This band has been around for a bit now and gotten some play on KEXP (some years ago they did a great cover of Delta 5’s “Mind Your Own Business”), but it’s their new release Is It Now? that’s been getting a lot of play here in the office.
They’ve definitely got that early-eighties post-punk vibe going on with their stark production and twitchy beats, kind of coming across like a mix between Joy Division at their perkiest and Tones On Tail at their goofiest. [I recently learned that there’s an actual connection with the latter — drummer Lola Dompé is actually the daughter of Kevin Haskins, who was in ToT, Bauhaus and Love and Rockets. Their style is very similar in places.]
While I do enjoy the title track, it’s “Mercury” that’s been getting stuck in my head lately, which also gets a lot of play on KEXP.
Definitely worth checking out if you’re into that classic post-punk sound.
The new Doves record Constellations for the Lonely has been on heavy rotation here at the New Digs, especially during writing sessions. They’ve always been a favorite of mine, and this new record was well worth the wait. Opening the album with dark and gloomy (and heavily reverbed) piano chords on “Renegade” definitely evokes that feeling of an oncoming rainstorm. Perfect mood music to inspire me.
Recently I’ve started listening to the recent Deluxe Edition version, which features the album in instrumental form. Not that I dislike Jimi Goodwin’s voice — his tone reminds me of Guy Garvey from Elbow, strong without having to exert power behind it — but it’s great to hear just how brilliant and slightly psychedelic this trio’s sound can be.
Who, you say? He’s the extremely underrated bassist for the band Ride, who you may well remember because I often mention via their brilliant 1992 song “Leave Them Far Behind” or their recent reactivation over the last five years. While the two vocalist/guitarists from the band (Andy Bell and Mark Gardener) have both had impressive solo careers, Queralt remained in the background, only resurfacing a few years back with fellow bandmate, drummer Loz Colbert, on an instrumental side project called ID. He’s just dropped his first solo album, Swallow, in mid-June.
I admit I wasn’t sure what I was expecting with this record, but I was definitely not expecting what sounds frighteningly like a Lush album! Part of it of course is that Lush’s Emma Anderson — someone who’s also recently resurfaced with a solo project — joins on vocals for a handful of songs. The record definitely has that reverb-heavy feel to it, but interestingly has moments of Radiohead influence as well, such as the strange ambience of “Mission Creep” or the rattling noise of “Messengers”.
I’ve been returning to this one a lot lately, quickly earning a spot as a writing soundtrack!
It’s been a long twenty-four years since their last album, 2001’s We Love Life, though like The Cure they’ve been busy off and on in the interim, doing various tours and shows when they can. I’d been a passing fan during their 90s heyday, aware of the classic “Common People” single but little else until 1998’s This Is Hardcore, one of my favorites from the HMV Years. They were yet another band I’d finally get into just when they’re on the back end of their cycle.
Anyway, it’s great to see them back in the spotlight, with a lovely lead single that feels like they haven’t missed a beat at all. I’m yet to sit down and fully experience the new album More, but I’m looking forward to it!
I really have no idea how this band passed me by for six years! Perhaps I’d heard one or two songs on KEXP, but somehow I never got around to checking them out until this last weekend, when their first album was reissued. And man, this band is totally in my wheelhouse: sludgy, noisy echoey shoegaze that’s equal parts Lush, MBV, Curve and maybe even a bit of Boston indie in there as well (especially Mistle Thrush and Swirlies). And Lush’s Miki Berenyi even shows up on one of their songs! It all screams this is now a part of your permanent writing soundtrack collection to me.
Yeah, I’m going to have to investigate this band further, because I am hooked.
I can’t decide if this band is trying to be Comsat Angels, early Cocteau Twins, The Chameleons UK, or all of them and more. Not that I’m complaining, because this is fast becoming one of my favorite recent acquisitions!
What I mean to say is that this new album is definitely hitting all the right buttons for me: echoey 80s post-punk retro goodness that sounds like something you’d hear on some college radio station just about coming in on your boombox in your bedroom. Melodic basslines, vocals alternating between slithery and shouty, jangly guitar riffs, and adventurous melodies that resonate perfectly for me. I highly recommend this one.
Considering I’ve spent the last month or so focusing on moving house and day job stuff, I’ve fallen behind on my listening habits! So I’m going to spend a few days just going through some of the new releases and get my head around them.
Such as the new Peter Murphy album, Silver Shade, which came out on 9 May. I have to admit I really love it mainly because it feels like a true return to his classic form. His last couple of albums were good but very ponderous, but this one brings him back to the style he did best back in the late 80s and early 90s. It really does sound like a mix of the best parts of Love Hysteria and Deep, but with the added bonus of some heavy NIN influence.
Definitely an album I’ll be listening to during writing sessions.
In going through the early years of ‘the Bridgetown soundtrack’ (as I’ve been calling it), specifically from 2000 onwards after I’d left HMV, I’ve been of course thinking of the Newbury Comics that used to be in downtown Amherst, just off the common and across the street from the town hall.
I’d been going there off and on since 1995 or so, but this one became my go-to on Wednesdays when I did my comic book/new music release runs after work once I started working at Yankee Candle. It became one of my favorite things to do: drive down 116 from Deerfield to the Hampshire Mall in Hadley, stop at Showcase Comics to pick up my subscriptions and check out some new titles, then drive up to Amherst Common to spend an hour or so at Newbury and pick up new releases there. I remember my old HMV boss, Tom, had become a district manager for the chain and I’d run into him every now and again. I set a weekly budget of $70 to spend there, which quite often ended up being around five CDs, given the store’s ridiculously low sale prices, often hovering around eight to nine dollars per title.
Given my work schedule by that time — 6am to 2pm — I could get this shopping out of the way and get home in time to chill for a bit, have dinner with the family, then start my nightly writing session around 6pm, where I’d work for about two hours. It was a perfect schedule for me, one I’d keep for the next several years. When I started working at my current store here in SF, I’d offered to be an opener for this exact reason: getting off shift by early afternoon provides me not only with recharge time but also enough for a productive writing session.
When I moved away from Massachusetts in March of 2005, this Newbury Comics was the last place I stopped on my way out. I figured one more time for old times’ sake was worth it. I bought cd copies of two favorite titles I’d owned on vinyl for years: Blood Sweat & Tears’ 1969 self-titled record (the one with “Spinning Wheel” on it) and Boston’s classic 1976 debut. I also bought some snacks and Pocky (that store had been my source of the addictive chocolate sticks for years) and headed out one last time on my way down to New Jersey.
The store moved to downtown Northampton a few years later if I recall, and it’s still there to this day. We’ll stop in every now and again during our visits back east, and although I don’t buy nearly as much physical music as I used to, I’ll still surf through the bins to look for interesting things.
As a matter of fact, yes! I’ve been meaning to listen to the new Franz Ferdinand album, The Human Fear! It dropped last Friday, and I’ve been hearing a few of its singles on KEXP lately (including “Night and Day” which I’m really liking). They’ve always been one of those bands who are catchy as hell yet slightly off-kilter — and super fun live, considering we caught them at Outside Lands a few years back — and they sound better than ever.
Anything else…? Well, there’s also Lambrini Girls’ Who Let the Dogs Out. Shouty punk with thick Brighton accents? Sure, why not? This is one of the many styles I listened to back in the 90s and I love that it’s experiencing a renaissance.
This was definitely an interesting year for music! We had several ‘comeback’ albums from musicians who hadn’t had a studio release in over a decade — not just the Cure, but The The, The Softies and The Wolfgang Press — and we also had several excellent anniversary reissues popping up as well.
While my listening habits pretty much remained the same, I was super excited by the news that my favorite station, KEXP, would start broadcasting here in the Bay Area! We’ve desperately needed a good alternative rock station for years (I’m sorry, Live 105, but you are not cutting it even despite recently rising from the ashes), and they’ve always had a super strong fanbase here. So far they’ve been quite successful!
Musically I found myself leaning towards electronic and shoegaze once again, but that’s not to say I was firmly entrenched; the local label Slumberland has been consistently putting out some brilliant jangle pop and lo-fi gems and I’ve become a loyal fan. Still, a lot of non-KEXP listening was focused primarily on moods and vibes this year, mainly for a need of soundtrack music while working on Theadia, my first space opera.
So! Without further ado, here’s my official end-of-year playlist/mixtape for your listening enjoyment!
This one’s a long playlist/mixtape collection of 129 songs so I’ll spare you the list here. So instead, on with my favorite releases of the year! This time I’m merely listing them in alphabetical order as I tended to enjoy all of these equally, with the bolded title being my top favorite of the year. As I’ve mentioned quite often, these were albums that got a lot of play here in Spare Oom, whether on days off or during writing sessions.
ALBUMS Bastille, “&” (Ampersand) Bibio, Phantom Brickworks (LP II) Coldplay, Moon Music Elbow, AUDIO VERTIGO Four Tet, Three GIFT, Illuminator Hooverphonic, Fake Is the New Dope Kelly Lee Owens, Dreamstate La Luz, News of the Universe Linkin Park, From Zero Ride, Interplay The Cure, Songs of a Lost World The Fauns, How Lost The Reds, Pinks & Purples, Unwishing Well The Softies, The Bed I Made The The, Ensoulment Torres, What an enormous room Underworld, Strawberry Hotel Various Artists, Everyone’s Getting Involved: A Tribute to Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense Various Artists, Red Hot Org Presents TRAИƧA
SINGLES Bad Bad Hats, “My Heart Your Heart” Corridor, “Jump Cut” deary, “Selene” DIIV, “Brown Paper Bag” Elbow, “Things I’ve Been Telling Myself for Years” English Teacher, “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab” GIFT, “Later” Girl and Girl, “Hello” Kamasi Washington, “Prologue” Kelly Lee Owens, “Love You Got” La Luz, “Strange World” Orcas, “Under the Milky Way” Orville Peck & Beck, “Death Valley High” Ride, “I Came to See the Wreck” RÜFÜS DU SOL, “Music Is Better” The Cure, “And Nothing Is Forever” The Fauns, “Doot Doot” The National, “Heaven” Torres, “Collect”
REISSUES American Football, American Football 25th Anniversary Edition Cocteau Twins & Harold Budd, The Moon and the Melodies Cranes, Collected Works Vol 1 Garbage, Bleed Like Me Deluxe Edition George Harrison, Living in the Material World 50th Anniversary His Name Is Alive, How Ghosts Affect Relationships 1990-1993 Hugo Largo, Huge, Large and Electric: Hugo Largo 1984-1991 Ivy, Long Distance 25th Anniversary Edition John Lennon, Mind Games: The Ultimate Collection and Mind Games: Meditation Mixes Kristin Hersh, Hips and Makers 30th Anniversary Edition New Order, Brotherhood (Definitive) REM, We Are Hope Despite the Times Seal, Seal (1994) Deluxe Edition The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Still Barking (1967-1972) The Dream Academy, Religion, Revolution and Railways: The Complete Recordings The Police, Synchronicity Super Deluxe Edition
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So what do we have coming in 2025? Good question. So far I know we have new albums coming from Franz Ferdinand, Ringo Starr, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory, Doves (!!), Manic Street Preachers and Mogwai. Stay tuned!
Hope everyone has a great 2025! See you in the next year!
Walk In Silence 