There isn't much information online just yet about Leaving Laurel, a new project on the Anjunadeep label. There's a short introductory video on YouTube that doesn't really tell you much about who is involved with Leaving Laurel, but dig deep enough and you'll discover that the duo is made up of Pierce Fulton and Gordon Huntley. The Vermont born Fulton has two full length albums under his belt, as well as a slew of singles and remixes for other artists since 2010. Huntley is one half of the Canadian electronic duo Botnek, formed in 2008, who have also garnered attention for their singles, EP's and remixes, as well as their own SiriusXM radio show.
Now the two old friends have formed Leaving Laurel and if this first single release is any indication, this is a project for electronic music fans to closely monitor in 2020. The two track single starts with "sometimes it's scary but it's still just you and me", a song that mixes progressive beats with beautiful piano work, calling to mind the work of such artists as Kiasmos and Way Out West. As a massive fan of both, this track instantly had its hooks in me. "Need Little, Want Less" also mixes piano with electronics and is aimed a tad bit more at the dance floor, while still retaining a chillout vibe.
This single is a tantalizing preview of what Leaving Laurel has to offer. Here is hoping a full length album will follow at some point in 2020.
"sometimes it's scary but it's still just you and me"/"Need Little, Want Less" was released January 10th, 2020.
After releasing his debut album as SYML last year, Brian Fennell continued putting new music out into the world with three new singles before the end of 2019. He wastes no time with more new music as 2020 is barely two weeks old and another single release is upon us.
"Flags" takes on the very difficult subject matter of cancer. I first heard SYML perform this song back in June last year when I caught his show in Toronto and it was quite the emotional moment. Fennell has taken to expressing his feelings about his own experience watching loved ones battle this disease through his music. He explains what shaped the song: "I struggle with things that seem supernatural but are actually very natural. Cancer is one of those natural things. Nature is undiscerning and unforgiving. Cancer is raw and shapes the landscape of our lives. The metaphors run deep but they don't make mourning someone any less painful, especially before they leave us. I wrote 'Flags' like I write many of my songs, as a form of therapy to deal with people in my life who have battled cancer. The song is from the perspective of the body experiencing cancer. We meet pain and hopelessness with community and fight, and the fight is meaningful. Cancer fucking sucks and life is beautiful."
As is the case with much of SYML's catalog, Fennell takes difficult subjects we all have or will face in life and shares his experiences through his beautiful music. It's this emotional connection that draws me so deep into his music and he has quickly become a favorite songwriter of mine. Check out the studio version of "Flags" above and a stunning live performance of the song filmed in Brussels in October 2019 below.
2019 was quite the year for the Armstrong family. Dido returned to the scene with her first album in six years, with a world tour that followed shortly after. Still On My Mind, a collaboration with brother Rollo who helped produce and co-write the majority of the album, was a smashing success, landing at #5 on my favorite albums of the year list. Then in October Dido hinted at another project involving the two and the mysterious story of R Plus (fashioned as R+ on the album cover) started to come to light.
Unbeknownst to me, this project had its origins last year. Three singles were released under the moniker R&D, "My Boy", "Together" and "Cards". No fan fare, no credits, so little promotion it completely flew under my radar and I am a huge fan of Rollo and anything he is involved with. Since he doesn't have much of a social media presence it was easy for these releases to completely sneak past me and I never saw any mention of them on Dido's Twitter either, where she posts regularly. So when the R Plus project was announced, it all made sense. R&D. Rollo & Dido. And sure enough, all three of the songs released as R&D were included on the announced album The Last Summer.
You can't really call this Rollo's first proper "solo" album. He has released so many projects over the years, under so many different names, with so many different collaborators it makes your head spin. He's of course best known as one of the founding members of Faithless, one of the most successful electronic music bands of all time. Dido has always contributed vocals on Faithless' albums, Rollo has always written and produced material for Dido's solo albums, it makes perfect sense they would then collaborate on a whole new project, this time with Rollo as the face of the band as it were. But the two are joined on The Last Summer by another member of Faithless, the great Sister Bliss who is responsible for keyboards, synths and bass on the entire album. It's practically a Faithless reunion, minus Maxi Jazz rapping on the tracks.
The Last Summer consists of twelve tracks, but really only six proper songs. Three of those are the aforementioned "My Boy", "Together" and "Cards", although they appear here in slightly altered versions from the original R&D releases. So you might ask, how do six songs result in an entire album? Well much like his 2000 release When We Were Young under the project Dusted, Rollo creates an entire story through musical interludes, segues and spoken bits. This is not just slapping eight to ten tracks together and calling it an album, this is treating the album as an art form, telling a story through music, taking the listener on an experience. The Last Summer is meant to be listened to as a whole and it is this craftsmanship, and Rollo's unmatched production abilities, that made it a lock for my favorite album of 2019. It's an album that must be experienced first through headphones in order to truly appreciate it. Only there can you hear everything going on deep in the mix, every nuance in the background, every soundscape that swirls around your head. A truly immersive experience. However, it's also an album that begs to be experienced pounding through a good set of speakers loudly as it is still, at its heart, a dance record.
Inspired by vacations Rollo took as a teen and in his early 20's to such exotic locales as Ibiza, The Last Summer opens with "Landing", the sound of an airplane taking off to ethereal vocals which slowly builds to the main keyboard line from the first proper song "Together". "My Boy" follows, with a spoken intro of a woman describing what the word love means to her, before Dido's vocal takes over. "Clouds Like Islands" is one of a few interludes that move the story along while also serving as kind of an intro to the next proper song, the pulsating "Summer Dress". The middle section of the album consists of three of these type of tracks, "Diving" which serves as a showcase on the drums, "Ozzie Girl", a piece featuring an Australian girl revisiting a less than memorable early romantic encounter, and "...On Back Of A Scooter (Fast)" which leads into the next full song, "Those Were The Days". The story of The Last Summer is not difficult to follow. It's a reflection on summers of Rollo's youth, spent on beautiful beaches, flirting, falling in love and lust, partying with friends and loved ones, your whole life ahead of you. It was particularly inspired after a battle with lung cancer, discovered during a routine checkup after his 50th birthday. After fully recovering and facing his mortality, Armstrong decided he had more to give musically and The Last Summer was born. Album closer "Look Up!" asks the listener to look around and appreciate every aspect of life, from the clouds and birds in the sky to all of those important in your life around you.
The Last Summer is supposed to be the first in a series of R Plus releases from Rollo of him collaborating with other artists. This time, he handles the production, mixing and programming, Sister Bliss covers the music and Dido is on vocals. Will this lead to some of the coveted, unreleased All Thieves material being released finally, a question I still get asked to this day since I am one of the few to have reviewed it? We can hope, but in the meantime Rollo has shared the moving The Last Summer and it deserves your attention. It's my favorite album of 2019.
Favorite tracks: "My Boy", "Summer Dress", "Those Were The Days", "Together"
The Last Summer was released October 11th, 2019 on Loaded Records.
Since I first saw him as an opening act in 2015, Kevin Garrett has been an artist whose every new song has been eagerly anticipated. Hailing from Pittsburgh, Garrett has accomplished a lot since that first time I was introduced to his music. His first EP Mellow Drama, released in 2015, helped him quickly establish a fan base and also drew attention to a number of music industry big shots, including none other than Jay-Z. Garrett signed with his Roc Nation agency to publish his work. That connection led to Garrett co-writing and co-producing "Pray You Catch Me", the opening track on Beyonce's hugely successful 2016 album Lemonade. A Grammy nomination for his work on that song followed, as did high profile opening slots for the likes of Mumford & Sons and Alessia Cara, further introducing his music to a wider audience.
2017 saw Garrett release his second EP, False Hope, and venture out on a headlining tour of his own, while fans like myself held out hope for that first full length album to finally see the light of day. That wait came to an end in 2019 when Garrett sent Hoax out into the world in March. The first thing I liked before I even heard a note from Hoax was that I didn't know any of the material on it. With the way the industry works these days, especially for new artists, a series of singles and the occasional EP often get released, then when it finally comes time for the first album, a good portion of it draws from the material previously released. Garrett certainly had plenty of first rate material to choose from to compile an album from his single and EP releases. But instead, he took the time to build a proper album from new material, a refreshing approach we don't see often enough anymore on debuts.
Garrett's sound is mainly soul/R&B with some pop elements included and his specialty is sad, heartbreaking ballads. He even jokes about it in his live show, his propensity to focus on the heartbreak. I mean the back cover of the album even tells you Hoax is short for "Hell of A Heartbreak". And there are plenty of such ballads here, from the opener "Warn" to the closer "Like We Used To". "Telescopes" has a jazzy, old school feel, "It Don't Bother Me At All" touches on gospel influences, while "Faith You Might" is a piano and acoustic guitar based gem that exudes warmth as Garrett proclaims, "Do I pray? No, but I have faith you might." The slow burning piano ballad "Smoke" is another highlight, featuring a tour de force vocal performance from Garrett. I've seen him live enough times to tell you, there are no studio tricks with this dude. He can flat out sing, from lower register to falsetto, he has the range and is the real deal.
The remainder of the album delves into more mid-tempo, soulful tracks like "Don't Rush", "Just Because" and personal favorite "Title Track". It's a perfect mix that keeps the album from becoming too ballad heavy and it seems tracked in a way from keeping it from becoming too heavy on the more somber material. Another brilliant new single, "Factor In", followed in late 2019, giving hope that Garrett has a second full length in the works. Whatever he decides to release in the world, I'm here for it. Hoax came inches away from becoming my favorite album of 2019.
Favorite tracks: "Faith You Might", "Title Track", "Telescopes", "Smoke"
Hoax was released March 22nd, 2019 via KG Music, LLC.
I hesitate to call SYML a new artist as Brian Fennell, who records as SYML, has been making music for awhile. After releasing Safety Songs, an album under his own name in 2005, Fennell formed a band around his touring mates. Barcelona would go on to sign a major label deal with Universal Motown and released three full length albums, as well as a few EP's, between 2007-2016 before Fennell decided to branch out on his own again with a new musical project.
That new project would be SYML, Welsh for simple, given Fennell's heritage and the idea of stripping things back to himself, with a stripped down musical sound as well. After EP releases in 2016 and 2018, and a number of single releases, it was finally time for Fennell to put forth the first full length SYML album in 2019. Two of the songs on SYML first appeared on his 2018 EP InMy Body. It's no surprise "Where's My Love" is one of them. The song has been huge for the SYML project, becoming a hit in a number of countries including the U.S. and a massive hit in Canada where it was certified Gold and shot to #1 on the CBC charts. The other, "Wildfire", appears here in a drastically different version from the 2018 EP release. That version was restrained, Fennell accompanied by piano and strings. The new version, produced and mixed by Mark Ralph, adds drums, beats, and all manner of electronic effects but doesn't suffer at all from the extra production. I love both versions of the track, it's hard to mess up that soaring chorus and beautiful melody.
SYML reflects the growth of Fennell's sound as SYML. The early EP's were sparse, piano heavy affairs, mostly ballads and lovely. There is still beautiful music here, the man crafts heart- wrechingly gorgeous melodies in his sleep it appears and songs such as personal favorite "Connor" and "Girl", recorded for his son and daughter respectively, reflect that. Then there is "WDWGILY", an acronym for "Where Did We Go I Love You" and "The Bird" which add glitchy electronics and beats to the mix, while "Clean Eyes" and "Bed" are pure 80's synth-pop influenced heaven.
As much as I enjoyed the two SYML EP's, the first album took my appreciation of Fennell's talents to a whole different level. This was without a doubt my favorite "debut" album of 2019, even though Fennell isn't exactly new to the game. Getting to see him perform live twice during the year, first as an opener then as a headliner, further solidified his spot as a can't miss artist for me. He continued releasing new music the rest of the year with three new singles, all heart-breaking and stunning, that hopefully will form the basis of a sophomore album in 2020. Anything this man releases, I'm there to support it. SYML is that good.
Favorite tracks: "Connor", "WDWGILY", "The Bird", "Wildfire"
SYML was released May 3rd, 2019 on Nettwerk Records.
After starting as Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. in 2009, a side project for the Detroit based duo of Josh Epstein and Daniel Zott, things escalated quickly. Their 2010 debut EP Horsepower caught on quickly with influential radio stations and music sites and the buzz helped land them a major label deal with Warner Bros. Records. DEJJ went on to release three albums on Warners, tour nationally many times over, play on national television a few times and score a huge hit with 2015's "Gone". By the time "Gone" was released, they had decided to drop the Dale Earnhardt part of the name, mostly at Warners suggestion, and rechristened themselves as JR JR.
But something happened after the success of "Gone". And it's a story many bands are familiar with in this day and age of music. The record label was not as enthusiastic about some of the darker subject matter explored on ensuing singles, specifically 2017's "Same Dark Places", a song born out of Epstein's struggles with anxiety and exploring the depression and obstacles we all face in life. The message of the song was uplifting but the duo felt Warners purposefully did not promote a song with a message it deemed too dark and that threw the plans for their fourth album into limbo as "Same Dark Places" was slated to be included on that release. By this time the fourth album was ostensibly done but the two decided it was time to move on from the major label game. This of course takes time, and in that time Epstein and Zott kept recording and working on new material.
That brings us to 2019. JR JR now has their own label, Love Is EZ Records, that allows them to release what they want, when they want. And what they released this time was a double album, Invocations/Conversations. The first eight tracks, or the Invocations section, is made up of songs from those sessions in late 2016 when things were in limbo with Warners. A number of them, including "Wild Child" and "Holding On", were instantly recognizable to me as they had premiered them at a show in Detroit at the Masonic Temple around that time. The second half of the album, Conversations, consists of eight more tracks worked on more recently after breaking loose from Warner Bros. The sixteen songs allows the duo to spread out and explore all their musical influences and delve into different styles. There are sweet ballads in "Pull you Close" and "Big Bear Mountain", anthemic pop in "Young Forever" and "Low", which should have been as big a hit as "Gone", but in this day and age of the streaming shit storm I'm tired of getting angry over worthy music that doesn't make a big enough impact. Needless to say, if you missed "Low" shame on you, and correct this transgression immediately. There is pop, some rock elements, some good old synth-pop, plenty of electronics, even some folksy moments. It's the sound of two musicians freed from the corporate music game and coming out better for it in the end.
Favorite tracks: "Low", "Wild Child", "Young Forever", "All Around You"
Invocations/Conversations was released May 31st, 2019 via the Love Is EZ label.
I first saw Dido perform back in 1999, not too long after No Angel was released, before most people in America knew who she was, in a tiny club in Pontiac, Michigan called 7th House. I doubt there were even 100 people in the place and Dido still brings this show up in interviews to this day as an example of performing the same way, whether it be for less than a hundred people in a tiny, now long shuttered club, or in front of tens of thousands. The reason I was there and aware of who Dido was, long before the collaboration with Eminem, long before No Angel went on to become one of the biggest selling albums of the 2000's, was through her involvement with her brother Rollo's band Faithless. I'd always loved her vocal contributions on Faithless' albums and with Rollo playing a huge hand in the writing and production of No Angel, was fully supportive of this collaboration between the two talented siblings.
Fast forward to the beginning of 2019, now twenty years after No Angel was released in the U.S. Dido announced a new album was coming, her first in six years since 2013's Girl Who Got Away, my least favorite in her catalog. More importantly, she announced the new album Still On My Mind would be a return to the earlier days of working with her brother on the entire project. The prior album suffered, in my opinion, from too many outside writers and producers and just didn't have the same feel or quality of her previous three. My anticipation grew even more heated after the album's first single "Hurricanes" was released. Starting as a somber acoustic guitar ballad, the tension grows with electronic flourishes until it explodes mid-song into a hurricane of its own with synth runs, thumping beats and Dido's angelic voice howling through the winds of the beautiful noise. It then all settles back to just her voice before a solemn beat takes the song out. The song knocked me out and signaled that Dido and Rollo were back, at the top of their form and Still On My Mind was set to be something special.
And special it is. Across twelve songs there is a mix of ballads like "Give You Up" and "Some Kind Of Love" that signal the end of relationships and looking back on loves past, dance tracks like "Friends" and the scintillating "Take You Home" that recall Rollo's best dancefloor gems with Faithless and more experimental, darker material like "You Don't Need A God" and "Hell After This." Holding it all together is that heavenly voice, sounding as perfect as it did twenty years ago on her debut. Still On My Mind was a welcome return that was only made better by Dido's return to touring. I had not seen her perform since that early show in that tiny club in Pontiac, and even with no dates in Michigan, that was not going to stop me from seeing her on this tour. Her show at The Danforth in Toronto was one of the highlights of the concert year for me, by far my most welcome comeback of 2019.
Favorite tracks: "Hurricanes", "You Don't Need A God", "Take You Home", "Hell After This"
Still On My Mind was released March 8th, 2019 via BMG.
Formed in 1997, Elbow have always been lumped in with other English alternative rock bands I like such as Radiohead, Doves and even Coldplay. And for whatever reason, I'd never connected with their music until 2017's Little Fictions which went on to be one of my favorite albums of that year. 2019 saw the band release their eighth studio album and coming off an album I so dearly loved, I was hopeful Giants Of All Sizes would have the same impact on me as Little Fictions did. Mission accomplished as it joins the ranks of my favorite albums of 2019 at number six.
I've been trying to reconcile what clicked for me with Elbow's music in the last few years. Why had I dismissed earlier albums after one listen, while these last two instantly sunk their hooks in me? It wasn't that their previous work was lesser material, they've been critically acclaimed from their first release, with awards and best of lists to show for it. Maybe a part of it was revisiting all of Peter Gabriel's work while I read a biography of the musical legend. Gabriel is a big influence on Elbow and its chief lyricist and lead vocalist Guy Garvey, so maybe looking at their music through that lens played a part in it. I also looked at the evolution of my appreciation for Coldplay. I make no apologies for loving their first four albums, but something went off the rails with Mylo Xyloto and the further they strayed from their alternative rock roots into radio friendly pop and, shudder, dance tunes the more they turned into musical fast food for me. In contrast, the more I explore Elbow's back catalog now, with their willingness to take risks, experiment, and with Garvey's tremendous talent as a lyricist, it's finally clicked as the elegant musical feast I'd been seeking.
So Giants of All Sizes is a bit of a darker turn for the band. Tracks like "Dexter & Sinister" and "Empires" address Brexit and the negative impact it has had. Government and societal neglect is touched upon on the angry "White Noise White Heat" and "Doldrums". But it wouldn't be an Elbow album, or Guy Garvey songs, without the more tender moments touched upon in the album's final three tracks. "Just this morning alone with you worth/ a lifetime alone on this Earth" he sings on "My Trouble", as beautiful a ballad as any recorded in 2019, dedicated to his wife and touching upon those moments you are away from the one you love and appreciating the time you do spend with them more because of it. "On Deronda Road" recalls a memorable bus trip Garvey made with his young son Jack, while album closer "Weightless" is a tribute to Garvey's father who passed away in 2018 of lung cancer. It's a short, simple lyric, repeated twice that carries an emotional wallop as he compares the passing of his father to the birth of his son. "Hey, you look like me/so we look like him/And when the time came/Just as you are/He was weightless in my arms". It's lyrics like that, songs like the nine on Giants Of All Sizes, that finally woke me up to the brilliance of this band. Better late than never and I'll enjoy the journey of revisiting their back catalog in 2020.
Favorite tracks: "My Trouble", "Seven Veils", "Weightless", "Empires"
Giants of All Sizes was released October 11th, 2019 on Polydor Records.
Led by founding member Jason Swinscoe, The Cinematic Orchestra have been mixing jazz, classical and electronic music into their own unique sound for over a decade now. 2019 saw the group release their fourth proper studio album, the staggeringly gorgeous To Believe.
As they've done on past releases, The Cinematic Orchestra enlisted the help of a number of vocalists and collaborators on To Believe. Moses Sumney delivers a tender vocal on the exquisite opening title track while the great English rapper Roots Manuva returns to work with the group on the powerful "A Caged Bird/Imitations of Life". London based neo-soul singer Tawiah is featured on "Wait For Now/Leave The World", a string-laden beauty of a song. Other vocalists contributing to the album are Heidi Vogel and Grey Reverend, while two long instrumental pieces are placed in the middle of the collection. "Lessons" is more a driving jazz based track, while "The Workers Of Art" is a slow burning, ambient/orchestral piece. Both are magnificent, a word that sums up the entirety of To Believe perfectly.
Favorite tracks: "A Caged Bird/Imitations Of Life", "A Promise", "To Believe", "The Workers Of Art"
To Believe was released March 15th, 2019 on the Ninja Tune label.
The brainchild of Timothy Showalter, Strand Of Oaks has seen a lot over the course of its first five albums. Critical acclaim has certainly been showered on the project, with 2014's HEAL making many critic's best of the year lists. The album led to Showalter and band opening for big names like Iron And Wine and Ryan Adams. But after 2017's Hard Love and the touring that followed, Showalter was burnt out and appeared ready to give up on the project. Enter Carl Broemel of My Morning Jacket. He offered his support and services to the recording of a new Strand Of Oaks album, and the rest of My Morning Jacket, minus Jim James who was involved with solo projects of his own, joined to help raise Showalter out of his depression and musical funk.
The result is Eraserland, an album that Showalter describes as everything he has ever worked towards in leading Strand Of Oaks. And for those My Morning Jacket fans bemoaning the lack of a new MMJ studio album since 2015, this is a must have. Showalter and the MMJ boys created an essential rock masterpiece here, an album so in line with My Morning Jacket's sound it's impossible to not appeal to fans of that band. I mean hell, it IS that band minus James, and Showalter at the helm soars.
As Showalter describes it, the ten songs on Eraserland are about existing and carrying on. That there is always hope. Highlights like "Weird Ways" and the powerful "Visions" explore the darkness he was falling into, while "Ruby", which he calls the happiest song he has ever wrote, and album closer "Forever Chords" carry the hope and new beginning on the other side of that darkness. Showalter calls Eraserland "Where we all can start again". His rebirth produced one of the year's best.
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