. (Don’t worry, I’ll get back to properly ranking with the next post.)

So you can consider this a taste of things to come and if you haven’t yet given these five albums a spin, hopefully my brief words and the sample Youtube link provided will get you on the right path. Cheers!

The Afghan Whigs “How do you burn”: I’d heard the name but never listened to the alternative band from Cincinnati, even in their first go-round in the 90s. If their intense ninth studio album (third since reuniting in 2011) is any indication, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.
Check out: “A line of shots”

Andy Bell “Flicker”: For his second solo album, the founding member of Ride and former Oasis guitarist went full on double LP and it is full of swirling, ethereal, droning, and [continue to insert dream pop and psych rock adjectives here] beauty.
Check out: “Something like love”

King Hannah “I’m not sorry, I was just being me”: The debut album by this duo hailing from Liverpool, England is moody and atmospheric and cinematic, earning them favourable comparisons to Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, and maybe even Portishead.
Check out: “All being fine”

Dan Mangan “Being somewhere”: The Canadian indie folk troubadour has increased the atmospherics and production trickery on his seventh studio album but hasn’t dispensed with any of quiet but loud passion in the process.
Check out: “In your corner (for Scott Hutchison”

Sharon Van Etten “We’ve been going about this all wrong”: In my books, SVE has been one of the most consistent singer/songwriters on the indie scene in terms of producing excellent work on every outing and her sixth full-length studio might be favourite of the bunch to date.
Check out: “Mistakes”

*And even if I don’t manage to get all the posts in before the end of the year…

I’ll be back very soon with albums #10 through #6 for my Best albums of 2022 list. In the meantime, you can check out my Best Albums page here if you’re interested in my other favourite albums lists.