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Mr. Ross. St. Yuma
In September St. Yuma (Stevan Alva) made his first appearance on this blog in the same post as Nathalie Miller, see last week, with her previous single. You only have to look at the video to realise who the Mr. Ross in the title is. Although I have never seen any of his shows, Bob Ross is still mentioned quite often. St. Yuma again presents a slow ballad. Like they used to make them, I'd like to add. Christopher Cross in the late 70s for example. This is one smooth track alright. Alva's voice is soft and soothing, while the music around him meanders. Just acoustic guitars all the way up until a string section swells up the sound. Listen closely and you'll find many a fine detail in the accompaniment. St. Yuma's second single does point in a certain direction for a future album, but who can tell what the future brings?
"Depri" that's the abbreviation we use in Dutch for feeling (modestly) depressed. If a recent song qualifies for that moniker it is Somehow by French band, "supergroup" even, Schøøl. Music and singer are in perfect unison matching the blackness that band caught on tape (or in digits). One year after the release of debut album 'I Think My Life Has Been OK', the band is ready to play some new dates and to celebrate, releases this new single. Formed in 2023, the four members, Francis Mallari (voice), Erica Ashleson (bass), Jack Moase (guitar), and Alex Battez (drums), all play in or come from other bands. Somehow is a dark song, where little light is to be found. The driving force of the bass gives the song its body around which all else happens. Fun it is not, but worth listening to it, it certainly is.
Time for some punk music. Couch Dog is a band from Los Angeles. Maxwell Ferrer (lead vocals and guitar), Tasha Lee (bass), Pablo Acosta (lead guitar), and Liam Reece (drums) released their debut album in 2023 called 'How to Ruin Your Life Fast'. The album proved quite popular on Spotify, accruing 11 million streams. With Rod Sterling the band returns with a stand alone single, with two different sides to it. It kicks off in an energetic punkrock style, where energy meets melody and fast chord changes. Towards the end, the mood changes and Couch Dog showing a different side of itself. For an older generation, think of the change in Derek & The Dominoes' 'Layla'. The comparison, bar the solo piano, is quite striking. In the video there are even complete silences. In other words Couch Dog likes to play with our imagination and is not adverse to using its own to surprise is no little.
Hard In The Country is the third Nocona single on this blog this year. Next month album 'Backslider' will see the light of day. The Venice, CA, band rocks out in an almost dirty way. It's not The Rolling Stones circa 1972, it's not Gin Blossoms and not San Diego's Dirty Sweet nor Denton's Slobberbone, but mix them all together and somewhere in the middle you will find Nocona. With a dirty sounding slide guitar, a wild harmonica mixed into a corner and a band in full rocking sound, the only thing singer (and guitarist) Chris Isom has to do is sound convincing for his part. He is, so Nocona has all it needs. With Adrienne Isom singing backing vocals there's even a little easing for the wicked. Hard In The Country is a song that will sound familiar for those liking this genre but will also be instantly pleasing.
Recently, I thought of Lou Doillon. It's seven years since the release of 'Soliloquy'. Could I have missed an album? Using Google I found that she had just released a new single. Do coincidences exist? Sometimes I think it doesn't, like in this case. With I Try My Best the French singer with a British mother again sounds different from before. Her latest song is far more direct in its rhythm, while the mariachi like trumpet gives the song a Mexican vibe as well. Lou Doillon's voice, always a little mysterious, is the link between I Try My Best and what came before. Although it took me (a very short) while to get into the mood of the new single, as soon as I did, I was sold. Just like with her three previous albums. A, for now, nameless album is scheduled for spring 2027, with a tour starting in late May in Paris. Can you please come to The Netherlands also this tour?
2022, 2024, 2026. In each of these years Lonely Leesa & the Lost Cowboys have found themselves once on this blog with a single. So here is New American Dream. This is one impressive single, where the whole of the rock pantheon comes in as inspiration. Take a look at 2022 'The Reckoning Is Here' review for that, to save space here. This song starts ever so modest, with an electric guitar coming in like upcoming mist, obscuring your view in the distance slowly but surely. Over it Lonely Leesa (Coyne) starts singing. She is a real rock chick with a voice that must have been matched in rock heaven. A darker sounding Ann Wilson, something like that. The band holds back for a long time. It's rocking all right but on a leash, giving all the space up for Leesa Coyne to shine. And then comes in the wah-wah solo as if Craig Chaquico has been brought back from retirement. The song comes with a strong message as well. To paraphrase, we all have to live together and show some respect. New American Dream is a song with a soul and a heart.
With Can You Feel Me?, High On Stress returns to the blog. A little disrespectful perhaps but I can refer straight to the review for 'Hard In The Country', Nocona's latest single a few songs up from here. I'm nearly certain that if I leave out the harmonica and replace the names, the review will fit. This is also a rock song combining the best of what came before and renewing it with tons of energy and enthusiasm. The Minneapolis band is on the top of its game with Can You Feel Me?
And now for something completely different. 'Monty Python's' catch phrase never will grow old. Wayward Vine presents a dreamy track, that in many ways sounds familiar but captured me nonetheless. "The smell of salt", sings Greg Lawrence, relaxed but agitated at the same time. His voice captures the environment he is in, a beach, sand neat the sea and the fact that someone is not here. "I don't care", he adds. Throughout the song he is joined at intervals by an angelic sounding voice, the other half of the duo, Valerie Rachel. Together they create a minor piece of magic. The music reflects it in the dark guitar on the one side and a lighter toned one in the other side of the mix. Wayward Vine is another new name on this blog, the fourth today and another from Boston as well.
At the end of this week's singles post we even wind down more, completely. Purple Pilgrims return to the blog with a final single before album 'Given To The Night' is released on 27 November. Sisters Clementine and Valentine Nixon present an ethereal song, that is almost ghostlike. (Now look at the artwork, that I found out after writing.) It does include a musical version of a dream sequence. As if when reading, your mind trails off into the subconscious, taking the story in the book into its own version. And drifts back again, sometimes with a jolt of your muscles holding the book. Purple Pilgrims managed to capture that sensation/feeling perfectly. The lyric is worth listening to as well, the outside looking in. In October I reviewed 'Innocence Lost', the previous single. Reading my review there, I really have nothing to add. Except that Outside is as beautiful as 'Innocence Lost' is.
Wout de Natris - van der Borght
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