The Things We Think We’re Missing is a record that boasts true confidence from Balance & Composure. While 2011’s Separation tested the waters of their sound, this release is a cohesive piece that has been crafted with careful thought and execution.
Love You In The Dark, the first solo effort of Now, Now’s Brad Hale, slides seamlessly from repetitively somber to ecstatic within the span of a few songs and explores all manners of human strength and weakness. It manages to find the gaps in the armor of humankind in the most delicate way possible, which is often a considerable feat for seemingly innocuous pop or electronic music.
Although You’re Always On My Mind marks the second full-length release for A Great Big Pile Of Leaves, it’s the band’s first album with an outside producer (Ed Ackerson) and the musical advances shine through. The album feels like the first time you surpass the “small talk†level with someone and realize that they’re holding plenty of mixed feelings about this whole life thing within themselves, too.
Whether listeners vibe with the turn that A Rocket To The Moon have taken towards a pop impression on light country or prefer their youthful musings without a side of the South, the old sweetness of the band still sits evident just below the surface.
Seasoned indie rockers Fake Problems and up-and-coming punk band You Blew It! have teamed up to prove make their home state proud with the aptly-titled split Florida Doesn’t Suck.
The first challenge of properly absorbing Benjamin Gibbard’s first solo album Former Lives: separating the Death Cab For Cutie and Postal Service versions of Gibbard from the solo one. The new album is more gritty and acoustic than his former beloved gentle indie catalogue, true, but Former Lives needs to be experienced in its own right without any shackles of the past.
Emmure have a certain sound that they’ve developed over the years, and their latest album Slave to the Game fits perfectly into the mold they have created for themselves. Thick with video game references and infused with the members’ own personalities, the album is everything an Emmure fan would expect it to be.
The Static Jacks’ debut album If You’re Young is a record you might want to add to your music catalogue before the summer rolls in.
Not very often does an album or band hit you like a tornado upon first listen, and End Measured Mile by Make Do and Mend does just that.
California’s kings of summery rock anthems have released their third album just in time to beat the inevitable heat, and with Eureka the band have once again proven their ability to craft a timeless record collection of fun-in-the-sun jams.
