sit-and-spin

Artist: Wylder

Album: Golden Age Thinking

Reason We’re Cranking It: There’s a lot of noise coming out of DC these days, but if you can look beyond the politics, “Golden Age Thinking” is a sound that’s literally music to our ears. Reminiscent of 90s era indie mainstays Guster and Wilco, Wylder blends sentimentality with substance in a way that both rewinds and fast forwards the genre at the same time.

What The Album Tells Us About Them: Folk and pop influences bubble to the surface in the quartet’s writing and they have the ability to build towards a moment, not only with individual tracks but with the album as a whole. If “Golden Age Thinking” were a balloon, it would become fully inflated by the midway point – “Winter” – and pop with punctuation by completion – “Right to My Head.” Pacing is an art form and Wylder has figured out the formula.

Track Stuck On Repeat: The vibe of “If I Love You” brings us back to our teen years when we contemplated less complicated matters of life in a way that gave them far more weight than they deserved. Young love was high stakes, and “If I Love You” goes all-in on our 90s nostalgia feels.

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Artist: Ian Ferguson

Album: State Of Gold

Reason We’re Cranking It: With what seems to be a countless number of boutique record labels focused on the quality of their releases and not the quantity, it’s easy for the DIYers to get overlooked in what feels like a modern day songwriting renaissance. But, like all good things, the cream rises to the top, and while “State of Gold” may never reach that status in terms of sales, the antiquated ways of valuing music – and experiencing it as a listener – do very little to stop an individual, in this case Ferguson, from bringing their own quality-over-quantity to the masses.

What The Album Tells Us About Him: Not only did Ferguson play all of the instruments that can be heard on the album, but he also recorded, engineered and mixed the entire collection on his own, capturing his artistic vision in a way that few artists are capable of. And while some songwriters may go this path to control their own destiny, for Ferguson it feels more like the music is in control and he is ushering it where it needs to go as opposed to the other way around.

Track Stuck On Repeat: Beatles fans will feel the Sgt. Pepper’s pop of “Deep Beneath the Waves,” which like the name suggests, flows in on a current of psychedelic movement that picks you up in one place and drops you off in an entirely different one.

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Artist: Robin Alice

Album: Here & There

Reason We’re Cranking It: Fans of the “Pitch Perfect” franchise will recognize Kelley Jakle, who appeared as Jessica in all three films, but it is her powerful vocals and the range in which she displays that impeccable skill set that makes us wish this EP was a full-length so that we could enjoy even more of the Robin Alice experience.

What The Album Tells Us About Them: Americana with a melodic pop, the duo – which in addition to Jakle also features the guitar work of Jeff “Horti” Hortillosa – write with systematic synergy, a natural pairing that seems to be glued together by an artistic attraction, or, creative love at first sight. The future is always uncertain, but if these two stay the course and keep writing together, the possibilities in what they can accomplish together are limitless.

Track Stuck On Repeat: Patsy Cline laced with soul, “Late Bloomer” is actually the exact opposite, flowering from the first note all the way through to the last. Jakle’s emotion can be felt in each line that she delivers, making us not only hear what she is singing, but feel it at the same time.

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Artist: Surprises

Album: Natural Disaster

Label: Spartan Records

Reason We’re Cranking It: Filled with such palpable hurt and longing that the emotions tied to the songs become just as much yours as they are brainchild Brooks Paschal’s, “Natural Disaster” is a musical middle that is easily relatable to anyone who has ever been jilted, abandoned or overlooked. Flipping the bird is not an act done without an exclamation point to punctuate it either, so spin this middle finger with as much volume – or exclamation – as your desired devices allow.

What The Album Tells Us About Him: Although there are elements of familiarity by way of Paschal’s musical past, this is not Sullivan, the band he has fronted since 2001. The North Carolina-native has taken a more no-holds-barred, raw approach to his songwriting, spitballing a wide range of emotions that feels edge-of-your-seat exciting and almost improvisational. He is shooting from the hip but also straight from the heart.

Track Stuck On Repeat: “El Salvador” has an infectious energy to it that is inescapable. With the crunch of the first chord to the crisp ingress of Paschal’s vocals, this is the most pleasant of surprises by an artist whose namesake implies that they’re coming.

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Artist: Rose Hotel

Album: I Will Only Come When It’s A Yes

Reason We’re Cranking It: Alt-country with a splash of dream-pop preciseness, Rose Hotel’s full-length debut is an eclectic collection of tracks that plays like an anthology. While there’s a theme that holds the narrative together, the individual songs all stand on their own, which makes sense given the musical diversity that accompanies frontwoman Jordan Reynolds. With nearly a dozen creative co-conspirators on “I Will Only Come When It’s A Yes,” including members of Material Girls and Palm Sunday, there’s enough artistic energy found among the nine songs to fuel nine more… each with their own atmospheric storytelling perspective.

What The Album Tells Us About Her: Reynolds’ writing doesn’t just establish a tone but also a mood. With the ability to stimulate feelings as opposed to simply expressing them, she has built a world that the listener exists within and has made “I Will Only Come When It’s A Yes” a communal experience.

Track Stuck On Repeat: “Write Home” floats through you, carrying the listener off on a cloud of delicate vocals and a dreamy trumpet that serves as the perfect punctuation to a song destined for replay status.

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Artist: Charlie Collins

Album: Snowpine

Label: Mirror Music Group

Reason We’re Cranking It: Collins spins a compelling narrative that captivates. Her songwriting, particularly when painting pictures of human emotion, is top tier. Although a debut, “Snowpine” plays like a veteran Nashville songwriter, used to writing hits for other artists, who has taken a gamble on her own frontwoman potential and hits the jackpot.

What The Album Tells Us About Her: The best songwriters – the ones who connect deeply with an audience – are those who aren’t afraid to reveal themselves in their art. With a catapult of authenticity, Collins knocks down the walls, exposing her inner castle to listeners in as honest of a way as a music fan can hope for. If she keeps this up album-to-album, her career will be something special.

Track Stuck On Repeat: A powerful way to kick off a debut, “Unwell” sets the table for the ups and downs of the human experience that “Snowpine” highlights in its entirety. Recognizing the importance in making a great first impression, the Australian-born singer-songwriter wins us over from our very first encounter and creates a longing for more quality time with her music.

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Artist: TK & The Holy Know-Nothings

Album: Arguably OK

Label: Mama Bird Recording Co.

Reason We’re Cranking It: We knew within the first 30 seconds of “Arguably OK” that TK & The Holy Know-Nothings were going to become our go-to summer band of 2019. As far as debuts go, this one checks all of the boxes – thematically relatable, musically satisfying, and vocally compelling as frontman Taylor Kingman sticks a lyrical landing that is somewhere between John J. McCauley of Deer Tick and a twangy Kurt Cobain.

What The Album Tells Us About Them: “Arguably OK” plays like a barroom singalong with your oldest friends filled with highlights that you’ll reminisce about for years to come. This isn’t a band who puts themselves up on pedestals, but instead, writes at the ground level where the rest of us are standing.

Track Stuck On Repeat: “When I wake up I don’t wake up until I’ve crawled inside a coffee cup.” We’re obsessed with that line and the song it lives in, “Emmanuel,” which is a groove about substances that is itself filled with substance. Love it!

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Artist: Honeyblood

Album: In Plain Sight

Label: Marathon Artists

Reason We’re Cranking It: Spring springs anew, which is fitting for Honeyblood as various changes mark the band’s latest album, “In Plain Sight.” No longer a duo, Stina Tweeddale is going it alone and doing so with a renewed interest in exploration. Genre-bending, the album mixes in flavors from the past, present and future of music, but still manages to work as a cohesive collection.

What The Album Tells Us About Her: Sure, two heads can be better than one, but when it comes to artistic expression, Tweeddale proves that the quantity of minds doesn’t always impact the quality of the creative point of view. With a clear direction, she has turned the page on a new and exciting chapter, making Honeyblood her own but never turning her back on what – and who – came before.

Track Stuck On Repeat: With a 1960s R&B vibe, “The Third Degree” is doo wop for the digital age. The most sonically unique song on the album, it’s not necessarily a diamond in the rough because “In Plain Sight” is as polished as a big screen blockbuster, but it’s a standout due to its singular specificness.

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Artist: Amyl and The Sniffers

Album: Amyl and The Sniffers

Label: ATO Records

Reason We’re Cranking It: Perfectly positioned somewhere between the grit of ’70s punk and the grime of early Guns N’ Roses, Amyl and The Sniffers’ full-length debut packs a pace-the-room punch, forcing the listener to his or feet for an anytime, anywhere magical mosh pit moment. We only wish that we hadn’t been holding a fresh cup of coffee when we started listening to the album because now we have a mess to clean up.

What The Album Tells Us About Them: Like many great rock ‘n’ roll bands to come before them, part of the appeal of the Aussie entertainers is the can’t-look-away-charisma of its lead singer. Amy Taylor is a stick of dynamite who could explode at any moment, so don’t look away or you might miss the best part. That’s not something you can fake, and whatever that “it” factor is, she has more than enough to go around.

Track Stuck On Repeat: Not only is “Gacked On Anger” our favorite name for a song, but it’s also our favorite track off of the debut. Clocking in at a brisk 1:49, you can listen to it a half-dozen times through in the same time it takes you to clean up one cup of spilled coffee. (See above.)

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Artist: Skating Polly

Song Title: “Flyer”

Single Sentence Singles Review: You’re never left having to take a flyer on new music from this Oklahoma trio because every song they deliver is grunge-pop goodness, including this most recent offering which is more infectious than peak flu season.

Beyond The Track: The band will be performing at the Vans Warped Tour 25^th Anniversary Show in California alongside All-American Rejects, Good Charlotte and Quicksand. Check out their full upcoming tour dates here.