Browsing Tag

90s Rock

Kickstart your rhythmic pulses with Scott Cook’s alt-rock kaleidoscope of poetic innovation, The Author

Posted on 7 October 2024

With ‘The Author’, Montreal’s Scott Cook served an electrifying synthesis of gritty guitar riffs reminiscent of the Manic Street Preachers and the ethereal synth overlays akin to Suicide’s ‘Dream Baby Dream’. In the cacophony of the saturated with banality modern music scene, the single is a rare slice of accordance.

Cook’s voice, an instrument in its own right, weaves through the tight instrumental arrangement, anchoring and elevating the melodies with his poetic lyricality which is just as sharp as his guitar hooks in the track which filters the colour of psych pop-rock harmonics into the alchemic cocktail which invites you to lose yourself in its euphonic bliss.

The arrangement’s dynamism is palpable, with ebbs and flows that create eager anticipation for the next burst of momentum and the catharsis it bestows.

Scott Cook proves with ‘The Author’ that his musical evolution is not just ongoing but accelerating. Drawing on an eclectic palette that spans genres and eras, he reflects on contemporary life with a candour that Morrissey would struggle to match. If he released this hit in the 90s, he’d be at the top of the charts.

The Author was officially released on September 23rd, stream the single on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Wrong Party is ‘California Bound’ in their glimmer of indie garage rock nostalgia

Posted on 14 September 2024

The Southern Kentucky/Northern Tennessee fourpiece, The Wrong Party, delivered an irresistible invitation to revisit epochs of rock via an unchartered route with their third single, California Bound.

With nods to everyone from The Strokes, Pavement, Placebo and Iggy and the Stooges in the honeyed with vintage hues production which also teases the distortion of 90s Seattle grunge and grooves through bluesy psychedelic guitar licks, California Bound is pornography to sonic nostalgists.

The way the influences and eclectic stylings enmesh in the garage-rock-esque release is an undeniable attestation to the band’s unique vision and mission to make up for the shortfall in real and raw rock in the past few decades. If you would rather get a lobotomy than listen to Highly Suspect or Royal Blood, The Wrong Party, fronted by Matt McNew, is made for your playlists.

California Bound hit the airwaves on September 1st; stream the single on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Step into a sanctuary of alt-90s nostalgia with Straw’s debut single, Apartment 3513

Posted on 22 August 2024

With all the seductive appeal of Soundgarden, the debut single, Apartment 3513, from the Panama-hailing solo artist, Straw, allows alt-90s fans to crawl through the corridor of nostalgia before unlocking the door to an affectingly warm earworm which animates through scuzzed vintage tones and deliciously hook-rife vocals.

In spite of the convivial sonic and vocal magnetism in the debut single, Apartment 3513 charts a journey on a road to nowhere, fuelled by anxiety and depression, where the only pit stops made were to score. After 14 years of mental health issues and an attempt to numb them through substance abuse, Straw has turned his life around like a velvet revolver to give sanctuary to anyone who needs to veer from the path of self-destruction.

After studying at Berklee and the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, Straw returned home to Panama where he collaborated with the Nashville-hailing songwriter, Grant van Dijk to bring his debut to life. Through the perfect equilibrium of candid soul and rock n roll swagger, Straw ensured that he wouldn’t find himself short of plaudits – especially if the singles in the pipeline match the intoxicating energy in Apartment 3513.

Apartment 3513 opened itself to the airwaves on August 9th; step in via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lori & the Darlings reached nirvana with the alt-90s nostalgia in their Americana rock single, high

Posted on 1 August 2024

Lori & the Darlings’ standout single, High, taken from their 2024 LP, Main Street, is a richly rendered addition to the Americana rock canon. Lori, whose voice is naturally poised for creating instant classics, shines iridescently bright in this emotion-driven vignette, exposing the capacity of connection to lead to transcendence. The instrumentals efficaciously visualise the inexplicably sweet sensation, with shimmering organ tones stretching to nirvana, giving High oceanic depth for listeners to plunge into and swim with the rhythmically resolving tides.

Lori’s vocals deliver the grit of Courtney Love, infused with the soul of Leigh Nash and Meredith Brooks, nestling into the scarcely-occupied middle ground where artists swathe their harmonies with seraphic sentimentality and project potency to amplify evocative intensity.

No review of High would be complete without pouring plaudits on the guitars that make the track such a sense-gratifying listen. The steady ring of the chords pulls you through the euphonically stripped production until they burst in momentum in the middle eight, proving that Lori & the Darlings have earned their place among their Americana rock icons.

With more releases in the pipeline from the Detroit-based four-piece which captures the highs and lows of big-city dreamers in small-town America, do we really need to tell you to give them a follow?

Stream the Main Street LP from Lori & the Darlings on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Every Glazer echoed the agony of retrospective reflection in his alt-rock shot through the heart,  Betty Johnson’s House

Posted on 10 July 2024

The Every Glazer carved a melodic indie rock edge into his emotionally guttural arsenal of grungy evocations with the release of his latest single, Betty Johnson’s House.

The solo artist’s ability to convey aching emotion through his passionate cadences and affecting delivery projects intense resonance into his vignettes of a mind tormented by the trappings of material reality and Betty Johnson’s House may be his most visceral release to date.

By infusing layers of 90s and 00s nostalgia in this heart-wrenching sepia-tinged reflection of formative memories forged in the confines of a small town, Betty Johnson’s House will walk you down the memories of your own youth; whether you like it or not. As no one gets out of childhood or adolescence unscathed, the instrumentally consoling, vocally piercing single is set to pierce hearts by the smorgasbord.

With one of the most pensively ornate guitar solos that you’ll ever hear, Betty Johnson’s House is a tender triumph which visualises the inescapably bitter-sweet nature of retrospective reflection.

Betty Johnson’s House was officially released on July 1st; stream the single on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Every Glazer chartered a self-sacrificial downfall in his latest release, Singularity

Posted on 22 February 2024

Every time we hear a new release from The Every Glazer, it feels like the first time; there is always something engrossingly unique in the way he pulls you into his productions. The solo artist’s latest single, Singularity, is no exception.

After a moody and nuancedly grungy intro which uses spacey electronica synthetics to echo isolation and desolation, Singularity evolves into a melodic rock lament that unleashes a full spectrum of emotion to pull you back and forth between sentimentality and melancholy.

As the guitars ring with assurance, the angular instrumentation heightens the evocative magnetism of the single which explores how easy it is for others to leave us by the wayside, even if we’ve given our all, which can all too easily be our self-sacrificing downfall.

Stream the official music video for Singularity via YouTube or add the single to your Spotify playlists.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The West Midlands era fusionists, Three Mile Island, triumphed once again in ‘Sidearm’s House of Games’

Posted on 19 February 2024

What do you get if you mix 70s rock with Americana and add a dash of brashy and swaggering 90s Britpop? Hit play on the latest single, Sidearm’s House of Games, from Three Mile Island and find out for yourselves.

The uniqueness of the sonic imprint is far from the only achievement in this minefield of indie rock hooks, which proves how tight the West Midlands-hailing prodigal sons are despite their influential differences – each element gets room to breathe and transcend into something completely new in the release that proves that time isn’t always linear; multiple eras can exist cohesively under the sonic duress of those talented enough to amalgamate them.

Having garnered attention on BBC Sounds and Planet Rock Radio, ‘Sidearm’s House of Games’ is a testament to the band’s skill in crafting songs that are not only enjoyable but also resonate with a deep understanding of rock’s evolving landscape. It’s a compelling addition to the indie rock genre, highlighting the band’s potential to leave a lasting impact.

Sidearm’s House of Games is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast  

The dust of desert rock gelled with the sludge of grunge in Jeremy Phillips & The Ozark Grunge’s latest single, Hell Into Home

Posted on 31 July 2023

We’ve scarcely returned to the 21st century after revisiting the 90s with Jeremy Phillips & The Ozark Grunge’s single, Crazy. Proving that they’re more than just a one-trick sonic pony, they’ve dropped another nostalgia atom bomb with their lamentatively exhilarating single, Hell Into Home.

If Kurt Cobain had a little more of a Southern twang to his vocal lines and arrestively brashy swagger to his guitar hooks, Nirvana’s seminal hits would have swum in the very same vein as this epitome of an earworm.

The tight instrumentation lends itself effortlessly well to the grungily cosmic songwriting that entices you into the centre of the dusty-with-desert-rock-atmospherics hit that mourns the loss of a home becoming a house in the absence of the person that made the brick-and-mortar a place worth coming back to.

Stream Hell Into Home, which was officially released on July 21, via Spotify and YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Gratitude triumphs over self-doubt in The Kaves’s seminal cinematic indie rock ballad, Soul

Posted on 7 July 2023
The Kaves

Starting with swathes of 80s nostalgia in the momentary prelude before fast-forwarding to the next era in the first verse by emanating shoegazey Britpop and cinematic rock in the same rhythmically arrestive breath, the latest single, Soul, from The Kaves puts them in the same league as their memorably emotive Glaswegian idols.

The porous vocal lines which allow soul to pour through them as they soar as high as the guitar solos against the driving backbeat in the ballad ensured the listening experience is as visceral as sentimental.

So many ballads centre around the acquisition or loss of love; never ones to peddle pedestrian tropes, with Soul, The Kaves, narrated the cynicism which amasses around low self-esteem after unconditional affection is put on the table by someone who loves you in spite of your idiosyncrasies. In its superlatively authentic essence, Soul is a reminder that when it comes to love, gratitude is always the better option over pessimistic over-analysis.

If anyone has what it takes to prevent indie rock from fading into further obscurity and show Alex Turner what stellar indie should sound like in 2023, it is The Kaves.

Soul will be available to stream from July 7. Hear it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Siggy are harbingers of future in their proto-punk comeback album, 25th Century

Posted on 2 November 2022

Featuring a cover of Echo and the Bunnymen’s Lips Like Sugar which contains all of the salacious murky atmosphere of the original, it is safe to say that Siggy’s comeback album, 25th Century, arrived with a proto-punk bang.

After making their debut in 1999 with the album, Harlow’s Girl, which carried a Crampsy sense of killer off-kilter volition, 25th Century had a lot to live up to, but the rhythmic pulse is strong across the 10 singles which traverse the themes of hope, fury, and the rank psychic pathology of the 21st century.

The gothy Echo and the Bunnymen vibes carry across more than just the cover, along with hints of Television and bites of Splitter-Esque punk. But for me, the highlight had to be the title single, which truly embraces the stifled with strange nature of the 21st century while throwing back to the time when guitarists knew how to lick right into your soul. “If there’s going to be a 25th century there has to be 21st century morality” is a lyric I will never forget.

25th Century is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast
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