But Created in the Image of Suffering by King Woman is loathe to the idea.
Record #435: King Woman – Created in the Image of Suffering (2017)
But Created in the Image of Suffering by King Woman is loathe to the idea.
The Locket Pundt-led “Ad Astra” is a strong foray into new wave balladry (that coda though!). “Breakers” is the most crystalline piece they’ve ever done, with a breezy chorus that’s the best candidate for being used in an Apple commercial they’ve ever done. “Snakeskin” alone retains Monomania’s scuzzy funk, crashing with their first noise collage since Microcastle (“Ad Astra” has one too), an album whose weirdness makes several small returns throughout the running time.
The Jesus and Mary Chain were not the first band to turn their guitars into an onslaught of feedback and sing surprisingly sweet pop songs without affect (see also: The Velvet Underground, The Ramones, Sonic Youth).
But something about JMC’s debut pricked a hole in the swelling bubble of likeminded artists that became the shoegaze scene. Continue reading
Since my second or third year of college, the surest way to keep me from listening to something has been to drop the word “metal” in its description. Metal (and by extension, hardcore) was something I had enjoyed while I was following the scene, but I had grown out of it and moved on to the greener, more mature pastures of folk, electronica, and art rock. Continue reading
Sometimes, it’s possible to predict how a record will sound using context clues. And judging by the band name, song titles, astral-philic record cover, and release date, it’s easy to tell what Heavenly Bodies’ sole release would sound like.
As I have mentioned before, Cryptograms is my favorite Deerhunter record. Its more ambient passages are absolutely transcendent in a way that so many shoegaze/dreampop bands fail to emulate better.
But, as I have mourned, as Bradford Cox & Co. continue making music, they slip further and further away from the glistening haze they crafted so masterfully and more towards direct pop rock.
I first heard of Exitmusic from an article that likened them to Beach House. I listened to a track through that lens, and I didn’t like it.
A few weeks later, I gave them another shot. This time, that lens was shattered by the opening title track, which had more in common with Explosions in the Sky’s more frantic moments than anything Beach House has ever done. Continue reading
It’d be incredibly easy to write DIIV off as too trendy to be worthwhile. After all, their formula of Real Estate + Joy Division x Krautrock is tailor-made for Pitchfork’s Best New Music designation. Pitchfork also featured them in their Rising column when their name was still Dive, months before they had even finished this, their first LP. And inevitably, when this album finally dropped, the hype Pitchfork created around them culminated with the coveted “Best New Album” stamp on the top of the review (a portion of that review was featured on one of the stickers on the shrink wrap around the record when I bought it).