Review: Battleviews – Two Ghosts

Adam Grundy

The sophomore effort from Battleviews, composed of husband and wife duo Ryan and Natalie Raichilson, is a heartfelt collection of songs that have a lasting impact on anyone who takes the time to listen to it. Two Ghosts was recorded in Ryan and Natalie’s home in Metuchen, NJ, and the LP was mixed and mastered by Steve Sopchak (Ice Nine Kills, Motionless in White). The themes range from the unbridled joy of parenthood, the heartache that comes when the realization sets in that your kids won’t stay young forever, to the feelings of loss plus a slight detour to an 1800’s ghost story. The warm vocals from both Ryan and Natalie are filled with a love towards Indie/Americana music, with some slight nuances to their songwriting to keep things fresh and exciting. Two Ghosts is a record you can put on as you sit by the warm glow of the fireplace during the winter season and ponder your next steps in life. The soundtrack that these two musicians have created here is a glowing testament to their dedication put towards their craft.

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Spotify Wrapped & Apple Music Replay Now Live

Jason Tate

Spotify’s Wrapped is now live, as is Apple Music’s version called Replay. As a longtime Last.fm user and evangelist it’s always interesting to see how these stats compare to my extremely diligent scrobbling. Apple Music got my “most played song” completely wrong. But I do find these “top artist/albums” by month graphics pretty cool (but, still not correct when compared to what I scrobbled). I shared my stats below, and I’ll post the actual numbers after the year’s over in our end of the year feature.

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Sky Ferreria Variety Interview

Sky Ferreira
Jason Tate

Sky Ferreira talked with Variety about her upcoming song and going independent:

They waited until the 10-year anniversary of Night Time, My Time to drop me via an automated message that got forwarded to me. And it was a weekend! After months of not hearing back from them! It was pretty—I’m still trying to figure out the words I can use to talk about it that won’t get me in trouble. But I also don’t really care about getting in trouble, because what else can they really do to me at this point? My relationship with them was obviously a bit fraught, and it’s never been very simple to explain. But to let me know I’ve been dropped from the label in such an impersonal way was clearly so personal.

It was their way of saying: “You can have fans write ‘Free Sky’ in the clouds with an airplane, but we still own you.” They kept me from putting out new music for 10 years as a way of making me look like I’m incapable of it, like it was my fault that I don’t technically own anything I record. I was already dreading the 10-year anniversary of my album because it’s sad. I should be able to celebrate something like that because as long as this album has been around, people still care about it. I’m able to do a song for an A24 film after all this time because that album clearly meant something to people, and I am proud of that. But it shouldn’t have to remind me of another year of being trapped in a mess that I didn’t create. They want me to look responsible by dragging it out and blocking me from releasing music even after already being blocked from so many other opportunities because of them.