Feel-good pop doesn’t seem to fulfil its promise these days. But Arlo Parks‘s debut album, “Collapsed in Sunbeams”, manages to bring a little bit of sunlight-infused pop into our hearts and ears. Extra points for the poetic-feel and the whimsical but very accurate Portra 400 reference.
In a surprising contender for first new exceptional album of the year, James Yorkston teams up with Swedish folk-rock-ish outfit The Second Hand Orchestra to deliver “The Wide, Wide River”, a “krautfolk” machine that got us hooked at first listen.
Bolachas Now Playing, a new music Spotify playlist, updated every Wednesday.
Purling Hiss frontman Mike Polizze has gone solo, and the result is our album of the week, “Long Lost Solace Find”. With a little help from buddy Kurt Vile and engineer Jeff Zeigler (KV, the War on Drugs, etc), he’s crafted one of the nicest feel-good folk-pop records of the season. Go get it while it’s hot.
+: new tracks by Robert Forster, Cool Sounds, Cayucas, S.G. Goodman, Le Ren, Laura Veirs, Hen Ogledd, Sorry, The Lemon Twigs, Surfer Blood (with Pip Blom), Fontaines D.C., Hockey Dad, Thee Oh Sees, Katie Dey, David Bruno , Luka Kuplowsky, Madeline Kenney, Heartless Bastards, Angel Olsen, Land of Talk, Lomelda, Thomas Bartlett, Jerry David DeCicca, Blitzen Trapper, Cut Worms, and The Slim Kings.
We’re not writing anything about our album of the week, not because we’re lazy, but because we’re talking about the new Willie Nelson record and if you need an introduction to him you need to be pulled from that cave first. Plus: new tracks by Sufjan Stevens, Ed Askew Band, James Elkington, The Dead Tongues, Cut Worms, Cool Sounds, Tommy Alexander, Grady Strange, Trummors, Nathan Ma, Jason Molina Music, Send Medicine, This Is The Kit, Porridge Radio, Madeline Kenney, SAMIA, Ron Gallo, Delta Spirit, Fontaines D.C., Les Big Byrd, Bananagun, Mulatu Astatke (Official Artist Page) & Black Jesus Experience (BJX), Ezra Feinberg, and Jeremy Cunningham & Dustin Laurenzi.