Tag: The 2020’s
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Goldfinger ‘Never Look Back’ (2020)
Many will remember Goldfinger for their prominence during the late 90’s with their hits such as “Superman” and “99 Red Balloons” (you’re lying if you claim ignorance of these two songs) as well as their brand of kitschy third-wave-ska meets punk rock. In the years following lead singer and songwriter John Feldmann has made quite…
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Spiritworld ‘DEATHWESTERN’ (2022)
Spiritworld’s DEATHWESTERN is an apocalyptic deluge of distorted guitars set in a dystopian American West populated by blood-thirsty demons and tales baptized in blood. It’s thrash metal meets hardcore in the arid desert, a brutal and heavy affair that doesn’t let up on the gas pedal throughout its entire 36-minute runtime. If you’re looking for…
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Kindergarten Cartel ‘Kindergarten Cartel’ (2024)
About a year ago I was driving in the car with my two-year old daughter and newborn son, listening to PinkFong’s rendition of “Baby Shark” for what felt like (and was certainly most likely) the 23rd time in a row, and thought to myself “there has to be a better way.” For a young father…
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Wolves of Glendale ‘Wolves of Glendale’ (2024)
Yesterday we covered my love for musician/comedian Tom McGovern and we’re back again today for another round with his band Wolves of Glendale self-titled debut album. Unlike his short-form album Two Hour Tuesdays, Wolves of Glendale is a full-fledged effort clocking in at 45-minutes long and covering a wide array of sonic ground– smooth yacht…
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Tom McGovern ‘Two Hour Tuesday’ (2020)
For those unfamiliar with musician/comedian Tom McGovern, I feel sorry for you. He’s one of the best things on the internet right now, dropping 80’s ballads that question what the ground steam in New York City is actually comprised of (seriously wtf is happening here) to his recurring segment “Good Band Name, Bad Band Name”…
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Meet Me @ The Altar ‘Past // Present // Future’ (2023)
Along with having perhaps some of the most impressive uses of typographical symbols in both their band name and album title (the dual solidus in the Past // Present // Future is a chef’s kiss, frankly) Meet Me @ The Altar turns in a refreshing rendition of 2023 pop punk throughout their debut album. All…
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Teenage Halloween ‘Till You Return’ (2023)
Teenage Halloween has exploded onto the underground pop punk scene in recent years backed by their earnest and fervent take on growing up as a young person in America who doesn’t quite fit in. Till You Return is an explosion of energy, encapsulating thematic subject matter that ranges from self-identity (the vast majority of the…
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Every Time I Die ‘Radical’ (2021)
Any time I’m looking for a shot of straight adrenaline to get the juices flowin’ there’s few bands I’ll turn to more regularly than Every Time I Die. Their 2007 album The Big Dirty is a personal favorite of mine (“We’rewolf” being the best song in their entire discography in my opinion), but despite that…
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Brett Eldredge ‘Mr. Christmas’ (2021)
Brett Eldredge has one of the finest and rich country voices in the industry today and is a consistent go-to for me when I’m in the need of an old-fashioned emotional pick me up. The title track off his 2020 album Sunday Drive has made me well up with tears on numerous occasions (a story…
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Matthew. ‘Yesterday & Forever Ago’ (2023)
Today we’ll be covering my debut LP Yesterday & Forever Ago, which was officially released this morning. I previously covered the pretty wild turn of events that came about during the recording of this album in my writeup of the EP I released earlier this year entitled CAMBRIA: The Lost Sessions, so I won’t belabor…
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Dexter Britain ‘Royalty’ (2023)
I first discovered Dexter Britain 10 years ago on Soundcloud when I heard his 2012 release Music To Sell Cars By. I was immediately taken by the richness of his sound and the heart each of his arrangements had, each one teeming with life and dramatic flair. At that point I signed up for his…
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Petey ‘USA’ (2023)
Petey’s USA is a self-reflective romp through Indie rock and post-punk, combining avant-garde musical elements alongside lyrics that evoke a Virginia Woolf-esque stream of consciousness delivered with earnestness. Petey’s voice reminds me significantly of Andy Hull’s from Manchester Orchestra in the way he enunciates specific words and sort of cascades through his higher notes. It’s…
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Sam Fender ‘Seventeen Going Under’ (2021)
The very first time I heard “Seventeen Going Under” I cried like a baby. There was something about Sam Fender’s voice and the musical arrangement accompanying him that moved me in that moment, a gravitas that held a meaning I didn’t quite understand but was committed to figure out. It’s the languished longing of his…
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Blink-182 ‘One More Time…’ (2023)
Yesterday Blink-182 released One More Time…, their first album with Tom Delonge since 2011’s Neighborhoods, closing a 12-year hiatus that saw the band go through a rather tumultuous breakup that roiled through the music industry. The personal challenges between Delonge and bassist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker have been well chronicled, but effectively the…
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Harry Styles ‘Harry’s House’ (2022)
Members of boy-bands going on to illustrious solo careers is somewhat of a rare bird. You have some standout examples like Michael Jackson (Jackson 5), Justin Timberlake (*N Sync), and George Michael (Wham!) who went on to be megastars that made people forget they were ever anything but a solo artist, but in general it’s…
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Goose ‘Dripfield’ (2022)
It’s rare that a jam band can translate what makes them special throughout the course of an entire studio album. There’s something that is indelible about witnessing a live performance from a band like Goose or Grateful Dead that transcends the experience of listening of music through headphones– the buzz of spontaneity that permeates the…
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Zach Bryan ‘American Heartbreak’ (2022)
It’s not often you get a non-compilation triple album, but there’s nothing really normal about Zach Bryan’s rise to fame. A U.S. Navy veteran who enlisted at the age of 17, Bryan rose to prominence five years ago the way so many breakthrough artists are nowadays– through a viral YouTube video. This led to his…
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Del Water Gap ‘Del Water Gap’ (2021)
Del Water Gap is the solo project of Brooklyn based musician Samuel Jaffe. His self-titled debut is a nostalgia-soaked collection of 12 songs that delights in surprising you at every turn in a charming way that Indie Pop is known for. There’s a slight 90’s alternative hum buzzing underneath the surface that finds its way…
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Måneskin ‘RUSH!’ (2023)
Måneskin makes me feel old and out of touch. Even more than I usually feel. The best way I can describe them is an Italian glam rock version of Royal Blood whose sole goal is to make songs that sound as massive and as danceable as possible. And since all the band members are in…
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Fleet Foxes ‘Shore’ (2020)
Known for their majestic four-piece harmonies and folk wistfulness, Fleet Foxes is an indie rock darling in my group of friends. They are a band that has orbited around the sun of commercial success while never quite finding their way onto the surface, but that hasn’t kept them from weaving their way into my life…
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D Smoke ‘Black Habits’ (2020)
D Smoke gets a lot of comparison to Kendrick Lamar which is probably annoying and flattering for him all at the same time. But the similarities are striking— both are from southwest LA (Inglewood and Compton respectively), heavily incorporate jazz samples into their compositions, run through bars with a frenetic flow, and are gifted storytellers…
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Fievel Is Glauque ‘God’s Trashmen Sent to Right the Mess’ (2021)
Fievel Is Glaque’s 2021 album God’s Trashmen Sent to Right the Mess is a collection of live mono cassette recordings that were cut in Brussels during the COVID-19 pandemic that rocked the world in 2020. The ensemble includes American keyboardist Zach Philips and French singer Ma Clément as well as a collection of nearly 30…
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Stick Figure ‘Wisdom’ (2022)
Scott Woodruff is the frontman and creative center behind Stick Figure, a reggae-based outfit who has risen to prominence over the last two decades since releasing his 2007 debut The Sound of My Addiction. I’m an absolute sucker for any self-taught (and self-produced) musician, and Woodruff’s DIY approach instantly appealed to me considering the parallels…
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Dua Lipa ‘Future Nostalgia’ (2020)
Dua Lipa’s brand of peanut butter smooth disco pop is simply a delight to listen to. It’s incredibly well produced, her voice is magnificent, and the songwriting hooks are crafted with care by the bevy of songwriters who were brought in to help bring the album to life. Future Nostalgia was actually inspired in large…
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Matthew. ‘CAMBRIA: The Lost Sessions’ (2023)
So this is a fun one! Today we’re doing a write up of my newest EP entitled CAMBRIA: The Lost Sessions that just hit streaming services while your wee little heads were asleep. Before we go into each individual track and the meaning behind them, a little history lesson on how this EP came to…
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Ben Rector ‘The Joy of Music’ (2022)
Ben Rector is somewhat of a singer-songwriter darling, rising to prominence in 2015 off the back of his Billboard-charting single “Brand New” which put him firmly on the map in the mainstream. A handful of world tours and smash-hits later, Rector got married and had three kids. And while he never was an artist who…
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Pecos & the Rooftops ‘Pecos & the Rooftops’ (2023)
Pecos & the Rooftops is a throwback to mid-2000’s alternative rock and modern country (think Nickelback meets Dylan Wheeler) and is here to do nothing but keep it simple and straightforward. The band actually shot to prominence off their single “This Damn Song” which was released over four years ago and got incredibly popular during…
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The Weeknd ‘After Hours’ (2020)
The Weeknd’s brand of dark and brooding R&B was a revelation for the genre in the mid 2010’s, breathing new and fresh life into a storied but somewhat stale industry. On After Hours The Weeknd took those R&B roots and pushed everything a bit further– delving into dream pop and synth-driven instrumentation, crafting a semi-concept…
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Turnstile ‘GLOW ON’ (2021)
Turnstile’s 2021 album GLOW ON was somewhat of a defining moment for hardcore music in that it broke down a lot of barriers for the genre commercially. This was an album that made multiple mainstream “Best Of” lists for album of the year (not just rock album, album album), charted at #30 on the Billboard…
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Westside Gunn ‘Pray For Paris’ (2020)
Westside Gunn’s Pray For Paris (along with having absolutely epic album artwork) is a study in mid-90’s hip-hop enunciatioon and flow set in the century of modern musical production elements. For someone who doesn’t listen to a ton of modern hip hop, Westside Gunn provides a convenient portal to the past where hip-hop vocal production…
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Pony Bradshaw ‘Calico Jim’ (2021)
Taking place in the rural decay of North Georgia, Pony Bradshaw’s 2021 classic Calico Jim chronicles the lives and stories of a myriad of eccentric characters existing on the outskirts of society– sixth generation hillbillies, snakeskin-boot wearing rich men, crystal meth-addicted Mennonites, and everything in between. These are stories that exist in 21st Century America,…
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Brian Fallon ‘Local Honey’ (2020)
Brian Fallon’s rise as a Jersey-born songwriter has drawn a lot of comparisons to the legendary Bruce Springsteen, and it’s clear at points during Fallon’s career with The Gaslight Anthem he was trying to fill those shoes a little too earnestly. Fallon’s solo career has been equally nostalgia-infused and songwriting driven, but in 2020’s Local…
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Wolfhand ‘The Devil Arrives’ (2020)
A lone figure in a wide brimmed black hat appears just over the skyline. His long and dark leather jacket blows in the breeze, flowing with the dusty desert wind and yet unperturbed by it, a man who transcends . The silver glint of his revolvers, one-a-side dutifully attached to his hip as they have…
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The Lone Bellow ‘Half Moon Light’ (2020)
The Lone Bellow’s vocal melodies have never failed to delight, and their 2020 effort Half Moon Light is no exception. This album marked a turning point from a pure folk-country sound into more of a psychedelic gospel sound, doubling down on their eclectic influences that reach deep into a bag of tricks and come out with a…
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Animals As Leaders ‘Parrhesia’ (2022)
Prog metal is having its moment in the Plank household the past few weeks, with excellent albums like Colors by Between The Buried and Me and Remember That You Will Die by Polyphia being a handful of favorites. Today we take a trip to the harder side of instrumental metal with the raucous Parrhesia by…
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Taylor McCall ‘Black Powder Soul’ (2021)
Black Powder Soul by Taylor McCall sounds like if Dustin Kensrue from Thrice and The Black Keys got together to write an outlaw country record. In other words, it sounds pretty fucking awesome. This has all the elements that check the box for what I love about outlaw country music. Acoustic guitars in minor keys,…
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