Songs Of The Week #32: TCDroogsma

(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)

Ladyfinger (ne), The Cave Singers, Gliss, Mister Lies, & Fury Things...

Well hello again, MP3 junkies! Welcome to Songs Of The Week #32!

For those of you who are still not quite sure what you're looking at, here's the scoop: Each week we ask two of our regular contributors to download the songs given away via The Current's Song Of The Day podcast. We ask them to spend a couple days with the songs, get to know them, perhaps even love them. We then ask them to write up a review of the songs and give them a score of 1-5.

As always, we strongly suggest that you follow this link and subscribe to the podcast yourself. It's free music and it's fun for the whole family. We also strongly encourage you to vote in our poll to the right side of the page. The winning artists receives the validation of winning an anonymous poll on a blog, arguably the greatest achievement any artist can hope for.

Regrettably, our search to find a second contributor who is available to review the songs each week has been fruitless. For better or worse, you're all stuck with consistently-available TCDroogsma and his thoughts on the songs.

So, Droogsy, what'd you think of this week's batch?

01. Ladyfinger (ne) – Dark Horse (from the album Errant Forms)

 
TCDroogsma:

      Ladyfinger (ne) is a Saddle Creek band and, at least in the case of “Dark Horse,” they give you exactly what you'd expect from that label? Confessional lyrics? Check. Meticulously “ragged” musicianship? Check. A slow burn buildup? Check. Catharsis? Check.

      It's not that I dislike this song. In fact, I like it in the same way I would like an album of Pedro The Lion b-sides. The arc of the lyrics, from a cynical young man who was a, “wild horse out to stir” to an adult with with a child on the way, no doubt speak to many of us who have grown up with the Saddle Creek family as a soundtrack.

      Sadly, the recklessness and excitement that marked both that label's early work and the young man in this song have given way to a level-headed practicality that sees that young man of the songs settling down and Ladyfinger (ne) (and by extension, Saddle Creek) coloring firmly within the lines.

Final Score: 2.5/5

2. The Cave Singers – No Tomorrow (from the album Naomi)

 
TCDroogsma:

      I've spent four days with “No Tomorrow” now and it's just not taking. It's built around a fine-enough country bounce, but the lyrics about forgiveness and letting go ring hollow. It's not that this is a bad song, just a relentlessly average one. The music doesn't drop or build, it just keeps bouncing. The chorus doesn't pop. The singer seems neither happy nor sad with his chosen pass. To put it bluntly, nothing happens.

      While there is still plenty of mining to be done in this genre (see: The Growlers or Akron/Family), with “No Tomorrow” The Cave Singers offer nothing bad, but nothing great either

Final Score:

03. Gliss – Blur (from the album Langsom Dans)

 
TCDroogsma:

      It takes all of thirty seconds to realize why this song is called “Blur.” The opening lyrics (after a wave of reverb-drenched guitar & girl group harmonies that sound like they're being beamed in from the moon), are “I'm falling out, out of love, again... and again...”

      There's an inherent contradiction in the way the lyrics imply sadness over this breakup and yet the song bounces along in a haze of guitars & coos. “Blur” lives in the moment a relationship ends and the happy confusion of starting fresh trumps the sadness & conflict of the breakup

      It's hard to believe that Gliss could take these seemingly disparate parts (keyboards, cooing harmonies, a breakup lament, & a wall of reverb) and turn them into a coherent whole, but they've created a lovely song that rewards repeated listens.

Final Score: 3.5/5

04. Mister Lies – Align (from the album Mowgli)

 
TCDroogsma:

      As recently as two years ago I would have checked out of a song like “Align” after thirty seconds. It's an instrumental that has no tempo change and only, to my then untrained ear, would've sounded like a collage of sounds thrown together by people who either can't or won't write a decent melody.

      However, that was two years ago and my exposure to Moon Glyph Records (and specifically Food Pyramid) have given me a real appreciation for tracks like this. Yes, the beat comes in at a certain tempo and never changes, but if you use that as the canvas, a lot of interesting things are happening in this one.

      There's the fuzzed out bassline that comes in after about thirty seconds, the off-beat piano blinking that drifts in and out of the mix, a great buildup (around the one minute mark) that echoes the sound of hearing a song from outside a club and then opening the door (Copyright: The beginning of “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others”). Once all the sounds become clear, the percussion jumps around the headphones, the piano drifts back in, and you find yourself lost in the far off voices. “Align” was built for anything from headphones at night to warehouse parties to one of those awful English rave festivals.

Final Score: 3.5/5

05. Fury Things – Vapors (from the EP EP2)

 
TCDroogsma:

      For years and years I've made a point of listening to all five SOTD tracks to start each day Monday through Friday because some songs take repeated listens to reveal their charms. Typically this a very rewarding approach.

      Sadly, I experienced the opposite with “Vapors.” As the week wore on, the song became less and less interesting. I know what you're thinking, “Droogsy, you love shoegaze, pop-rock, & hooks. You should love this!”

      That's a valid hypothetical point, hypothetical person. On first listen, I did enjoy the song. The problem is that, while yes, it is a fuzzed-out, hook heavy, shoegaze pop song, it lacks the little nuances that makes those things work. A good fuzz-pop song should have something that feels found. A little guitar bit, a vocal tick, hell, even putting the guitars in either speaker of the headphones. For a good example of what I'm talking about, put on any Polara album.

      Fury Things seem to have taken the approach that just turning up the volume of the guitars is enough. It's an intriguing enough sound that I'll definitely keep an eye on this band in the future. I wouldn't be surprised to find that, in two or three years time, Fury Things will look back on “Vapors” as a nice building block, but not much more.

Final Score: 2.5/5

There you have it, everybody! Another week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, and filed away!

As always, please remember that neither Newest Industry nor its contributors is in any way affiliated with the artists above, The Current, or MPR. We're just music fans with laptops and a little too much time on our hands.

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