Month: January 2025

Record #1028: As Cities Burn – Hell or High Water (2009)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald / Leave a comment

During my scene phase in high school, very few records hit me quite as hard as Son, I Loved You At Your Darkest. Even when I fell off of heavy music in favor of indie rock, I revisited that record quite often.

But it turns out I wasn’t the only one trading hardcore for indie rock. After losing their screamer and putting out one of the best Christian-adjacent post-hardcore records ever, As Cities Burn pulled a massive left turn and made an indie rock record. But despite this seismic shift, the group is just as emotive and cathartic as ever.

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Record #1027: Cocteau Twins – Four-Calendar Cafe (1993)

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Much has been said about Fleetwood Mac’s daring move to collaborate on a break up album with their exes. And while  Rumours might be a bit more ferocious than anything Cocteau Twins would ever do, Elizabeth Fraser and Robin Guthrie’s relationship lasted fourteen years—almost twice as long as the McVie’s marriage. Four-Calendar Cafe, the resulting album, is far more introspective than it is prickly.

And not that it needs to be said, but it’s absolutely gorgeous.

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Record #1026: Glassing – From the Other Side of the Mirror (2024)

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The list of heavy bands doing anything more exciting than Glassing is a short one. Since their 2017 debut Light and Death, they have been melding influences of post rock, screamo, shoegaze, harsh noise, sludge metal, post-hardcore, and kvlt black metal with a sense of drama and contrast that so many strive for but few achieve. They’ve been one of the best kept secrets in metal for years, churning out record after record of their signature molten tones.

I had already considered them to have reached their pinnacle  on 2021’s Twin Dream, but last year’s From the Other Side of the Mirror makes it feel like they were only about halfway up. And man, is the view great from up here.

Their mercurial shifts between dissonant heaviness to gorgeous ambience are more deft than ever, and they continue to uncover more ground between the two extremes. There are far more clean vocal parts, but that doesn’t make the record any less heavy. Instead, it opens up a new dimension to their already enormous sound. If Glassing keeps this up, they’re not going to be a secret for much longer—if there’s any justice in the world anyway.

State of the Blog 2025

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At the risk of overdisclosure, let me share some of my anxieties as they specifically relate to this blog. When I first started the project, I intended to have a daily post on every record in my collection, in alphabetical order. When I buy something earlier in the alphabet than I’ve already reviewed though, I have to review that first before moving on.

Problem is: I buy a lot of records, and I have a busy life. I have a stack of records in my To-Review queue that has fluctuated between ten to thirty records that I need to get to before I can continue through the alphabet (I’ve been stuck on the edge of Neil Young for like six years. Add a global pandemic to sap my energy and massively increase pressing volumes, and it can feel like an impossible weight to get out from under.

But as I’ve realized, that pressure is entirely self made. And where I was once utilizing this blog as a sort of soft portfolio as I worked as a full-time content writer, I’m not writing professionally anymore. The only person relying on me to do this is me, and I’ve made my bar way too high.

So while I may have said this a dozen times in the last few years, I’m lowering my standards for myself. Posting anything will be better than meaning to post insightful and well-written reviews and posting nothing. After all, the music is more important than my driveling on about it.

Let’s go.

Record #1025: Miles Davis – Sketches of Spain (1960)

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A lot has been said about Miles Davis’ influence on jazz. Across his career, he was on the bleeding edge of several seismic shifts in the genre. And while much has been said about his accomplishments in bebop, cool jazz, and fusion, his brief foray into Third Stream jazz often feels like a sort of inconsequential detour in his overall trajectory.

But there’s nothing insignificant about Sketches of Spain. It is one of the most brightly shining gems in Davis’ illustrious career. The album finds him fully embracing his lifelong love of classical music, fused with his impeccable sense of style and melody.

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Record #1024: Minus the Bear – Planet of Ice (2007)

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It makes sense that I’m writing about this album when it’s 18º outside. What makes less sense is how it’s taken me so long to add it to my collection.

It’s not like I’m not a Minus the Bear fan. I saw them with mewithoutYou and Thursday a year before this record and they blew me away. Menos El Oso is one of my comfort records. David Knudson is one of my favorite guitarists, and many of my other favorite guitarists have been influenced by his two-handed tapping technique—and myself.

But as Minus the Bear’s career continued, I lost track of them. When I came back to them, it seemed like their later albums made less of a priority on technique and more on using effects to obscure the instrument entirely. As Menos el Oso had more effects work and less tapping than Highly Refined Pirates, casual listens brought me to the conclusion that the proportion between Menos and Planet of Ice was roughly the same.

Those most have been some casual listens, because I was dead wrong.

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Record #1023: Dustin Kensrue – Desert Dreaming (2024)

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Honestly, we should have seen this turn coming from Dustin a long time ago. He’s never kept his love of country western music that hidden. His solo output has always leaned toward folk and country, but even before that, he was slipping bits of roots music into Thrice songs as early as Illusion of Safety.

But on Desert Dreaming, he’s fully committed to the bit—even in terms of his live show attire. And let’s be clear: if you announce a country record and start sauntering out in cowboy garb, you better be able to back it up. Lucky for everybody, Dustin’s up to the task.

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Record #1022: Lies – Lies (2023)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

In emo-adjacent circles, few names carry as much weight as “Kinsella.” Mike, Tim, and Nate Kinsella have had a hand in about a half dozen seminal projects— among them, Cap’n Jazz, Joan of Arc, Owls, Owen, and American Football. Their output has spanned the gamut from chaotic noise rock to gentle indie balladry and almost everything in between.

But despite this variety, none of the Kinsellas’ projects have shown much interest in standard pop music. That is, until Lies, the new project from Mike and Nate. While there’s plenty of Mike Kinsella-ness here to keep fans of Owen and American Football happy, there’s also plenty of nods to new wave, synthpop, and Top 40 that makes for an oddly captivating listen.

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Record #1021: Jawbox – Jawbox (1996)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Speaking of the DC post-hardcore scene…

One of the biggest death knells to a punk band is to be deemed a sell out. And in the 90s, when every record label in the world was signing every noisy band they could in hopes of finding the next Nirvana, the sharks came circling around Dischord Records. While Fugazi famously turned down a number of massive record deals, not everyone was as staunch in their business ethics.

When Jawbox entered into a deal with Atlantic Records, the punks were up in arms. But somehow, the two records released on Atlantic were unscathed by the corporitizing and sanitizing that came with selling out. Like For Your Own Special Sweetheart before it, their ’96 self-titled record is a cavalcade of jagged post-hardcore by one of the best to ever do it—major label or not.

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Record #1020: Embrace – Embrace (1987)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

In conversations about Fugazi (and the evolution of hardcore and emo in general), most of the talk focuses on two bands: Minor Threat and Rites of Spring. And while the importance of those projects cannot be ignored, there is one project that is tragically overlooked.

That project is Embrace. While Ian MacKaye’s road from Minor Threat to Fugazi had a few detours along the way, none of them foreshadowed what was to come more clearly than Embrace.

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