Following a fuzz heavy intro that suggests a love of shoegaze, ‘Abandoned Love’ – the lead track from Arrows of Athena’s second album ‘Daydreaming’ – opens up to share a techy sounding slice of alternative rock-pop in a Garbage meets Yeah Yeah Yeahs style. It doesn’t take too long before the number’s brilliant blend of mechanical rhythms and contrasting flowing vocal begins to make an impression. Against some familiar sounding music, the track places a spotlight on vocalist Jac-Lyn Gibson, whose performance here is almost strong enough alone to carry the entire track, and definitely makes it easy to forgive what might be perceived as sharing too much of an obvious influence. The vocal shares an immediate power, calling out clearly despite being subjected to filters, and ultimately sounds like the perfect compliment to a great musical melody. As for that intro: it’s not a red herring. Guitarist Scott Lerner creeps through the cracks to fill the bridges with more of that pleasingly aggressive style, giving this track a superbly tough edge when needed. When released as a single in 2025, it sounded like one of the duo’s finest recordings to date; when experienced as part of this full length, its impact certainly isn’t diminished, despite being complimented by several other strong performances. If you’ve not heard Arrows of Athena before, this will leave a superb first impression.
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Those keeping a close watch over the Boston music scene in a post-lockdown era will certainly be aware of The Chelsea Curve. Vocalist Linda Pardee and her band have really carved out a niche in feel good sounds, blending the hooks of the early 80s power pop bands with a mod driven feeling of power. Their short and sharp approach has delivered lots of superb sounding chorus oriented numbers that revel in their love of recycling the past, yet never sound stale.
