Category: Music

Bring Funny in a Foreign Language – The 1975

Here’s another band that just keeps getting better. Following 2019’s Notes on a Conditional Form, Being Funny in a Foreign Language is a bit of a departure for the band. Although they haven’t shunned the occasional saxophone solo on previous records, this album really has embraced unique arrangements — “Part of the Band” is a masterclass in this. The song seamlessly whistles from a small string section to an acoustic band and back again, while tricking you into thinking there is a chorus when there just isn’t. Other highlights include “The 1975”, “Looking for Somebody To Love”, “Oh Caroline” and “When We Are Together”.

Higher Lonely Power – Fireworks

Fireworks are back with their first record since 2014’s Oh, Common Life. It sounds like this album, or perhaps an earlier version of it, was supposed to be released in 2020, however was delayed due to the pandemic. In late 2019 the band released the single “Demitasse”, which never really captured me, even though it was an obvious major departure from the band’s previous pop-punk records. I recall thinking at the time “woah, I’ll sit down with this more when the entire album is out” simply because if the single was as much of a departure as the rest of the album, I knew I’d need to spend some time with the rest of the record. Well, flash-forward one pandemic later and “Demitasse” isn’t even on the record, but the record is that expected departure nevertheless. Highlights include “I Want to Start a Religion With You”, “Blood in the Milk” and “How Did it Use to Be So Easy?”

The Hum Goes on Forever – The Wonder Years

The Wonder Years are a band that just keep getting better. The previous album, Sister Cities shifted a bit from their signature pop-punk to painting sonic landscapes (witness “We Look Like Lightning”). There are a handful of moments on this album that reflect that growth (“You’re the Reason I Don’t Want The World to End”), but overall this feels like a return to form; for instance, the intro to “Old Friends Like Lost Teeth” will never fail to get me pumped the same way “Local Man Ruins Everything” does.

Favorite Albums of 2022

In no particular order, these are the albums I really enjoyed this year. Over the coming days and weeks, I’ll write a bit more about a few of the albums below, if I have more to say about them than just this simple recommendation.

The Hum Goes on Forever – The Wonder Years

Midnights – Taylor Swift

Bring Funny in a Foreign Language – The 1975

Asphalt Meadows – Death Cab for Cutie

Voyeurist – Underoath

The End, So Far – Slipknot

Harry’s House – Harry Styles

All The Truth I Can Tell – Dashboard Confessional

some kind of peace – piano reworks – Olafur Arnalds

NINE


Blink–182’s new album, NINE, is great. It’s a cool blend of California and the Mark half of untitled (think “Go” and “Here’s Your Letter”, rather than “Asthenia” and “I’m Lost Without You”). The stand outs for me are “The First Time”, “Pin the Grenade”, and “No Heart to Speak Of”. I even like “I Really Wish I Hated You” much more within the sequence of this album, rather than as a stand alone single.

https://open.Spotify.com/album/4gARZz9eV7zbGbtOjhVTPF?si=M98gko1dROO0ejY2JSFkdA

Sister Cities


The Wonder Years are a band to grow up with. Every album has caught me at a specific point in life where you’ve learned more about life, and you’re not quite sure how to handle it. Their catalogue is basically just a diary of growing up, starting with a stereotypical “I want to get out of this town” pop-punk album, to an album about community, then the weight of becoming an adult, then social responsibility. Their most recent album Sister Cities is an album about grief and absence.

The lyrics to the album masterfully weave together metaphors across tracks to describe appreciation and longing for your loved ones while you’re grieving. The opener “Raining in Kyoto” sets the tone for the record lyrically – desparation and longing for your loved ones when you’re far away and grieving: “Raining in Kyoto. I’m starting to shake. They’ll hold your service tomorrow. I’m an ocean away.”

I’ve really grabbed on to how the album uses colors to set the scene and feeling. Its as though the lyrics describe those moments you tell yourself to take in the scenery and appreciate where you are, despite whatever is going. Thats a constant theme of this album: taking a moment away from grief to appreciate who is still there, but to still feel that grief. Its a fine line to walk, but this record does it skillfully.

This album isn’t as instantly accessible as Surburbia I’ve Given You All, and Now I’m Nothing, and thats okay. Sister Cities needs you to chew a bit and sink into what they songs are about. The album’s closer “The Ocean Grew Hands to Hold Me” ties all of the metaphors through the record together, which gives the previous songs significantly more meaning, and begs you to listen again. While we’re having a rainy spring time in the Pacific Northwest, I think thats just what I’ll do.

The Intersecting Careers of Bring Me the Horizon and Underoath

underoath

I started listening to Underoath right around the time Define the Great Line came out. I followed them throughout that album cycle, through the next album cycle (Lost in the Sound of Separation), through the loss of their singer/drummer Aaron Gillespie, and into the album cycle for Ø (Disambiguation). I love all of those albums. I remember how they did the promotion of the first song released from Ø (Disambiguation), “Illuminator”. They published a single layer of audio of the song one day at a time for a week. What a great way to show off each of their parts.

I remember my disappointment when they announced their breakup in 2012. I remember being even more disappointed that their farewell tour was a paltry 9 dates on the east coast, only a year after I moved from Atlanta to Seattle.

Shortly after Underoath was over, a friend recommended Bring Me the Horizon. I had listened to one song by that band previously, “Diamonds Aren’t Forever”. That song was a little too heavy for me, as was the album it came from. However, the band had lost a guitarist, and gained a new member handling keys and samples – their arrangement was now nearly identical to what Underoath had been when they broke up. Bring Me The Horizon had just released “Shadow Moses” from the upcoming Sempiternal, and they had left behind the harsh vocals of their prior records for a more focused sound. BMTH had fallen squarely in the hole Underoath had vacated. Sempiternal felt like the Underoath album I wanted in 2013.

The next Bring Me the Horizon album That’s the Spirit was good as well. The band had continued to grow and began seeing some main stream success as they had moved even further away from the metal side of their influences for more of a main stream hard rock band (See: “Follow You”). Hell, they even opened for Justin Bieber at a few dates.

Which brings me to the new Underoath album, Erase Me, which is their first album since the band reunited for a hand full of anniversary tours for Define the Great Line. Erase Me is a solid album – I’m on my third way through it now – but the first thing that occurs to me is how much it reminds me of That’s the Spirit. The album is easily the most main stream metal Underoath has ever been. Thats not a bad thing in this case – it just is, in fact, the case. Songs like “Rapture” and “ihateit” could easily be played on a modern rock radio station, and that would be a first for Underoath. Given how much success Bring Me the Horizon has had going in this musical direction coming from a similar musical place as Underoath, I really hope this album carries Underoath to some big places. I’d love to see those guys rocking into their 60’s

New Music

The Fever 333

I’ve been checking out this new EP from The Fever 333. The singer is former of another great band, letlive., and Travis Barker, of blink–182, plays drums on a few songs. They’re sort of a mix of the singers former band, letlive., Run the Jewels, and Rage Against The Machine. This band has crazy energy.

 

 

Now, Now

On the total opposite end of the spectrum, I’ve gotten into this new song by Now, Now and their last album, Threads. This is another must check out band. The new song AZ is great fun.

 

A Short Update

Things have been busy for me lately, so I haven’t had much to say or write about. I’ll note a few thoughts I’ve had lately though:

  1. Meditation helps me get my head right.
  2. Not being on twitter all the time is good. Most times the minute-to-minute of politics makes me feel nihilistic.
  3. The new Dashboard Confessional album is good.
  4. The new Pianos Become The Teeth album is better.
  5. The new Justin Timberlake album is not.
  6. The Queer Eye reboot on Netflix is great, and makes me miss ATL.
  7. Atlanta Monster is great. I think I went to high school with the host.
  8. Do By Friday is hilarious.