Posts
Soul Lovers (Quartet). Effi
Listening (and watching) quite mesmerised to the video accompanying Soul Lovers (Quartet), I was totally surprised it lasted only 4.27 minutes. I had the impression to be listening for a far longer time. No one can grab me again like Jeff Buckley once did, but I have to say Effi comes close. She has obviously listened to a song like 'Lover, You Should Have Come Over' and then gives Soul Lover (Quartet) its totally own twist. Connaisseurs will recognise the familiar elements anyway. The other element that caught me is the string section, like Chris and Carla, then of The Walkabouts, used when recording in Thessaloniki with local musicians on their duo live album. Effi makes her song come alive in a totally identical, majestic and superior way. I have no clue who Effi is. Greek, a former chemist making music in the U.S.A. That's enough information for me, if she drops songs like Soul Lovers (Quartet) every once in a while.
We have to go back three years and some months to find Mood Bored on the blog for the first time. Since two EPs saw the light of day and today the first single comes by, of the debut album announced for next year. In 2023 I saw the band play in support for Pom in Rotown and it does not come as a surprise in 2026 that the Mood Bored shares a kinship in music. Mood Bored presents a new alternative rock track where the light and the shade is used super effective. The music in Skin goes way beyond the trio format with overdubbed heavy guitars and all. When Mood Bored goes of it goes off big time. To wind it all down in the first verse. And off it goes again. I have to be honest, that I've heard a song like this many times before. It doesn't make Skin a less energetic single though.
What an energy is released with this single. "I'm crushing all my enemies, it's a great success and nothing less", singer Lot van Teylingen crows in Breakfast Of Champions. The band holds in during the first verse, as the song starts with the chorus. Slowly it works again towards the next chorus. But without some surprises. Breakfast Of Champions is a song that is quite hard to describe. Library Card is not afraid to use different styles and an extreme form of light and shade. Is the start a chorus? Or is it the intro and further on the outro? With in between just different parts of the song? Library Card seems to throw in parts that may have been part of other songs or a part it did not know what to do with and glued together into one song. Whatever the background, just listen to the bass part in the second part. It is a super one and that goes for just about the whole lead guitar part throughout the song. As I already said, what an energy!
Two years after the EP 'Flotsam', New Jersey's Quiz Show returns with a new EP that shows two sides of the band. In my previous EP review I pointed to the rock that Smashing Pumpkins launched its career with. This is present mostly in the second song, 'Haircut Sphinx'. The song is loud, sludgy and rocks no little. The deep sounding guitars and heavy drumming of Joe Billy III define the sound of the song. The previously released single 'Xono' is heavy as well but also has a little of The Rolling Stones of old in the melodies, while at the same time the song has something playful within the depth of the sound. It does not all need to be dark and bleak. The second face of Quiz Show is an acoustic one. 'Pom Pom Boy' is played on acoustic guitars and sounds like The Who did a long time ago. Think 'Behind Blue Eyes', but also in the harmony vocals Quiz Show presents. Surprising, but certainly a different and nice side to the band's repertoire so far.
When I read Atomic in a title, my mind jumps back over 40 years to one of my favourite Blondie singles, with on the b-side of the 12" single a live rendition of 'Heroes' with Robert Fripp on guitar. Echomatica is a new name to me, but Atomic Girl has a little of the vibe of Blondie's 'Atomic'. That electronic, alternative disco vibe is all over Echomatica's single. This New Zealand band released its first album in 2025, which passed me by. So, I can't compare, but if the album has the quality of this single, it must be good. The music sounds familiar in the sense that it takes some queues from the 1980s electronic pop and the new romantics. The lyrics are just as doomy, as it has the fact that youths will have it worse than their parents today. Well, we had atomic doom, the Club of Rome Report and what not over our heads and my parents were only slowly outgrowing their parents at the time. In 1800 the Malthus Report heralded the end of sustainability. So, let's wait and see what the future brings. If it's music like Atomic Girl, things can't be all bad.
Next up is a piano ballad from Denmark. I can't remember having come across the band Lowly before. It is on route to release its fourth album on 30 October, called 'Softy'. Based on what I'm hearing here, it may well be a soft album. Delicate piano playing is the basis of the track. A few notes are repeated, changing with the chords, not changing the intention of the way the piano is played. Lead singer on this track is Soffie Viemose. She sings with a clear voice over Klaus Staub's piano and keyboard parts. Add a little bass and some atmospherics and the song is there. The added parts add some extras to the song but the main part lies already behind us by then. Stretch Under Strain is a beautiful ballad.
42 Years after its inception and 39 after me hearing 'In The Flesh' for the first time, Blondie is back with a new single. After Clem Burke's demise last year at the age of 71, octogenarians Chris Stein and Deborah Harry are the only ones of the original line up left. (Burke is mentioned to have recorded his parts before his demise.) Ms. Harry's voice may have gone down an octave, she's still pretty much herself. Spectral Eyes is far from spectacular, but certainly is a song that deserves to have the name Blondie stuck to it. Coincidentally, I referred to 'Atomic' in a review of Echomatica's single 'Stretch Under Strain' here in the above. Spectral Eyes has more to do with the Blondie of the late 70s than 1980's 'Atomic'. It would have sound a little wilder at the time, but it would have fitted nicely next to a track like 'Sunday Girl'. If it's possible for me to conclude this fact in 2026, Blondie definitely deserves a spot on this blog.
After Elmer has an entry pass to this blog it seems. That makes it all the more sadder that the band is calling it quits after the release party of its final album, 'Are You Happy Yet?'. The release date is 13 November. The (farewell) takes place in Rotown on 17 December. With Tightrope another veil is lifted of the new album. After the ultra short 'Are You ...?', Tightrope is a classic U.S. punkrock track. Loud, yet slick, wild, but melodic. The song is a duet with Ivyvox's singer Bianca Vrind. One that works really well. Jaap Smit and Vrind take alternating lead lines, while band lays down the ultra smooth punk track behind them. In a better world this song would be a major hit, like Green Day and The Offspring were able to have 20 - 30 years ago. Unfortunately, near unimaginable today. In my universe this song is climbing the top 10 fast.
New The Rolling Stones songs are released faster than I can keep up with; well almost. Who You Callin' Crazy is also a part of the rerelease of 'Foreign Tongues', called 'Foreign Tongues, Loose Lips'. The original album with five bonus tracks of which two so far have been revealed. In Japan, I found, it's possible to buy such an extra record separate from the older album. Not over here, as far as I know. Why buy 'Foreign Tongues' again, I wonder? Especially as it is not even five months after the initial release?! That aside, I really like this single. It is so relaxed, yet so to the point. Saxophone player Courtney Pine takes over the role from Sonny Rollins on 'Tattoo You'. A smooth, jazzy solo adorns the new release. Who You Callin' Crazy sounds familiar, like the Stones do on the past two records, yet it all sounds smoother than on the four studio albums released before 'Hackney Diamonds'. It's a sound I like and have gotten used to very fast. To me it proves that the band is on a high, while we all know that we are experiencing its end game. 64 Years after forming, the band still delivers, with Mick Jagger and Courtney Pine in the lead roles this time around.
New Trash is a new band on this blog, releasing its first single, Blue Cheese, on route to album 'The New Trash', to be released in February 2027. Expect a punky track, with postpunk elements, as well as somewhat smoother chorus. New Trash is a trio from Leuven in Belgium. With Blue Cheese, coming with quite a confusing cover artwork as far as the title is concerned, it releases a very energetic track. The music is jumping out of the bucket like the proverbial frogs. Different sounds come from everywhere, also some surprising one in, for lack of a better word, the solo. The electric guitar comes in to smooth things over and pushing the frogs back into the bucket but to no avail. Weird sounds and a quirky guitar riff keep popping up, making Blue Cheese a fun song to listen to from beginning to end.
Wout de Natris - van der Borght
No comments:
Post a Comment