Review: Eliza and The Delusionals – Now and Then

It is my utmost pleasure to introduce the world to Eliza and the Delusionals, the four-piece alternative rock band from Australia that fits well in the same vein as Beabadoobee, Soccer Mommy, and Wolf Alice. The band is comprised of Eliza Klatt (singer and sometimes guitar), Kurt Skuse (guitarist), Ashley “Tex” Martin (guitarist), and Ruby Lee (bassist). The band has previously released two EPs (most recently 2020’s A State of Living in an Objective Reality), but this latest record called Now and Then sets the clear path forward of where these musicians can take their sound next. The band mentioned that the record is a direct reflection of the world we’re living in currently, and the relatable struggles we all have with maintaining our mental health while dealing with COVID restrictions. The future looks incredibly bright for this talented band.

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Harry Styles Tops the Charts

Harry Styles

Harry Styles has the number one album in the country:

Harry Styles’ Harry’s House debuts atop the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated June 4) with a massive 521,500 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending May 26, according to Luminate. It’s the largest week of 2022 for any album and only the fourth album in the last 18 months to earn at least 500,000 units in a single week. 

Review: Japandroids – Celebration Rock

Fireworks, drums that sound like bomb blasts, lightning bolts of electric guitar, and a rhetorical question: “Long lit up tonight and still drinking/Don’t we have anything to live for?”

So begins one of the greatest rock records of the 21st century. It’s also one of the most aptly named. Celebration Rock. Rarely has an album title ever doubled so effectively as a perfect description of what’s inside. In 2012, with their second LP, Canadian rockers Japandroids served up music perfect for…well, for celebrating to.

What were we celebrating, you may ask? Frankly, if you had Celebration Rock blasting out of a stereo back in 2012, it didn’t matter what you were celebrating, or whether you were celebrating at all. The songs made it feel like a celebration. They made any moment feel like a goddamn, out-of-hand, my-car-is-in-the-swimming-pool rager.

I’ll forever be thankful that I was the age I was when Celebration Rock landed on May 29, 2012. As a recently-minted 21-year-old, I was old enough to get into bars and legally consume alcohol. But I was also still a college student, still sharing an apartment with my college buddies, and still another year or so shy of when real-life responsibility would start to set in. In other words, I was old enough to celebrate the way the characters in Celebration Rock celebrate, and young enough to do it with all the reckless abandon of youth. Even thinking about some of the shit I did while playing these songs very loud on my apartment stereo makes my head hurt with the ghosts of shitty mixed drinks and dreadful hangovers.

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Review: The Cranberries – Stars: The Best of 1992-2002

The greatest thing about music is it’s ability to outlive us, for better or worse. The memories our favorite artists and bands leave behind in their recordings speak to the beauty behind the longevity of music, in general. Today, The Cranberries have reissued their Stars: The Best of 1992-2002 on a beautiful, double vinyl set that speaks directly to the legacy this band has left behind. Presented in chronological order from the band’s singles from 1992-2002, some of the greatest alternative rock songs of my generation like “Dreams,” “Linger,” and “Zombie” front-load this set of songs that sound as refreshing as the first time I heard them. The collection also includes two previously unreleased tracks in “New New York” and “Stars” that bookend this chapter of the band’s rich history.

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MacStories Reviews MusicBox

Apps

Federico Viticci, writing at MacStores:

 MusicBox, the latest app by indie developer Marcos Tanaka, is the “listen-later” music app of my dreams, the one I’ve wanted to use for years and that someone finallymade as a Universal app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It’s rare for me these days to find new apps that elicit this kind of enthusiasm, but when I do, I know I’ve stumbled upon something special. MusicBox is one of those apps.

This review is going to be pretty straightforward. If you’re a music lover and use either Apple Music or Spotify, and if you feel like you discover more interesting music than you can possibly consume in a day, MusicBox is for you. Open the App Store, spend $2.99 (there are no subscriptions or In-App Purchases in the app), and you’ll get what is likely going to be one of your favorite apps of 2022. Then, if you want to learn more about what the app does, how it integrates with Apple Music, and how you can set it up on your device, come back to this story and let’s dive in.