New Album Alert : Daughter - Not To Disappear

I don't have many fears but being locked alone in a tight space without light would be on the short list. A deep depression is much like this, it can feel like you are alone, lost, and trapped in a place of darkness with not hope of escape. Daughter's new and second album is an unabashed display of sadness and varying scales of black and grey. Thematically this does not stray far from their debut If You Leave however the music and the production this time around place a magnifying glass to the ripples of quiet gloom and here you have amplified swells of heartache bringing them closer to a post-rock band like Mogwai or Sigur Ros with the voice much like Margo Timmins from from Cowboy Junkies (smokey hush).



My introduction to the band came through the film A Long Way Down and their single "Youth". It seems in hindsight that this match of film to band couldn't have been more appropriate. It is film dedicated to the concept of suicide of what it takes to step back of that ledge to keep on living. If there was a body of music that places you teetering on that ledge, feeling the combination of grief and the weightlessness of leaving it all behind, English band Daughter's catalog is that.

My only complaint is that after two records of heartache going from subtle to a little louder, I would like to hear other colors in the band's emotional pallet. It doesn't matter how gorgeous your hamster wheel is, you are still going around in sad little circles.

New EP Alert : The She-Devils

The '60s offered quite a few campy beach movies with ginchy musical numbers featuring kids dancing along in wild appreciation. One of my favorites of this genre stars Nancy Sinatra who also performs a song in the 1966 classic The Ghost Of the Invisible Bikini. It's packs a one two punch of comedy-kiddie horror meets an excuse to parade good looking college kinds in bathing suits who writhe with pleasure to those crazy sounds of surf guitars. Yummy!

(Nancy performs at the 13:50 mark but here is the whole film for your viewing pleasure)

The She-Devils are a boy/girl Montreal duo that electronically reproduces these retro beachy tunes to perfection. They have even mastered the snap, crackle, and pop of an old record to make their brand of dreamy pop all the more vintage. I highly recommend checking out their new EP which is out now. The lead single "Come" is posted below.

A group like Noonday Underground have come before them to blend mod, soul, and bubblegum to sophisticated UK breakbeats but this is the first time I have heard someone come this close to recreating Nancy Sinatra's dead pan sex kitten voice. If you loved Mad Men for their thoughtful recreation of another time, The She-Devils will be the olive in your martini.

The Day That Got Away From Me

I have a review to post but that will happen tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy one of my favorite bands Girls at Our Best. They were from Leeds, England and existed from 1979 to 1982. The are perfectly pop but still rough around the edges. Fun fact, "She Blinded Me with Science" artist Thomas Dolby was a guest artist on their 1981 LP entitled Pleasure.




Some folks might recognize this song because the Wedding Present covered it.

All Dogs / Saintseneca / Yowler

Some people have all the luck. It is difficult to have and maintain one decent band no less three outstanding ones.

Today I give you the three Columbus, OH musical projects of Maryn Jones: All Dogs, Saintseneca, and Yowler. All had released in 2015 that somehow escaped me but I am making up for that all here and now.

All Dogs is solid, fuzzy indie rock that falls into the world shared by Eric's Trip, Bully, Dilly Dally, Doe, and Waxahatchee.




Saintseneca is Zac Little's band that also includes Maryn as a member. The blueprint is pop music with an distinctly American folk music foundation. The band however constructs a lofty, loud, and philosophically rich record that falls somewhere between The Acorn and early Arcade Fire. Smart and interesting stuff to say the least.






And last but not least, Yowler haunts the way early Cat Power does. It is intimate, stark, and highlights just how beautiful her voice is. I believe Julie Doiron from Eric's Trip may also be her spiritual guide as their delicate and aching voices are so strikingly similar.

Throwback Thursday : A.C. Marias

Looking back to 1989 when Angela Conway recorded an album for Mute Records on the name A.C. Marias. The collaborators for this remarkable piece of music entitled One of Our Girls (Has Gone Missing) include Bruce Gilbert of Wire (a band she had a long history of working with), Rowland S. Howard (Birthday Party), and Barry Adamson (Magazine / Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds) making this a must listen for those who have an interest in sparse, experimental post-punk with a dark cloud hovering over top.

New Album Alert : Charlie Hilton - Palana

Women in music can't win. If we raise our voice to a yell, people accuse us of trying to be too masculine, or wonder why we are so angry. If we use a feathery, airy vocal approach, we are accused of playing up our femininity in a way that somehow makes our art less potent. If our lyrics are too personal, go to dark places, we are reviewed as morose to our detriment. Conversely if we write in a less serious, more playful tone, we are branded idealist, immature, or too candycoated. Damned if we do, damned if we don't.

The media critique of Charlie Hilton's Palana contains a bit of this kind of misunderstanding and complaint. It is almost like saying a painting has failed because the the medium of watercolor is too transparent, a pastel too subtle of a color, silver too reflective, or a pencil shadow is too soft. These are tools and palette choices of an artist and whatever artist does with those things is exactly what makes them, well, them. These 12 songs are a muted mirror to the artist. Her tone and stories are taken from the personal journey that moves like a dream, confounds as to what is a lasting crisis verse the temporary growing pains towards becoming a new self. For those who don't have the pleasure of making songs as an exploration of self, this is a shimmering example of this process and the healing that can come from excavating the dark channels of the imagination. Palana was inspired in part by the often misunderstood novel Steppenwolf by Hermann Hess. Both bodies of work reflect a miserable, lost person seeking to be found or potentially reborn. Rather than focus on the pessimism of the book or this record, the better takeaway is the complex philosophical prism they have created. Lonely in a crowd. Happy in sadness. Part human, part animal. Stuck but running through the motions of life.

Palana is Charlie Hilton's first solo album. Previously she has been a member of the Portland, OR trio Blouse however fans will not discover a wildly different vocal brush stroke here. Comparisons to Broadcast, Nico, and Astrud Gilberto still hold true however the rainy day retro paired with modern electronics make this a fresh and lovely listen. Like any good story the plot is dotted with strife, conflict, astute observations, humor, romance, and told with a narrative that is direct and engaging. The music doesn't amplify the drama, Hilton presents her thoughts like a gentle echo.

On a side note, is it just me or does Hilton's album art look a little bit like Gainsbourg 9th studio album with Brigitte Bardot? I love the visual tribute to what could easily be a psych-pop French '60s album or an early Bossa Nova record. 

Follow This Atta-GIRL! Playlist

I have created a 2016 Atta-GIRL! Spotify playlist.

Every time I post about a new release that can be found on Spotify, I will add it to this playlist. Follow this playlist to have all the music I review in one handy, organized place.