This third release from Wildhoney is very much a record of two halves. Side one finds the Baltimore shoegazers in a fairly poppy frame of mind on five joyous janglers that combine some greatly uplifting musical sounds with a few thoughtful lyrical concerns, while the flip-side is a flip-side in every sense. These two styles ensure that ‘Your Face Sideways’ defies convention by bravely trying to please most fans of dreampop and shoegaze movements in one hit – and actually succeeds. Those who want definite songs get some real belters, while those hoping to lose themselves in an other worldly haze are given ample opportunity as the record progresses.
Tag Archives: alternative
THE SOFT SPOTS – Life Is But A Dream EP
At the beginning of 2015, Philadelphia’s The Soft Spots fused electronica, dream pop and a touch of ukulele twiddling on their debut EP ‘Gently Down The Stream’, resulting in a surprisingly enjoyable listen. Issued a few months later, their follow-up, ‘Life Is But a Dream’ brings more of the same – its five numbers clearly designed to compliment the earlier release.
MARMOZETS – Live @ Reading Festival, UK 2015
On the back of a couple of independent EPs, Marmozets released their debut album in 2014 to great critical acclaim and commercial success. Rightly so, too, since their blend of alternative rock, math rock, metal and a smidgeon of punky attitude resulted in one of the year’s best discs. [Full review here]
THE GRAND – Incapacitated, Ill Fated and In Love
The Grand’s 2015 full-length debut ‘Incapacitated, Ill-Fated and In Love’ pushes the band’s brand of indie rock into the dusty corners of the psyche, often setting out as much to unnerve as entertain. Such an appropriately named album: the ten tracks take the listener through states of confusion, denial, anger, spite, heartbreak and more general upset in about forty minutes than most could ever manage. From a musical standpoint, experiencing this album is like hearing Arcade Fire dropping in on some of the bleaker themes from John Grant and Richard Thompson’s lyric books…and it’s bloody great.
NORMAL FOX – The Boy Who Couldn’t Change Anything EP
Wisconsin’s Normal Fox bill themselves as sounding like “the best summer you ever had”. The music doesn’t always instantly have a summery feel, but there are times throughout their 2013 EP release ‘The Boy Who Couldn’t Change Anything’ where the four musicians sound like they’re having a fantastic time playing music – and that in itself is probably enough to justify such claims, no matter how you’d personally choose to soundtrack your own (hopefully) sun-filled vacation time. On the surface, they sound like just another alt-rock/emo band, but as these five songs clearly demonstrate, at least one member of the band has broader musical interests than first appears.