“November Man” by Allysen Callery: A Haunting Autumn Wind
November is a haunted month. October has Halloween, of course, but there’s a festivity to its spookiness, a celebration of that time of year when the days grow short and the leaves begin to fall. But the weeks in between Halloween and Thanksgiving are when the truth of autumn really starts to set in. The […]
Cate Le Bon’s “Moderation” Deconstructs Instant Gratification
“Everything in moderation” is as good a motto as any. To live in moderation requires a number of qualities all of us can agree are admirable: patience, restraint, frugality, responsibility, discipline, and so on. Moderation doesn’t just mean cutting back on drinking or fast food, either: it can mean having a healthy mix of activities […]
“Edge of Heaven” by Mietus Touch: Shimmering, Kaleidoscopic Psych-Pop
The Mietus Touch beckons listeners into shimmering, psychedelic waters with his new song “Edge of Heaven.” The three minute track feels like the breathless adrenaline of new love; like a pond that ripples with kaleidoscopic reflections; like a moonflower sprawling open after days of hibernation. It’s the third track on Mietus Touch’s hypnotic album, Transcendental […]
Springtide’s “Fall Asleep Under Millions of Stars” Is a Heady Rush of Textures
I haven’t gone camping in a while. But when I was a little kid, my family had a pop-up camper, and we’d often spend weekends out at some state park, roasting s’mores around a campfire, telling ghost stories, and, of course, looking up at the stars. It’s been a while, but I’ve always found being […]
Madeline Kenney’s “I’ll Get Over It”: Accepting Change
I live in fear of people getting sick of me. I’m afraid of happy smiles becoming forced, of conversations rushed to an impatient end, of “let me know how I can help”s turning into “oh what is it now”s. It’s only happened a few times in my life, with friendships that ran their course, but […]
Taylor Swift, “All Too Well”, and The Importance of the Key Chain
I suppose this is as good a time as any to write about Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift has had the kind of career that college professors make courses about. One course could chart her transformation from country darling to pop megastar, perhaps analyzing the changing definition of what it means to be “authentic” in pop […]
“mutt” by Sophie Meiers: A Different Breed of Songwriting
The greatest struggle of the modern musician is finding their place in the music world. Some don’t feel comfortable settling down into one corner and instead drift between genres. Sophie Meiers has been doing just that since they released their first non-collaborative single, “Something About You” in 2018. Starting their career as a hip-hop musician, […]
RYAL’s “Summer Resurrection”: A Cinematic Throwback
“Summer Resurrection,” the new single from new alternative group RYAL, pays homage to one of the less appreciated eras of much these days: the 90s and early 00s. By blending electronic and analog sounds, RYAL creates a modern yet classic sound. The electronic elements like the static and synthesizer are contrasted by the guitar and […]
“Manager” by Cat Valley: Contemporary Rock at Its Finest
“Manager” is a new song from west coast indie group Cat Valley. It will be featured on the Feral album releasing on November 12th. Cat Valley is a rarity. Four women; four very talented musicians. Whitney Flynn and Abby Hegge, long-time friends, provide guitar and vocals tracks. Kristen Stanovich excels on bass as does Melanie […]
“Two Ribbons” by Let’s Eat Grandma Charts the Changes of a Friendship
My sister and I are not twins–she is a year and four months older than I am–but we’ve been mistaken for twins before. We spoke the language of twins. We weaved together inside jokes and shared experiences and we draped them over ourselves, like a quilt kids crowded under to tell ghost stories at slumber […]
