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Praying For Your Downfall. Jensen McRae
Jensen McRae is an American singer-songwriter who taps in to female singer-songwriters from the U.S. from around 1995, with names we have all but forgotten, like Nathalie Imbruglia and Joan Osborne. Her single Praying For Your Downfall has the same kind of light touch in her music, but the lyrics are rather vindictive. Whoever she's singing about, this relationship did not end well. That makes the song from today, as the lyrics are very direct and far from subtle. "Keep whistling, as I never was your dog". There's not a lot left to imagine there, is there? Musically, the contrast is huge, as I'm not afraid to mention how light the music sounds and even Jensen McRae's way of singing. "What if God was one of us", it sounds like that alright. It makes for a pleasant single nonetheless. Album 'I Don't Know How But They Found Me!' is out on 25 April.
Last year I reviewed Dana Gavanski's third album 'Late Slap' and Erwin Zijleman her first album 'Yesterday Is Gone' in 2019. Early in 2025 she is back with an EP, Again Again. Let me start with the downside for a difference. Again Again delivers on its title. If anything, there is a lot of conformity on the EP where the choice of songs is concerned. Piano-driven songs in a slow to at best medium tempo. From there the enjoyment starts though. Dana Gavanski sings with an undercooled, somewhat dreamy voice, carried by the music mixed underneath her voice. In between pursuing life in many and very ways, somewhere between touring and silversmithing, Gavanski turned to her piano and learned to play better and started to record the songs she wrote on it with Syd Kemp to assist her finding a more live sound in the studio. Mission accomplished, I'd say. Again Again may be subdued but far from bare or lifeless. Give the songs some attention and beauty opens itself for you. In many and varied ways. One of these ways is a touch of New Zealand singer-songwriter Aldous Harding, which suits this music well. With Again Again Dana Gavanski has given herself another musical avenue to explore and more options for the future.
And yet another gem from our antipodes in Auckland. After two singles in 2024, you can find them on this blog, Voom returns with an alternative rock song, that could also be named alternative slacker rock. It has a Beck kind of 'Loser' vibe, without the dance rhythm. Buzz Moller, Murray Fisher, Nick Buckton, and Josh Sorenson released their previous record nineteen years ago and have been working on dozens of demos all through these years and now is the time to get them out to fans of old and new, like me. 'Something Good Is Happening' is slated for 16 May. In the meantime we have Trouble. A song with an irresistible groove. One of the kind that makes me nod my head and move my shoulders in this concept of a dance. The kind of groove that takes over my mind and body. Trouble sounds tremendously familiar, like a thousand other songs I like. With ease I'm grooving to number 1001.
No Front Teeth is a single of six plus minutes, with a video that's rather confrontational on a few levels. The song has as many twist as the video. Nothing is what it seems. From the very first seconds I'm captured though. Perfume Genius, the alter ego of Mike Hadreas, sings with a voice that reminds me faintly of Roger McGuinn. He sings with Aldous Harding, who has frequented this blog often, then she sings alone with an angelic voice, just before the song explodes in your face. The music takes you from a soft flowing brook to a the wildest cascades right over the edge of a waterfall and back in to soft flowing water but with deep dark depths beneath you. No Front Teeth is musical danger, that may be the best description. Album 'Glory' is out on 28 March.
I certainly am not a painter, so that makes me a no Van Gogh as well. Duo Doug Sparks and Colin Hastings are musicians and may want to be Lennon and McCartney or Fagen and Brecker or Crosby and Nash, I digest from listening to You're Right There. NoVanGogh aspires to writing and producing the perfect pop song and come a long way reaching it. Sparks wrote the song with Robin Goodchild, who plays guitar and sings. In fact, You're Right there is a duet sung with Lydia Salnikova. Somehow everything is in its right place. Nothing is overdone and just perfect. My ears are pleased from the very beginning right up to the final seconds. All the elements that make up a good pop song are present it seems. Perhaps it's better I write what used to make a good pop song, as I truly do not hear anything in what is called pop nowadays. NoVanGogh taps into the greats of the 60s and 70s and those artists and bands that used these elements for their own pop songs since then. You're Right There is a song that deserves to be heard.
The name Diederik Nomden can be found on this blog many times. Today he returns with the single Save Me, announcing his upcoming album 'Sooner/Later'. Now The Analogues appear to have reached the end of the road with the three final shows in the Ziggo Dome in 2024, it is time for a new solo record. Save Me shows that being able to play The Beatles songs perfectly does not exclude writing extremely good songs yourself. In fact Paul McCartney may wish he writes a song as Save Me today. I haven't hear one approaching it for decades. Save Me is full of confidence, but also so subtle. A pop song like it has to be. Fellow Analogue Jac Bico lays down some nice solo licks, a warm Hammond organ does the rest. Save Me overflows with dedication and warmth for this song. I hope that the people who came to hear Diederik Nomden sing The Beatles will come out to hear him sing Save Me as well. It would be so well deserved. Save Me is a top song.
Hooveriii? Wasn't that the band that played nice psychpop/rock songs? Not on the first single of it's upcoming album 'Manhunter'(16 May). Westside Pavillion Of Dreams is a very direct song, that goes for it from the get go. Sure, it still has a pop feel, especially in the vocal melody. The band is going for it and is more or less hammering away on my eardrums. In a nice way, sure, but not what I was expecting to hear. Hooveriii is the brainchild of Bert Hoover III with an ever changing band behind him. On the new album there are many guitarists. Westside Pavillion Of Dreams is a guitar song. The drums may be sweeping things up in the background, rather loud, it is the stack of guitars playing riffs and loud chords that set the tune. Westside Pavillion Of Dreams is a clear change but certainly not for the worse. Let's wait and see what 'Manhunter' will bring.
From psych rock with an edge is a small step in the weekly single session to dreampop, just like moving from the south of the U.S.A is to New Zealand. Trio Womb releases another single of its just released third album, 'One Is Always Heading Somewhere. Only You is an extremely soft and floating song. With only a little exaggeration the way a foetus might hear music in the womb. The band, Cello, Haz and Georgette Forrester, are not afraid to tone down completely and let the atmosphere of the song do the talking. Yes, there is drums playing, a bass and guitars and all sorts of sounds going on, what strikes me most is the mood of the song, dreamy and subdued. So. I'm okay with calling Only You dreampop, but not without some relative scary moments in the dream, in the form of unexplained darker sounds in a few moments. Summing up, Only You is more than just nice.
So far, I've refrained from writing on the duo's releases. That changes with Tuesday, the third single from the upcoming album of Torres and Julien Baker, 'Send a Prayer My Way', to be released on 18 April. With Lucy Dacus releasing her new solo album soon, two of the three boygenius members are releasing new work. But first, Tuesday. This is a country song of sorts, with a quite dark lyric. A song about a deeply disturbed girl/woman and the impact she has on the "I" in the song. The music is sort of a backdrop to the story, ending in self-mutilation of the "I". Things sort of turn out alright but there is a sense of shame that keeps hanging there, despite Tuesday's shame is not the "I"'s. Being a parent, I can't help feeling worried for someone I do not know and may not even exist in the sense of beyond this song. It's downright scary.
I know nothing of poetry. I do not have the mind for it and can't understand it somehow. While I love reading, I can't read poetry. It can't be helped. So, when I received an email about a song based on a poem set to music, I did not warm for the concept immediately. Brian Bilston is one of currently famous poets in Great Britain. The title is to be taken literally. Bilston is asking Alexa, to answer the question "what is there to know about love"? This is answered by Alexa with an angelic singing voice. This is just the start of existential and post-existential questions, not without humor at that, Bilston fires at Alexa. Who, perhaps in confusion, resorts to just singing 'oohs'. The music though is driving and almost exhilarating, if anything I'd say belated Britpop. The Catenary Wires, Amelia Fletcher, Rob Pursey and Ian Button, have set 13 poems to music. The album 'Sounds Made By Humans' is to be released on 6 May. In the meantime I've let me be surprised by Alexa, What Is There To Know About Love?. This is actually a very good single.
Wout de Natris - van der Borght
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