by Madi Toman | Jan 27, 2020 | albums, review
After 35 years in the game, English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys (comprised of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe) have just released their 14th studio album, Hotspot. The album was recorded primarily at the Hansa Studios in Berlin, which is where the duo has written most of their music over the past ten years. The record is the third and final in a trilogy produced by electro-pop titan Stuart Price (The Killers). While the previous two records seemed to stay in a similar lane, Hotspot does an exceptional job at introducing a little taste of all of the different flavors that keep Pet Shop Boys at the top of their game after so long in the industry. Despite the longevity of their career, the Pet Shop Boys have lost none of their edge, and they deliver in both their trademark wit and lyricism as well as a subtly diverse bag of tricks musically.
The Pet Shop Boys are more than a little deserving of some recognition on their ability to deliver another interesting album after 35 years in the game, and their time here has been anything but insignificant. Listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most successful duo in UK music history, they’ve acquired a staggering 44 UK top-40 hits as well as charting 12 songs on the US Billboard Hot 100. They’re also the fifth most successful act on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart of all Time, only falling behind acts like Madonna and Janet Jackson.
The album’s lead single, “Dreamland”, a collaboration with Olly Alexander of Years and Years, showcases the Pet Shop Boys’ sweet spot. While on the surface the track seems like an up-tempo electro-anthem that feels almost euphoric, it also subtly takes digs at both Brexit and U.S. immigration policies without laying it on with a heavy hand. In the track, Tennant imagines an idyllic land where everyone is welcome and where “you don’t need a visa / you can come and go and still be here”. The track feels both empowered and carefree at the same time and features a larger-than life disco-inspired chorus alongside an intense longing for true freedom.
Tracks like electro funk-pop number “Monkey Business” hit a little different. “We’ve actually written, almost for the first time in our career, a groove song” said Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe in a statement about the song. The lyrics themselves are as delightedly light-hearted and playful as the party track: “Bring me margaritas / Champagne and red wine / We’re gonna have a party / Where we all cross the line / I’m looking for monkey business.” “Wedding in Berlin”, a techno-wedding march mash-up, falls in the same vein. Featuring sections of Mendelssohn’s infamous march itself, it’s for the most part a one-liner (“We’re getting married”) but at the same time feels like it was created with some reflection in mind.
In a surprise twist for a group that has suggested we entertain the idea of banning the acoustic guitar, “Burning the heather” strips back some of the electro layers in exchange for, in an insane twist, what appears to be some lovely acoustic guitar parts (courtesy of The Suede’s Bernard Butler). Folky and fresh, the track is chock-full of deep and compelling lyricism and twinkling sound effects. It’s a refreshing reminder of the diversity of the duo (even if they don’t support the legality of all instruments featured).
Hotspot is out now and the
Pet Shop Boys will begin a greatest hits tour on May 28th at the O2 Arena in London. Keep up with the duo
here.
by Madi Toman | Jan 27, 2020 | singles, wolf tracks
Psychedelic rock outfit The Lazy Eyes have just released the lead single from their debut EP. While it’s entitled “Cheesy Love Song,” it feels like anything but.
The four-piece Sydney-based group are just 18 and 19 years old but met at a young age at their performing arts high school and have already been playing together for 4 years. The group gained national buzz after coming onto Australia’s scene at the 2019 Bigsound festival. They present themselves as part of the “the second generation of Australia’s burgeoning psych-rock scene” and they left Bigsound as one of the breakout acts of the festival.
>While admittedly cleverly named, “Cheesy Love Song” feels like anything but. Gentle piano melodies dance around Beatles-esque guitar riffs and sighing harmonies before exploding into a warmly-textured pedal and synth-filled trip. It is psychedelic rock in its tenderest and purest form, but it still harnesses unpredictability and skillful execution and leaves the listener wondering what The Lazy Eyes will do next.
The Lazy Eyes are set to perform at Laneway Festival next month and plan to announce 2020 U.S. dates soon.
by Madi Toman | Jan 24, 2020 | singles, wolf tracks
Saturn alarms are ringing out, but don’t be alarmed; it’s not time for the alien takeover quite yet. It is, however, time to take a deep dive into outer space, courtesy of Tom McConnell, mastermind behind a little project called Novelty Island. The new single entitled (yep, you guessed it) “Saturn Alarms” dropped January 24th and is the follow-up to the group’s debut track, “Magdapio Falls”.
In an intergalactic pop-epic of a track, mind-bending synths and ethereal harmonies accompany coded imagery of the destruction of our apparently ever-so-delicate solar system. “The cuts are causing cracks around the galaxy / they’re jeopardizing our solar security / and I find myself eternally orbiting / the stars are melting down and I can see the strings.” The song was apparently inspired by some random graffiti that McConnell’s saw on the back of his mom’s house, but he chose to accept his mission as much more and took it upon himself to craft a grand and sky-scraping track that is also notably catchy. Bowie would be proud.
Novelty Island will be at The Social in London on March 19th and Shipping Forecast in Liverpool on March 26th. Their debut EP, Welcome to Novelty Island…., will be released March of 2020 via Ditto Music. Keep up with the project here.
by Madi Toman | Jan 22, 2020 | singles, wolf tracks
Bending both genres and cultures alike, San Francisco-based artist Renay offers a refreshingly unique perspective on electronic and pop music. For her newest single, “Inspire Me”, Renay is doing just that by releasing a thrilling new music video along with her single that highlights interpretive dance. Of the new track, Renay says “This song is about how the muse inspires, paradoxically propelling you to create (birth), yet through the intense obsession it devours you (death). An intensely positive rendition of the infinite connection between life and death.”
The track explores themes of love and its correlation to destruction and creation and how that intensity can simultaneously “inspire and tear down an artist”. The multi-talented singer/songwriter and producer/engineer’s music pairs deep and thought-provoking themes with dance-fueled production, which proves to be an incredibly satisfying combination.
The music video itself is an absolute treat for both the auditory and visual senses. Intensely emotional and shrouded in mystery, the powerful dance and vivid colors featured makes the whole thing feel like a hallucinogen-fueled lucid dream. The dance is deeply beautiful and seems to effectively convey the passionate message that Renay is sending, and the production of both the video and music alike is fantastical and intriguing.
Keep up with Renay here.
by Madi Toman | Jan 21, 2020 | singles, wolf tracks
At just eighteen years old, Norwegian pop artist Hannah Emilie Grung, better known as
Halie, is making waves in the Nordic pop scene, and now her music is here for your enjoyment as well.
Halie has just dropped an infectious new track entitled “New Fears”, following up her recent release of another catchy tune, “Circles”. Halie’s smooth and sultry voice paired with bold lyricism makes for a song that feels well-crafted in the verses and free-spirited in the chorus. This combined with the dance-evoking beat makes this earworm of a tune feel radio-ready and is sure to keep you moving throughout the week.
“Don’t ever ask me to slow down my pace / fucking leave me, there is no disgrace” Halie sings. While the production on the track is very pop, the lyricism feels almost rebellious in a way that’s fresh and unfamiliar. Halie sings of not letting fear get in the way of, well, anything, and celebrates embracing intimidating factors instead of letting them control you, resulting in a song that feels empowered and daring.The song builds into a powerful bridge, with ethereal background vocals transitioning into a powerful final pre-chorus. The emotion in Halie’s voice really shines through here before dropping us back off into that catchy dance chorus one last time.
by ImperfectFifth | Jan 17, 2020 | albums, review
After making music for over 30 years, Lancaster, Pennsylvania’s
The Innocence Mission has yet another hauntingly beautiful album to offer up to the public. The band, led by married couple Kerin and Don Perris, is set to release their twelfth studio album on January 17th via Thérèse Records. The alternative folk band’s newest project is eleven tracks long and includes a rich collection of instrumentation, with guitars, piano, pump organ, accordion, electric bass, melodica, drums, timpani, upright bass, mellotron, and an old prototype strings sampler keyboard all gracing the songs in clever and achingly beautiful arrangements in addition to Kerin’s unique and aching vocals and Don’s well-placed harmonies.
The album’s introductory track, “The Brothers William Said”, is one of the standouts on the album. Soft and sweet piano combined with Kerin’s airy vocals alone carry us through the first half of the song, and her beautiful lyricism could easily be mistaken for poetry. “The kindness of your face / Does not go unrecognized / Has not refused to shine / In this most difficult time” she sings, bringing hope and understanding to a song meant to shed light on those who are often misunderstood due to their quiet nature. “I’m drawn to titles that are phrases, especially ones that seem to be a fragment from a conversation. “See you tomorrow” is the phrase that turns the song around to possibility and hopefulness.” says Karen about the song that yielded the albums title. While the track starts off sparse instrumentally, it builds to include a myriad of beautifully arranged instrumentation before dropping back off to finish the way it started with solo piano.
“St. Francis and the Future”, like many songs on the album, deals with themes of change and the passage of time. In this track Karen sings of how a painting she viewed on a family trip with her children came to represent looming changes that she wasn’t ready to face. In “John as Well”, echoey vocal layering and heavenly background vocals flirt with the lead vocal as the song builds. This track, as well as “At Lake Maureen”, gently but firmly reminds us of the importance of getting to know the true selves of those around us and the necessity of being understood ourselves. The album’s conclusion, “Would be There”,is a twinkly blend of Karen’s light-as-a-feather vocals and skillfully arranged, thickly-textured sections skillfully building to the outro, where the album goes back to basics and ends the same way it started; with a charming piano outro that subtly lets the listener know that it’s time to slip back into reality.
Keep up with The Innocence Mission here.
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written by: madi toman
by ImperfectFifth | Jan 16, 2020 | review, snapshot
Not even freezing temperatures and icy roads could stop Kansas City from showing up for their favorite hometown act last Saturday as indie-pop band
The Greeting Committee returned home and took the stage for a sold-out crowd at Uptown Theater. The energy in the theater was absolutely electric as fans packed into the venue, eager for an escape from the cold and snowy night. It was delivered.
Addie Sartino, the band’s frontwoman and charismatic shining star, was, as expected by the eager crowd, a force to be reckoned with. It was a constant stream of highs as Sartino led the audience through a whirlwind of emotions throughout the night. The group played fan favorites like “Don’t Go”, “Pull It Together”, and “You’ve Got Me” as an ecstatic crowd danced and sang along with Sartino. She flawlessly demonstrated her talents on every one, not missing a beat and thriving throughout the spirited set.
A notable moment came fairly early on as a nostalgia-inducing “salute to our youth” saw the band bring on stage a large group of local Kansas City musicians for a cover of Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” that bordered on spiritual. But the homegrown band was just getting started.
About halfway through the show, Sartino asked the audience to respect her request “human being to human being” as she asked that everyone be completely silent while she performed “Call in the Morning”, a somber track that deals with tragedy off of the band’s new EP. Complete and total silence blanketed Uptown as Sartino traded her typical high-energy performance style for vulnerability and a powerful stillness as she stood center-stage while singing the track. Even in her stillness, her ability to connect to her material shone through. A completely mesmerized crowd couldn’t peel their eyes away from the frontwoman, who encapsulated what it means to put yourself into a performance. Sartino’s demanor shifted as she made it to the song’s spoken word portion, and she frantically ran around the stage as the lights went blue and she yelled out the monologue to a sea of teary faces. “Call the police, drain the bathtub, hide the bleach, call ‘em quick love. I think we’ve lost it” she screamed. “I cannot find another you”.
Sartino threw herself to the floor and pounded her fists along with the heartbeat-like drums as she screamed “Call the police!” over and over again. The song appeared to be pure catharsis for the young performer. The theater went dark as “1-800-273-8255” and “If you’re looking for a sign to stay alive, this is it” appeared on the screen and remained there as the band played the ending to the song softly in the background. 2,000 fans stood unmoving and silent, and many faces were streaked with tears as the audience stared at the dark stage, completely overcome by the power of the moment that they had just witnessed. Uptown was momentarily still as the crowd stood frozen, unsure of how or if the silence should be broken.
But just like that, Sartino was back on stage and better than ever, and the crowd rallied along with their fearless leader. The band took what could easily have been a hard moment to recover from and kept the wonderful moments coming, and it was impossible not to latch on to their infectious energy. The crowd’s spirits climbed through the roof as the show continued to escalate. The back half of the night included a mosh pit during fan-favorite “Hands Down”, and crowd-surfing by literally everyone in the band. The final song of the night, “Gold Star”, got intimate as the band got off stage and played amongst the very crowd that helped them make their largest show to date possible before exiting (while still playing of course) out the front door. It was a full-circle kind of night for the band and fans alike, and, in the words of the guy in front of me who couldn’t stop crying, “That was just special”.
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article by: madi toman
by ImperfectFifth | Jan 15, 2020 | singles, wolf tracks
If there is a time of year that leaves us longing for an escape, it’s now, trapped in the midst of another endless winter. Matt Messore has delivered the very portal to another world that we’ve been craving with his new bedroom-pop project Cathedral Bells and their debut LP, Velvet Spirit.
Messore recently traded in touring to set up shop in his hometown in Central Florida to record this ethereal DIY project in his bedroom. They just dropped their new single, “Disconnected”, a hypnotic track heavy with layer after layer of ethereal vocals and bright and shimmery guitar.
This dreamy track slowly and smoothly entangles the listener into an echoey lo-fi fantasy that will be sure to make you forget all of your pesky real world troubles. I personally get the urge to lie on the floor of a cool-toned, neon-filled room and stare at a disco ball for several hours. While that may seem like an oddly specific fantasy with major Euphoria vibes, so is this track. As the title suggests, it will leave you feeling almost disconnected from the real world as you become in danger of falling into a shoegazey alternate dimension that you may or may not ever pull yourself out of. Did Messore slip something in my coffee this morning? Guess we’ll never know.
Velvet Dreams is out everywhere on March 6th. Hide your disco balls, folks, and until then, check out “Disconnected”!
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written by: madi toman
by ImperfectFifth | Jan 14, 2020 | Uncategorized
British Indie-Rock quartet Circa Waves have started out 2020 by hopping on the exciting bandwagon of experimental album release with their new 2-part album Sad Happy. The group is dropping their new record A/B style, with Happy premiering in January of 2020 and the Sad dropping in March.
In anticipation of the first part of the release, Circa Waves premiered the second single from the Happy side of their album on Friday with dreamy pop single “Move to San Francisco”.The single was released with a charming self-shot video of the four piece group quite literally frolicking around the Bay Area, the west coast haven that the song’s subject toys with escaping to with his partner. Romantic California imagery of everything from palm trees to dive bars pairs smoothly with the hopeful track.
The song employs warm and optimistic images of escapism and sunshine as vocalist/guitarist Kieran Shudall sings about freedom and the uncertainty that comes with it. “Oh I wanna live like this / For another dozen years / We could live so free” Shudall repeats throughout the bridge and outro, reminding us what it’s like to feel the temptation of getting lost in an idealistic world where running away to greener pastures can save a fading relationship.
With bright and shiny lead guitar and dreamy mellotron that would make Paul McCartney proud, this gold-toned single is a strong precursor to the upcoming album and a welcome break from this dreary January.
TOUR DATES:
(Two Door Cinema Club support)
Jan 17 – Columbiahalle, Berlin, Germany
Jan 18 – Docks, Hamburg, Germany
Jan 20 – Carlswerk, Cologne, Germany
Jan 21 – Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Jan 23 – Olympia, Paris, France
Jan 24 – Den Atelier, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Jan 26 – TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht, Netherlands
Jan 27 – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, Belgium
(UK 2020 tour)
March 27 – O2 Academy, Glasgow
March 28 – Keele University SU, Keele
March 30 – The Tramshed, Cardiff
March 31 – O2 Academy, Leicester
April 2 – The Waterfront, Norwich
April 3 – O2 Academy Brixton, London
April 4 – Liverpool Uni, Mountford Hall, Liverpool
Keep up with Circa Waves here.
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written by: madi toman
