Julia Pratt Deals with Her Past on Family Feud EP
A car crash inevitably produces a gapers’ block (the traffic caused not by an accident, but by the people who slow down to “gape” at the accident on the other side of the highway) and the fascination of the gaper is kin to the proverbial “there but for the grace of inscrutable cosmological forces and/or […]
Feel the Free Fall with Briston Maroney’s “Skydiver”
Transformation, like birth, is disorienting and scary. You think you’re in one place with everything all sorted out, and then suddenly you’re at square one, or square negative-a-million as it sometimes feels, with no idea where you are or what the heck you’re supposed to do. Briston Maroney’s “Skydiver” is a musical tribute to this […]
“When You Know Someone” by Valley is an Energetic, Musical Freight Train
Valley’s “When You Know Someone” opens with a distantly chugging guitar, some ambient synth, and a soft-yet-epic piano line. This is followed by drums and a count-off—“1, 2, 3, 4!”—before the bass and distorted electric guitar announce the song’s full arrival. An unexpected but welcome harmonica riff floats atop this very rock ’n’ roll liftoff, […]
Friendship Re-defined in Hiatus Kaiyote’s “Make Friends”
What does it mean to be recognized? Say you’ve moved to a new neighborhood. You’ve noticed a few neighbors mowing their lawns, walking their dogs, rushing to work. You’ve found your go-to spots: grocery store, bar, café, park. You start to recognize the people who populate your little corner of the universe, and they start […]
Hailaker’s “M3” is a Breakup at the Pace of a Summer Drive
As I was zipping along in the pop ride that is Hailaker’s “M3,” the song’s title hardly occurred to me. I must confess, I had no idea what “M3” was supposed to mean, and I possibly still don’t. But I investigated. The all-knowing Interwebs showed me photos of a slick 2024 BMW “M3”—silver, green, red, […]
