Reviews

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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Record #954: Lilys – In the Presence of Nothing (1992)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

There’s never been another record like Loveless. But that hasn’t stopped anyone from trying. The sonic sea change that My Bloody Valentine’s seminal masterpiece ushered in was as singular as it was influential, with bands still looking to its rose-tinted soundscape of guitars for guidance on their own sounds

And while it famously took Kevin Shields twenty-two years to release its follow up, it took Lilys about a year.

Granted, empires have risen and fallen as the debate between inspiration and derivativeness has raged on. And if I’m honest, I’m not interested in continuing it. While In the Presence of Nothing owes most of its sonic palette to Loveless, replicating those sounds are a feat in itself. I would also feel much differently if these songs weren’t so dang good.

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Record #953: Lift to Experience – The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads (2001)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

It seems no matter how deep I dig (and boy, do I dig deep sometimes), there’s always some seminal release I’ve missed—even in the exact scenes I’ve been trudging through. Take for example Lift to Experience, whom I had never heard of before a review referred to my own band as “We have Lift to Experience at home” (a favorable comparison, I hope).

I’m constantly fascinated by the points of reference other people have when they hear us, so I checked out this band that we were purportedly ripping off. Truth be told, it seems like the only immediate comparison is our shared devotion to overdriven guitars and reverb pedals. But when I divorced them from the comparison, I found a wonderfully idiosyncratic record that lands directly in that sweet spot between shoegaze and post rock that I love so much—bad hip hop parody artwork aside.

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Record #952: Fiddlehead – Death is Nothing to Us (2023)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

By now, it’s become pretty apparent that Fiddlehead has overcome every curse that befalls supergroups. While many similar groups are crushed by the weight of their own hype before their first record, Fiddlehead continues to get better.

Death Is Nothing To Us continues the band’s penchant for observing grief through a lens of fist-pumping, emotional post-hardcore, but this time around, they magnify the nuance of both their sound and mourning to subatomic detail.

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Record #951: Cocteau Twins – The Pink Opaque (1986)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

If I may allow another exception to my general dislike of compilations…

The last week or two, I’ve been in a strange loop, ping-ponging between Cocteau Twins, the Cure, and Siouxsie & the Banshees (who I’m a new fan of) with a newfound appreciation for the tangled web that led from post-punk and goth to dream pop and shoegaze.

Cocteau Twins are probably the biggest lynchpin in that chain. From their earliest incarnation as gloomy goths, they embraced the romantic filigree of the genre and brought it out of the shadows.  While much of this transmutation can be traced through their full lengths, the (several!) EPs and singles released between albums offer important context to the steps along the way.

The Pink Opaque, released following the popularity of “Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops” on American college radio, was compiled to give their new American audience a taste of their career up until that point. Decades beyond that purpose, the disc serves as a beautiful chronicle of their metamorphosis.

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Record #950: Cocteau Twins – Head Over Heels (1983)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

There’s never been another band quite like Cocteau Twins. Not before, not since. Still, for all of their idiosyncrasies and obscurity, they cast a long shadow. Their influence can be heard in bands like Sigur Ros, My Bloody Valentine, Deftones, Smashing Pumpkins, and the legions of acts that those bands influenced.

But Cocteau Twins didn’t become Cocteau Twins™ out of the gate. The ethereal dream pop giants cut their teeth in the post punk and goth scene of the early ’80s before becoming untethered in the clouds (Elizabeth Fraser notably has a Siouxsie and the Banshees tattoo on one arm). And while their debut Garlands received plenty of praise in the post punk scene, Head Over Heels is where they start to pupate into something entirely unique.

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