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Review: Chris Stapleton – From A Room: Volume 1

Chris Stapleton - From A Room: Volume 1
Craig Manning

No artist has ever had a success story quite like that of Chris Stapleton. Two years ago this week, Stapleton released his debut album, a 14-track collection of old school country, blues, southern rock, and soul called Traveller. The album didn’t arrive without buzz: Stapleton was one of the most dependable songwriters in Nashville, a guy with (at the time) four number one country hits to his name. He also made his record with Dave Cobb, the producer who had helped Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson craft breakthrough, critically-beloved albums the two years previous. The result was a number 14 debut on the Billboard 200 with 27,000 copies sold; not remarkable, but not bad for a debut artist, either.

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In the Spotlight: 50 Bands You Need to Hear in 2017 (Part One)

In the Spotlight (Part 1)
Jason Tate

Back on AbsolutePunk.net we would run a feature each year called the “Absolute 100.” The basic idea was to put together a list of bands and artists that we thought needed to get a little more attention. This would range from unsigned, to under-the-radar, to underrated acts that we wanted to highlight. Over the years it ended up being one of my favorite features we compiled (I personally discovered quite a few new bands from it). And, I’ve heard from a lot for readers that you loved it as well.

Today I’m excited to bring this feature back under a new name. We’re calling it “In the Spotlight” and we’ve got the same goal: highlight a bunch of artists we think you should check out. This year we’ve got 50 for you. Over the past month our contributors have been putting together blurbs and pulling out song recommendations, and today we’ve got the first group of 25. We’ll be releasing the next set tomorrow.

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Review: New Found Glory – Makes Me Sick

NFG - Makes Me Sick
Drew Beringer

In 2006, New Found Glory took their biggest risk as a band by releasing Coming Home, an album that largely abandoned the band’s customary pop-punk/easycore stylings. Produced by Thon Panunzio, Coming Home introduced more straight-forward rock elements that included keys, pianos, and strings – not surprising considering Panunzio has worked with some of the biggest rock legends of all time (Ozzy, Bruce, Joan Jett, etc.). Perhaps unsurprisingly, the album fell flat commercially and was also the band’s last album to be released on a major label. But creatively and critically it was a success as Coming Home has been regarded as the band’s most daring effort of their career and let the pop-punk world know that New Found Glory would never make the same album twice. It also planted the seeds of what was to come ten years later.

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Review: New Found Glory – Makes Me Sick

NFG - Makes Me Sick
Jason Tate

This first impression was originally posted as a live blog for supporters in our forums on April 24th, 2017. First impressions are meant to be quick, fun, initial impressions on an album or release as I listen to it for the first time. It’s a running commentary written while listening to an album — not a review. More like a diary of thoughts. This post has been lightly edited for structure and flow.

Wooooo, time for a little first listen blogging time. Been way too long since I’ve done one of these, and I’m really excited to do a live-blog-first-listen tonight for the new New Found Glory album. Before getting started, a few things:

  1. I think this is my favorite NFG album since, at least, Coming Home, and I think I actually will end up having it ranked pretty high in their discography within a few years. It is surprisingly fun, energetic, a fun spin on their well known style, and incredibly enjoyable. I didn’t expect to like it as much as I have, and I’ve been playing it … a lot over the past few weeks.
  2. NFG were at one point a band I called my “favorite” (I think I talked about this on a past podcast episode about favorite bands), I wanted to BE this band. Haha. They had the style, the look, and the sound that I wanted to emulate so badly. I kinda moved away from them over the years, but when I go back and play their albums now (at least the early ones), they are so caked in nostalgia for me I can’t help but love them.
  3. I haven’t really liked their last few albums that much to be honest. They’ve been fine, but they felt so predictable to me that I never found myself coming back to them at all. I’d listen for a week or so, and then if I ever wanted an NFG fix, I’d go back to the ST and S&S instead. I really do think this is the first album from them in a while that will shake up that trend for me.
  4. I love the production on this one. I think the band mixing it up with new ears and a new voice in the studio was exactly what they needed. I think Sprinkle knocked this out of the park.
  5. I’ve talked on past podcasts about bands getting in a rut, and how I wish more would try new things that work within their sound … this album is exactly what I wanted to see from this band … it really is exactly that.

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Review: The Maine – Lovely, Little, Lonely

The Maine - Lovely Little Lonely
Becky Kovach

The Maine has come a long way since the release of their debut full-length album, Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop. In the past decade they’ve grown from young kids with a dream into truly talented musicians – a fact that is evident in their latest album Lovely, Little, Lonely.

Even though each song on Lovely, Little Lonely is a hit in its own right, they make the most sense within the context of the whole. The album flows seamlessly from one song to the next and as a result The Maine succeeds in crafting a story that demands your full attention from start to finish.

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Review: Jesse Cannon – Processing Creativity

Deanna Chapman

Jesse Cannon’s latest book takes a look at the creative process and how to get results that you’re happy with. While it focuses largely on music, it can easily apply to so much more than that. Processing Creativity: The Tools, Practices And Habits Used To Make Music You’re Happy With isn’t a behemoth of a book like Get More Fans, but it’s equally as effective. The book takes you through the motions of finding who is a best fit to work with, how to make music you’re happy with, and so much more.

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Review: Fall Out Boy – Young and Menace

Fall Out Boy - Mania
Jason Tate

This first impression was originally posted as a live blog for supporters in our forums on April 21st, 2017. First impressions are meant to be quick, fun, initial impressions on an album or release as I listen to it for the first time. It’s a running commentary written while listening to an album — not a review. More like a diary of thoughts. This post has been lightly edited for structure and flow.

I’ve done zero “single song” first listen threads, but if I was going to do one … I feel like Fall Out Boy are the band I should do it for. They’re about as big a band as we have from the music scene and they’ve got a pretty good following here still, so it just makes sense. Gotta give the people what they want!

I watched some basketball, and then got some work finished, so I’ve got a few minutes before I call it a night and go watch some Spider-Man cartoons and have a beer in bed. Not a bad Friday night.

Ok. So, few thoughts:

  1. I’ve played the song about 6-8 times already, I’m gonna play it a couple right now and write up some thoughts on it. Once the first time through, then pause and write a little, and then some closing thoughts. So it won’t be a super long thread, but it should be fun.
  2. As always I reserve the right to change my mind later, this isn’t a review, it’s just me kinda talking aloud as I listen to music and think about things and share thoughts and how it sounds.

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Review: John Mayer – The Search for Everything

John Mayer - Search for Everything
Craig Manning

What the hell, John?

Let’s journey back for a moment to New Year’s Day, when John Mayer told the world via his Instagram account that his new album, The Search for Everything, would be coming in four-song waves “every month.” Mayer never explicitly said that he would be releasing 48 songs in 2017, but he definitely implied it. Strongly.

What he actually did was release two four-song waves—in January and February, respectively—and then announce a full-length album that would include all those songs, plus a few more. At this point, no one is sure whether Mayer will be continuing with the waves for the rest of the year or not. I don’t think Mayer even knows. On the one hand, CD versions of the new album label it “Vol. 1.” On the other hand, Mayer tweeted on release day: “And that ends an era: August ’14-April ’17.” Since The Search for Everything is an album about Mayer’s breakup with Katy Perry, and since the album is very much a “complete thought” on its own, there seems to be little reason that Mayer would continue this release cycle in any fashion.

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Review: Father John Misty – Pure Comedy

Aaron Mook

“I think most peoples’ idea of authenticity is pork pie hats and vests and banjos and whatever else, but real authenticity is just empathy, because everyone views their own experiences as being the golden standard for authenticity. If you can empathize with people and make them feel like what you’re talking about is somehow reflective of their own experiences, then you’ve won their vanity, and thus achieved authenticity.”

This is a quote from Father John Misty’s episode of Pitchfork’s Over/Under series, a series Josh Tillman jokingly referred to as a “twisted game” as he and his wife were asked to rate such concepts as self-control, marriage, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. This was Tillman’s explanation of “authenticity,” and though he never formally “rates” the concept, his answer may outline the biggest problem with Pure Comedy, his third album under the FJM moniker. It’s not necessarily Tillman’s polarizing personality (or character, as some call it). It’s not the album’s excessive 74-minute runtime, or even its questionable sequencing.

Put simply, it’s hard to empathize with someone who’s talking down to you.

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Review: Third Eye Blind – Third Eye Blind

Craig Manning

Third Eye Blind’s self-titled is simultaneously one of the most joyful albums I’ve ever heard and one of the most heartbreaking. The first half of the record is stacked with infectiously catchy pop-rock songs—most of which became hit singles. The latter half is more jagged and mid-tempo, with songs that sound noticeably darker and more subdued. Half the songs wouldn’t sound out of place on a summertime party playlist. The other half are songs that ache with such profound loneliness that listening to them with a group of people almost seems sacrilegious. And, as is the trademark of frontman Stephan Jenkins, even some of the songs that sound happy are actually crushing.

Third Eye Blind is a much more complex record than I thought it was when I first heard it, and I’d reckon that something similar holds true for most people. Frankly, early on, it was easy to hear Third Eye Blind’s music as little more than catchy radio rock. In the summer of 1997, “Semi-Charmed Life” rode the infectiousness of its “doo doo doo” hook to the number one slot on Billboard’s Mainstream Top 40 chart. At six years old, I thought it was the catchiest song I’d ever heard. At 26 years old, I still think it’s the catchiest song I’ve ever heard. There might not be a single song that makes me think more of summertime than that one.

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Marvel’s ‘Iron Fist’ Is Ok, but Never Great

Iron Fist
Deanna Chapman

After watching the first six episodes a lot of critics were out on Netflix’s new series Iron Fist. The reviews haven’t been kind. While it’s hard to judge a whole show on just shy of half of its episodes, it’s important for a show to grab the audience from the start. Iron Fist doesn’t quite do that. While I made it through the whole thing, the start of the show was slow. The latter half is definitely better, but many people could find themselves giving up on the show before that happens.

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Review: Steve Moakler – Steel Town

Craig Manning

Steve Moakler’s biggest claim to fame—at least at this particular moment in time—is writing the title track and fifth single from Dierks Bentley’s 2014 LP, Riser. That fact may just change with Steel Town, Moakler’s fourth full-length solo record and his most accomplished work yet. Stacked with radio-friendly numbers that meld Moakler’s smart, resonant songwriting with the hooks and lush instrumentation of a mainstream country record, Steel Town has the potential to make Moakler into this year’s breakout country star.

Steel Town is 11 songs long, but Moakler actually released the first half of the record a year ago. In a move that has become customary for Nashville up-and-comers, Moakler dropped a self-titled EP last spring that featured the first five tracks from this album. (Similar maneuvers have recently helped launch artists like Maren Morris, Brett Young, and William Michael Morgan toward chart success.) That EP was my favorite short-form release of 2016, pairing wistful, emotional tour de forces (“Steel Town,” which Moakler wrote about the town where he grew up) with breezy summertime hooks (the indelible “Suitcase”) and gorgeous dusky ballads (“Summer Without Her”).

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Review: Sorority Noise – You’re Not As ___ As You Think

Becky Kovach

As Sorority Noise’s Triple Crown Records debut and the full-length follow up to the wildly popular Joy, Departed, You’re Not As ___ As You Think is an important album. But this is a band that has never been afraid to take risks – one that has continuously pushed themselves with each new release – and it shows in their latest effort.

From the conversational nature of lyricist/vocalist Cameron Boucher’s songwriting to the open-endedness of the album’s title, Sorority Noise actively invites listeners to insert themselves into each song. Boucher frequently plays with perspective and often address listeners directly, reminding each person who hits play that they have value and that they are more than their insecurities.

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