Feb. 12

Kula Shaker

K2.0
Rating: Undetermined

There has been a glitch in the Matrix and I am close to catching up. This album is not available to me via youtube, spotify or bandcamp or  youtube or soundcloud. Their website says that it is on Spotify. Something is delayed, as their last record on spotify is from 2011.

The opening track was on youtube and I liked it.

Lacey Sturm
Life Screams
Feature Track: I'm Not Laughing
Deep Cut: You're Not Alone
Keep Listening: Roxanne (Live) [Sting Cover]
Rating: 5

Powerful opening. Sounds like squisy pop, turns into solid rock. The kind with a primal-screaming woman on the mic. I feel that Life Screams will hold more than  few surprises. The Soldier starts like a taberna musicorum cum laude but immediately begins inserting modern elements. By I'm not laughing I am hearing a rich synthesis of hardcore, dub-step and grunge. Vanity is a bizarre auditory production. What would be called a skit on a hip-hop record. It is scripted, but performed brilliantly by a woman who sounds like the singer and another male who is either a rapper or a spoken word talent. It's not slam poetry, I am reminded of the cadence of a band like Listener.

I'm more than half way through and have been thoroughly engaged. This woman has an average of 20K plays on spotify and youtube. She is either very new or very under appreciated. I hear you out there Lacey.

You're Not Alone begins a small shallow breath of reflective pop which carries on through the next few songs.

When the memories come to haunt you with the sad lie"No one loves you, they all leave you! So why even try?"Let truth hold you in loving arms tonightWhen you feel like you’re the only one you can trustAnd it proves a lie when you're the one you self-destructLet truth hold you in loving arms tonight
When no one else can save youRemember: You're not alone

By the time, the title track, Life Screams is on, she is nearly Carrie Underwood.  What a transition, like watching someone go through a metamorphosis, Her voice being the character in the story that is the album.

Faith brings back some of the edge and album ends a lot like it begin, but like a Mozart piece, the end being like a still river with deep, perfidious under-currents.

There is also a live cover of Sting's Roxanne. Everyone covering this song is forced to contend with Ewan MacGregor's performance in Moulin Rouge. I realize that was not live, but the studio cut on the soundtrack is maddeningly powerful. With that being said, Lacy Strum's version is one of the greatest rock covers of this song to date while also establishing her credibility as a powerhouse live performer. Life Screams closes with a perfect pop ballad, Run To You.

Lissie
My Wild West
Feature Track: Sun Keeps Risin
Deep Cut: Stay
Keep Listening: Ojai
Rating: 5

Hollywood is an instant sing-along and seems to tell the story of a willful young lady running off to the west coast to pursue her artistic dreams, somehow failing and finding solace in the advice of family and personal growth.

It's alright, it's OK
It don't matter what they say
And if it hurts, let it go
Night after night and show by show
Oh, Hollywood
You broke my heart just because you could
Oh, Hollywood
I know

 The title suggest that this will be a passion play of sorts, where Lissie is processing her current role in time and space. The best kind of journey to peek in on. So far, her articulations are powerful and accurate.

The middle of the album lacks the dramatic power of the first act. But it does settle into a comfortable pop groove that is nice to have on in the background. Periodic loud guitar solos help break the monotony. I'm very busy today and this is good 'pushing' music.

transitioning into the last act is Stay. A return to the soliloquized feel of a star stepping into the spotlight. Daughters pays homage to alanis morrisette and eddie vedder during a stunning vocal outro. Some great feedback/reverb vocal hits on Together or Apart as well as a few call-backs to The Cranberries.

This is a true three-act production. A clear distinction both sonically and lyrically between the sections.

Lissie averages 2-3M on Spotify and if she can match some of the 8-10M some of her earlier tracks have, then this should be a good year for her. Her fans will not be disappointed and she will gain more than a few if her momentum is as it appears.

The Ojai brings me back around to the fact that this record is still on. I am moved. Perhaps it is the David Bowie like hook on "Ojai", but there is nothing derivative about this. Pure soul.

Radiation City
Synesthetica
Feature Track: Come And Go
Deep Cut: Sugar Broom
Rating: 4


This album slipped into the time-stream and felt nice in the background until Come & Go. Now I'm paying attention. The name of the album implies that they are working off of a theme of textural manipulation of sound. There is a lot of ASMR techniques in play, which implies someone involved with this production has awareness of the higher functioning levels of vibrations. Milky Way is chock full of whispery background vocals and organ that tickles just the right area of perspective. Sugar 

Broom sounds like a synesthesia description of an emotion of some sort. Amazing back of the head sensory information during this track in the form of delayed wood blocks and glitchy/feeback resonant loops that threaten to disassemble the world. Seperate turns into Sonic Youth out of nowhere. The ASMR is in heavy use with the sound a guitar pick makes when you pick it above the bridge.

The Suffers
The Suffers
Feature Track: Midtown
Deep Cut: Good Day
Keep Listening: Giver
Rating: 5

I don't know what to think of this. After so much female empowerment and powerful statements of femininity, It was a little strange to suddenly hear this bold woman, soulfully singing the lyrics.

Come on let me cook for you baby
Just relax cuz I'm cleaning too

and

Cause honey I, I, IOh I do love you
Yes honey, I, I, I
Oh I do love you
Do you want a sandwich?
I'll make one for you
You want a michelada
I'll mix one for you
Do you want some loving baby?
I'll give that to you

That's the opening track, anyway. The music is awesome and the voice is sexy. Midtown impresses with boisterous horn arrangements and sultry vocals.

By the time Better is in the air, I'm sure that the first track was meant as a bit of flirty foreplay. This record has developed into a vulnerable, honest description of romantic klexotiscim.

Giver is a return to the forelorn and discarded lover. Realizing her weaknesses, begging for the return of her good man. Lamenting the fact that it is probably not going to happen. The horns, my god Jim, horn arrangements!