Hey everyone, it's Joe. I hope everyone is happy and healthy out there.
Before I get into the list, I want to make a brief honorary mention. I'm not a TV watcher, but I was intrigued by Amazon's Tales from the Loop. Part way through the first episode, I noticed the music sounded like Phillip Glass. Sure enough, it is. The soundtrack is simple, beautiful, and haunting and fits the show perfectly. I've been a fan of Glass for many years, so it's really cool that he was involved. Excerpts from Glass's operas were also featured several times in Stranger Things. Cool composer with a huge body of work.
Anyway, on to today's recommendations.
Indie Rock | You Can Keep Me Runnin' Around by Suckers
Before settling on this song, I changed my pick from Sucker's Wild Smile four times. The whole album is pure, real, honest energy. Honesty seems to be missing from a lot of modern music, but Suckers put everything into this album. As the listener you can't help but get totally sucked in. Suckers toured with MGMT, Yeasayer, Chairlift and Real Estate but never had their breakthrough moment. While the band is no more, a couple of their members are still active with solo projects and other groups. Before they dissolved, they left the world with this undiscovered gem of an album.
Art Pop | Summer of '42 by Kishi Bashi
I struggled to choose a Kishi Bashi song to feature; I could do an episode just about him. Summer of '42 is off of the album Omoiyari, which uses the experiences of Japanese-Americans living in internment camps during WWII to reflect on today's society. The album beautifully - and tastefully - explores empathy, compassion, and understanding. K's prior three albums were much more lighthearted and quirky, but equally well written. I highly recommend all of them.
Alternative Rock | August by Flipturn
I don't have tons to say about this song, except the melody is wonderful and the vocalist is fantastic. In today's world of generic vocal styles, his voice really stands out. The album Citrona has a few other songs worth a listen if you enjoy this one.
Experimental Rock | Future Peg by Man Man
May 1st is the release date for Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between, Man Man's first album in 7 years. "Future Peg" is a single off this. It, and the other singles released to date, play well to Man Man's quirky, darkly humorous style. Typical rock instrumentation is supplemented with xylophones and horns, as is customary. Man Man's first few albums were quite abrasive, but their past two releases (On Oni Pond and Life Fantastic) were much more mature and very enjoyable. I have high expectations for this next one.
As always, this week’s tracks are added to the collectors for all weeks' tracks on
Spotify
and
Apple Music.
Take care,
Joe