MIDWIFE – NO DEPRESSION IN HEAVEN Once again proving that the heaviest music is that which has the deepest moods and goes to the emotional spaces that most people would rather forget, Madeline Johnston offers seven songs that are uncompromising in their emotional weightiness. Each guides you through lingering grief and the dreams, fantasies and ghosts that sit with you as you try to sort through what anything means — and the things you’re told have meaning — and how to navigate the nuances of what you’ve come to believe. Through a lens of abstract, pastoral, ambient folk and gauzy tones, Johnston eases the listener into an acceptance of uncertainty and vulnerability to existential truth. Also, nice nod to Santo & Johnny. PINK LADY MONSTER – PSYCHIC ANTENNAE AND A TINSEL HEART 40 plus years ago this album could have come out on the 99 Records imprint during the height of No Wave. Its alchemical fusion of free jazz, noise rock, pop and the avant-garde is frankly unlike much of anything going on at the moment. Although “No Romance” might be compared to a PJ Harvey song, its rhythms slink, slash and flow in unpredictable yet intuitive fashion. The group’s earlier dream pop leanings are folded into beautifully and thrillingly nightmarish compositions that sometimes wax into the realm of Tropicália, with a similarly pointed social commentary delivered with a creatively wicked sense of humor. STEVEN LEE LAWSON & THE ARCHERS – HELP IS ON THE WAY Steven Lee Lawson & The Archers fully integrate its more raw, existential rough edged and earnest Americana with its introspective pop sensibilities on this EP. Maybe it’s the Rhodes or the splintered power pop guitar hooks that bleed into psychedelic Americana akin to mid-70s Neil Young. Maybe it’s tender and confessional folk elements. But here, Lawson and company find a way to elegantly articulate the tension between despair and hope as two faces of the same emotional state, and on measure, land on the latter, rendered in the sounds of a kinder and gentler honky tonk band. TUFF BLUFF – S/T A lot of poppy garage punk has fairly straightforward and unironic lyrics. Tuff Bluff off nuanced and complex emotional portraits in its supercharged power pop throughout this self-titled debut album. The stories in every song have specific and immediately relatable situations, illuminating the essence of an American experience or archetype, and not always the type our culture romanticizes. Because of that, the irresistible and energetic melodies baked into every song hits as vital and authentic and never as saccharine and trite. For more, visit queencitysoundsandart.wordpress.com
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