Sharon Van Etten - Remind Me Tomorrow Review

This year I'm trying hard to listen to new music and to focus on new album releases.
Earlier this month, Sharon Van Etten released a new album called Remind Me Tomorrow. The new single is featured on this week's Strange Sound Spotify Playlist.

The album is excelent. I was not very familiar with Etten's back catalogue, only the most streamed songs, but this album looks like an improvement. A more mature album and a step forward.

The album has a big variety of sounds, form melancholic ballads to electronic pop songs until indie rock hits.

Remind Me Tomorrow starts with a sad and slow ballad that serves as an introduction. Then, two kind of dark introspective songs, with "Memorial Day" sounding like a long moan with the words "YouWill Run" winding through the instrumental.

Then, you go directly to the 3 singles chosen by Sharon to present the album. "Comeback Kid" is a fast, a bit catchy and a hard song. "Jupiter 4" is a spacey, electronic and emotional trip.

"Seventeen" is one of those song that you love it or you hate it. I love it. It's the most happy song on the album, an obvious single and hit. Very catchy, very radio-friendly, kinda sound like a hymn, a perfect song to celebrate love and the process of ageing happily. It's a lesson about how to make a good modern indie pop song. Perfect.

After the 3 single we enter again a darker territory. "Malibu" is a beautiful ballad, reminding something like Beach House with a fantastic dramatic synthesizer solo. "You Shadow" is OK, doesn't really stand out from the other songs. "Hands" is a very obscure song, one of those songs to leave to the end of the album, it marks, even if the production here is a bit distorted during the chorus, that doesn't really helps.
The last song "Stay" comes like a fresh air (specially after Hands) and it is a very chilling moment.

As a overall, the album is great. I could define it as a very good current indie record, sang by a beautiful voice. It shows that actually, today Women are really on the vanguard of indie music.
In 10 songs, it has everything: hits, melancholic ballads, chill tunes, electronic sounds, hard dark melodies. As I said on the beginning, inside one gender of music, it is a very diversified album.

It's the best album I heard this year. Sorry James Blake and Deerhunter, but Sharon wins.

Some News In A Playlist

I usually try to make playlist with some sense. Music news, new releases, something that happened in my life, etc. And it is a great way to listen to new and old music, with a meaning and with variety.
So here's the new playlist with the reasons why I picked the songs.

01. Sharon Van Etten - Seventeen - The artist just released her new album and it is great. Review coming soon.
02. Mac DeMarco - Chamber Of Reflection - The Canadian artist is releasing a new this year.
03. Geneva - Tranquillizer - The Scottish 90's band, who toured with Suede, are reforming this year for some shows and maybe will write new music together again.
04. Echo & The Bunnymen - The Killing Moon - Everyone was excited about the red moon earlier this week. so this song kind fits for it.
05. DeVotchKa - Second Chance - Just randomly listened to this week this week and I think it is amazing.
06. Interpol - The Scale - The North - Amercian band is coming to this year Primavera Sound, both in Porto and Barcelona
07. James Blake - Are You In Love? - The producer / musician / composer release is critically acclaimed new album "Assume Form".
08. Ornatos Violeta - Coisas - The Legendary Portuguese band recently confirmed that they are getting together for the first time since 2012 for 3 festival dates. I already have the tickets!
09. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody - First time in years that I went to the cinema to see the biopic about Freddie Mercury. It is a great movie and a great performance.
10. Jack Johnson - Sunsets For Somebody Else - The weather is improving and expect some sunny days.

Porto Primavera Sound 2019

Primavera Sound is the festival which I most look up to.

First, it is (or was) my style of music. It is a modern city festival (without camping). The vibe is beautiful, people are beautiful, there is a sense of freedom and peace in the air. Wonderful. And it is in my beloved city, Porto.

During the last years, we had great great performances. Last year although, I was a bit disappointed. Nick Cave and The War On Drugs were great, the rest was OK. The lineup was poor.

Last week, the artists were revealed and disappointment again.

There aren't any big big number besides Interpol. Most of them are unknown to me and they even have some kind of reaggaeton day. What the fuck! Seriously...

The festival got so big that the promoters don't really care about the music. It will sold out anyway, their pockets will be full. 

This year we will be able to see not only Interpol but also Courtney Barnett, Jarvis Cocker and James Blake. The rest is bad or unknown. So many great indie bands around that could be hired and this is all we get...

The Barcelona festival, not only has all of the good names that are coming to Porto but also they got Suede, Mac DeMarco, Primal Scream, Kurt Ville and Christine & The Queens.

So, basically, this year, Porto is a cheap version of the Barcelona festival.

I know Portugal is a small country, and Porto is a small city but, c'mon, there was something special about Primavera here. Now, people will attend to the festival because Porto is a nice place, with a nice beach and with a better prize. They will come here because of the location and not because of the music itself. It's a pity. 

I didn't buy my ticket yet, and not sure if I will.        

James Blake - Assume Form Review

James Blake not only release his new album this week but also confirmed his presence in the 2019 Porto Primavera Sound festival. So, probably I will see him live next summer.

I'm not very familiar with Blake's past work. So, this is going to be a very frontal review, without looking back to his back catalogue.

First, Blake is, definitely not my type of indie music.
He is somewhere in the middle of indie, r n' b, chill, pop, a mix of all of it.

The album starts with the title track, Assume Form, and it is like a sweet dream pop song. Nice way to begin the album.
Then, on the next song, which is the main single, "Mile High" Blake, with the help of Travis Scott goes a deeper too much to the world of hip-hop and r n' b. Basic song, with some nice background sound but, honestly, nothing special, a bit lame actually. Don't forget please that I'm a man who doesn't appreciate too much rap music. The next song, "Tell Them" flows in the same line as the previous one, but in a more aggressive and complex way. Should be the single, in my opinion.
Into The Red,shows Blake in a more introspective way, and his one of the best songs on the album.
Barefoot In The Park features Rosalía, who will also perform at Primavera Sounds, and it's a more exotic ambient song, it's beautiful, Rosalía gives a fresh feeling to the song and to the album.
Can't Believe The Way We Flow and Are You In Love? are my favourites so far. CBTWWF is very summerish and AYIL is a sad and beautiful love confession.
"Where's The Catch?" has some strange jazz "contratempo" beats, but is too much r n´b for me, "I'll Come Too" is a sweet love song. "Power On" and "Don't Miss It" don't bring nothing particularly new to the album. The last song "Lullaby For My Insomniac" is a ambient chill calm song, good to end the album.

As an overall, the album is good. I don't think it is a masterpiece as it is being credited by most of the reviewers but it's a great album. Good music to put on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Again, I'm not a big big fan of this kind of music, specially the more "urban" songs but, if I liked it, someone who connects with this type of music most love it, so, maybe all the good fuzz around the album is true and, an album that for me it's only OK is a great piece of art to million of people out there.

Red Rum Club - Matador Review

One of the last playlists I did featured a new song called "Honey" by the band Red Rum Club.

I enjoyed the track, it had a rock / party feeling, something like Cat Empire. They are a new band from Liverpool, United Kingdom. 

I was quite curious about their debut album, Honey is really a great track.

I heard it last night and I was very disappointed. It's funny to write this now, following my last post where I said that I almost never write negative reviews. Well, here's one.

The album is poor. The songs are similar, and they don't follow the energy of Honey. It looks like they have a permanent trumpet player so, they have in every song the trumpets riff. Which is a shame, is something unnecessary, they should really cut off most of those riffs.

They are a British band trying to sound American Western, but, in most of the songs they end up as a mix of Ricky Martin with some bad american "pop/rock" band like Nickelback or Hoobastank. 

Also weird, the singers voice is a little bit similar to James Dean Bradfield from the Manics, so try to imagine Bradfield singing "sugar rock latino" songs.

Angeline, the album first song is pretty cool, in the same line as Honey.

Then things get worse. "Would You Rather Be Lonely" makes me remember the hit "Hey Baby (If You'll Be My Girl". "Hung Up" sounds like a floppy "trying to be" western song and "TV Said So" sounds like a floppy "trying to be" Hawaiian song.
When it reaches song number 3, you start really to think why there is always a trumpet doing the singers or guitars melody. You get that feeling, something like "oh no, not again..."

Honey is great, happy, energetic, wish there were more songs like that.
The rest is a mix of romantic latino songs. Calexico, Casanova and Remedy are, again, something Ricky Martin could have sang. The album ends with a graceless ballad. 

So, I'm sorry, but Red Rum Club is something that I will let pass.

The Terrible 1975

I know I'm not the most impartial reviewer. Most of the music that I buy or review, I, usually write very good things about it. That's one of the reasons why I don't give a punctuation to them, it would have too many 10/10 or 5/5.

So, to prove that I don't like everything today, I'm writing about a band that I can't stand. The 1975.

I never listened much to the 1975. I thought it was something that I had to do. It was appearing in many of my "recommended to you" Spotify playlists and I saw that the band won a lot of awards and nominations for alternative, pop / rock and indie music. 

Then, lately, I gave it a try and I was surprise how terrible the band actually are. Well, they were always on the front page of NME, they won the Brit Awards in 2017, they won best album for Q a couple of years ago.

How? How did they win that, and how is the press so surrendered to them?

Their music is awful, it's like pop music for kids, stuff like Justin Bieber or One Direction. 

More surprisingly, how can good press place them somewhere in Indie British music? There are so good artists lately, why are the focus all over them? How can they performed in Glastonbury more than one time?

 

Well, I know everyone has their own taste and everyone is free to like (or dislike) music but, in my opinion, The 1975 are just a successful band made by producers, managers and influences. They should never be tagged as indie or pop rock act. 

2019 Is Here And We're Back!

2019 is here, what a time to be alive, that a time to listen to good music!
Strange Sound, the blog and the playlist are back again. The blog is turning 13 years now, time flies!
Well, nothing better than to start the new year and the resurrection with a brand new playlist with songs that marked my 2018 mixed with some other that are super fresh in my ears-.
So have a listen to the next 10 songs that feature Ennio Morricone, Lea Porcelain, Girl in Red, Suede, Whitey, David Holmes, Molly Burch, Supergrass, Franz Ferdinand and Frank Sinatra!
More posts coming soon!
Don't forget to check also the Indie Pendence playlist (it gets together all of the songs that passed by Strange Sound playlist over the years) here: https://open.spotify.com/user/miguelmatosmonteiro/playlist/1Yx830GzBcfMCVDa60HNx4?si=YpFjUSE5S_69NYsc-rtl4w