Slipped Discs April 2021
Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd
Tōth - photo by Amanda Picotte
Initial Thoughts
April albums offer sustenance for body and soul. From alt-country rambler AL RIGGS’ truth-soaked odes, “I Got A Big Electric Fan to Keep Me Cool While I Sleep,” to romance examiner MERK’s upbeat treatises, “Infinite Youth,” life is good. Prosperity enriches tonal stonecutter AMULET’s surging immersions, “Blooming,” feeds cyber-soul micro-dosers LISEL + BOOKER STARDRUM’s closed-circuit percolations, “Mycelial Echo,” and funds fleet-footed seeker TŌTH’s boppy philosophy, “You and Me and Everything.”
Disc Reviews
Hooveriii - Water for the Frogs
Hooveriii
Album title: Water for the Frogs
Record Label: The Reverberation Appreciation Society
Crispy riffs rip through lofty cacophony and sinister precision as, “Water,” solders methodical prog chops to cutting bluster, cauterizing wild tribal Krautrock into therapeutic confusion oozing sensory frenzy. Diabolical cabals jamming with supernatural stamina, Hooveriii’s brazen psychedelic waves crash over crunched stunts with punchy lunges, converging dervishes colliding in writhing outbursts with jazzy backing from nimble rhythms and incandescent presence.
(589) Page Views
Hooveriii online:
• Website • Facebook
• Download Water for the Frogs from Amazon
Teenage Fanclub - Endless Arcade
Teenage Fanclub
Album title: Endless Arcade
Record Label: Merge
Seamless team-players and articulate artisans, Scotland’s breezy Teenage Fanclub craft cohesive greetings in beautifully arranged key changes with genuine tenderness armed in soaring four-part harmonies and steady sunshine rhymes gliding over winged six-strings. Gilded tranquility built from confident fondness and soothing prudence, “Endless,” befriends, mends and defends; melodic case studies in splendid indie-rock melancholy falling softly on solid Britpop solace.
(665) Page Views
Teenage Fanclub online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
• Purchase Endless Arcade on Amazon
• Download Endless Arcade
Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg
Dry Cleaning
Album title: New Long Leg
Record Label: 4AD
Irresistibly aloof, intensely menacing and passively magnetic, “Leg,” weds posh hypnotic scoffs to ominous hopped-up rock, concocting fiery wiry dialogues between haughty squalor and retooled cool. Prickly post-punk cynics, Dry Cleaning lures fashionably jagged thrash into squirming urban settings, cagey jaded cadence trolling droll boa constrictor trickery where slithery misfit twists merge with withering insistence, estranged disdain and casual malice.
(499) Page Views
Dry Cleaning online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
• Download New Long Leg from Amazon
• Purchase New Long Leg on Amazon
Paul Jacobs - Pink Dogs on the Green Grass
Paul Jacobs
Album title: Pink Dogs on the Green Grass
Record Label: Blow The Fuse
Smart slacker backbeats heated in nervous bursts, deadpan smirks and smarmy calm, the multi-talented Jacobs filters skewed views through greasy cheeky pop, stoked apothecary folk and chugging mugshot rock plotting plausible options against callous reality. Medicated basement stomps and rhythm-heavy head-spinners, “Pink,” rethinks missing links to chain toe-tapping refrains to incorrigible choruses and spin dense sonic webs around free-wheeling feelings.
(481) Page Views
Paul Jacobs online:
• Website • Facebook
• Download Pink Dogs on the Green Grass from Amazon
• Purchase Pink Dogs on the Green Grass
Hadda Be - Another Life
Hadda Be
Album title: Another Life
Record Label: Last Night from Glasgow
Youthful jubilant indie-pop grooves bash past vibrant hindsight collapsing into catchy bombast, “Life,” emerges fully formed in calculated fury; mercurial guitars lurching in carousing power chords join rejoicing voices to pummeling drums and spirited bass. Thoughtful ballads appear among sweaty melodies while Hadda Be buzzes in pungent fuzz and forthright might, shading blazing raves in devious immediacy and proactive compassion.
(530) Page Views
Hadda Be online:
• Website • Facebook
• Download Another Life
• Purchase Another Life
Flock of Dimes - Head of Roses
Flock of Dimes
Album title: Head of Roses
Record Label: Sub Pop
Nursing cathartic heartache in lush synthetic medicine and healing ethereal appeals, Flock of Dimes refines sweetly luminous blues adorned in forlorn country touches, precious declarations cloaked in hope, tempered with acceptance and rendered in elegant intelligence. Intimate epiphanies and agile pageantry masking celestial sadness with stirring verse and beautiful music, “Roses,” composes emotional antidotes to modern longing and slippery relationships.
(486) Page Views
Flock of Dimes online:
• Facebook • Wiki
• Download Head of Roses from Amazon
• Purchase Head of Roses on Amazon
Final Thoughts
Spring brings albums nourished by the natural world. Find refuge among long-distance minimalists BALMORHEA’s tentative serenity, “The Wind,” alt-rock optimists MOONTYPES’ fizzy commisery, “Bodies of Water,” and dynamic duo RYANHOOD’s effusive acoustics, “Under the Leaves.” Align behind blue-eyed prog-funk tumblers FIELD MUSIC’s shiny, kind-hearted, “Flat White Moon,” chamber-folk rover ADRIAN CROWLEY’s solemn mini-novels, “The Watchful Eye of the Stars,” and borderless forager SARAH LOUISE’s symphonic eco-tronics, “Earth Bow,” before absorbing empathetic sentimentalist THE REDS, PINKS & PURPLES’ rainbow jangle, “Uncommon Weather,” and witty songsmiths HAUNTED SHED’s vigorous picturesque, “Faltering Light.”