I am writing about a handful of songs that have really resonated with me in the past month or so. Will this be a regular column or will I get lazy and abandon it like everything else I’ve tried like this before? Stay tuned next month to find out!
Chain Reaction – Disconnect
As usual I had to retroactively add this to my year-end list after finding it on some other smarter people’s lists. I totally missed it and it’s fast becoming one of my favorite releases from 2020. From what I hear this is a band featuring some of the players from Rise & Fall, but this takes basically all of the metal out of their sound and leans into ripping hardcore. Perfect vocals.
Helvetia – Reaktor
Helvetia shares at least one member with Duster. This is much more to my tastes than Duster is. Charming and fun. These songs feel loose, like barely more than sketches, or captured in a single take. You could probably point to Parquet Courts as a reference, but it’s not quite like that.
Anxious – More Than A Letter
I’m so curious to see if this is the future sound of Anxious or if this is a one-off. Traded some of the attitude from their early releases for 90’s alt-rock melodies. I’m in.
Dogs on Acid – Keep in Touch
This is 6-years-old now, and I played this to death when it came out and haven’t checked on how it holds up since then. It holds up great and I’m having a good time rediscovering it. That had led down the wormhole of trying to figure out what band members have been doing since Dogs on Acid, and it looks like at least one or two of them play in Yankee Bluff so that might be something to check out.
Tell me what else is good.