Fiddle-king Ryan Shupe is back at it with the anticipated release of his new album We Rode On that is scheduled to come out in Spring. This, his 8th album, will highlight a small transformation in Shupe, as he is transforming his usual country sentiment to a more pop/rock feel. This is echoed in the track that we have featured for you below. Shupe is a master at his craft and is able to write and play effectively; he also bends genre-types and thus can be considered a true master musician.
“If I Stay,” one of the tracks off the new album, is a jaunty piece with vocal melodies and more standard instrumentation. It has a Great Big Sea feel to it considering the energy and passion. It is almost a more bluegrass version of Great Big Sea and even Carbon Leaf. The Americana passion is bleeding out of the song, which is carried through the meaty vocals and sprightly pace. It’s an excellent ditty, and one that more should listen to.
So That You Can Feel Better opens with soft piano melodies, reminiscent of 90s grunge and the sound of Angela Burn’s voice pulls you in immediately. Her vocals will remind listeners a little bit of Emily Haines, Allison Mosshart, or a modern Amy Lee. Listeners should not be surprised that Burns’ upbringing in Austin, Texas with pop and grunge influences as they definitely are appear in her mixtape and overall sound. The track, Napoleon stands out for listeners with its heavy grunge tones and it being a song about power and has a mood of fury. Another song that overall, goes hand in hand with the album title So That You Can Feel Better, is All Together. It carries the most angst, the path of growing up, being overall strong, and not looking back. The overall tone of the mixtape would be best described as a cross of fueled emotions, struggles, and definitely has songs that can be your new rock anthem for the soul.
Close your eyes and Spencer Sabo will take you away literally in another dimension with his latest album, entitled Color In The Gray Machine. The feelings of another world, powered by an undertone of galactic space and ethereal fluidity goes nicely with the fitting project, which is called Mind The Journey. Upon listening to the newly released album, one can almost find an undertone of nostalgia and psych rock as well within the sounds and strategic musical arrangement. The track, Rose Colored Glasses builds up an almost synth dynamic with a touch of grit and borderline 90s gritty grunge sound. The vocals are drawn out in a smoothing whirlwind and the instrumental genius builds an environment for the already strong standalone song. On the other end of the spectrum, Dessert almost sets up a very mellow, yet reflective ambiance, almost exhibiting strong reminders of glam rock. Recorded in Boston native’s Sabo’s studio, Color In The Gray Machine delivers an album centered around retro sounds and its coexistence in a modern world.
The soft piano and symphonic melodies start off the sound of Sea White Salt right, with the vocals of Joseph Sant effortlessly accompanying the meticulously placed ambiance, drawing you in for more. Recorded with producer Gabriel Galvin in overnight marathon sessions, Sea White Salt delivers a resilient message. The overall tone of Sea White Salt carries the environmental inspirations of Seattle, Washington and Brooklyn, New York. When one listens to the album, one can cross the parallels of musical textures with Sant’s background. On the standout track of Sea White Salt, one can hear the soul and kind hearted love within the track, that transcends as an undertone on the EP. Drawing comparisons of their sound to Broken Social Scene and the dream pop circuit, Joseph Sant’s deliverance and creation does not disappoint. With longtime collaborators, Stirling Krussing, Tyler Graham, Gabriel, Galvin, and Georgia Tan, the five piece band definitely works together to create a dream pop sound for all to hear.
Merry Christmas everyone! You have made it to the #1 song on the Music Court’s annual countdown. So, what has found itself among the distinguished company of past top songs like “King of Spain,” “The Afterlife,” “Pompeii,” and “Got it?” We have to travel back to January 2015 and “the center of the hollow moon” for this gem.
The #1 song of 2015 is “Hollow Moon (Bad Wolf)” by the eclectic, potent, and genre-less AWOLNATION.
There are so many comments that I want to make about this song that I just don’t know where to begin. So, for the sake of chronology, I will start from the first few seconds of the song. Do you know the feeling when you listen to the first few notes of a song – in this case AWOLNATION employs a rhythmic electronic beat – and you know immediately that this song is about to be played on repeat several times. It’s a gut feeling, but most times you are correct. In this case, my hypothesis was tested and proven true.
The draw of this song is the electronic beat, the electric conductivity of the song that makes the listener feel like he/she is in the middle of a Nikola Tesla experiment. Aaron Bruno, the mastermind of AWOLNATION, possesses a unique artistic ability to make any song he creates sound perspicacious and driving. The song powers forward with Bruno’s almost reckless voice mixed with fragmented percussion. The chorus, which features the repetition of the line, “Ima make a deal with the bad wolf so the bad wolf don’t bite no more,” carries forward with a unique, toe-tapping, almost pernicious intensity; this quasi-wickedness is one of the best qualities of AWOLNATION’s music; every song sounds like there is some evil, malevolent intent behind it, and that makes the song powerful.
How about cleverness? Does the song have any cleverness. It certainly does. Bruno sings about making a deal with the bad wolf and then subtly, in his repetition of the lines, sings “Ima bad wolf” indicating that he is the entity he wishes to make a deal with, thus introducing an acute duality.
From there, the song escalates with imprecation and anger. The song is almost violent in its power, reckless and entropic. The disorder of the song is ordered. The carelessness of the song is clean. The song is an oxymoron and that is just the way the band wanted it. And, thankfully, as you see in the video above, the video reflects the song perfectly, depicting frozen dancers who eventually erupt in a wild dance party.
“Hollow Moon (Bad Wolf)” is the clear choice for song of the year. It is creative, unique, eccentric, and tremendous. The song is a melodic and visual spectacle. It is a depiction of the talent of AWOLNATION, and I, for one, cannot wait to hear more from this band.
The Music Court 