“Perfectionism” – Hotel MiraIndie Pop The hardest task for any artist is leaving a good first impression. If the first time someone hears your music doesn’t blow them away, it can be nearly impossible to get them to give you another chance down the road. As a result of the sheer amount of bands out …
Author Archives: Matthew Lawhead
“Never Not Together” by Nada Surf – Review
“Never Not Together” – Nada SurfIndie Pop Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up with the idea of being different. You never want to sound like anybody else; you need to stand out. This leads to thinking that something that sounds like music you’ve heard before is somehow derivative, even though that’s really not true. …
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“Rope and Ladder” by Rope and Ladder – Review
I’m not sure that I’ve ever been so excited to hear an album from a band I had never heard of before. When I stumbled across “Lost Cause” on BandCamp I immediately put this on the top of my radar and the various singles that came out have steadily increased my hopes. The release date was pushed back a week and it ended up being one of the longest weeks of my life. So the question is, does this album that was ten years in the making live up to the hype?
“Don’t Disturb the Garden” by More Like Trees – Review
So this album is weird. That’s kind of the point of the first track, which is half skit and half cabaret masterpiece. The rest of the album bounces all over the place which makes it really hard to lock down what kind of genre you would call it. Really the only consistent thread is the vaguely vaudevillian atmosphere, which is why I settled on the terrible genre title I came up with. I don’t want this review to turn into a full track-by-track breakdown, but it…
Karfagen – Birds of Paradise
Every year you’re guaranteed to miss some great releases due to the sheer amount of material out there. Unfortunately, even things that make their way to you can still fail to make an impact for whatever reason. This was the case for the stunning Echoes From Within Dragon Island which didn’t get the true opportunity to shine for me until recently.
Top 15 Songs of 2019
The past year has been a perfect capstone for the past decade of music with mountains of incredible songs and albums. This list of my personal favorites took a long time to trim down and order properly and in order to keep it from getting to absurdly long I cut out any songs that were included on albums from my AotY list and many other deserving tracks. I’m certain there are tracks I will regret not including, but these are my favorites at this point in time:
Top 10 Albums of 2019
2019 has been an exceptional year in music with great releases from both newcomers and well established artists. Trying to narrow down the best of the best was no easy task, but these ten albums are the ones that truly stood a head above. Here are my personal best albums of the year:
Decade Roundup
As the year comes to a close, the time has come to start thinking about my favorite albums of the year. 2019 has been a year of great discovery for me as I listened to nearly 1500 hours of music on Spotify alone. While many of these wonderful discoveries are from this year, many more …
“A Reminder” by Stolen Jars – Review
“A Reminder” – Stolen Jars 8.9/10 | Indie Rock Referring to an album as indie rock almost feels insulting sometimes. Genres in general can be extremely limiting and largely meaningless, but “indie rock” is somehow the most generic descriptor of all. By being such a large catch-all, it also manages to fail to get across …
“Seven Seas” by Barock Project – Review
“Seven Seas” – Barock Project9.1/10 | Progressive Rock Album covers are important. They have to be eye grabbing, creative, thematically appropriate, and above all they have to look good. The resurgence of vinyl can be attributed to many different things, but for me it’s because it is the only media that captures the importance of …
Koda Music 