April Music Review

Hey everyone! It’s been awhile since I’ve talked about anything besides baseball, but with a new Greta Van Fleet album on the horizon, I’ve been inspired to begin diversifying my posts a little bit more. Every month, I’m gonna give you a little snapshot of what I’ve been listening to recently; all music is fair game, regardless of if it’s new to me, new to everyone, or old generally. To start us off, here’s some new stuff!

Artist Highlight: R.E.M.

As established leaders in ‘80s alt rock since they broke onto the scene, I’m honestly shocked I didn’t listen to them before recently. If you don’t know R.E.M., look up Losing My Religion, It’s The End Of The World As We Know It, and/or Everybody Hurts; one of those will probably ring a bell. R.E.M. mastered the art of simplicity; if you know me at all, you know that I admire bands that don’t do too much. Everything is done tastefully, artistically.  If you haven’t given them a listen, here are some recommendations.

Talk About The Passion

Released in 1983, Talk About The Passion is my favorite song off of Murmur, their first album. It’s pretty indicative of most of their music: bare-bones acoustic guitar, strong, repetitive, somewhat cryptic lyrics, and Michael Stipe’s unique, raw voice. Definitely a good place to start.

(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville

Rockville is my favorite R.E.M. song, and the one that inspired me to dive a bit deeper into their discography. Released a year after Murmur, Reckoning features Rockville and So. Central Rain (at least, that’s what I’ve latched on to); both are extraordinarily solid and underrated, exceptional examples of Stipe’s lyricism. His voice and songwriting are what make R.E.M. who they are, and both shine through on Rockville. Nobody knows exactly what he’s talking about, but it works nevertheless. 

Losing My Religion

You’ve probably heard of this one, released in 1991 on Out Of Time. Stipe’s lyricism is at its absolute peak here, beautifully conjuring up an image of a guy struggling with unrequited/obsessive love. It sounds like he’s speaking to himself, convincing himself of something he doesn’t believe. It’s an extremely evocative song, objectively the strongest they’ve released. 

Honorable mentions: Cuyahoga, Hyena, Fall On Me, The One I Love

Song Highlights

This is the section where I parse through my On Repeat Spotify playlist and pick a few that I’ve been hooked on recently. Old, new, whatever.

Leader The Follow — Drivin N’ Cryin

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know his voice is weird. I don’t care. This song has been at the top of my list for a year now. Off of Wrapped In Sky, Leader The Follow is nowhere near the top of their discography, but I love it nonetheless. Strong keyboard, organ, and clean guitar accompany Kevn Kinney’s remarkably unique voice and lyricism. What does the song mean, you ask? Your guess is as good as mine, but it’s still really, really good. I promise.

Mountain Of The Sun — Greta Van Fleet

Did you know “mine” and “sunshine” don’t have to rhyme? If you didn’t, it’s time to listen to Mountain Of The Sun, an exercise in not looking too deeply into lyrics that mean nothing. Sure, they sound a lot like Led Zeppelin, but if you ask me, today’s music scene could use a little more hard, classic rock, and that’s exactly what this song delivers. Hard-hitting guitar and vocals, a strong solo, a fun chorus, and powerful percussion. There are plenty of GVF songs that are a lot like this; arguably, they’re much better. But the vibes in Mountain Of The Sun are unmatched. 

Sunrise — Trombone Shorty

Troy Andrews plays more trumpet than trombone on Sunrise, and it works beautifully. It’s a simple trumpet melody over a trombone-tambourine-bass background. The slow escalation into the solo section is oh-so-elegant, and Trombone Shorty’s trumpet solo speaks for itself. Sunrise sounds like what a sunrise looks like, and it’s the perfect cure for your rainy-day blues. 

All Said and Done — Sturgill Simpson

Simpson released SOUND & FURY in 2019, and yet I didn’t find All Said and Done until recently. If you haven’t listened to Simpson, SOUND & FURY is not a good representation of his typical genre; Sturgill is, at his core, a country artist. And while his country music is pretty solid, his synthwave-rock-alt album that he dropped out of nowhere in 2019 remains one of my all-time favorites. Now that I’m thinking about it, I’ll probably have to do a full album review at some point; in the meantime, know that All Said and Done is the dictionary definition of frustration, executed with a shockingly good synth and guitar solo, as well as fantastic dynamic contrast. 

Hope you guys enjoyed something a little different. Hopefully this will be a thing I can keep doing in the future; until then, thanks for reading!

Emory