“It's nature's way of telling you something's wrong
It's nature's way of telling you in a song
It's nature's way of receiving you
It's nature's way of retrieving you
It's nature's way of telling you something's wrong”
So sang Randy California and his Spirit back in 1970 (“Nature’s Way,” ’ Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus’) as the psych era was winding down and as the conscience about the environment and nature was starting to rise.
Since then so many artists and musicians sang about the exponentially rising problem (not to count all the scientific data and warnings), but we still seem to heed these warnings. At our own peril, of course.
Yet, that doesn’t and shouldn’t stop musicians and other artists from speaking out about the deteriorating environment or any other social, political, or scientific problems. Good music should certainly go along too.
Lauren Morrow - Only Nice When I’m High
It is not unusual anymore for Nashville country artists to take cues from other musical genres, it is only a matter whether they can make a good balance between supposedly conflicting genres. Morrow strikes exactly the right balance here.
Laaraji, Kramer - Submersion
You can hardly call this a song from Laaraji and Kramer as it is over twenty minutes, but then you can expect something brief from a slowly evolving masters of the ambient the two of these are.
Bella White - Flowers On My Bedside
White has got a voice that just oozes emotion and has songwriting chops to match here to carry this countrified folk ballad exactly where it should go.
Holly Wave - Cowprint
The title spells another country song, but this Texas trio is more in the bedroom pop ballad mode, in a way resurrecting the sound of incomprehensibly neglected college bands of the nineties like Kingsbury Manx.
Ruth Blake - Not Your Angel
Blake moves from her folky sound into a modern take on electronica (or trip-hop, if you still fashion the term), but she gives a bit of a more upbeat glaze and some good vocals to boot.
The Now - Girl You Got Me
That song title and the guitar sound that dominates here put these Welsh guys squarely in that ‘old fashioned’ classic rock category, but if you do it well, that old fashion still has its charms.
Samantha Fish, Jesse Dayton - Riders
Another song that can fall into that never goes out of fashion category, this time around with more of a rootsy, even bluesy swagger, yet, when it is done this well, it always works.
Fridge - Five Four Child Voice
Before he became known as Four Tet, Kieran Hebden was part of a trio called Fridge, which often had more to do with guitar-driven post-rock than electronica. Hebden decided to reissue the old Fridge stuff, and luckily for listeners, this is available again.
Laura Wolf - Caligraphy And Calculations
Coming up with inventive music sometimes requires inventive song titles, and this cellist, singer, and producer does both here with some quite interesting electronically-based stuff.
Tomato Flower - Destroyer
Emo can be so hard to take sometimes, and it works when bands like Tomato Flower try to control that ‘emo’ element and make it serve its true purpose, combining it with other genres, as this quartet does here.
Bright & Findlay - When I Look Into The World
Having the right take on the soul/smooth jazz combination is excruciatingly hard to do right and make it work as just good music instead of it becoming aural wallpaper, and this duo does exactly that here.
The Veldt - The Everlasting Gobstopper
Initially, shoegaze was given a very short lifespan, but that sound by the likes of The Cocteau Twins and others lives on in quite a number of shapes and forms, as The Veldt aptly shows here.
Jacob Morris - Lister
You don’t exactly have to be loud to protest against something, and very often, doing it in a bit more subdued manner has a better effect as Morris expresses his anti-war feelings here.
Superbloom - My Tiny Bodyguard
The alt/indie rock seems to be fading in the background, but there are artists around like this Brooklyn quartet here that deserve the title, particularly if they do it justice, as Superbloom does here.
Setting Sun - Same Face
These New York state folk rockers show that you can actually cover that quite wide category with ease if you have a good melody and know how to combine good vocals without messing with the subdued arrangement along the way.
TEKE:TEKE - Doppelganger
This Montreal collective has already shown that their combination of all things surf and garage rock and J-pop can really work, something that this ‘Doppelganger’ definitely proves.
Whitehall - Pull
Another proud bearer of the alt-rock flag flies it high here with some interesting guitar touches and a good melody to hang those touches on. Hopefully, their new album is full of songs like this one.
79.5 - Long Term Parking
Of course, there is nothing wrong with pop, if it is as good as this, and is laced with different touches like the psych-funk stuff this New York band throw in here.
Gloorp - Musty
Garrett Burk is a drummer that doubles as a producer, and he shows both his percussive and production skills in this dub-like beat-dominated experiment, that actually works.
Meagre Martin - All My Thoughts
Going outside any (and including as many) genre(s) can turn into a real mess, but this Berlin via Boston trio seems to have digested all their krautrock, shoegaze, and just pop influences quite well here, thank you.