Max García Conover Hears the Crows Calling on “caw”
Max García Conover says his upcoming album, everything in winter, is “somewhat inspired by a suitcase full of letters my grandfather wrote” in the 1940s, to the woman who would become Conover’s grandmother. Conover’s writing is grounded in close attention to the way people tell their stories. “May this be the kind of night / […]
About “Orion, The Hunter,” by We Walk The Earth
So there’s this UK band I follow on Twitter, called We Walk The Earth. Okay, I follow 5,698 accounts on Twitter at the moment – fewer than I once did, but you know, things have gone on…. Anyway, I’ve interacted with these folks a bit too. And so the one night, the constellation Orion was […]
On “By Their Standards,” By Angela Sclafani
It’s a comfortable thing to hang out with people who ‘get’ you – people who think the same way, do things the same way, aren’t particularly startling in their emotional peaks and valleys. It’s also kind of boring. From her new single “By Their Standards,” I get the feeling that Angela Sclafani lives in a […]
Western Kite’s “I LOVE YOU” Ascends Blue Skies
Let’s just get it out of the way: Western Kite is my favorite find of the past year. A solo project of Park Seo-yeon, Western Kite (웨스턴 카잇) is her main project alongside her feature alias of “Kite Park”. Born in 1992, she debuted in 2017, taking off in the Hongdae indie scene in Seoul, […]
Mirabelle Skipworth’s “The Narrator” & Reverberating Voices
You never really know the difference between vanilla ice cream and vanilla bean ice cream till you have it. One is bright, fresh, icy and sharp, while the other creamy, luscious, aromatic. But it’s all kinda made-up: you just know. So how do I describe a voice, a sound, that is vanilla – not plain […]
Why Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” endures
You know that feeling when you’ve discovered a song and it feels personal to you? It feels like something in that song is speaking to you, and no one else. Then you find out that millions of people are listening to that song and it feels jaded, it feels like it’s no longer special because […]
Colin Parker’s “With the Wind” & Embracing Peace
Colin Parker’s latest single, “With the Wind” makes me nostalgic. Some of the harmonies take me back to my youth, where I was First Aid Kit, Fleet Foxes-obsessed kid, discovering Bon Iver for the first time on La Blogotheque harmonizing in the foyer of a Paris apartment building. In fact: confession. My older sister has […]
“Oh, Shadowless” is Neko Case’s Loudest Lullaby
Neko Case’s voice comes from a world where birds are stronger than windows, and always get where they are going. Her first, unaccompanied words in “Oh, Shadowless” make the silence they break feel like something solid, a windshield with night behind it. “Oh” is the roundest of sounds – but when she sings it, it has […]
Ahn Heesu’s “Always With You” & the Power of Karaoke
South Korean singer-songwriter Ahn Heesu (안희수)’s new single “Always With You” is a soft pop rock ballad of hope for love lasting, and disbelief for having found it in the first place. At the start of the song, he confesses to feeling like he’s in a movie, wondering how love could be real in his […]
Scott McMicken and THE EVER EXPANDING Say it’s Time to Begin with “What About Now”
If Scott McMicken’s name, voice, or preoccupation with long-distance transportation seem familiar, you probably recognize one or all of these things from his time in Dr. Dog. His new project, Scott McMicken and THE EVER EXPANDING, release their debut album, Shabang, this March 31st. Out ahead of its release is the first song off the […]
