2024, week 36, 5 singles

'What, only five singles', I can hear you say? Yes, it's hard to start up after a holiday and listening to new music, while catching up with real life as well. So, let's be practical and perhaps later this week a few more, adding up to ten. Enjoy anyway.

Too Tough. Vicious Dreams

Looking at Vicious Dreams' Bandcamp page, the band has released its first demo in 2015. In 2024 it makes its debut on this blog and releases the first single of its upcoming album 'Turn Off My Brain' or 'T.O.M.B.'. Vicious Dreams is a band from Orlando, Florida and can easily be called a punk band. The kind that mixes melody with toughness, in combination with brevity. If the band had discarded the long intro, everything would have been said and done within two minutes easily. Too Tough being the opening song of 'T.O.M.B', the band probably wanted to warm the listener up a little. The singer Amanda one Johnny is "much too tough for me" and "too tough for his own good", so she's getting away as fast as she can. It all results in a tight punkrocking song that allows the audience to move in any wished for way. Too Tough is quite an introduction to a band. Yes, I've heard it all before but Vicious Dreams recreates this music very convincingly and is far from too tough for me.

Freedomsville. Wendy James

Wendy James? The faintest of bells went off somewhere in the back of my mind, where the near-forgotten things are stashed. No recollection box opened itself though. In the meantime I am listening to a energetic single, full of electronic pulses and "regular" instruments, filled with sounds from the 80s sung by a woman with a girl-like voice who surely no longer is a girl. The positive vibes coming from the song are easy to pick up and very pleasant to listen to. Wendy James picked the right song alright to promote her album, 'The Shape Of History', 25 October. When I read the accompanying bio, as that little bell kept ringing, I read this is her 10th solo record and the name Transvision Vamp is mentioned. I immediately see images from a video in my mind for 'I Want Your Love'. The song was a hit over here in 1989 or 1990, with MTV on repeat in our dorm, replacing the radio. (Yes, The Buggles were right at the time.). Freedomsville falls a bit into place, but had I not had that bell going off, the review would had been positive as well. This is great pop, with a nice, well-thought out arrangement and great energy. Welcome back in my life, Mss James.

Anyone, Anything. Tape Toy

Tape Toy is an Amsterdam based rock band and on route to release an EP in December. Before my introduction to the band with this single, the band released an album, 'Honey, WTF!'. Anyone, Anything is a solid rock song of the alternative kind. The distinctive feature is the synth playing a loud melody throughout the song. This hovers almost ghostlike over the dark rock sound. Over the music the solid voice of Roos van Tull makes it clear that she will do absolutely anything with anyone but one person. Whoever he or she is, the message sounds loud and clear, with full support of the band. What I like best are the details in the music. That synth, with a very weird effect on it, may be jumping out, what happens underneath and around it is what makes listening to Anyone, Anything even more fun. From a deep, metalish guitar, to an acoustic part in the first verse, on to the many, many overdubs, everything works. Tape Joy has put a lot of effort into its new single and it fully pays off.

Take This Love. Sun Atoms

With a driving, fully pulsating song Sun Atoms presents itself to the world. The Portland, Oregon band has a connection to The Dandy Warhols in the form of bass player Peter G. Holmström and there are faint traces to songs like 'Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth' and 'Bohemian Like You' in Take This Love. His vocals are supported by Jsun Atoms. All the members play in other bands. They all do not ring bells with me, sorry. So, let's focus on Take This Love. The strength of the song is the rhythm that just keeps going and going, allowing me to get into its groove fully. The singing is more an accompaniment to that rhythm and is subdued, modest, even bland, in a positive way. Long after the last notes have faded, the rhythm goes on in my mind and that is just where a song should be, just like the lover who wants to be "shoved up your heart". Quite an original way of making someone fall in love with you.

Ellery Way. Lovina Falls

What an intriguing single. Lovina Falls builds the tension into Ellery Way by the bit. Although the song may bring me back a few decades, in 2024 it shows how women have taken over rock. What their brothers or neighbour boys were playing at the time, they do now and at least as good. Rock no longer is the near-exclusive playground for men; and rightly so. I'm sure you've noticed how many female (fronted) bands and solo artists have found  their way to these pages in the past years. Enter Lovina Falls that makes its debut on this blog. Lovina Falls is producer and songwriter Valerie Forgione with singer Mistle Thrush. Together they simultaneously try to freeze over a big lake and unfreeze musical hearts. They sound so cool and yet do not manage to hide their joy of having and playing a glorious song like Ellery Way. Despite nothing spectacular happening in the form of grandstanding, Lovina Falls does everything right here. In an extremely cool way the tension remains contained in Ellery Way.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght