Listening to:
wyd – “wtf” (self released?) via Stereogum
L7 – “I Came Back Just to Bitch” – (Don Giovanni Records) via YouTube
Sins – “wantart” (self released?) via YouTube
Frigs – “Solid State”‘ (Arts & Crafts) via YouTube
MGMT – Little Dark Age (Columbia) via Spotify
Sex Park – Atrium (Vacant Decade Records) via Bandcamp
There’s a point about three minutes into “wtf” that the songs seems to draw to a close. At that point it’s a powerful ballad of sorts, a piano-backed heartfelt plea to a lover that seemingly falls on deaf ears. “Your love was never mine to know” laments singer Carly Fratianne as slow building moans of sorrowful ghosts swirl behind her. And then the song begins to fray, Fratianne’s vocals begin to build, touched by distortion and backed by strong yet fuzzy keyboards strokes. The ghosts now are her voice too, full of the pain and frustration of unrequited requests. It’s a bold piece of work, one that I’m not quite sure I can do justice to.
L7 is back with a new song that feels aimed at the current president of the USA. It has echos of their classic “Pretend We’re Dead” (at least in the opening), and as you can imagine by its title and by the band’s history, the song holds nothing back. Probably nothing I’ll dwell on, but I’ll certainly turn it up if it somehow makes local radio or a friends playlist. Good, hard fun.
Electronica, or the part of it that includes soft, haunting stuff that always makes me think of late night, lonely drives on the freeway is not usually my thing. “Wantart,” however, has my curiosity piqued about Sins. There’s a little too much of the popcorn styled keyboards that start up near the middle of the song, but it’s chilled, moody lead is just enough to carry it through.
Surprisingly, I went back to the Sex Park one more time. “Diginity,” the opening track has grown on me. It has a very Joy-Division-to-New-Order era feel that the band pushes into their own directions as the album goes. “Rhyme and Reason” goes down a darker Depeche Mode avenue while “The Bather” heads down an industrial road that does them no favors. If you’re on the fence about this one, give the echoy, goth dancer “Monogamy” a spin as well and see what comes.
RockPaperRock 