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It gives me great pleasure to start this singles roundup of week 14 with one of my musical heroes of decades ago. I can still remember hearing 'Magic Man' on the radio for the first time and being blown away. Welcome Nancy Wilson as a solo artist to this blog. Further on you will find Americana, alternative rock, modern pop (ballads) and furtive rock. As always a great mix of music that is currently out there in the world. Would you like to follow it all in real time? Click on the link below and feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments section.
You And Me. Nancy Wilson
Had I walked
into Nancy Wilson on the street, I would not have recognised the nice
looking blond young woman I remember from my first Heart album for the charming 60 something she now is. Had she
known me then, the same would be for her towards me. We have both moved
on in life. Considerably. To my surprise I am listening to a solo single
released by Nancy Wilson. After the Heart break up somewhere in this
century, I had not expected to hear anything. I wasn't interested in any
of the Heart AOR albums from the later 80s onwards also. The second surprise is
even more pleasant. You And Me is a small song in the vein of 'Dreamboat
Annie', the folky ballad on Heart's debut album 'Dreamboat Annie'. What
we get is Nancy Wilson playing an acoustic guitar and softly singing
over it. Behind her more instruments have a roll. They create the
melancholy mood that drives this song and makes it work. And, no, I'm
not just being sentimental here for a song from the 1970s. You And Me is
beautiful in its own right. As I wrote, a very nice surprise.
Some
songs simply do not need more that a nice voice, a slow moving melody
and a few embellishments to accompany it. Transatalantic, the new single
of Aiofe O'Donovan, is such a single. On the surface nothing much
happens. The song slowly drags itself forward towards the end. Nothing
much is happening. Scratch that surface a little and all the details are
laid bare. The beautiful singing between O'Donovan and Drever to start
with. Drever supports the oh so nice voice singing lead. Not that Aiofe
O'Donovan needs supporting her singing. Her voice is beautiful as it is.
No, it's the icing on the cake we listeners are awarded. Delve a little
deeper and the rich instrumentation reveals itself. Pay attention and
you will notice all the little details this song was given. Some only a
few notes that are mixed in and out again. Strings, piano, guitar,
percussion, they all get smaller and bigger solo spots. All together it
spells an Americana ballad of the better kind. I have only one question
left: how do I pronounce Aiofe?
With
the 'Door' EP on this blog only recently, Luwten returns with the first
single of her album to be released later this year. Sleeveless is a
song that is as bare as my faded jeans. There's hardly anything present
that takes away from what Tessa Douwstra is singing. Melodically she is
close to what I hear from R&B singers from the U.S., musically is
where, at least for my inexperienced ears in this musical segment, the
music diverges. Driven by a bass guitar with alternating percussion
presence, the song has a slow, lazy beat, that allows Luwten to play
with the vocals. Solo, harmonies, exaggerations and a pounding sound
underscoring an "ah-ah-ah" sequence. The guitar is as muted as Donna
Blue's no matter how different the musical outcome may be. The result is
a song that is not only lazy but also suggesting a hot summer night.
Sleepless, sleeveless, a hot bedroom prevents sleeping soundly. It
always helps to just to go with the flow of my brain in these cases. Sometimes
original thoughts come from those moments. Sleeveless may have been just
one of these sort of inspirations.
L'Objectif
from Leeds released its first single ever recently. Four young men from
Leeds unleash their view on Britpop and older postpunk from the U.K.,
capturing over four decades in Drive In Mind. The more experienced
listener, like me, will recognise a lot of elements of his or her
favourite music. L'Objectif's first single has two faces. The whole first part of the
song is a solid rocking postpunk influenced alternative pop song.
Towards the end the gloves really go off, something that is hinted at in
the part working up to the finale, but still comes as a surprise. The wall of sound
that waves the song off is long and solid. A musical rock face. What
comes before is more than just a nice introduction to a new song.
L'Objectif certainly shows what it is capable of. The mix of rock
chords, and more subtle parts, the use of dynamics in quite a rigorous
way, all show that the band has thought hard on how to impress all the
people listening to it for the first time. And it works. But, perhaps
I'm sounding a little chauvinistic here, I have to say that a lot of the
alternative rock coming out of The Netherlands these past months
outshines Drive In Mind easily. Just a tip for U.K. listeners.
Pictish Trail returns to WoNoBlog with a five song, including four remixes of three songs, EP. The title of the title song Dream Wall is well chosen. The song is like a dream. The music seems to float on thin air. The softly played dark organ note that is held seemingly forever, with only minor variations resembles the thin air. Johnny Lynch's voice hovers over the thin air, with minor other sounds and some percussion adding to the ethereal music. The Good Dog remix really kicks the song in the butt. Beats and more fervent keyboards are added, truly changing the song into something new. Johnny Lynch's voice is still hovering over the music but by comparison more over a raging sea. Good Dog's version creates a new song with an identical vocal melody and is well done, as somehow it doesn't take Dream Wall out of context, something that easily could have happened.
Dream Wall was a song left over from the 'Thumb World'
(2020) album's sessions. The three remixes that follow are songs from
the album, 'Pig Nice' and 'Slow Memories', twice.
Not
so long ago the only Italian band found on this blog was Bongley Dead,
the alternative rockers from the vicinity of Ponte Buggianese and
Montecatini Terme. Recently a few more bands from the country have found
their way and that now includes Mother Island. Till The Morning Comes
is a nice, nostalgic song that combines 60s pop with Serge Gainsbourg
eccentricity. This results in an extremely clear sound that makes all
the details Mother Island put into the song shine out. The pop song is
infused with a little surf guitar and in an intermezzo with a touch of
psychedelic madness. It all falls into place when the band comes
together again and modulates the chord progression. Next to all
this the band has the dark-voiced singer Anita Formilan who tops the
sound off. Till The Morning Comes is a track from the album 'Motel
Rooms' from 2020. For me it is a nice introduction to the Vicenza based
band.
Grenadeers is a band from Utrecht in The Netherlands that releases the second single of an upcoming EP. Climate change is the central theme of single. Looking back from the future at our current time. "I was also guilty" is sung to us. And so are we all in the right here and now, caught in the collective action problem climate change is, or Internet security for that matter.
Listening
to the music, Single Filter Exit is a hybrid song. There is a lot going
on for a four minute song. Perhaps even too much to digest for the
average music listener. As such it is a 1970s symphonic rock song hiding
behind an alternative rock sound that is quite common in 2021. Grenadeers
is not afraid to build up a musical storm to underscore the severity of
the topic it's addressing. All the changes in song and sound makes the
1970s connotation easy to make. The intro could have come from a
Solution album e.g., the pattern changes from Focus or early Earth &
Fire. Next it is necessary to point to the great singing and harmonies.
Grenadeers has a gifted ear for the vocals as well. It all spells an
extremely interesting song that deserves being heard.
I have been writing about Lizzy for over a year now, but there's still no album in sight it seems. Her solo repertoire is slowly building. In Love With Her brings me down from the hugely produced 'Single Filter Exit' just above here. In Love With Her is the total unhasting. The kind of song that it's easy to succumb to. The kind of song that caresses its listeners. The piano chords that start the song sound as if they are played by the neighbour at the other side of the wall. Lizzy's voice sounds veiled as well. It gives her new single a touch of mystery. She sings she's hopelessly in love, a state that is not positive, as this spot usually hovers between hope and despair. The dreamy quality of the song reflects the hope more than the despair. And dreamy the song is. Everything is kept small to make in Love With Her totally intimate, almost private. How much more private can a song become? Everything takes place in the head of the person Lizzy sings about. Musically the song has so many nice details, that make it sparkle in the right places. In Love With Her is another fine single by Lizzy, who is working towards a nice oeuvre over the past year.
Portugal.
The Man had its big breakthrough with that song, 'Feel It Still', a little
atypical from what I heard from the band before and up to today is in a car commercial
on tv whenever I have it switched on these days. I can imagine the band
needs a little time to determine where it wants to go next with all
these expectations all of a sudden. It's winning a little time by
releasing a live album, recorded in its earlier days. The Devil is a
bare song that has nothing but the essentials on it. The sound is big,
yet spacious. And then the song breaks open, filling the whole space of
my room, with a blistering lead guitar, the singer wailing about the
devil on his trail and a keyboard presenting the smaller details, like
the guitar did at the beginning of the song. The drums were sparse yet
solid there, in a way announcing what is to come in its own way. During
my first listening session I did not really know what to make of The
Devil, believe me, that changed fast. In April a whole album called
'Oregon City Sessions' is to follow. If that record is as good as the
single that introduces it, world be alert. How far can a band digress
from it roots? I'm thinking here of 'Feel It Still', a song I liked
alright.
I must have reviewed the whole album by now, way before it is released late in May. ViVii from Sweden releases another nice, soft pop single as if it's the most usual thing in the world to do. Read Between is a ballad carried by a mandolin and an acoustic guitar during the first part. When singer Caroline Jonsson takes over the lead vocal duties, the song gets a fuller production, in percussion and electronic sounds that hover over the more solid sounds. Slowly the song changes into an instrumental song where a chord progression is flashed out more and more without becoming obtrusive. Read Between remains a small song, despite all that is going on towards the end. What impresses me is the well-kept balance between the soft pop and the symphonic rock inspired ending. This is a ballad and remains one. It would not surprise me if Read Between is the final song on 'Mondays'. The world will know on 21 May.
Wout de Natris
Listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:
https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g
Listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:
https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g
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