(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)
Saintseneca, Wye Oak, Marissa Nadler, Sharon Van Etten, & Black Diet...
Well hello again, MP3 junkies! Welcome to Songs Of The Week #91!
For those of you who are new to the SOTW column, here's the story: TCDroogsma and MinneSarah are both fans of The Current's Song Of The Day podcast. They're also both opinionated and have access to computers. Seeing an opportunity to let them indulge in their MP3 habit and put them to work writing reviews we created the Songs Of The Week column. Over a year later later and here we are.
Unfortunately, this week MinneSarah took the week off due to what could kindly be called "Current-based fatigue." Trust us, her words were considerably more harsh.
As always, we strongly suggest that you follow this link and subscribe to the podcast yourself. It's free and it's fun for the whole family!
To that end, once you've given each song a spin or two, feel free to cast a vote for your favorite song of the week in the poll to the right side of the page. The artist who accrues the most votes wins the validation that comes from winning an anonymous internet poll, arguably the loftiest height to which a modern musician can aspire.
So... Droogsy... thoughts?
01. Saintseneca - Happy Alone (from the album Dark Arc)
TCDroogsma:
I'd never heard of Saintseneca before being given "Happy Alone" this week. According to the internet, Saintseneca is the brainchild of band leades r Zac Little, who writes relatively sparse folk songs and then builds a world around them with the rest of the band.
"Happy Alone" definitely seems to fit that mold. Lyrically, "Happy Alone" sounds like some lonely singer/songwriter type of shit (though the line, "to presuppose this precipice could be scaled by any one of us..." deserves credit for its unique ridiculousness). Fortunately, Little's lament/desire to be alone is relegated to the background while the band works up an indie rock storm around him. The drums hit hard, the piano pounds, there's a welcome little synth swirl post-chorus to give the song some character, I think there's a woodblock in there somewhere... The band really does a great job off turning what was likely an insufferable demo into a pleasantly swinging spring jam.
Final Score: 3.5/5
02. Wye Oak - Glory (from the album Shriek)
TCDroogsma:
I've stumbled across a few columns lately that have made a big deal about how Wye Oak is moving away from guitar music on their new album and venturing more toward left-of-center R&B. Those columns then went on to discuss whether or not this was a good thing, whether or not guitar music was dead, and whether or not this "indie R&B" moment has passed. As you can see, it was a super busy week for people with nothing to write about.
None of that mattered much to me, as I don't know any Wye Oak songs. As far as I know they've always played bouncy, keyboard-heavy indie pop. Maybe "Glory" loses something without the context of their style change, but to my ears it sounds like a fine, if inconsequential single. Singer Jen Wasner is desperately trying to write "smart" lyrics, but ends up with a chorus that begins, "And in the telling of the story I lose my way inside a prepositional phrase..." Gripping stuff. Nice groove, though.
Final Score: 2.5/5
03. Marissa Nadler - Drive (from the album July)
TCDroogsma:
I think it's a real testament to level of fatigue instilled in me by listening to all these Current SOTD tracks that a song that is merely a woman with her acoustic guitar (no bed of keyboards, no unnecessary dance grooves, no vocal yips) can seem so refreshing.
Nadler begins the song lamenting a career that never began. "17 people in the dark tonight, familiar faces behind the cellular lights..." probably describes the view from the stage at hundreds of shows each night, musician's dreams crashing coldly into reality. On that note, Nadler takes to the road with an organ, a pedal steel guitar, & her own echo as co-pilots. "Nothing like the way it feels to drive..." is a universal truth, delivered here with both optimism & sadness, an open road promising no answers but, thankfully, no questions either.
Final Score: 3.5/5
04. Sharon Van Etten - Taking Chances (from the album )
TCDroogsma:
Further proving my point that there just wasn't anything happening in the indie rock world last week, Pitchfork put together a lengthy column on the deep emotional resonance of Sharon Van Etten's songs of love & longing. After reading the article I went back and listened to "Taking Chances" again just to see if I'd missed anything. Turns out, not really.
Credit where its due, though. Most of the lyrics are a jumble of nonsense ("When you love all of you, they know all of you" "Turn on the charm, call to response now..."), however, Van Etten hits a moment of brilliance on the plaintive, simple chorus, elongating "Even I've taken my chances on you..." with a sense longing & regret" as an electric guitar shows up to give the lyrics a dash of anger. The rest of the song is dressed up quite well instrumentally, but doesn't really go anywhere. Still, most songs don't have a transcendent moment. "Taking Chances" has a fine one.
Final Score: 3/5
05. Black Diet - Nothing To Say (from the album Find Your Tambourine)
TCDroogsma:
Black Diet appears to be 2014's Next Big Thing here in the Twin Cities. Frankly, after years of Lizzos & Messersmiths & Southwires, I couldn't be happier.
As I understand it, the idea behind Black Diet is a combination of garage rock & R&B. If that's the goal, "Nothing To Say" hits the nail on the head. The songs chugs along on some low-fi drums & cooo-ing girl group harmonies, but the star of this show is singer Jonathan Tolliver. The energy of "Nothing To Say" is high, but Tolliver spends the track channeling Lou Reed singing Motown's Classics. Lyrically, he sticks to Reed's straightforward "there was a chair, I sat in the chair" style. "I got real drunk & said some things that I really didn't mean, and now I'm hear alone wishing you would pick up the phone, I'm lonely, I'm horny, I wish I had you girl." It doesn't get much more Blunt than that. That's kind of the point though. Tolliver stays relatively deadpan, only breaking his nasal, conversational tone to to sell the chorus. This matter-of-fact style gives the song a charm all its own.
Final Score: 3.5/5
Well there you have it, MP3 junkies! Another week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, & filed away!
As always, please keep in mind that neither Newest Industry nor our contributors are in any way affiliated with the artists above, The Current, or MPR. We're just music fans with laptops and a bit too much time on our hands.
For more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma). He can also be found right here on Newest Industry hosting our free weekly podcast Flatbasset Radio
For more Newest Industry be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors. More importantly, we have a Facebook page here. Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a "Like" is a free & legitimate way to support the blog.
