Album Reviews – The SoCC Blog

Deepdives: The Psychedelic 90s Sound of Triphop, and an Album Breakdown of Good Looking Blues by Laika

19Jun

By o_normandeau@coloradocollege.eduNo Comments

Album Reviews

Deepdives: The Psychedelic 90s Sound of Triphop, and an Album Breakdown of Good Looking Blues by Laika

by Liv Normandeau (they/them) My recent deepdive into the world of triphop was sparked by summer boredom and my love of 90s animation and music. More specifically: the incredible soundtrack of MTV's animated show Downtown. The tracks were heavily triphop centric, and the score created by Kimson Albert was full of industrial breakbeats and synth that perfectly matched the grime of the show1. Until this point, I've always been fairly turned off by triphop, seeing it as one of the worst outcomes of the 90s music trends—I don't tend to like electronic music, and I greatly preferred every other genre it borrows from. (And some songs sound creepily like sonic realizations of the visuals of the early Windows operating system and my hazy memories of the public library trips I took as a kid...

2May

By Marina MalinNo Comments

Album Reviews, Uncategorized

Shannon Lay’s Covers Vol. 1 Review

Image courtesy of Pitchfork Written by Marina Malin As I begin to write this, the only items in my backpack are two books on albums from Elliott Smith and Nick Drake that I am cheerlessly returning to the music library. This morning as I scrolled through my Instagram feed, naturally I nearly screeched at the Pitchfork release post of Shannon Lay’s Covers Vol. 1; The brief caption mentioned my forever favorites, Elliott Smith and Nick Drake. Never having heard of Shannon Lay, the dynamic duo was enough for me to spring out of bed and immediately binge the album in its entirety (which made me very late to class). It felt as if the album was a gift to me as covers of Vashti Bunyan, Sibylle Baier, Ty Segall, and Velvet Underground accompanied the two. Covers Vol. 1 begins with...

Album Breakdown: “the record” by boygenius

28Apr

By m_ryan@coloradocollege.eduNo Comments

Album Reviews, Music, Reviews

Album Breakdown: “the record” by boygenius

Written by Mckenna Ryan I simply need to talk about the genius (haha) new album from renowned Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker indie outfit, boygenius. All three musicians have been consistently slaying for years, both in their breathtaking solo work and 2018 self-titled EP. Bridgers has found the most mainstream success, but Baker and Dacus have an equally notable ability to craft complex, emotionally dense lyrics perfectly highlighted by stripped down production. The three of them come together under boygenius to create a unique, blended sound informed by their close friendship. the record shifts from the solidly indie sound of their previous work to something somewhat more upbeat and rock influenced, and it is great. At its core, the album is a series of love...

28Dec

By soccNo Comments

Album Reviews

SOCC Writers’ Albums of 2022

It's been a big year for new music. Check out what some of our DJs and writers here at the SOCC consider their favorite albums of 2022. Sexy by Coco and Clair Clair Although everyone I know would likely expect to see Crash by Charli XCX as my top album (and I don’t blame them!), I have not been able to get Sexy by Coco and Clair Clair out of my head since its release. This aptly titled album is full of witty disses, hedonism, and most importantly, fun, that makes the pop duo so special. The playful rejection of men and self-centered attitudes play a defining role in these tracks, like in “Bad Lil Vibe“: “I just wanna party baby, I don’t want a man. Don’t want you, want a couple more bands”. Much of this album offers remnants of nostalgia for previous internet eras; “Pop Star”, ...

Album Review: Weyes Blood – And In the Darkness, Hearts Aglow

28Nov

By Jack Madison1 Comment

Album Reviews, Jack's Picks

Album Review: Weyes Blood – And In the Darkness, Hearts Aglow

And In the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is Natalie Mering of Weyes Blood’s second album in the trilogy that may well become a generational trinity. Its monumental predecessor, Titanic Rising, saw Mering beg and plead for some stable ground beneath her feet. With her cries answered only by the feedback of despondent tides, Mering swam through shipwrecks and salvaged memories just to look at the corrosion that had spread all over her desires. On In the Darkness, Hearts Aglow, Mering can no longer indulge in the past, and the future is no refuge either. The second act of this apocalyptic trilogy is birthed as Mering clings onto a romantic desperation to guide the way through a moonless night. String arrangements reminiscent of “A Lot’s Gonna Change” give rise to a stairway of piano notes on...

25Oct

By soccNo Comments

Album Reviews

Album Review: Grouper’s “Shade” LP

By Jack Madison Grouper's new LP, Shade, is a collage of her unique sonic styles, where every song falls into its place with gentle sincerity. This variation makes sense, as Shade was recorded over a fifteen year span from Mount Tamalpais in northern California to the oceanside town of Astoria, Oregon. Grouper’s Shade can be a peaceful helping hand to those in need of an intimate conversation. Discovering Liz Harris’ versatility as the mind behind Grouper a month ago was an introduction to many new paths, all ethereal and romantic. One night I plugged in my earphones and turned on Dragging a Dead Deer up a Hill, her third album, to drown out the sound of the infinitely spinning fan in my dorm that had been blowing since summer. At fi...

Tank and the Bangas announce new album, “Friend Goals”

27Oct

By Mimi NortonNo Comments

Album Reviews, In Case You Missed it, Interview

Tank and the Bangas announce new album, “Friend Goals”

New Orleans-based band Tank and the Bangas have been blending together funk, gospel, spoken word, and hip hop since 2011. After winning NPR’s Tiny Desk concert in 2017, they accelerated to stardom and received universal praise for their 2019 album Green Balloon. That album, along with the reputation they’ve established for their extraordinary live performances, landed them a Grammy nomination for “Best New Artist.” Now, the world is anxiously awaiting their next project: an EP called Friend Goals, to be released on November 20th. In a virtual press conference, the band shared some details about the upcoming album. Tank and the Bangas' upcoming album, Friend Goals When asked to describe the album in three words, the band agreed it’s “friendly, featureful, and fantastic.” Taria...

8Oct

By Augie VossNo Comments

Album Reviews, Interview

Duckwrth on New Album “SuperGood”

Duckwrth, image courtesy of Universal Music Following the August 21 release of his album SuperGood, rapper and multimedia artist Duckwrth joined Universal Music’s °1824 team to talk creative process, musical inspiration, growing up in LA, and more. Duckwrth has been a refreshing, unique voice in the rap scene since the 2015 release of his project Nowhere. Recent tours alongside Billie Eilish, Louis The Child, and EarthGang have put Duckwrth on the map—equipped with a tenacity and artistic toolbox rare of upcoming artists, it’s clear that he’s only going up from here. Duckwrth’s musical versatility is vast, enabling a diverse but still cohesive sound with gritty, heartfelt, story-driven lyricism atop a mixture of bass-heavy hip-hop beats and 70s inspired dance grooves. Super...

25Sep

By Annie KnightNo Comments

Album Reviews, Reviews

The Lumineers’s III is an X/X

by Annie Knight When Wesley Shultz and Jeremiah Friates set out to write The Lumineers’ latest album III, they knew it wasn’t going to be conventional. Because of the serious subject matter Shultz (lead singer) and Fraites (drummer) choose to write about, alcoholism and its familial consequences, Shultz thought “it felt unfair to just name names,” he said in an interview with KFOG. “It felt more appropriate to me to tell a story around this. If you tell the truth within a story, I think it has a ripple effect.” Thus, the cinematic musical experience that is III was born. On September 13, III was released in its entirety, but the group had been releasing portions of the album since May in three chapters containing three songs each, each song accompanied by a video. All of the vide...