Living Hour – Softer Faces [Review]

Tags

2019, Adam Soloway, Album, Album Review, Alex Chochinov, alternative, band, Brett Ticzon, Gil Carroll, Group, indie, Living Hour, Music, Music Video, Musicians, pop, Review, Sam Sarty, Softer Faces

Been meaning to review this wonderful album that was released on March 1, 2019.
It is the Winnipeg’s Living Hour.
Softer Faces which is their sophomore release is out on the cool hip label Kanine Records.
The album is a blend of dream/psychedelic pop, shoegaze music.
The first time listening to Bottom Step, it bought of alot of emotions like be in a dreamy warm like state and weepy with Sam Sarty’s vocals when she sings about not having the courage to talk to that person in the party.
The whole album is filled with unrequited love and trying not to be alone in these hormonal teenage times.
Can’t think of a band that uses a trombone and trumpet and make it sounds so beautiful and haunting.
They are Canada’s answer to Beach House.
One of my favourite albums of 2019 to listen to while you are lying on your bed.
Best tracks:

• Hallboy
• Bottom Step
• I Sink I Sink
• Water
• Inside

Iron Age Mystics – Pride Before the Fall [Review]

Tags

2019, Album, Album Review, band, Canada, Group, Iron Age Mystics, Music, Music Video, Musicians, Pride Before the Fall, Review, Rock, Toronto

Iron Age Mystics is a Toronto hard rock band.
Just dropped their debut album “Pride Before the Fall” on May 19, 2019.
With what is going on in the world political wise and in the USA, this album is considered cutting edge political music.
Pride Before the Fall is loud, brash and in your face that gets us political crazy.
It touches subjects rarely put to music, again in the aim to inspire critical thinking and a call action.
While the themes can be dark and it’s a middle ground between acknowledging the change makers and exposing the claimed wrong doers. Melodies are deep and diverse, riffs are thrusting, while vocals and lyrics are a journey – ‘Pride Before The Fall’ is reclaiming meaning and purpose in Rock ‘n’ Roll.
While it is not my cup of tea listening to this album but it might be for those who is into loud rock and wants to flip the bird at politics and current events.

Quaker Parents – Our Drawing Club [Review]

Tags

2019, Album, Album Review, alternative, artist, Canada, indie, Mark Grundy, Music, Music Video, Musician, One Time Luv, Our Drawing Club, pop, Quaker Parents, Review, singer, Toronto

Mark Grundy of Heaven for Real‘s other project Quaker Parents dropped the album “Our Drawing Club” on May 10, 2019.
It is a mix of guitar minimal pop and experimental arty electro-glitchy music.
As the title suggest is like a messy drawing artwork.
A scribble there, an abstract there, and a masterpiece there.
Vocal wise reminds me of a mix between Shotgun Jimmie and John K. Samson (*gasp*)
Best tracks:

• Improbable Friendship 1999
• Never That Baked In
• One Time Luv
• No Travel
• A Better Part

This is a totally out there album!

Mac DeMarco – Here Comes The Cowboy [Review]

Tags

2019, Album, Album Review, alternative, artist, Canada, Here Comes The Cowboy, Mac DeMarco, Music, Music Video, Musician, pop, singer, USA

Album #4 for Mac DeMarco called Here Comes The Cowboy.
Sounds like he picked up where This Old Dog left off.
Mac’s songwriting is getting better but his music is getting mellower and dreary.
Maybe I still think of Mac as “Freaking Out The Neighborhood” and “Cooking Up Something Good” with the slacker guitar rock sound.
Maturity could be the reason why this album has a serious tone.
About the album as described by DeMarco:
“This one is my cowboy record. Cowboy is a term of endearment to me, I use it often when referring to people in my life. Where I grew up there are many people that sincerely wear cowboy hats and do cowboy activities. These aren’t the people I’m referring to.”
It is a decent album for Mac to tide over the fans in 2019.

Best tracks:

• Nobody
• Finally Alone
• Preoccupied
• On The Square
• Baby Bye Bye

Bleu Nuit – Le jardin des mémoires [Review]

Tags

2019, Album, Album Review, alternative, band, Bleu Nuit, Canada, Group, indie, Le jardin des mémoires, Montreal, Music, Music Video, Musicians, Review

A band you definitely need to check out is Montreal’s Bleu Nuit.
They released their long awaited debut album called Le jardin des mémoires translation means The garden of memories.
This wonderful post-punk album is a fusion of what I think sounds like Malajube and Preoccupations.
Hence the album was produced by Malajube’s Julien Mineau.
If you like the whole dark jangle pop and post-punk but sung in French, this is something you need to listen to.
Get the album which is out on Michel Records.
Best tracks:

• Trou Noir
• Le ruban magnétique
• Féminin masculin
• Concentration
• Boule de cristal

Le jardin des mémoires get:
/10

Pup – Morbid Stuff [Review]

Tags

2019, Album, Album Review, band, Canada, Group, indie, Morbid Stuff, Music, Music Video, Musicians, Nestor Chumak, Pup, Review, Rock, Stefan Babcock, Steve Sladkowski, Toronto, Zack Mykula

Pup who is becoming Canada’s Punk Rock saviours dropped their second album Morbid Stuff.
Filled with intense octane punk rocking music with easy sing along lyrics.
While the band isn’t slowing things down on the record and touring.
One of the best rocking albums to listen to in 2019.

Best tracks:

• Morbid Stuff
• Kids
• Free at Last
• Scorpion Hill
• Sibling Rivarly

Morbid Stuff gets:
/10

Nathan Shubert – When You Take Off Your Shoes [Review]

Tags

2019, Album, Album Review, Ambient, artist, Bigo & Twigetti, Canada, Classical, Experimental, Instrumental, Modern Classical, Music, Musician, Nathan Shubert, Vancouver, When You Take Off Your Shoes

I was listening to KEXP on a Sunday morning.
They have this great show called Pacific Notions which showcases modern classical and ambient music.
The DJ played this wonderful tune by Vancouver’s Nathan Shubert.
The title track When You Take Off Your Shoes just grasped me.
Very melodic that mixes field records and classical music.
It is like walking in the woods on a nice sunny morning.
Think of Nathan Shubert as the West Coast version of Jean-Michel Blais.
When You Take Off Your Shoes is a very soothing and moody album that mixes field recordings and classical music to make wonderful ambient soundscapes.
The album is out on Bigo & Twigetti.
Best tracks:

• A Beacon, a Pulse
• When You Take Off Your Shoes
• Pencils
• A Thought, Persisted
• A Breath

Flying Hórses – Reverie [Review]

Tags

2019, Album, Album Review, artist, Bonsound, Canada, Classical, Experimental, Flying Hórses, Instrumental, Jade Bergeron, Montreal, Music, Music Video, Musician, Ottawa, Reverie, Review

Flying Hórses is Canadian composer Jade Bergeron.
Reverie released back in February 22, 2019 is the sophomore release by the Ottawa/Montreal artist and signed to Bonsound.
As the artist states:
“This is a heartbreak record, everyone has one. If popstars can have them, so can composers.”
Tragic as its sound, it is a lovely and beautiful album that fills up full of texture, using layered vintage musical ornamentation including a giant turn-of-the-century music box, horns, vibraphone and double-bass, and held down with piano.
An exceptional album to listen to when you are very stressed out.
Best tracks:

• Comfort
• Fearless
• Isolation
• Unsettled
• Asleep

Favorite 5 Tracks from Blur’s 13

Tags

13, 1999, 2019, Album, Alex James, alternative, band, Best Of, Blur, British, Damon Albarn, Dave Rowntree, Graham Coxon, Group, London, Music, Music Video, Musicians, Review, UK

I didn’t know that Blur‘s sixth album 13 just turned 20 years.
The album came out on March 15, 1999 and I am a few days left posting this.
Check out this article from Stereogum about 13.
Decided to pick my favorite 5 tracks from that album.
In case you were wondering why I Got the Law (Demo) is in this list because the Japanese version of the album was the bonus track. (Lucky them and it was a hint of Gorillaz’s Tomorrow Comes Today)

Emilie Kahn – Outro [Review]

Tags

2019, Album, Album Review, alternative, band, Canada, Emilie Kahn, indie, Music, Music Video, Musicians, Outro, pop, Review, Secret City Records

There is a certain warmness when looking at the album cover of Emilie Kahn‘s Outro.
The Montreal artist released the long awaited second album after a three year hiatus.
Emilie didn’t ditched Ogden (her harp) but still played a big role on Outro.
The album was produced in collaboration with Warren C. Spicer of Plants and Animals, shows a craftswoman come into her own.
‘Outro’ is a pained look back at the past as Kahn pores over every misplaced feeling and bad call.
Teeming with adulthood’s melancholy, Kahn offers indie pop crafted with a miniaturist hand toward intimacy, while still reaching for the grandiosity of the genre’s icons.
One of my favorite albums to come out so far in 2019.
Overall there is a wonderful and beautiful soundscapes mixing synths and instruments like the harp.
Something about the beginning track Swimmer which is elegant and tragic at the same time.
Other great tracks that shows how she is taking chances are Three, Will You? (Who will take of you when you get older) and Never Good Enough (where she drops the s-bomb).
Best tracks:

• Swimmer
• Island
• Three
• Will You?
• Aquarium