Sound Advice- 04. Oct. 2024
The flood of great 2024 releases continues! Today we're taking a quick look at several long players.
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Longtime readers may recall that I reviewed 100 new (to me) records last year. Because I’m a glutton for punishment love music, I’m doing it again this year. This is the latest in the series.
Good morning!
Today we’re taking a look at several records, including the latest from, well, all kinds of artists.
Every year, I celebrate all the great music we’ve been gifted while worrying that next year will see the other shoe drop. I did that last December and have been proven wrong every month since. Not only are there a ton of releases steadily coming out, but there’s also been a ton of great stuff, no matter your tastes. It’s almost overwhelming— but in all the best ways. Below are a few of the releases that have caught my attention recently.
Let’s get into it!
Nada Surf - Moon Mirror
30ish years ago, Nada Surf had a hit, made a huge splash, and seemingly punched their ticket to one-hit wonder land.
That’s not quite how it played out, of course. The band spent the ensuing three decades making clever, energetic pop records. Four years after their last release, they’re back with one of their strongest yet. (IMO, the best since 2005’s The Weight Is A Gift).
The band is at the stage in life where some themes emerge—the usual suspects are all here—indeed, the press release takes care to note that these new songs thrum with love, grief, deep loneliness, doubt, wonder, and hope. There is hard-won wisdom and hard-won belief in possibility. It has everything fans love and expect from the band: play-on-repeat heart punches, poetic and thought-provoking musings on the world around them, and bittersweet anthems that begin quietly but explode into soaring harmonies.
And to be fair, that's not too far off the mark. Moon Mirror does, in fact, “thrum” with all of those themes. Frontman Matthew Caws wrestles with these themes in his usual literate style. It’s smart but always light. They’re old enough to be wiser and have a few regrets, yet still are young enough to fix them. When Caws says, I used to be missing when I was kissing/Why wasn't I present?/ I could have been living on “In Front of Me Now,” you get it.
There are spots where the record feels like it’s trying a bit too much to make something anthemic happen, but by and large, this is rock solid power pop from one the most consistent, if not popular, bands of our generation. Don’t be surprised to see it on AOTY lists come year’s end.
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Mo Dotti- Opaque
After a couple of stellar EPs (Guided Imagery was an On Repeat favorite in 2022), LA’s Mo Dotti is back with their first long player.
The band doesn’t waste any time getting down to business. Opener “Pale Blue Afternoon” kicks things off in fine, fast style. Guitarist Guy Valdez clearly knows his way around an effects pedal; there’s plenty of reverb for everyone. The lead single, “Lucky Boy,” leans a bit ethereal with a great build-up in the middle. “Really Wish” takes things down a notch and wouldn’t be out of place on a St. Etienne record. “Wave Goodbye” is a gorgeous lilting instrumental, while “For Anyone & You” comes right at you with sheets of distortion and reverb. There are also three bonus tracks available only on the digital release.
Like any band that has dared make a shoegaze record in the last 30 years, there will be an inevitable comparison to My Bloody Valentine. Mo Dotti acquits themselves fine here, and Opaque is a solid record that can easily go a few rounds with Loveless.
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Amy Rigby- Hang In There With Me
The Mod Housewife is back with Hang in There With Me, and she’s got some things to say. Like Matthew Caws, she’s a little older, a little wiser, and has seen some things. There’s a lot of taking stock and introspection on this record. But she also never misses a chance to let us know she’s got some fire left in her. On “Too Old To Be So Crazy,” she laments still being out there grinding away instead of kicking back, singing:
I face the future and I say so what
Give in and trust my gut
Good God I'm doing it again
Still like some wild eyed kid
Never too tired to try what I already did
I'm too old to be so crazy
That said, not everything is so deep; this is a record with a song about bangs (as in hair), after all.
Rigby’s power is making each of these tracks feel relatable and believable both. Music-wise, it flits between garage pop, rock, and fuzzed-out sounds. Rigby might be singing about all the shit we have to wade through as we get older, but she sure sounds like she’s having fun doing it.
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Afterimage- Faces To Hide
This is a collection of studio recordings, demos, and live clips from a band that burned bright and burned fast. Afterimage is what might have happened if Joy Divison, Television, and Romeo Void all got together and made an album. It’s post-punk at its most post-punkiest. It’s raw; it’s skittery. The riffs are weapons-grade angular. There’s some saxophone because, of course there is. I can’t get enough. If you’re a fan of any of the bands mentioned above, this double LP retrospective will check a lot of boxes for you.
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Various Artists- Tales of a Kitchen Porter- A Tribute To Cleaners From Venus
Dandy Boy Records has gathered an incredible roster of artists on this record, including Yea-Ming and Ther Gloomers & Chime School. The result is a tribute record that delivers. These things can be tricky, and the line between success and failure is thin. Not this time, though. Fans of Cleaners from Venus and casual listeners alike will enjoy this.
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Luke De-Sciscio- Theo
The first few days and weeks after becoming a parent can be wild, with exhaustion and delirium in equal measure. There’s no such thing as a schedule—newborns are cute little nihilists, and when they want to eat, they want to eat. In other words, in those early days, there’s little room for anything else, and everything becomes a blur.
Singer-songwriter Luke De-Scisio was determined to document these early days the only way he knew how; he wrote and recorded a record. The songs here are minimal and stripped down to their essence. A little folk and a bit of bedroom pop, the melodies are delicate, and the tones are soft— almost as if he was worried he’d wake the baby. The result is a lovely acoustic effort that captures De-Scisio’s excitement about the adventure his family has just undertaken. As he put it to me, Theo is brimming with devotion and full, beyond its limit, with love.
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As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on any (or all) of these records! Did I get it right, or am I way off the mark?
Thanks for being here,
Kevin—
Man, Nada Surf...
I also wrote them off as one-hit wonders, and then around 2005 or so, XM radio started putting "Always Love" into rotation. I remember thinking, "This is pretty good! I should listen to more of their stuff." And never did.
I listened to "Always Love" for the first time in about 15 years just now and it's pretty great. I think you may have sparked my interest in listening to them, for real this time! I'll keep you posted on this AND World Party.
I like the Mo Dotti, too - need to listen more to see if it “sticks.”