Review
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Review: Charity Bliss – Joy Algorithm

Adam Grundy

Music has an otherworldly connection to us all. Whether it’s playing that one song or album that brings comfort to us each time we play it, or a stellar song that comes on the radio at just the right moment in time to boost our mood, it’s no secret why so many of us adore the key artists we’ve learned about over our lives. Charity Bliss has returned with a cool-sounding third album, entitled Joy Algorithm, that has this concept top-of-mind. Brendan Machowski writes music as Charity Bliss, and he described the inspiration behind Joy Algorithm: “On July 6th 2021, I drove home from my day job. For whatever reason, the task of picking music for the commute felt more akin to waiting for a theme park ride waiting to take off. My anxious trigger finger accessed the entirety of my library and pressed the shuffle button. I’m used to this action resulting in me skipping past 10-15 tracks before settling begrudgingly on a universal song…Except this time, around 20 seconds before the end of ‘Song 2’ by Blur, I thought it’d be nice to hear ‘Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” by Willie Nelson. Sure enough, there was Willie. My phone would go on this telepathic song and dance two more times. This was the catalyst behind Joy Algorithm.” By using a relatable concept of music finding us right when we need it the most, Charity Bliss offers up a fresh take on the importance of sharing music with others.

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Review: Lily Meola – Heartbreak Rodeo

Adam Grundy

The latest EP from ultra-talented singer/songwriter Lily Meola offers a fresh take on her heartfelt pop songs with more of an Americana and country vibe to them on Heartbreak Rodeo. Leading up to the release of her latest record, Meola showcased her depth as an artist with several key singles like the vulnerable break-up anthem “Without You,” the self-reflection found on “Over the Moon,” and the personal song about her mother who passed away on “Postcards to Heaven.” Heartbreak Rodeo leans heavily into the country genre and still has that unique charm that Meola commands in her warm vocal presence. Lily Meola shared, “Each song I write is like a therapy session for me. Making music is the way I respond to whatever is happening to me, and my goal is to help people feel a little less alone, whether they’re going through a breakup or grieving the loss of someone.” Living through her personal experiences offers Meola a unique perspective on the world, and yet she manages to make each song universally appealing and relatable.

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Review: Butch Walker – Letters

Butch Walker - Letters
Craig Manning

I think I’d been waiting for it.

Butch Walker released Letters, his second full-length album as a solo artist, on August 24, 2004, two weeks before I started eighth grade. At the time, I was right in the middle of a burgeoning obsession with soundtracking every moment of my life. Music had always mattered to me, but something had clicked during the previous school year and songs had taken on a different level of meaning for me since then. Before, I maybe just liked the way something sounded on the radio. Now, I was falling in love with the way those songs could encapsulate the rhythms of my days and nights. I figured: if movies and TV shows had soundtracks, why shouldn’t my life have one too? And so I’d spent months making mixes for everything: for the end of seventh grade, for my summer vacation, for my family’s annual summer road trip to visit my grandparents in New Hampshire, and for the impending end of the season and all the bittersweet emotions that made me feel.

What I hadn’t done yet was make a mix for a girl. I wasn’t too familiar with the concept of mixtapes – with what a collection of songs could mean when you picked the tracks and sequenced them and packaged them for someone you felt romantic feelings for. Surely, I would have found my way to the art of mixtape-ology no matter what, as all music fans do. How long can you obsess over using music to encapsulate your own internal life before you start thinking about how music can play the role of confessional love note? Probably not long. Before I could get there on my own, though, I found my Jedi Master on the subject of mixtapes, and it changed my entire life.

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Review: Oso Oso – Life Till Bones

Adam Grundy

There’s a comforting feeling in Jade Lilitri’s voice that everything can turn out to be okay. Much like a warm embrace through the speakers, Oso Oso have returned with their latest studio effort titled Life Till Bones. Lilitri opens the band’s fifth album with “Many Ways,” a somber reminder of mortality as he still grapples with the loss of his past guitarist, Tavish Maloney. The opening lyrics of, “I love you, but life is a gun / Do you remember when you used to have fun? / Keep in my mind when you turn to run / There are no ‘directions’, there is only one,” are well-crafted and hit their intended tone as each piano key echoes in the mix. The production on this LP by Billy Mannino is top notch throughout, and he puts the right emphasis on each lyric, guitar chord, and percussion to get the most out of each track. Oso Oso are the kings of lo-fi emo rock and they wear their crowns proudly on Life Till Bones.

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Review: Foster The People – Paradise State Of Mind

Adam Grundy

The fourth studio album from Foster The People is their first new LP in seven years and finds the band exploring the depths of their sound in a disco-infused collection of songs. Paradise State of Mind features a vibrant cover image that meshes well with the overall aesthetic of the music that comes pouring through the speakers. The set was produced by Chrome Sparks, Paul Epworth, Isom Innis, and band leader Mark Foster. Foster The People also went through a couple of band member changes since this album has released, including the departure of drummer Mark Pontius (who left in 2021) and guitarist Sean Cimino (who departed three months prior to the LP release). With all of these changes going on, it’s truly a wonder of how Foster The People were able to still craft a cohesive record that hits its intended target more often than not.

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Review: The Gaslight Anthem – Get Hurt

The Gaslight Anthem - Get Hurt
Craig Manning

When an album breaks a band you love, it gets saddled with a lot of baggage. Most albums are just a chapter in a band’s existence; there were albums before and there will be albums after. But the elephant in the room that music fans like to ignore is that there will always, eventually, be a last album, and a lot of “last albums” aren’t conceived or built to serve that role. When careers cut short because of death, or petty disagreements, or a simple exhaustion of ideas, it’s not usually the poetic ride-off-into-the-sunset conclusion we’d hope for. And yet, despite the randomness that often plays into the endings of musical careers, us music fans obsess over the lore and mythology of our favorite artists so much that we end up conferring significance that isn’t there on albums that just so happen to come at the end of the story.

Such was the case, for years, with Get Hurt, the fifth LP from New Jersey rock band The Gaslight Anthem. Released in August 2014, Get Hurt had the distinction for nearly a decade of being the final album that The Gaslight Anthem ever made. And for me at least, it collected all the baggage, lore, and extra fascination such a distinction entails. A part of me hated the album for breaking up a band I loved, for wasting the boundless potential I’d heard in their music just two years earlier. Another part of me loved it for the mystique of it all – the question of what it was about this particular set of songs that drove these four guys to the brink and forced them to pull the ripcord. To this day, when I listen to Get Hurt, those two parts of me are still in the room together, coexisting – even though, now, the album has been freed from most of the weight it was once tasked with carrying.

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Review: Glass Animals – I Love You So F***ing Much

Adam Grundy

Most bands would give their left arm for the type of viral success that Glass Animals experienced on their last LP, Dreamland, that spawned the massive single called “Heat Waves.” In an interview with Clash Music, frontman, songwriter and producer Dave Bayley shared about this experience: “Life can change dramatically, but sometimes you aren’t able to change as quickly on a personal level. You end up feeling like a spectator. And then you are asked and expected to be a certain type of person, a different person. But…I wasn’t sure how. It confused me to the point of not knowing who I was or if anything was real.” What came off of this success is the logical follow-up album that sounds like a band leaning into that rewarding experience with a bit of a swagger, and possibly a chip on their shoulders, to prove that they aren’t a one-trick pony. I Love You So F***ing Much is Glass Animals’ fourth studio album and it vividly explores what it means to be a small part in an enormous universe that is ever-changing. What we’re left with is a smooth collection of ten songs that play off of each other majestically and is the most complete artistic statement that Glass Animals have created to date.

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Review: Team Goldie – Trailblazer

Adam Grundy

The debut LP by Team Goldie, called Trailblazer, is a solid mix of pop-punk, emo, and overall nostalgia towards the scene of music most of us grew up on. Team Goldie comes from the mind of multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Matt DiStefano, and the new album was produced by DiStefano and John Browne. What comes through the speakers is a blast of energetic pop-punk songs filled with passion and knowledge of this genre. On the name-dropping single of “One & Only,” DiStefano rhythmically sings, “She was standing there in mom jeans and a plain white tee / With confidence, yelled “what’s good, Charlotte?” / Sand in my hand and we got to talking / She said “What’s your sign, boy?” I’m all Aries no Taurus / Just an absolute punk jumping straight to the chorus like…” before jumping into a crowd-pleasing chorus. While Team Goldie may just be happy to be a part of this scene of music, Trailblazer plays out like a record that you’ll want to revisit during the care free days of summer.

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Review: Artless Jesus – “U HATE ME”

Adam Grundy

I’d like to introduce everyone to Artless Jesus, a new pop-punk band that features members of Record Heat (Spirit Animal), Cal Stamp (vocals) and Paul Michel (guitars). The lead single from The Assorted Grievances of Artless Jesus EP, “U HATE ME,” also has Pat Gerasia (Red Sun Rising) on drums, and features a nice combination of crunchy guitar riffs, shimmering pop-punk vocals from Cal Stamp, and a cool all-around vibe built for those summer drives to the beach. The band shared, “We shared the EP with some industry types and they hated it, so we posted their feedback on our website. After a decade-plus of kicking around the lower-middle class of the music business, we don’t really give a shit anymore. Fuck ’em.” With a sound that sounds similar to early New Found Glory paired with Four Year Strong, Artless Jesus may just be the next great discovery in the pop-punk genre.

Cal Stamp’s smooth vocals in the verses bleed well into the pre-chorus build-up, before admitting, “But you hate the way my voice sounds when I’m singing you to sleep / And you hate the way I stumble trying to sweep you off your feet / You hate the shape our bodies make at night between the sheets / But the only thing I’d change in you / Are all the countless ways that you hate me.” It’s a pretty solid introductory statement from some talented, and under-appreciated, musicians who are looking for a new avenue for their creativity.

Review: Eliza & The Delusionals – Make It Feel Like The Garden

Adam Grundy

The second studio album from Eliza & The Delusionals is a stunning collection of songs that play off of each other brilliantly and put emphasis on the songwriting improvements from the band. Make It Feel Like The Garden was produced by Oscar Dawson (Holy Holy, Amy Shark) and lead singer Eliza Klatt shared, “It was interesting to see how working in a different part of the world, outside of the comfort of our home studio and Australia in general, has influenced our writing and the process of demoing the songs. Recording the album with Oscar Dawson was an incredibly collaborative experience. He continued to push us out of our comfort zones which led us to feeling really free creatively. I think this also made us write in our most honest and genuine form.” The album is built around several different flowery interludes, including “Iris,” “Marigold,” “Dahlia,” “Arabella,” and lastly “Violet” that help set the stage for the music that comes flowing after. By creating an authentic record that plays into a sound similar to bands like The Aces, Wolf Alice, and The 1975, Eliza & The Delusionals prove that they are here to stay.

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Review: AFI – Black Sails In The Sunset

AFI - Black Sails In The Sunset
Adam Grundy

When AFI began their fourth studio album, Black Sails In The Sunset, with the memorable gang vocals of “Through our bleeding, we are one!” they lit the match for one of the most explosive band trajectories ever witnessed in this scene. This would be the first LP with the now-classic lineup of Jade Puget, Adam Carson, Hunter Burgan, and Davey Havok, and featured a dramatic shift away from the punk rock sound they had explored on their earlier work in favor of a darker-tinged aesthetic. Black Sails In The Sunset is one of those gripping albums that grab the listener by the throat from the very first spin and beckons them to join in the fray. While AFI certainly weren’t the only punk band to explore a darker side to the sound, they did seem to do it a bit more flawlessly than the bands that would later emulate their career path.

This album has recently received a fresh vinyl reissue via Craft Recordings, that releases on July 19, 2024, and it includes several additional bonus tracks like “Midnight Sun,” “Who Knew?”, “Weight Of Words” and the previously vinyl-only song of “Lower It” has been added to the tail end of the tracklisting (rather than closing out Side A, as found on previous vinyl versions). AFI have re-captured our collective imaginations on this thrilling, comprehensive reissue that hits just as hard as it did back in the early summer of 1999.

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Review: Fenix TX – Fenix TX

Adam Grundy

The self-titled record from Fenix TX came with a number of firsts for the band. It was their first major label LP, the first record that they would release after re-branding from Riverfenix to Fenix TX, and their first real exposure to the mainstream of pop-punk that was beginning to blossom during the summer of 1999. Other pop-punk bands, like Blink-182, were getting major radio airplay and more audiences were being exposed to this genre of music. Fenix TX was produced by Jerry Finn, Ryan Greene, and Jim Barnes, and the band would continue to work with Finn on their equally successful Lechuza. This self-titled LP by the pop-punk band from Houston still sounds as charming, polished, and at moments a bit before its time. For every great track like “All My Fault” and “Flight 601 (All I Got Is Time),” there’s a goofy song like “Rooster Song” to show their audience that they were growing up and to not be taken too seriously. There’s plenty to love and enjoy on this LP that would provide plenty of clues of where Fenix TX would take their sound on subsequent releases.

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Review: Hootie & The Blowfish – Cracked Rear View

Adam Grundy

Twenty-two million fans can’t be wrong, right? The 22x-platinum debut from Hootie & The Blowfish is a remarkable achievement of staying true to the band’s roots and being willing to be different from what was dominating the rock scene in the mid-90’s. Grunge rock was everywhere during this time period, so most major labels passed on the thought of signing a pop-rock band from South Carolina. Cracked Rear View opened to a modest charting of #127 on the Billboard 200, but it would quickly build momentum and become the best-selling album of 1995. The record was produced by Don Gehman (R.E.M., John Mellencamp) and would spawn five successful singles that still get radio airplay to this day. While Hootie & The Blowfish would have trouble replicating the magic found on their debut LP on their subsequent releases, these songs still stand the test of time and remain a key example of how writing authentic, heartfelt tracks can lead to success.

The record sets off on the right tone with “Hannah Jane,” a straight forward pop-rock track that quickly showcases the band’s great chemistry between each other, and lead singer Darius Rucker’s captivating vocal performance remains a key part of Hootie & The Blowfish’s success story. “Hold My Hand” was the first single to be released from the set and it’s a steadfast choice of a track to introduce the band to the world and continues to be a staple in the band’s live performances. The lead single is a key example of how the band understood what made their music accessible, catchy, and heartfelt simultaneously in an era when pop-rock wasn’t a major seller.

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Review: The Early November – The Early November

The Early November - The Early November
Adam Grundy

The latest studio album from The Early November is a great encapsulation of all the styles, vibes, and feelings they have brought forth over their career. As front-man Ace Enders put it in an interview I conducted with the band, “It’s the exclamation point, versus the period, of where we are in our career.” It’s hard to not agree with this sentiment as The Early November features everything that the band has been known for, while still moving the needle forward in their creative process as this LP may just be their finest hour. From the crunchy opening chords of the Futures-esque “The Empress” to the tender acoustic guitar bliss of “It Will Always Be,” this record is filled with breathtaking moments from front-to-back that makes the journey for longtime fans of The Early November that much sweeter.

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Review: The Decemberists – As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again

Adam Grundy

The ninth studio album from The Decemberists, titled As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again, is a thrilling walk through the woods of indie-folk lore that firmly highlights the strengths of the band. The Decemberists recently wrapped a tour that acted as a teaser to the songs that would be on this LP, and the music found on this record translated extremely well to the live setting. The band has never been shy of expanding upon the roots of folk music by adding in rich context to their songs, creating unique characters, and telling vivid stories through their music. Truly the band’s first double album, this particular record puts all of their assets on full display in a marvelous accomplishment of artistic achievement, and it just may be the band’s finest, and most complete work of music to date.

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