1. "Thriller" by Michael Jackson (1983)
2. "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr. (1984)
3. "Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett (1962)
4. "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult (1976)
5. "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC (1979)

Is This It

The Strokes

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Roll The Bones X

Shakey Graves

Ahhh yes February 9th, a classic holiday. For many, it’s known as National Chocolate Day, while others will observe National Read in the Bathtub Day. For those in Austin, Texas though, it’s Shakey Graves Day, upon which, Shakey provides his fans with a special treat of sorts. This year was no exception as he debuted his latest project, Rolle the Bones X. This album comes in two installments. The first is simply a re-release of his vintage Americana album, Roll the Bones. The second side comes with bonus songs in his familiar folk sound, old tape recordings, and even commentary from Shakey himself. Both combine to paint a story of Shakey’s life: from his humble beginnings to his evolution into a modern-day voice of the South. All in all, I would say it's the perfect album to listen to while reading in the bathtub with some chocolate nearby.

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Singularity

Jon Hopkins

This one is for all of you out there on the "all electronic music sounds the same" trend. Jon Hopkins has a message for you an and it's called Singularity and it was released in May of 2018. This album is more like a Hans Zimmer score to a movie than it is similar to any big name DJ you might commonly associate with electronic music. Stay with me here... the wavey, luscious, deep synth build that comes from the background in Emerald Rush could be the perfect cover for a beloved protagonist making her return to her home planet. 

It's required to listen to this one as a full collection and not pick out individual songs. Each individual song is like a story unto itself. Completely devoid of traditional chorus and verse structure, Singularity is much more a score for a sci-fi film than a record that will be played at your local club. I usually judge my electronic albums based off of how "dance-able" they are (that's the scientific term, trust me) but despite a complete lack of dance ability, this album really does it for me. 

So it makes sense that Singularity is more a film score than an album. One of Hopkins' first artistic works was creating the Soundtrack for the 2010 sci-fi horror film Monsters. (Full disclosure I've never seen the film so watch at your own risk).

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LIFE IN A SIMULATION

Smallpools

Smallpools is back and better than ever with their second full-length album, Life In A Simulation. This comes six years after their breakthrough debut album, Lovetap!, which we featured here back in March. Like its predecessor, the new project is Indie-dream pop at its finest. That means grooving guitar riffs, fun piano chord progressions, and plenty of sing-a-long “oh oh oooh”s and “ah ah o”s. Smallpools continues to pair their upbeat sound with more sentimental topics like the passage of time, and the complexities of relationships growing and fading. Overall, Smallpools delivers with another dreamy slate to tunes in LIFE IN A SIMULATION.
 

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Thoughts on Letting Go

HARBOUR

For this album let’s try a play-by-play for each song. Read along as you listen or scan beforehand and pick out the tracks that sound best to you!

The album starts out real slow, short, and auto tuned. 

It quickly picks up with a nice guitar riff leading to their first jam: Radiate (Like You Do)

Can’t Repeat It - I can see being screamed by all their fans at their concert. 

That Feeling -  Solid song. But nothing really special. A nice guitar solo towards the end wraps this up nicely. 

Keep Up - this track pumps the breaks a bit. It’s a more relaxed, music forward song until the breakdown really jams out at the end and makes you believe they can close out a concert on this tune. 

The Middle - this is your obligatory “na na na naa na, na na na naa na” song that every band has at least one of. 

Glutton - this song has my favorite instrumentals on the album. This feels like the guitarist’s song.

Float - this one is down-tempo and sway-worthy. Then, once again, HARBOUR builds and builds until the listener gets a bit of fireworks towards the end in the form of another sweet, sweet guitar solo. 

The flagship song: Thoughts on Letting Go is peaceful, short, and ends with the shutting of a door.

Easy - this is really a vessel for the band’s message of “Some things are too good to quit.” The stop/start about halfway through is pulled off well and followed by some energy and sass before slowing back down to bring this roller coaster to a close. 

Just skip Think For Yourself. Unsure what’s going on there…

Thank you for following along - hope you enjoyed discovering this album!

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