Reviews

Record #787: Drive Like Jehu – Yank Crime (1994)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald / 1 Comment

I realized recently that despite hearing the name Drive Like Jehu dropped alongside many of my favorite post-hardcore, emo, and punk bands for decades, I had never knowingly listened to them. I had confided this to a group of friends, who encouraged me to buy this record immediately.

And though I hadn’t listened to this record before receiving this record yesterday, I’ve heard its impact for years. This is the kind of record with such an unmistakable influence on the scene that I have heard every scraping-guitared, ragged-voiced, overdriven-bass, angular-drummed second of this album filtered through other bands.

But even after nearly thirty years, this album sounds fresh and inventive, no matter how many other acts have tried to follow the same formula.

Continue reading →

Record #786: Black Swift – Desert Rain (2019)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

The bigger the world gets, the smaller it seems. Take for instance, German alt-rockers Black Swift. I was first introduced to them when my band opened for them on a show of one of their American tours, only to find that the lead singer, Sally Grayson, grew up a short drive away from my hometown.

Then, last week, she embarked on a solo tour that stopped in my living room (alongside ex-Sixpence None the Richer/Velour 100 alum Tess Wiley). It was there, stripped away from the fuzzy guitars and leather jacket drums, that the power of her voice and songwriting became inescapable.

Continue reading →

Record #785: Lantlôs – Wildhund (2021)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Lantlôs is German for “homeless,” or “without homeland,” and that name is certainly apt. Throughout their career, chameleonic German metal band has been stretching the borders of heavy music, unconcerned with citizenship in any genre. Their earlier albums, such as .neon and Agape were indelible entries in the blackgaze canon, featuring Alcest’s Neige on vocals. 2014’s Melting Sun was a transcendent work that shed itself of any of heavy music’s trope to create an album that was blissful while still being entirely heavy.

Seven years later, Lantlôs returns with Wildhund (German for “Wild Dog”), an album that uses all the same sonic textures to create what is almost a pop record. And even with all the band names they’ve dropped in the press materials, Wildhund sounds as without peer or homeland as they ever have.

Continue reading →

Record #783: M83 – DeadCities, RedSeas&LostGhosts (2003)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Before the double-album pop masterpiece that was Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming brought them widespread acclaim, M83 was an obscure, mostly instrumental act that blurred the line between shoegaze, post rock, and electronica.

On paper, the transition from experimental instrumental band to Billboard Charting Pop Group seems like it would yield albums that sound like completely different bands. However, the group’s sense of composition gives Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts the same sort of emotional storytelling and cinematic soundscapes that made Hurry Up such a huge hit.

Continue reading →

Record #782: Lush – Spooky (1992)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

For all the affection that early 90s shoegaze gets across the blogosphere, most of that attention is given to a very small number of bands. Namely, this attention is given to My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive (I’ve recently noticed that Ride, the third member of the longstanding Shoegaze Trinity, has been ignored or maligned by modern listeners).

And while these two powerhouses may be the most indelible members of the Scene that Celebrates Itself, there’s a lot of gold to glean in the history of the genre. Loveless aside, there are plenty of bands who offered the lush atmospheres and, otherworldly, dare I say spooky, melodies that are synonymous with shoegaze.

Take for instance, London fourpiece Lush and their debut album Spooky, which is both of those things.

Continue reading →

Record #781: Lungfish – Love Is Love (2003)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

For much of my life as a fan of punk, hardcore, and emo music, I have come to trust Dischord Records almost implicitly. The Ian MacKaye-founded DC label has released many of my favorite bands of the 80s and 90s, including Rites of Spring, Jawbox, Minor Threat, and of course, Fugazi. Their roster is filled with bands that practically defined post-hardcore and emo without ever falling into cliche.

And so it’s strange to me that it took me until this year to hear of Lungfish. Even among the Dischord catalog, the Baltimore art rock band sounds alien and a little unsettling—yet strangely beautiful at the same time, like a moment of spiritual transcendence.

Continue reading →

Record #780: Low – C’Mon (2011)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

On paper, slowcore giants Low don’t seem like the most obvious candidates for an Americana album. This is especially true for those of us who came to the band through the glitchy, atmospheric noise project Double Negative and worked their way backwards through their sparse soundscapes.

And while this album and Double Negative are as dissimilar to one another as anything else in the Low catalog, C’Mon delivers the same sort of minimalist compositions, just augmented by lap steels, fiddles, banjos instead of effects pedals and synthesizers.

Continue reading →

Record #779: If These Trees Could Talk – Red Forest (2012)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

From the moment I heard The Bones of a Dying World, I was enamored. The way it infused post rock with prog, metal, and arena rock was absolutely spellbinding. It quickly became one of my favorite post rock albums of all time, and its allure has not faded since then.

Imagine my surprise then when I saw that among longtime fans of If These Trees Could Talk, that album was considered a disappointment, compared unfavorably to Red Forest, which seemed to be universally heralded as the superior album.

With a copy of Red Forest now firmly in hand (with a beautiful gold foil design on the jacket!), I can now firmly state that I still don’t understand why fans would be disappointed in its follow-up. But as for me, I am grateful to have another album as masterful as the record I’ve loved for so long.

Continue reading →

Record #778: Blood Incantation – Hidden History of the Human Race (2019)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

As much as I love metal, I don’t usually mess around with technical death metal. By and large, I’m not totally interested in musical pissing contests to see how fast and brutal a band can play.

But I’ve faced a new mystery lately. I’ve had trouble sleeping on and off my whole life, and while it’s not a new thing for me to wake up in the middle of the night, it is a new thing for me to wake up to vinyl purchases that I don’t remember making. These purchases are usually albums that I’ve been meaning to listen to but haven’t yet. The first was Smashing Pumpkins’ Adore, and for the most part, my subconscious purchases have been on a hot streak.

So when I woke up to this order, I thought perhaps Sleepytime Nat had finally stumbled. After all, he should know I’m not into tech death, right?

But to my surprise, this album is staggering. Blood Incantation manages to avoid the pitfalls that ensnare so many of their contemporaries. They don’t abandon the conventions of the genre, but they aren’t limited by them either. They stretch into ambient, psychedelic, and prog, creating an album that feels truly transcendental.

Continue reading →