Reviews

Record #964: Baroness – Stone (2023)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

I’m a relative newcomer to the Baroness faithful. After falling in love with Purple it took me until Gold & Grey to consider diving deeper into their back catalog. Red Album and Yellow & Green were the first and last records I bought in 2020, and that long digestion process convinced me that they were one of the best metal bands going today, offering a confounding blend of sludge metal, progressive rock, psychedelic, folk, and good ol’ fashioned rock ‘n’ roll that is above reproach. The phrase I kept using in those reviews were “they can do no wrong.”

I’ll admit, Stone is the biggest challenge to that assertion that they’ve offered. My first few listens—which I undertook while distracted—were a little underwhelming. I added them to my year end list out of necessity—I only had twenty-three and needed two more to round it out. Whether that was a self fulfilling prophecy or not, I’m not sure. But what I do know is that I ordered it right after publishing that list, thinking, “how bad can it be? It’s friggin’ Baroness.”

And upon giving it a few close listens, I stand by that claim. Stone offers up plenty of their trademark brand of anthemic heavy metal while also stretching further into new sounds.

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Record #963: MONO – The Last Dawn & Rays of Darkness (2014)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Throughout their twenty-five year career, MONO have demonstrated time and time again that they are masters of duality. Their best material finds them unifying the gorgeous orchestration of their “neo-classical” brand of post rock and bombastic catharsis that sometimes stretches into metal territory. Their tours have found them accompanied by a full orchestra while sharing bills with the likes of envy and Boris, and those facts never seem to contradict eachother.

On 2014’s two-part release of The Last Dawn and Rays of Darkness, the Japanese masters give each element of their sound a little more room to breathe, spending one album prioritizing their more orchestral ambitions and the other indulging their most fiery impulses. Continue reading →

Record #962: A.R. Kane – Sixty-nine (1988)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

It’s said that there is a fine line between genius and madness. I’m not sure just how universally true that axiom is, but in the case of Sixty-nine, the debut full length from British dream pop duo (note: they coined that term themselves), they ride that line like Slim Pickens at the end of Dr. Strangelove.

The record is fiercely experimental—to the point that it’s almost a wonder that anyone agreed to release it. Nevertheless, the record became a huge influence on trip hop, post rock, and shoegaze.

I want to be clear that I love this record. There is nothing quite like it. But as is often the case with these sorts of artistic milestones, the scope of its influence may far outshine the record itself. Not everything thrown at the wall sticks. In fact, depending on my mood, this might strike me as completely transcendent, or as the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever heard. Continue reading →

Record #961: The Appleseed Cast – The End of the Ring Wars (1998)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

There is a phrase that comes up in music discourse a lot: “arrived fully formed.” It’s often employed to describe an artist whose debut already demonstrates the sound that they would go on to make their trademark. You can see this in bands like Fugazi or Mogwai, where their artistic voice was already established from their earliest releases.

This phrase does not apply to The End of the Ring Wars. Where The Appleseed Cast would make a long career blending post rock composition and emo songwriting to build one of the most enduring catalogs in the scene, their debut is much rougher around the edges. Very little of the sophistication that would make albums like Low Level Owl or Mare Vitalis seminal classics is on display here.

Instead, they offer up an homage to genre pioneers like Sunny Day Real Estate or Mineral, leaning heavy on twinkling guitars, moaned vocals, and noisy catharsis.

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Record #960: The Kinks – Kinda Kinks (1965)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

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I have said, often and loudly, that the Kinks were the best band of the British Invasion’s first footfalls. Compared to their contemporaries at the time, their songs were more electrifying than the Who, more charming than The Beatles, and had more swagger than the Rolling Stones.

But the ferocity of their brand of rock and roll had some drawbacks—namely, a few violent tempers that led to violent fights both within the band and with roadies that got them banned by the American Federation of Musicians. Essentially blacklisted in the biggest music market in the world, the Kinks soldiered on through the rest of the globe. During a brief trip back to Britain after a tour in Asia, they recorded their second full length in just two weeks. The tight turnaround made it so they were unable to address any of the unhappiness they had with the sessions, and Ray Davies in particular has expressed his displeasure with the finished product many times over the years.

Regardless of how the band feels about the record though, it is hardly a poor example of the group’s prowess.

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Record #959: Holy Fawn – Realms (2015)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

When Holy Fawn’s Death Spells made them the It Band of 2019, they were given a lot of praise for being one of the best new bands in the scene.

Problem there is that they weren’t exactly new. In fact, they had released their first album four years prior. But Realms sat in relative obscurity—even as Death Spells gathered them new fans. It sat as a sort of curiosity on their Spotify page, failing to offer the same crushing heaviness as the record we all came for.

However, as their star has continued to rise—thanks to tours with the likes of Thrice and Deafheaven—more and more fans found their way back to their debut. And while it might indeed lack the moments of black metal catharsis they’ve come to be known for, their trademark dazzling atmospheres and lush sonics were already in full bloom.

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Record #958: Forestlike – Forestlike (2023)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Being a part of the Great Lakes indie scene the last few decades, it’s pretty hard to avoid the Rutabega. The South Bend stalwarts have been slinging their brand of irresistible slacker rock around the Midwest since the early 2000s, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Owen and Taking Back Sunday while cementing themselves as fixtures of regional festivals and college radio, all while releasing a steady stream of untouchable studio albums that blend winding Built To Spill-esque guitar jams with infectious hooks.

So when Rutabega mastermind Joshua Wayne Hensley announced a new project with longtime friend Jared Myers of Daytime Volume, my ears perked up. The project, Forestlike, sees the pair utilizing nylon guitars and huge harmonies to explore the nuance that might go ignored in their louder projects.

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Record #957: The Goo Goo Dolls – Dizzy Up the Girl (1998)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

As a college freshman who thought he was way more knowledgeable about music than he was, I repeated often and loudly that there was one band that everyone loved, no matter what kind of music they usually listen to.

That band was the got dang Goo Goo Dolls. And as far as my horizons have been expanded since then, I still stand by it.

While on the surface, there might not seem to be anything all that exceptional about their brand of uber-radio-friendly pop rock, there are several reasons this record went 5x Platinum—and absolute megahit “Iris” is only one of them.

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Record #956: MONO – Gone (2007)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

The year is 2009. I am a recent college graduate making the transition between living at home and moving in with a friend who has the largest record collection I have ever seen. They are constantly loading my iPod with what they deem essential releases, operating as a sort of crash course for what I might hear when we live together.

At the same time, I am very early in a dating relationship with my now wife. In the awkward limbo of dating while both of us are still living with our parents, we would frequently sit in my car at the park to talk and listen to music. I often used these times with my girlfriend to work through the enormous catalogue of post punk, new wave, Krautrock, shoegaze, noise rock, lo-fi, and so much more that my friend gave me. In one of these instances, I threw on Gone: A Collection of EPs 2000-2007.

At the time, I had no language to describe what I was hearing. Despite listening to bands like Sigur Ros, Saxon Shore, and Unwed Sailor, I had never heard the term “post rock.” I had no idea that the cinematic, largely instrumental music I loved was part of a larger movement, nor that MONO was one of the major players in that movement. As the collection unfolded, I struggled to find the words to react to it.

Then, my girlfriend summed it up in three words. “This is epic.”

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Record #955: The Go-Gos – Vacation (1982)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

It took me a long time to become a poptimist. For much of my formative years as a music fan, pop was a four-letter word. I felt deeply that music had to MEAN something, and that the music should make an effort to stretch beyond the typical four chord, four four banality dominating the airwaves.

But as I’ve grown up, I’ve realized that there’s a reason those simpler formats are as popular as they are—and not because they’re easy to write. It takes a rare skill to take these archetypal building blocks and create something electrifying.

That realization came over several years, but it probably would have come a lot faster of someone would have showed me this as a teenager.
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