Opening with flourishes that sound like Crazy Horse on a grand day near the mountains, this slow-burning rocker will wow your inner sense of integrity whilst throwing off enough twang and twisty guitars to make the whole experience damn tasty. Oh, and the singing! This record has all the elements of a classic, with talk about walking a loved one home (“Make You Mine”) before surrendering to the city life with distorted dignity and gritty grief (“City Life”)—a song that features a very interesting hook as well, by the way. The rest of this album makes it with shimmer, creatively digging into rocanrol tropes many found familiar and rocking on The Bends: It sounds like this is what happens after, when no more oxygen is needed to revive the body and soul.
Tom Foe Opaque Projector (Self-Released)
Okay, I get it. Despite falling into the category of what the holy heck happened to you all geniuses over in Oxford, Radiohead remains a profound influence on young and upcoming musical artists. I only mention this casually because as I was listening to the first track on this album—at medium volume by the way—my wife burst into my office with a beam in her eye and exhalted, “What Radiohead is this!?” After she was let down by my response, I continued to listen to Opaque Projector, particularly digging “Lend,” “Fighters”—with its awesomely opaque yet searching lyrical content—and “Horror Star.” It’s all very beauteous rock-wise and what might have happened if Yorke hadn’t listened to Hello Nasty and then started work on Kid A.
Apeirian Age Apeirian Age (Self-Released)
Get in your car and drive. I really don’t know and don’t care where in the heck you end up. Just make sure you are jamming to this collection of astral atmospheric aural indulgences as you press down on the accelerator with the bone in your right foot. As you head for destinations like San Francisco—hey it’s only an 18 hour drive there so you’d only have to jam this album like a dozen times on repeat—or Club Med San Carlos (only 8 hours away via Hermosillo) this will help you and your shiny automobile face the desert night and the bright sunshine by the sea. You could try having sex to this album too, but that might get corny. Favorite tracks are first and last, “One Way Mission” and “The Kingdom Within” of course.
