Pretenders - Up The Neck / Tattooed Love Boys / Stop Your Sobbing / Mystery Achievement

The Pretenders self-titled LP has appeared on numerous lists of the best debut albums over the last forty years. I would even go further to say that it belongs on the list of 200 best albums—debut or otherwise—of all-time.  The group was formed in 1978 by Chrissie Hynde (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), who had spent the previous few years bouncing around with different bands, including early incarnations of The Clash and The Damned (note: those bands went by different names when she was a member). Determined to form her own band, Hynde recorded some tracks for a demo using a variety of musicians including drummer Phil Taylor, whom she originally wanted in her band, but couldn't bring herself to try and steal from her friend Lemmy's band Motorhead. 
Hynde brought Pete Farndon (bass) into the fold, and he convinced her to tryout his friend from Hereford, James Honeyman-Scott (lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards). At first Honeyman-Scott was reluctant to join the group because his musical interest leaned toward the Nick Lowe/Elvis Costello type of sound and it was in stark contrast to Hynde's harder, edgier style of playing. 
Hynde and Farndon somehow managed to get their demo in the hands of Lowe and he agreed to produce their first single, a cover of The Kinks' "Stop Your Sobbing." That was enough to convince Honeyman-Scott to join the band and soon after, Martin Chambers (drums) came on board. The original lineup was set by the summer of 1978. 
After recording the single "Stop Your Sobbing" with the Pretenders, Lowe ended their working relationship, stating “This group’s not going anywhere.” Time has not been kind to Lowe's declaration. While the song has Hynde’s signature vocal, it almost sounds like a record Lowe himself would record, not that there's anything wrong with that. Producer Chris Thomas, who had worked with Pink Floyd, Roxy Music and was uncredited on the Beatles’ "Birthday" and "Happiness Is A Warm Gun,” took over the sessions, producing "Kid" and "Brass in Pocket.”   
With the three singles being released in 1979, the Pretenders’ eagerly anticipated debut album hit the stores during the final week of 1979. The album's first track, "Precious," is a frenetic, high-speed car chase of a song highlighted by Hynde's vocal, which I can best describe as controlled, sexual ferocity. This ode to Cleveland lets it be known right away that Hynde is the real deal and she gave rock a strong female voice that was desperately needed at the time, with memorable lines such as, “I like the way you cross the street 'cause you're precious / Moving through the Cleveland heat, how precious / You're taking nights and all the kicks, you're so precious / But you know I was shittin' bricks 'cause I'm precious.”
By the time you get through the next three songs—"The Phone Call," "Up the Neck," and "Tattooed Love Boys"—you can't help but be in awe of how the band can switch gears without losing any of their intensity. At this point in the album, you're pleasantly surprised by how good the album is and you haven't even heard the previously released three singles.
The aforementioned "Stop Your Sobbing," which closes out side one, has a different energy than the other songs on the album. It fits in nicely with the other tracks, but it certainly reflects a different Hynde than the one we met on the previous six songs. Side two opens with "Kid," a song that is a good follow-up to "Stop Your Sobbing." I wouldn't necessarily call it a ballad, but it expresses a tenderness and vulnerability that was not present on side one, but ultimately surfaced quite often throughout Hynde's ensuing career.
"Private Life" and "Brass in Pocket" are, for me, the highlights of the album that cements its status as one of the greatest debut LPs. The voice and tone established on side one are still there, but delivered in a completely different way. "Private Life" is a slow burning ballad that just builds into a scathing rebuke of someone that Hynde clearly has no use for and you're glad you're not that person. The song was famously covered by none other than Grace Jones. Hynde stated in the liner notes to Jones' 1998 compilation Private Life: The Compass Point Sessions, "Like all the other London punks, I wanted to do reggae, and I wrote ‘Private Life.’ When I first heard Grace's version I thought ‘Now that's how it's supposed to sound!’”
"Brass in Pocket," co-written by Hynde and Honeyman-Scott, was the band's first big hit and a song she would have preferred to have never seen the light of day. She hated the song and in 2004, she told the Observer, "When we recorded the song I wasn't very happy with it and told my producer that he could release it over my dead body, but they eventually persuaded me. So I remember feeling a bit sheepish when it went to #1 (in the UK)." Despite Hynde's feelings about the song, it remains one of those timeless tunes that will always be a fan favorite and a staple of their concerts.  From: https://albumism.com/features/the-pretenders-eponymous-debut-album-anniversary

Go Hang - Dependence Day

Go Hang has been in my sights (and ears) for a while. If you don’t know who the fuck they are, you’re missing out Pal! I’m sorry to tell you. I checked out their spotify and noticed their highlighted song, Rent to Own, from their album Ghutted (2023). Pictured with an image of an anime woman being hung and with her entrails falling out, with a mismatching ahegao grin. I am a horror fan, so I wasn’t fazed. 

Rent to Own: Starts off with a eerie twang of a banjo, a simple three-note chord, paired up with a low-octave piano. Giving the feel of existential dread and an ambiance of desperation. I say this with genuine bravo, as I do believe that all emotions should be welcomed in art.

Let’s fuck like monkeys on the floor!

The lyrics take a sharp turn as the singer rages against an ex-girlfriend on the third line. Calling her out for using sex and empty threats of suicide as a weapon. Insisting the world would be a better place once she follows through with the act. As dark as the lyrics are, I don’t see Rent to Own. as being an anti-woman, violent, manifesto. Rent to Own comes off as someone just purging the inner hatred and heartbreak out of their mind and soul.
This song is filled with raw emotion, diving into the inner shadows of wanting revenge. I don’t believe in censoring art/music for the sake of people who may or may not get nuance of it all. I do believe that media literacy needs to be advocated as it’s in a steady decline. Not every-fucking-song is an admission to being a horrible person or actually genuinely believing fucked up ideologies. Go Hang describes themselves as Anti-folk, and they deliver what they say. This song comes off as a parody of cis-white-male feminists in folk/indie music who claim to be all for women’s rights…until they are exposed to be massive pieces of shit.

Quit: The lyrics pair so well with the bouncin’ beat. Finding myself nodding my head to the beat as I type. Quit‘s lyrics highlight the co-morbidities of fame and mental illness. Bringing attention to the fact that a good chunk of musicians in the 27 club were addicts who made the conscious decision to use their drug of choice. The singer uses his own experience as a comparison, as he laments his own depression and the hopes that fame would cure him by making him an entirely different man.

Well I just want to leave an impression
Just want to believe in something beyond the depression

Fucking same, dude! That line right there hit me like a fucking food truck. As he sings it how it is: Wanting to be famous, or being famous, is a symptom of mental illness. If you weren’t mentally ill before the fame, you certainly will become mentally-ill eventually. Animals don’t strive for critical acclaim, so why do we as humans need that external validation? The ending is a farewell as he acknowledgeds rock bottom of depression, with a promise to fuck anyone who brought him there. I love this song, as I could relate to wanting to leave an impact in spite of adversity. I long to experience this one live with my own eyes (and ears).

From: https://medium.com/@SweetTMarie/album-deep-dive-ghutted-by-go-hang-music-703c7c199dcd 

 

Poco - What A Day / Short Changed / Pickin' Up The Pieces / Tomorrow

Buffalo Springfield lasted just over two years before collapsing in 1968, but what the band lacked in longevity, it more than made up in talent: the influential band's first brief go-round served as an opening act for some of the biggest careers in rock, including Neil Young and Stephen Stills. Springfield guitarist Richie Furay, who founded Poco in the wake of the group's demise, was determined to achieve similar success.
Originally named Pogo before legal threats from cartoonist Walt Kelly forced a switch to Poco, the group started coming together during the piecemeal sessions for Buffalo Springfield's final album, 1968's Last Time Around. Needing a pedal steel player for his ballad "Kind Woman," Furay hooked up with guitarist Rusty Young; with Springfield producer Jim Messina joining on vocals and guitar, the group cemented its original lineup with Randy Meisner on bass and George Grantham on drums.
"I just knew that I still hadn't done anything I wanted to do," Furay told Sounds in 1972. "I knew I wanted another band but I had no idea I could put one together ... I didn't go off and get David Crosby and Graham Nash, you know, it all started right down at the very bottom -- nobody knew who Rusty was, nobody knew who George was, nobody knew who Tim was and nobody really knew who Jim was at the time. But even at that time there was a sort of pride thing, you know -- 'We're going to make it without having to reflect back on the Buffalo Springfield.'"
With a much more familiar pedigree than most new bands, Poco quickly found a receptive audience in L.A. "Everybody wanted to come see us," Young told Classic Bands. "Richie had really come up with the concept of the country/rock thing that wasn't being done. Everybody was ready to jump on the bandwagon. In the Troubadour there'd be a booth and there would be Ricky Nelson and Ozzie and Harriet. The whole gang would be there in their booth. The Smothers Brothers came down. George Harrison and John Lennon came down because they tried to sign us to Apple at one point. Pretty much all the L.A. people you can imagine would be in the audience on any given night."
"Probably my favorite was the very beginning with Randy, Jimmy, Richie and I. That was a great time," recalled Young. "I think the impact we had, whether people recognize it or not, that brought about the Eagles and brought about Ricky Nelson coming back into playing music, the whole genre ... it really came out of those days at the Troubadour when we hit. We were great, we were really something special. Unfortunately we didn’t even make it to the first album because Richie decided to let Randy go."
"I did that first album with them," Meisner told Rock History Music. "There was a thing where Richie Furay and I, we made the album, and then I called in and said, 'I want to come down and listen to the mixes.' Richie, for some reason, thought he and Jimmy Messina should just do it alone. I said, 'If that's the way it's going to be, then I don't feel like a member of the band,' and Richie said, 'Okay, you quit.' So then I left. It was just as simple as that."
Meisner's departure was just the first in what would fairly quickly become a long list of lineup changes for the band. In fact, as various ex-Poco members went on to find greater success in groups like the Eagles while their former bandmates continued to toil in the commercial minor leagues, Poco developed a (not entirely undeserved) reputation as an act that always seemed poised to grab the brass ring, but never seemed to be able to catch that big break. "It is too bad you don't get a check when someone steals your bass player," chuckled Young in an interview with Vintage Rock. "That'd set us all up, I'm sure."
Ironically, although Poco's sound fit right in with the country-inflected sound that was taking off on rock radio -- and even though the band included a number of musicians who'd helped start that trend -- Furay would come to regret being part of that scene.
"In the beginning, we wanted to call ourselves a country/rock band, I guess, because it seemed to be the thing that was taking shape at the time. And, actually, I think it really did hurt us a lot more than it helped us," Furay told Circus in 1971. "The minute somebody said 'Poco,' it was country. ... It's taken three years, man for us to break the image down that we're a country band."
As Furay saw it, the band had a sound all its own -- one that transcended genres. "If we had to be labelled, I'd want to be labelled a rock 'n' roll band. Or a musical band," he mused. "We definitely are under the title rock 'n' roll. We can play country, we can play rock, we can play folk, we can play blues, we can play jazz ... all of it's our own style. It's all Poco-rock, Poco-country, Poco-blues, Poco-folk, you know?"  From: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/poco-pickin-up-the-pieces/

The Moon & The Nightspirit - Odyssey Limen

The Moon and the Nightspirit reveal the new track ‘Odyssey Limen’ as the next advance single taken from their forthcoming album. Seed of the Formless has been chalked up for release on April 17, 2026. The Moon and the Nightspirit comment: “The song ‘Odyssey Limen’ represents our new album’s most intense and dynamic peak – a relentless, metallic journey that mirrors the ultimate spiritual metamorphosis”, Ágnes Tóth states on behalf of the duo. “This track charts an inner cosmic voyage that culminates in the profound realisation of one’s true nature. It is the sonic embodiment of catharsis, where all form and doubt are shed in a final, explosive awakening – the most aggressive point on our path, capturing the moment of pure, unbound becoming.”
With their eighth studio album Seed of the Formless, The Moon and the Nightspirit have reached a crossroads in their ever changing path. A deliberate and significant sonic mutation has created a leap in their stylistic evolution. While the Hungarian duo’s deep roots in ethereal folk remain audible, Seed of the Formless marks their conscious journey into the heavier realms of atmospheric post-metal.
The Hungarians’ embrace of electric guitars and vast synth soundscapes to channel what they describe as a more cosmic and visceral energy, as compared to the whispering of forest and meadows in their musical past, makes perfect sense at this stage of their sonic evolution. As The Moon and the Nightspirit navigate the space between shadow and luminescence, the parallel contrast between the acoustic and the electric as well as their subsequent amalgamation, they unlock the gates to a vast realm of new possibilities.
The Moon and the Nightspirit view their creative process as a spiritual practice. To them, music is not just written; it is channelled through meditation, connecting with nature, and the exploration of philosophical concepts about consciousness and the formless void. These are not just themes, but direct gateways to their compositions.
The Moon and the Nightspirit were founded in 2003 when Hungarian singer as well as piano and violin player Ágnes Tóth joined forces with guitarist and vocalist Mihály Szabó. Their original style has been variously located in the ethereal, pagan, and neofolk realm, which was emphasised by the use of instruments such as zither and woodwinds. A dose of melancholia, dreamlike and sometimes eerie soundscapes as well as lyrics revolving around fantastic, mythical, and shamanic themes quickly carved them their own niche and a dedicated following, starting with the debut full-length Of Dreams Forgotten and Fables Untold (2005) and growing with each following album until Aether (2020).  From: https://auralaggravation.com/2026/02/26/listen-odyssey-limen-by-the-moon-and-the-nightspirit/

Steely Dan - Bodhisattva / The Boston Rag

While Steely Dan are loved by their legions of fans, the band’s unique and caustic style has made them the ultimate outliers in popular music. Their stark inversion of the norm is so extensive that the group’s material is frequently misunderstood by those unfamiliar with their work and, sometimes, even by their own fans. Whether this is regarding their surreal lyrics, the blend of musical styles or complex compositions, while there is a lot to love about Donald Fagen and Walter Becker’s band, there are barriers in the way of the uninitiated.
The most confounding factors regarding Steely Dan are their sound and aesthetic, which are ostensibly hippie. However, their case is more complex than it appears at face value. Both the group’s founders, Fagen and Becker, were such hipsters that they had great disdain for the counterculture in college during the 1960s. Frequently tied to the scene by their long hair and heady music, they’ve always fought against the connection.
Noted misanthropes, Jay Black – who played in Jay and the Americans with the pair for a brief period – would later label them “the Manson and Starkweather of rock and roll”, referring to cult leader Charles Manson and spree killer Charles Starkweather. Despite being slightly over the top, this comparison outlines how Steely Dan would take an axe to established musical tropes and create something entirely new.
This disdain for conventions would also serve to scintillate and perplex listeners, with one of their best-loved pieces, ‘Bodhisattva’ from 1973’s Countdown to Ecstasy, indicative of this tendency. It was majorly misunderstood when first released. For context, a Bodhisattva is a Buddhist who has reached enlightenment, just as the religion’s founder, the Buddha, did too. They also have the ability to depart physical existence for a higher plane, yet choose to remain human to help others achieve freedom. 
Whilst listeners believed that the track was a means of the band fully dedicating themselves to Buddhism with lines such as “Bodhisattva/ Would you take me by the hand” and “Bodhisattva/ I’m gonna sell my house in town”, the reality is very different. The root of their decision-making is actually one of the most sardonic pieces in their arsenal. Fagen would later explain that the song is “sort of a parody on the way Western people look at Eastern religion – sort of oversimplify it. We thought it was rather amusing – most people didn’t get it.”
That tension between appearance and intention sat at the heart of Steely Dan’s entire identity during the 1970s. Their music borrowed from jazz, blues and psychedelic rock, genres closely tied to the fading ideals of the counterculture, but Becker and Fagen approached them with a detached cynicism that sharply contrasted with the earnestness of many of their peers.
Rather than preaching enlightenment or social change, Steely Dan often populated their songs with hustlers, failures and morally compromised characters drifting through modern America. In that sense, ‘Bodhisattva’ works less as a spiritual anthem and more as a satire of Western fascination with Eastern philosophy during the era.
As Buddhism, transcendental meditation and other spiritual movements became increasingly fashionable among affluent young Americans, Becker and Fagen saw an opportunity to poke fun at the superficial way many people adopted those ideas. Beneath the song’s frantic piano lines and euphoric energy sits a deliberately exaggerated version of spiritual yearning, one that feels far more ironic than devotional.  From: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/misunderstood-song-from-1973-became-a-steely-dan-classic/

Bandits on the Run - Now is the Time

Bandits on the Run — an indie-folk-pop-Americana trio based in Brooklyn, N.Y. — formed rather serendipitously. Cellist Sydney Shepherd walked up to guitarist Adrian Enscoe while he was busking in the subway. A conversation about music led to an all-night adventure filled with conversations about anything and everything, the kind you only ever see in romantic comedies. Soon after, Shepherd introduced Enscoe to multi-instrumentalist Regina Strayhorn, her college friend, here leading to the trio’s spontaneous decision to start a band.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Bandits on the Run talked about their musical journey, special projects and upcoming live performances. “Starting the band really came out of an immediate need to just play … It was about not needing permission to do something,” Strayhorn said.
Their initial “concerts” were impromptu performances on the subway, embodying the spirit of freedom and autonomy in music creation. They transitioned from playing on subway platforms to playing at traditional venues, yet they retained the raw and unfiltered energy of their origins. 
Their songwriting is a collaborative effort, with each member contributing and adapting ideas. Typically, one member brings a song’s “skeleton,” which the others then help develop and refine. They embrace a flexible approach, allowing individual creativity to flourish within the group dynamic by giving each other the benefit of the doubt.
Enscoe added, “An idea that is more fully formed is always better than an idea that is just an idea.” Bandits’ artistry extends beyond their music to their visual presentations. Their YouTube channel is a testament to their eclectic style and creative freedom. “One video is not really going to tell you what our vibe is because they are all so different,” Shepherd said.
The band produces and directs a majority of their videos. Their favorites include: “You Have Changed,” “We Battle Giants” and “Radio.” They have also worked on a short musical, “The Band at the End of the World,” and a short film called “Love in the Underground.”
The band is involved in an ambitious project: adapting the novel “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” into a stage musical alongside Christopher Sears, a frequent collaborator, and Peter Hedges, the writer of the book and screenplay.
“As the person who wrote this in his early 20s and now he’s in his early 60s, he is so open to being (like) ‘Let’s change this, let’s make this better, let’s make it 2024,’” Shepherd said. The Bandits are also developing a musical set in Yukon, A.K. and will be completing a residency in Alaska during August to work on it.
They are now embarking on a summer tour, with multiple shows performing alongside John Gallagher Jr. — Enscoe’s castmate in the upcoming Broadway production of “Swept Away.” They recently performed at The Ark on July 24. Enscoe recalled immediately creatively bonding with Gallagher when they first began working on “Swept Away.”
“One of the first things we talked about was writing, recording and touring. And we realized we had this connection outside of the theatrical space,” Enscoe said. When asked about Gallagher joining the tour, Adrian and Sydney stated that “It just was a natural fit … we’re both at that intersection of theatricality and music.” 
Live performances are central to Bandits on the Run’s identity. Shepherd believes that Bandits on the Run is the type of band that shines in a live setting. Enscoe shared a story of spending a night in Mannheim, Germany where the band started playing at a train station and a group of 50 people circled around them to listen. After the police asked them to stop playing, a man came up to them and declared “I have 10,000 CDs and you sound like none of them. What kind of music is this?”
“That was a moment that I felt like what we were doing was singular, unique and that there’s a reason to do it,” Enscoe said. Being part of Bandits on the Run has profoundly influenced each member both personally and professionally. Even though two of the members are married to each other, they each consider each other best friends. “We’ve learned so much about ourselves as artists and how we want to meet the world,” Shepherd said.
“It’s really beautiful to share your life with a group of people that you’re so close-knit with and that you have a shared endeavor,” Enscoe added. Strayhorn continued, “Being in a band has taught me a lot about what happens when you trust people and allow yourself to have an experience that maybe you didn’t think you would.”  From: https://www.michigandaily.com/arts/music/from-subway-serenades-to-stage-success-an-interview-with-bandits-on-the-run/ 

 

Heart - Heartless / Devil Delight

The success of 1975's multi-platinum album Dreamboat Annie left members of Heart feeling pretty good about their future. They'd become a tight unit following opening stints for acts like the Doobie Brothers, Rod Stewart, the Beach Boys, and Jefferson Starship, as well as headlining dates in clubs around North America.
New material they were writing showed the depth of the creative impulses Heart was marshaling through so much road work. The songs also rocked, of course, but they were also coalescing around a motif which Heart intended to turn into a concept album called Magazine.
"There was a whole theme behind it, where all the songs were going to be like articles in a magazine all tied together," singer Ann Wilson told Goldmine. "There was going to be a booklet that was shot like a really cool artistic fashion magazine. And not just fashion, but news and stuff like that that we would make up."
While the band was not short on creative spark, there was trouble afoot with their business relationships – namely with their record company, the small Canadian indie label Mushroom Records. The unexpected windfall of cash Heart had brought in with Dreamboat Annie led Mushroom to indulge in some previously impossible expansion.
"The label had attempted to leverage our success by signing more bands, adding U.S. distribution, and raising their industry profile," Ann Wilson said in the band's 2012 memoir Kicking & Dreaming. "Sometimes they did that with money that might have gone toward paying us royalties we were owed."
Guitarist Roger Fisher told Sounds in 1977 that Heart "had only seen royalty payments for less than a fifth of the two and a half-million copies of Dreamboat Annie that were sold."
As they gathered to record Magazine, Heart brought in a new management team whose first task was renegotiating the group's royalty rate with Mushroom. Additionally, other record companies came calling after sensing that Heart might soon be available. Wilson and her guitar-playing sister Nancy declined to pursue these options. They preferred to remain faithful with the label that first believed in them, in spite of the difficulty of the negotiations. That all ended with one magazine ad.
"[Mushroom] bought a full-page ad in Rolling Stone touting our success," Wilson recalled. "'Million to One Shot Sells a Million,' read the headline. They had mocked up the ad to look like it was the front page of the National Enquirer."
Further down the advertisement was a more troubling mock "story" containing a photograph of the Wilson sisters, bare-shouldered and back to back (as they were on Dreamboat Annie's cover), with the caption "Heart's Wilson Sisters Confess: 'It Was Only Our First Time!'"
The ribald double-entendre infuriated the group. "The ad went against everything we had hoped to achieve, against our ideals, and against all the intent and beauty in our songs," Ann Wilson wrote in Kicking & Dreaming. "What steamed us the most was that our own record label had put out an ad that implied we were incestuous lesbian lovers."
The advertisement was the final straw for Heart, who sued Mushroom in federal court for royalty payments and to get out of their contract. Also at issue was the status of Mike Flicker, Mushroom's house producer, who had discovered the band and produced Dreamboat Annie.
Amid the noise of Heart's warring with Mushroom, Flicker had either quit or been fired from the label, depending on whom one asked. That gave Heart what they felt was a legal out from their deal: They had a "key man" clause in their contract, stipulating if Flicker left Mushroom, the band could walk.
Heart began negotiating with other labels, eventually signing with Portrait Records and beginning work on the record that would become 1977's Little Queen. In retaliation, Mushroom got to work on producing an album around the handful of tracks that had been recorded for Magazine.
"They took the few tracks that were nearly done and completed them without our involvement, using our rough vocals," Ann Wilson recalled in Kicking & Dreaming. "To that they added a few outtakes and live tracks, and rushed the album into stores."
Heart pursued and was awarded an injunction that removed Mushroom's Magazine from store shelves. Eventually, the lawsuit was settled, with the band winning their freedom from the label and Mushroom getting one more album from the group.
"We decided to make Magazine that album," Ann remembered, "but insisted we finish the vocals and mixes. We did that in a Seattle studio later that year, as an armed security guard stood by. The court had ordered the guard because Mushroom was afraid we would erase our original multi-track recordings out of spite."
Mushroom re-released Magazine on April 22, 1978. "Heartless" was its enduring classic, a straight-up rock tune with a particularly vicious Wilson vocal. Ann noted the song "contained some of my favorite lyrics ever," singling out the refrain "Never realize the way love dies when you crucify its soul."
"Heartless" kicked off Side 1, which also contained the positively punishing "Devil Delight," with its plodding, Led Zeppelin-esque beat and exquisite weaving of guitars in the solo section. The side ends with a cover of "Without You," the Badfinger ballad that Harry Nilsson had taken to No. 1 in 1972. Ann Wilson wraps her voice gently around the verses and bears down on the anthemic chorus, crushing the high notes and proving herself one of the great rock singers of the day.
Side 2 contains the intricate title track, as well as two live cuts – covers recorded at Seattle's Aquarius Tavern, in 1975. Of the two, the band's take on the Kiki Dee Band's 1974 hit "I've Got the Music in Me" is the more un-Heart-like, but it nevertheless shows the group's versatility, shifting a jaunty pop song into a more rocking set piece.  From: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/heart-magazine/

Ellesmere - Stranger Skies

More than most other genres, I think prog rock and metal have the keen ability to capture the feeling of season and their changes. Some prog projects focus on nothing but this, but regardless bands that choose that sort of these for songs or whole albums just sound a certain way through their tones, scale usage, and tempo. Ellesmere certainly smacked of a bit of that before with prior projects like Wyrd which I reviewed over four years ago, but it seems to have been stepped up a few notches here with Stranger Skies along with the overall breadth of progged-out instrumentation and world-building.
Ellesmere still sees Roberto Vitelli (bass, keys, songwriting) at the helm of the project, but just like Wyrd there’s a number of prolific lifers when it comes to prog rock performance including some returning ones like Mattias Olsson (drums), Tomas Bodin (more keys), and John Hackett (flute) with additions like David Jackson on saxophone and wind instruments, Giacomo Anselmi on guitar, and Riccardo Romano on backing vocals and 12-string acoustic guitar. Speaking of vocals, for lead we get John Wilkinson on vocals which, if you heard a Genesis influence with Ellesmere‘s music before, Wilkinson’s voice will definitely drive that comparison home as he sounds like a pitch-perfect take on Phil Collins’ legendary English croon circa their Wind & Wuthering LP.
The result is Stranger Skies feeling like the adventurous album it’s set up to be, probably better than Wyrd and I loved that album. Six tracks here, the first four of which capture the cold of a winter-stricken world with an approachable whimsy. It doesn’t feel like an oppressive kind of cold, it simply colors in the world in a specific way with tracks like “Northwards” and “Tundra”. “Northwards” for its part is a wonderful intro to the album and to what Ellesmere has to offer nowadays which feels compositionally tighter than previous work at the natural expense of more variance in the tracks. This is fine for me! This is still progressive rock through and through, and there will of course be moments of movement and progression even within songs of average length. This one for example has a triumphant and explorative opening with tons of charm from robust horns and other orchestral touches – it’s like the opening sequence of a fantasy movie – and it gives way to stately ’70s-styled prog rock replete with the sounds of synths, rock guitars, and Wilkinson’s evocative singing.  From: https://everythingisnoise.net/reviews/ellesmere-stranger-skies/ 

Besvarjelsen - Alone

Besvärjelsen formed in 2014 by members from bands like Dozer, Greenleaf, Afgrund, Lastkaj and V. The band has strong ties with doom but it’s too easy to say it’s only doom as there can be influences from good old hard rock, folk, and progressive metal found. Besvärjelsen first EP was released in 2015 and yet another EP was released in 2016. The first full-length Vallmo will hit the streets in March and Lea Amling (vocals) was so kind as to answer some questions.

Hi Lea, how are things in Sweden at this moment?

In Sweden, we are having a full-blown winter. A few weeks ago I was super excited that we had all this snow but I’m getting pretty fed up now. I’m so ready for summer, I’m already wearing sneakers in total denial.

I guess you feel excitement at this moment as your debut album is almost released. Can you tell a little more about the album?

I’m very excited! We started working on the album in 2016 and we finished the recordings in 2017 so I’m just counting down the days until release. ”Vallmo” consists of 8 tracks, vocals are in Swedish and English, and I would say it’s a good representation of where we are right now. Finding a unique sound is hard but on ”Vallmo” I think we planted a seed that we will grow amazing things from. The record will be released by Suicide Records but we are also supported by DalaPop, a local company who works with and supports bands from our region (Dalarna).

How did the collaboration with Suicide Records come to exist?

Well, Henke has always been a great supporter of the band and has cheered us and banged his head at shows. I guess he convinced Roger to come to a show and we did our things and it all just clicked and now here we are. It’s hard to find a record label run by people who actually love music and don’t only see you as cash. Right now we are surrounded by genuine music lovers and Suicide has a stable of amazing bands that we are happy to call family.

How did the name of the band come about?

Besvärjelsen means Conjuring and we chose it because it sounds badass as fuck. We realize people outside of Sweden must be like ”how the fuck do you say this” but we like it. It’s cool. It was Besvärjelsen or Orkester Korv. We had a knife fight about it and Besvärjelsen won.

Two EP’s were released till now by Besvärjelsen, when comparing them to the upcoming album, what are the big differences then?

I would say the difference is HUGE. A few members changes have taken place and that always influences the sound. The album is deeper, more mature and just has an overall vibe that I really love. A few of us in the band moved from the big city out to the countryside and that has definitely affected us. I was stressed out and a nervous wreck recording the first EP’s, now I’m a zen fucking Buddha with cry control and confidence. I hope people will be happy with the sound.

What can you tell about the artwork for Vallmo?

The artwork is created by an amazing Swedish artist named Emelie Draper/Blodpest. I’ve always been in love with her style and she was my first choice for creating the art for the album. She is also one of the coolest and smartest people in Sweden so we are very lucky she wanted to draw this!

I believe it will be released as a double LP limited to 300 copies. If it gets sold out, and I believe it will, will there be a repress?

You would have to ask our label about this but I don’t think a re-issue will be impossible! But in case, you should pre-order it so you don’t miss out on the first sweet batch!

How did you discover your own style of singing?

I started singing when I was a kid, I was in a child group and we did a lot of talent shows and stuff, we were supercool. I’ve sung for the Royal Family and all. I always loved to be on stage but I was bullied a lot for it in school and it left deep marks on my confidence. I started screaming in hardcore and punk bands and stayed in that scene for a few years. I was too shy to ever sing ”clean” in front of anyone but when I was 21 I started singing in a band called ”Bandet Alltså” and my friends in that band are the reason I’m able to do anything musically today. They inspire me, have pushed me, cheered and encouraged me and my singing in ways I could never explain. I’m forever thankful for their cheers and friendship.

From: https://loudunity.home.blog/2019/03/07/besvarjelsen-qa-with-lea-about-the-debut-full-length-and-other-things/ 

 

Quicksilver Messenger Service - Light Your Windows / Dino's Song / The Fool / Babe I'm Gonna Leave You

Just another San Francisco band, ya know. Unfortunately, in the public eye Quicksilver Messenger Service aren't really notorious for anything but the name. They never made history like the Jefferson Airplane, never created a world religion like the Grateful Dead, and never even made it onto the official alternative list of "weird lost treasures" like Moby Grape. They were there at the time, made up some music, smoked some pot, played some shows, stayed together for a bit too long, and ended up in complete obscurity. Sort of like, uh, well, you know, the average mediocre fate of the average mediocre band.
Fact is, QMS may be "average", but they're anything but mediocre. The band revolved around a couple of really talented guitarists, capable of adjusting to a lot of different styles, from typical "acid guitar" to blues-rock and jazz. One of the main forces behind it was songwriter Dino Valenti (Valente), also known as Chet Powers, Jesse Oris Farrow, and under a couple thousand other names - a guy with his own flaws but also with creative ideas a-plenty. And at one time, the band could even boast the inclusion of none other than the fabulous pianist Nicky Hopkins as an official member, an honour that neither the Kinks nor the Rolling Stones nor any of the countless bands Nicky had played with could ever garner.
In short, QMS had a whole pool of talent to burn, or, rather, to dessicate. And they did. Starting out with a relatively accessible "hippie-folk" record, they followed it with a thoroughly unaccessible "hippie-jam" one, and afterwards plunged into cautious experimentation with a whole lot of things, merging psychedelia, folk-rock, blues, country, and artsiness in one boiling pot that never seemed to have much of a conceptual nature but was almost always nice to the touch, at least. It can't be said that Quicksilver made a whole lot of innovation in any one particular sphere, but they touched upon many, and, frankly, just wrote good songs, if that ain't enough for you.  From: https://starlingdb.org/music/qms.htm 

Fever Ray - Wanna Sip

A new Fever Ray album is a rare occurrence. After splitting off from the Knife, the political electro-pop vehicle formed with their brother Olof Dreijer, Fever Ray’s landmark 2009 solo debut explored the frustrations of motherhood via banks of frozen drones and memorably odd lyrics about plant care and kitchen sinks. Its follow-up took eight years: in 2017, Plunge honked the horn for Dreijer’s queer sexual epiphany with a stack of jittery dance tracks and explicit lyrics. Plunge was “more urgent,” says Dreijer, “like, ‘This needs to come out now!’”
The pandemic provided Dreijer with a different headspace for their third album, Radical Romantics. “I realised that I haven’t been so good with patience. That is something I really have had time to practise during the last years, to be still with a feeling. Some things,” they announce in mock revelation, “will work out by themselves without you having to do so much about it.”
Dreijer has previously flown a flag for socialist, feminist and genderqueer politics through the use of pitch-shifted vocals, elaborate masks, queer drag and demands for “free abortions”. An album about love might seem a bit pedestrian in comparison. Yet there’s something deliciously nonconformist about Dreijer turning to love songs aged 47, in a new phase of self-discovery. “Who am I while wanting you?” they sing. “Are they laughing at my thin skin?” It sounds as though Dreijer has taken a step back from living on the edge. That “peaceful sadness” seems to come from a reckoning with age, and what they might have missed out on. “Because I’m quite old now,” they offer, “when you discover things at this time in life, there has been a lot of time when you didn’t know.”
The music moves slower, too. Brother Olof brings his inimitable palette of drums, synths, bongs and squeaks, pulling instruments together in endlessly satisfying knots on Shiver, New Utensils and Kandy. Other borrowed brains include Portuguese producer Nídia, who builds a clattery batida rhythm under strangulated vocals on Looking for a Ghost, and Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who underpin the album’s darkest moments with tape hiss and industrial fuzz. Carbon Dioxide is the big one, a symphonic endorphin rush from the mind of British experimental composer Vessel, which breaks down into stadium-sized trance as Dreijer’s voice soars: “Holding my heart! While falling!”
Dreijer’s gift as a songwriter is the ability to lace intimate observations and droll humour with occasionally sinister thoughts (“nothing is more fatal than an angry man,” they sang on the Knife’s Neverland) and outre ideas (the “bucket of tiger pee” from the Knife’s Without You My Life Would Be Boring). On Radical Romantics, their words remain tough nuts to crack, but between the lines there’s a heightened vulnerability. There are apologies – the album’s opening line is “first I’d like to say that I’m sorry” – and delicate questions: “Can I trust you?” they ask on the sex-starved Shiver, “I just wanna be touched.”
‘Because I’m quite old now, when you discover things at this time in life, there has been a lot of time when you didn’t know.’ Photograph: Nina Andersson
The lovesick dynamic comes to life on Kandy, a sensual slow dance with a Knife-esque shimmer. In the video Dreijer plays two characters: one the monstrous love interest, with stringy blond hair arranged in a tonsure, who does a lapdance for the other Karin, a sweet-seeming office drone in a bald cap. They think they’ve found love, says Dreijer, describing the force that’s taken hold: “I don’t care what they do to me, they can strangle me, but I just want to be seen by this person.” It’s a dangerous and familiar dynamic, a “crazy high feeling you can have for a lot of activities and people and stuff. You know that it’s probably not the best thing to do, but it’s there and it’s very tempting.”
Therapy was one experience behind this questioning album. After doing that, “the world becomes so much bigger”, Dreijer says. “If you don’t know why you get anxiety it will just keep on crippling you … When you know more about yourself you will also be able to play around with your fears.” There’s a similarity, I suggest, between therapy and kink, as Dreijer explored in Plunge: both involve working out what pushes your buttons. Dreijer allows a tiny smile. “There is always the dangerous route,” they say vaguely. “It’s always there as a choice. I know I have to use my boundaries to say no to this thing, whatever it is – a person, thing, act – because it’s not wise and healthy for me in the long run. But it can be so amazingly amazing, short term.”  From: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/feb/17/fever-ray-karin-dreijer-romance-ageing-kink-dangerous-route

R.E.M. - Pop Song 89 / You Are the Everything / Me in Honey

Me In Honey: Let’s just let Michael Stipe explain his motivation for this one himself, okay? This is taken from Marcus Gray’s It Crawled From The South:
Of “Me In Honey,” Michael admits, “Specifically, that song to me is an answer song to 10,000 Maniacs’ “Eat For Two.” It’s a male perspective on pregnancy, which I don’t think has been dealt with. There’s a real push-me-pull-me issue, saying, “I had nothing to do with it,” yet on the other hand saying, “Wait, I have feelings about this.”
Exactly one line in “Me In Honey” gives away the pregnancy angle — “baby’s got a baby with me” — and it’s kinda tossed off in the final verse, so it’s pretty easy to ignore that bit if you’d rather just hear it as song about a guy trying to save face with an angry lover. However, this song works far better just the way Stipe intended, with his protagonist expressing a mix of emotions that has him unsure whether he’s more freaked out by the onset of overwhelming responsibility, or the part of him that wants to escape from the situation.
There’s no doubt that the guy is going to do the right thing. The song overflows with love and goodwill, and despite its confusion, “Me In Honey” is among the most jubilant pieces of music R.E.M. have ever written, with Peter Buck’s circular rhythms driving the song towards percussive fills that push the tune towards its most ecstatic moments. Appropriately enough, the studio recording features backing vocals by the B-52’s Kate Pierson, who not only supplies the track with a wordless female counterpoint, but significantly boosts the tune’s dosage of soulful bliss.  From: https://popsongs.wordpress.com/2007/10/29/me-in-honey/

The Roches - Hammond Song

Today’s classic song of the day is more obscure than most, and I expect that many readers of this blog won’t know it. But if you do, you probably love it.
The tune is “Hammond Song” by the Roches. The Roches were a new-folk group of three sisters (Maggie, Terre, and Suzzy) out of New Jersey who hit the scene in the late ’70s and kept going through the ’80s and into the ’90s and mid-2000s. Their voices and harmonies were unique, to say the least, but that’s what made fans fall in love with them. They were sort of a punk-folk group, often singing a cappella, who wrote quirky songs in stunning three-part harmony.
“Hammond Song,” written by sister Maggie, is “a song about leaving town.” It was inspired by the sisters’ reaction to what was their first big break in the music business. Maggie and Terre had met famous musician guy Paul Simon when they crashed his songwriting class at NYU. He subsequently enlisted them to sing backup vocals on the song “Was a Sunny Day” on his 1973 album, There Goes Rhymin’ Simon. Simon’s record company took an interest in the duo but proved too intrusive for the sisters (including asking them to wear “hipper clothes”), inspiring them to skip town and head south to Hammond, Louisiana (not Hammond, Indiana, as I originally thought). Sister Terre relates what transpired:
“We were humiliated… We wanted to get out of the whole situation. We had a friend in Hammond, Louisiana, who was running a kung fu school. We gave up our apartment and told the record company, ‘We’re not going to promote the record anymore; we’re going away for a while.’ This was two weeks after the record came out. Maggie wrote the ‘Hammond Song’ about the whole experience.
The Roches started out as a duo with eldest Maggie and middle sister Terre; they released their first album, Seductive Reasoning, in 1975. Younger sister Suzzy joined the act when she graduated from high school, and they released their self-named debut album in 1979. Robert Fripp produced that one and contributed some wonderful electric guitar backup to the group’s distinctive vocals.
The group first got widespread attention when Phoebe Snow recorded Maggie’s tune, “The Married Men,” and performed it (with Linda Ronstadt) on Saturday Night Live. The Roches themselves were invited to perform on the November 17, 1979, episode of SNL, which is where I was first exposed to their magic. For the show, they performed the song “Bobby’s Song” and their own unique a cappella interpretation of the Hallelujah Chorus; that was back when SNL actually broke new musical acts.
“Hammond Song” was a standout on that first album, although there’s not a bad track on the disc. The Roches continued performing and recording through 2007, releasing a total of eleven albums as a trio. Maggie and Suzzy released two further albums as a duo, Suzzy released two solo albums, and Terre released three albums on her own. Suzzy also released three albums with her daughter, Lucy Wainwright Roche. (Yes, Lucy’s dad is singer/songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, making her the half-sister of fellow musicians Martha Wainwright and Rufus Wainwright). From: https://classicsongoftheday.com/hammond-song-the-roches/

 

Uriah Heep - Tears in My Eyes

The third album from Uriah Heep sees them taking further giant steps forward. The rhythm section is still in a state of turmoil, but the nucleus of Box/Byron/Hensley have found a solid direction, and are approaching the pinnacle of their combined creativity.
The title track has become one of the band's most enduring pieces, a solid five minute chunk of loud, infectious rock, with a wall of sound, and a breathtaking pace. The instrumental breaks are quite stunning, with Box in particular in fine form. Towards the end of the track, Bronze label-mates Osibisa add additional percussion as it increases pace before reaching a climactic conclusion. I only discovered recently, that the lead vocals on the track are performed by Ken Hensley, not David Byron, although the latter always took the lead when the song was performed live. Quite why this happened is puzzling, as the overall sound is very much as if Byron himself was singing as usual.
The album includes the epic "July Morning", with its majestic prog sound, and superb structure. The track alternates between soft and loud passages, and includes a wonderful Hammond solo followed by Byron reaching ever higher with his piercing screams. The main instrumental theme which closes the track is basically simple, but transformed by a guest appearance from Manfred Mann on synthesiser. While Hensley would later master this instrument himself, they were still somewhat rare at the time, giving the track a very progressive feel in the early 70's. A truly magnificent piece of music.
The rest of the tracks are all very strong, including the melodic ballad "What should be done", and the twin guitar lead on "Tears in my eyes". With this album, the Uriah Heep "sound" was firmly established. The tracks have great power, while strong melodies are still very much the priority. "July morning" especially is an absolute classic.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=5896

Edie Brickell & New Bohemians - Live Copley Square, Boston 2006

Edie Brickell has a dream. It's not to be rich, famous or even well-liked. Nor is it to save the whales, free political prisoners or feed the hungry.Surprise: She wants to be an old-fashioned mom. Although she says she'll probably always be a performer, or at least an artiste of some sort, she says she ultimately wants something "more important" out of life.
"What's important is creating a family basis," she said in a recent telephone interview. "Family relations are more important than relations with an audience. It's something you can go home to. Something you can trust. It's not something where they're going to love you one minute and not the next."
A convenient stance, the cynic might say, given that Brickell and her band, New Bohemians, are on deck for a Sunday night stop in Utah - arguably the homeland for traditional moms.
And yet, Brickell sounds utterly serious, if perhaps a bit naive, about her family goals. And even her naivete is mitigated largely by her acknowledgment that her view of families is an idealized one, likely born from the inadequacies of her own upbringing. "Sometimes people want to create the family they didn't have," she admits.
What kind of family did she have? She grew up in what press releases describe as a "lower-middle-class suburb" in Dallas. She lived mainly with her working mother who had divorced her father, a professional bowler, when Edie was very young. She attributes her shyness - which is evident on stage in her awkward, stiff-legged singing poses - to growing up in bowling alleys, moving frequently and being forced to attend many different schools.
Given her bashfulness, it's surprising she ever broke into a business where ostentation is a way of life. And, in fact, Brickell can only describe it as "inspiration" (fueled by a shot of Jack Daniels) that led her to make her impromptu singing debut at a Dallas night club early one morning in 1985. On a dare, she joined the British-influenced ska band called New Bohemians onstage And while she sang mainly improvised, sometimes nonsensical lyrics, the band members liked her so much they asked her to join.
Still, Brickell admits she's not entirely comfortable with the performance aspect of her chosen craft. She says she prefers writing songs to recording and touring. The main reason, she says, is that it's sometimes difficult to recapture onstage the emotion of a song she wrote years ago. "I'm more interested in new ideas and new songs," she said.
That urge to do something different is evident on their newest album, "Ghost of a Dog," which features songs that are more up-tempo and percussive than the band's 1988 debut album, "Shooting Rubber Bands at the Stars," which spawned a top-10 single ("What I Am") and was ranked the 10th best album of the year by Rolling Stone magazine.
But being different, especially after a successful album, is a risky proposition. The "if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it" philosophy dominates the pop music industry, and many bands find that forging this year's rec-ord in the image of last year's blockbuster is an easy way to financial success. And being different has had a price for Brickell and New Bohemians. "Ghost of a Dog" peaked at 32 on Billboard's list of top 100 albums and has since disappeared from radar.
But Brickell is nonplussed. The less-stellar success of "Ghost" was not a surprise, she said, "because the first one really went on to sell more than anyone expected. It had more of a pop feel. But we felt like, `Let's not repeat ourselves.' And we knew whatever we did would sell a little." It's perhaps the desire not to repeat herself that urges Brickell to contemplate her future family.
"I don't want to be the same," she said. "I don't like it when I have same thoughts. If I found someone who I could agree with, maybe, I would hope, I would be married in some kind of dependent relationship. I want to be a woman who has a career, but who has enough time to focus on the kids and not send them away."  From: https://www.deseret.com/1991/4/12/18915011/brickell-wants-to-be-traditional-mom/

Counting Crows - Catapult - Live TV 1996

A Counting Crows show always features unique versions of your songs, as the band often follows your lead on stage, which always appears to be extemporaneous. You get into an emotional state and you take a song into different directions, which is remarkable when considering how many musicians you work with.

Adam Duritz: Oh, yeah. That’s exactly how it happens. The first time you try something it might not be all that good, but as you work it through more and more you get better at finding your way. But they’re good. It would be impossible if we weren’t. Listening is really everything for us. It’s a big thing in our band. It’s like they say about jazz and soul music, it’s more important what you don’t play than what you do play. I would probably phrase that more like, “It’s more important how you listen on stage than what you play on stage,” because no matter how good you are as a player, if you’re not listening to the other guys, it’s a train wreck, especially in a band like ours, where there’s so much improvisation. It’s not like solo improvisation, more like necessary group improvisation. You really have to listen and that’s the thing we really kind of beat into each other’s heads for a long time.

I always get the feeling that you are kind of leading the band down the proverbial rabbit hole, and once the song gets in there, now it can go anywhere.

Yes. It makes it a little dangerous to not listen for me too because people will do things and on top of it, it’s messy. That’s the one thing in our band that everyone will call you out on, just not paying attention. Also a lot of things that may seem like me leading down the rabbit hole, might have been me hearing something cool someone else did that was a small thing, maybe too simple for anyone else to have heard or for the audience to have noticed it, but that might have given me an idea. It’s not like I’m the one coming up with the ideas every time. It probably sounds like it is, but probably a lot of times; it’s someone else doing something kind of cool that I hear and then I start something different and then that’s the part you hear, or the audience hears because it’s a little more obvious when the vocal does it. I suppose I’m the one making the decisions to take everyone down the rabbit hole with me, but I’m often inspired by just something little someone else did—or not so little. Little is the wrong word. Just something cool that someone else did.

That reminds me of your putting “Thunder Road” in the middle of “Rain King,” and I remember you doing it back in ’97 in Jersey and I thought, “This is perfect. It’s a homage to Springsteen.” But then it became part of what you did with the song, and after we did our first interview in 2008 you played that Apple show downtown in SoHo and you did it again, but this time it was a different way of utilizing it. When you include a verse or even a chorus of one song, maybe yours, maybe another’s, how predetermined or organic is that idea?

Could be a little of both. It could be an idea that comes while I’m on stage. The “Thunder Road” thing is a perfect example. I just started doing it one day, and granted, “Thunder Road” is one of those songs that without thinking about it we kind of know it from start to finish. It’s so dynamic in the way it builds that you kind of know most of the words. Even if you didn’t bother to learn them, they’re in your head. I was never really in cover bands very much. I never played “Thunder Road” in a band, but I started singing it that day. The first time I did it I only got about a third of the way through. No matter how well you know “Thunder Road” I’m singing it to the music of “Rain King” and that can get confusing.

(Laughs) Right.

You know? The next night I got a little further through it and eventually I put almost the whole thing in there. But it took a few days to do that. And sometimes you just get an idea while you’re singing something, like just a melody from another song will seem really cool in there, but the first time you do it you might not have the focus or the wherewithal to think of that melody in the context of the different song and also remember the words. The funny thing is a lot of times when we remember songs we remember them because of their melodies too, so when you try to sing them over a different song it can make your head spin around a little bit. 

From: https://www.theaquarian.com/2016/07/27/views-from-the-road-the-adam-duritz-interview-counting-crows-frontman-reveals-the-bands-unique-performing-secrets-his-love-of-creative-spontaneity-and-remembers-david-bowie-and-prince/ 

Mamalarky - Mythical Bonds / Shining Armor

 Mamalarky - Mythical Bonds

 

 Mamalarky - Shining Armor

 

Mamalarky have shared new single ‘Mythical Bonds’. The band have been through some changes, using the pandemic to decamp from Los Angeles to their new base in Atlanta, Georgia. Constructing a home studio in the Southern city, work began on their new album, slated to land later this year.
Titled ‘Pocket Fantasy’, the album is out on September 30th via Fire Talk, a work of unified creativity driven forwards by mutual support. New single ‘Mythical Bonds’ is a twisting, turning indie rock stomper, complete with a killer chorus.
Ambar Navarro directs the visuals, a fun-filled dive into the world of Mamalarky. Lyrically, the song is about friendship, with vocalist Livvy Bennett saluting band mate – and original Atlanta resident – Noor Khan.
“I really needed to write something to accurately show Noor how much her friendship means to me, and our journey as musicians and friends,” Livvy reflects. “We need more songs about friendship. In peak album-making mode we were churning out songs, at times to the point of delirium. So we decided to shake ourselves loose and make this serotonin rock song about how much we love each other–to push past all those hunched-over studio hours and create this little summer memento.” 
“At the time we were having a lot of pond, lake and pool-side hangs, laughter under the beating heat. At the end of those days all we wanted to do was come home and synthesise those feelings in our studio.”  From: https://www.clashmusic.com/news/mamalarky-return-with-punchy-indie-rocker-mythical-bonds/

Mamalarky are continuing to make some of the more unique versions of indie rock out there today. The band's latest single, "Shining Armor," is this bizarro version of R&B mixed with indie rock. It has this light yet funky feel to it, and unlike most indie rock, this one is actually a fun song. It's very danceable, as long as you don't mind dancing awkwardly to a rapidly changing beat. "Shining Armor" is reminding me of a more laid back version of Guerilla Toss. It's a noisy and chaotic song that is oddly pleasant and almost soothing at times.
Singer Livvy Bennett says of the new song: "This song goes out to conveniently anonymous YouTube haters. 'Shining Armor' is an invitation for anyone who has shit to say about how I play guitar to go ahead and reveal themselves and play a little song for us! When I wrote this I was getting a bunch of comments about my gender and appearance and how that corresponds with how I play guitar. The only response was to covert that anger into something that's genuinely so fun to play."  From: https://www.ifitstooloud.com/2022/09/mamalarky-shining-armor.html