Issue 3: Home Is Where the Art Is
Reviewing albums from Harry Styles, Kevin Morby, Flume and more!
Welcome back! If you’re new here, I’ve been listening to a new album every day and reviewing my favorites. This issue features albums from Harry Styles, Kevin Morby, Flume, Basement Revolver, and a special guest review of Kurt Vile’s new album.
Until I feel like I’ve gotten the hang of this, I’m going to continue to play around with the format and frequency to figure out what works best for me. There are five reviews this issue, but I might reduce that to one or two in the next issue, so I can write more consistently. This whole endeavor feels like learning how to ride a bike without ever having put the training wheels on. So, the training wheels are going on until I feel steady enough to ride without them. Okay, training wheels, helmets, knee pads…here we go!
Intro
I had the worst writers block these past two weeks…probably for a few reasons. First, all of this still feels very new and I don’t feel like I have the language to describe everything the way I want to yet. Second, I wasn’t blown away by most of the fifteen albums I listened to in the past two weeks, and it’s far easier to write about what you love or hate than the…“meh.” But, I think the third part of it can be attributed to the heaviness from all of the heartbreaking stuff that’s going on in the world right now. Some people seem to be able to create despite or through trauma and despair—even using it as a muse. I am not one of those people.
Throughout most of the pandemic, I found myself unable to write or create at all. I couldn’t even read books. While some baked bread, took up new hobbies, or worked on their novels, I felt paralyzed and empty. The world didn’t feel safe, so I put myself on power save mode and channeled all energy toward coping and surviving. Art, after all, requires vulnerability. How can one be vulnerable if they don’t feel safe?
What kept coming up in the albums that I listened to were all of these artists finding or building safe havens for themselves in order do the vulnerable thing of making art. These artists wrote their albums during lockdown, in the middle of trauma, but they were able to create because they had safe spaces to flourish.
Kevin Morby left his hometown to find refuge in the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee during lockdown. Harley Streten (Flume) returned to his home in Australia and set up a studio where he created “Palaces.” “I’d gone home to Australia, started life in the countryside, and felt like I’d found my palace,” he told Apple Music. Kurt Vile also built a home studio to record his album. For others, like Harry Styles, the safe haven wasn’t a physical location but the act of creating itself.
Styles was inspired by Haruomi Hosono’s “Hosono House” in the creation of his album, “Harry’s House.” “I immediately started thinking about what Harry’s House might look like,” he told Apple Music. “It took time for me to realize that the house wasn't a geographical location, it was an internal thing. When I applied that concept to the songs we were making here, everything took on new meaning.” For Harry, home (safety) was in the mind.
In some way or another, an artist has to find a safe space to create. This time, I found mine by calling my mom to talk through my road blocks and receive much-needed encouragement. In a small way, it was a return home.
Before we get to this issue’s albums, I wanted to share a little treat with you. Japanese Breakfast performed my favorite song of 2021 (Paprika) on the season finale of SNL. Lead singer and songwriter Michelle Zauner said she wrote it about what music feels like—the making of it, performing it, the flow. I think it applies to any form of art, really. “How’s it feel to be at the center of magic, to linger in tones and words?” she sings. “It’s a rush.”
Here’s to the rush.
Pick of the week
Harry’s House - Harry Styles
Pop
May 20th, 2022. For a full day I was overcome with Harry fever—and it was electric. I haven’t felt this much joy from listening to an album all year. I spent the day listening to Harry’s House on repeat to the point where I started to have the lyrics memorized. In the evening I watched Styles perform the album live on Apple Music to an arena jam-packed with shrieking fans who also seemed to have memorized the lyrics in less than 24 hours. The next day, a bit hungover from all of the excitement, I started to process my thoughts.
Harry’s House is a vibrant mix of funk, pop, and rock. In it, he has curated the best sounds from decades past. He plays with more diverse sounds than his previous albums while maintaining his characteristically easy lyrical style. The result is sometimes cheeky, sometimes tender, but always dazzling. The showmanship from his live performances translates well into the recorded medium. His songs have enough spectacle to fill a stadium, and yet it feels like he is singing only to you.
The album opens with an absolute party. “Music For a Sushi Restaurant” immediately grabs attention with synths, horns, funky bass, and drums that will make you want to find a door just so you can kick it down. Styles’ vocals are understated—almost mumbled—giving the right of way to tight-harmonied backing vocals. It is an exuberant injection of endorphins.
The funky vibe continues with the laid-back, “Late Night Talking,” where sharp synths and distorted guitars join a bumbling baseline. The coolness of the instrumentation elevates the otherwise boybandish lyrics. It is the velour suit of songs.
“Grapejuice” opens with a delightfully overbearing baseline that threads the song together. Lyrics describe sharing a 1982 bottle of wine, and the song indeed feels like fine 80s vintage. The term “grapejuice” is a cringey lyric, but the overall groove atones for this sin.
“As It Was” is prime 80s pop-rock unleashed! The A-ha style synth riffs will catapult you into early MTV nostalgia. Styles draws you in when he dreamily sings, “in this world, it’s just us,” as if whispering it in your ear. I’m convinced! It’s us against the world, Harry! And then the bells come in and you may think to yourself, “I’m not sure this song needed bells.” But then you realize it did. It needed the bells. The bells were in our hearts all along. It’s simply pop perfection.
The breezy “Daylight” starts off feeling like a lackadaisical walk through the park—sun shining, ice cream in hand (never mind the lyrics about doing cocaine). The sweet and innocent pre-chorus, “If I was a bluebird, I would fly to you. You’d be the spoon, dip you in honey so I could be sticking to you,” does nothing to prepare you for the electronic explosion of sound in the chorus. It is a bold and effective power-move that defies the innocence of the rest of the song.
“Little Freak” is where the album starts to lose me a little bit. The harmonies are lovely, but aren’t enough to carry interest through the rest of the song.
Styles sheds the high-production trappings of the rest of the album for the acoustic “Matilda”. The lyrics are genuine and tender. It serves as a nice pause before diving into “Cinema.”
“Cinema” is an exceptional groove of a song. I hated it at first because of the nonsensical lyrics (I do not care to know what “cinema” means in this context), but the musicality of it won me over. John Mayer joins the track with fluttery guitar riffs. The song builds with hand claps and smooth harmonies that make for a satisfying ending.
“Daydreaming” sees the groove of “Cinema” and raises it some funk. It is horn forward, supported by confident bass and drums, with a nice little sample from “Ain’t We Funkin Now” by The Brothers Johnson. Styles lets loose with energetic vocal riffs that tie all of the elements together.
In “Keep Driving” the lyrics aren’t so much lyrics as they are a running list of things, but the song is worth paying attention to for the drums alone. Sarah Jones—who was captivating to watch in Styles’ live show—lends her exceptional percussive stylings to the track. (Fun fact: she also plays drums on Kurt Vile’s album).
Is there a word for something that sounds exactly like the definition of a word? Like a reverse onomatopoeia? Whatever it is, “Satellite” feels like that. The song starts off reasonably grounded then spins out into orbit like a satellite with synths, electric guitars, and reverberated vocals. It feels vast, like space. Styles showcases his range vocally and stylistically more than anywhere else on the album. (He dodged the high notes in his live performance, but we won’t fault him for that here). It’s my favorite track on the album.
In an interview with Apple Music, Styles said that he pictured the song “Boyfriends” as a new fan favorite, to be highly requested at future shows. And, I will admit that it was the song that I was most excited to see him perform live. It has an easy, acoustic feel with tight harmonies and a 60s-feeling folk-pop guitar riff. Styles said that the song was originally intended for his album, “Fine Line” (honestly it would probably fit better there) but its timeless feel makes it a welcome addition here. I have to agree that it will be highly requested for years to come.
I wish the album ended on a stronger note. “Love Of My Life” had potential with deep synths and a poppy base beat, but it ultimately doesn’t build to much. Instead it fades out with piano like an unfinished thought. Maybe it’s more of a “to be continued” than an ending.
Harry’s House is what I hope to see more of from Styles. Finding his “home” gave him freedom to unleash creativity without stylistic boundaries. It is clear he is blazing a trail for himself where many boyband breakouts are too timid to go. While he hasn’t arrived at his destination just yet, the journey to get there is loads of fun.
Listen to the album in Dolby Atmos, if you can, as he makes good use of it.
Also listen on Apple Music
Three more albums worth listening to
This Is a Photograph - Kevin Morby
Alternative
This Is a Photograph is a beautiful folk rock ode to a place and of a place. Set in Memphis, Tennessee, Kevin Morby artfully tells tales of the past and shares hopes for the future. But, as the song “Bittersweet, TN” suggests, they are not all rosy. “This is a photograph, a window to the past,” he sings in the title track. His songs are his photographs—each one lovingly displayed in his album.
Morby peeks into the past in the two-parter “Disappearing” and “A Coat of Butterflies”—both about Jeff Buckley’s death. In Butterflies, he uses recordings of the Mississippi river (where Buckley drowned) as an eerie backdrop to an otherwise easy sway of a song1. The end of the song delivers some needed hope and ascension with choir and harp accompaniments. It is poetic and poignant.
Morby looks to the future with “Stop Before I Cry”—written to his girlfriend, Katie Crutchfield. Plucked strings and flutes layered over simple piano chords make it feel light and affectionate. The art that can tell of the past can also live on in the future. “I can live in your songs, you can live in mine,” he sings.
Musically, Morby does a lot with a little—taking simple elements in a song and multiplying them like loaves and fishes. One repeated riff (This Is a Photograph) or two chords (A Coat of Butterflies and Stop Before I Cry) serve as jumping-off points to create beautifully layered arrangements. It’s a clever trick that he repeats successfully.
“When I was a little boy I wanted to live and breathe inside a song,” Morby sings at the end of the album. In This Is a Photograph, he has given new life to all of those who live inside his songs.
Favorite track: This Is a Photograph comes from a moment when Morby was worried his father was going to die. It is personal and slightly morbid—though you wouldn't know it from its knee-slapping, upbeat arrangement. It is the most lively song on the album. I love it because when I listen to it I picture this whole choreography—a fusion of all these different styles of dancing. It has that inspirational spark.
Also listen on Apple Music, bandcamp
Palaces - Flume
Electronic
Palaces is vibrant yet gritty deep bass electronica. Flume’s digital orchestrations sound like the scraping of a palette knife through colorful layers of paint. It is sometimes jarring and uncomfortable (DHLC, Only Fans), and sometimes light and delicate (Sirens). “ESCAPE” is somewhere in the middle with its bright sparkles and metallic stutters. Overall, its intricate and deliberate composition pays off.
The album opens with the pop-y “Highest Building,” but quickly branches out to more diverse territory. “Say Nothing” is a strong moment on the album with deep drumming and staccato horns punctuating a very danceable beat. “Jasper’s Song” provides an unexpected and lovely piano interlude. The melody stumbles drunkenly—warped—until it finds its way again. “Only Fans” has a seedy underworld sound and is about exactly what you think it is (it felt out of place to me).
Harley Streten found a palace for Flume to flourish. He took a lot of risks. Not all of them worked, but the authenticity is apparent.
Favorite track: Sirens. Caroline Polachek’s airy vocals are a bright beacon in an industrious landscape. Flume masterfully builds tension with sounds that feel like the grinding of gears. It is arresting and otherworldly.
Also listen on Apple Music, bandcamp
Embody - Basement Revolver
Indie Pop
Embody is full of dreamy shoegaze pop that has just the right amount of edge to it. It’s cozy and grungy (my favorite aesthetic) with distorted guitars and reverberated vocals. I’m not saying that Basement Revolver sounds like The Cranberries, but listening to this album makes me feel how I feel when I listen to The Cranberries.
Embody is deeply intimate and personal. It doesn’t just tell you about the harshness of the world, the pain of existence, the pain of heartache—it extends its hand to the listener to navigate it together. In “Be Okay” Basement Revolver reassures you that you will be supported in this journey. “Listen up, it’s just your friends. Be okay, be alright. Take a breath full of fresh air. Be okay, be alright.” It’s simple advice, but the reassurance is needed.
Outer demons are wrestled with and so are the inner ones. “I’m always fighting with my own head,” Chrisy Hurn sings in “Circles.” But, there is hope, “try to take each day that comes, one step at a time, decluttering my mind.” More reassurance, more support. We might just make it through.
In “Long Way” we are confronted with our own reflections and self-criticism, “will you be here in twenty years standing in front of that same long judgmental mirror? Will you turn and look the other way?” Sometimes we are our own worst enemies, but Basement Revolver is here to be our best friends.
Favorite track: Slow feels so familiar—like I’ve always known it. It’s not musically fancy (save for a few slides of the guitar) but it gives exactly what is needed. The build is beautiful and the use of the sound of water to transition into “Blackhole” is genius. Ugh, and “Blackhole” with the delicate piano notes at the end…it’s so tender it brings tears to my eyes. Okay, I cheated, that’s two…but they’re both necessary listens.
Also listen on Apple Music, bandcamp
Special feature: reader recommendation
(watch my moves) - Kurt Vile
Rock
Part of why I started this newsletter was to find a community of people that love music and are excited to talk about it. At the end of each issue I like to ask for listener recommendations, and I’ve had a few responses. I hope that I can make this a recurring feature sharing what readers have been listening to. My first suggestion comes from my friend Greg of Austin, TX: Kurt Vile’s “(watch my moves)”.
(watch my moves) is an album from earlier in the year that I skipped over (big mistake). The album is twangy, lighthearted folk rock with the occasional dose of melancholy. Vile makes it clear that he doesn’t take himself too seriously and isn’t afraid to veer into unexpected territory. The song “Flyin (like a fast train)”—which he originally wrote for Kesha—is charmingly reappropriated for this album, and it fits in well. My favorite song is “Palace of OKV in Reverse.” The use of reversed sounds as a backdrop for the song is creative and effective. “Mount Airy Hill (Way Gone)” is another must-listen. The way Vile throws his voice—swoon!
Let’s hear what Greg has to say about it.
How did you hear about this album, Greg?
Greg: I've been listening to Kurt Vile since 2011's “Smoke Ring For My Halo”, and I'm always excited about a new Kurt album. But when I heard the second single, Hey Like A Child, I knew this album was going to be something special.
What do you love about it?
Greg: There's so much terrible stuff happening these days, and it's hard to disengage with that sometimes. It's nice to have an album that you can turn on and just sit on the front porch, drink a light beer, wave at your neighbors walking by, and embrace the moment.
What’s your favorite song on the album?
Greg: “‘Goin on a Plane Today” really sets the attitude for the rest of the album right upfront. 'Goin on a plane today, gonna chug a beer and curse my name.' He's all but screaming, “It's not that deep. Go enjoy your life.” Plus the minimalism of only having the keys and his voice is delightful.
Thanks for sharing, Greg!
Also available on Apple Music
10 more albums I listened to
Communion - Sister Ray (Alternative/Folk)
José Louis And The Paradox Of Love - Pierre Kwenders (Worldwide)
EYEYE - Lykke Li (Alternative Pop)
And Those Who Were Seen Dancing - Tess Parks (Alternative)
rising - mxmtoon (Alternative Pop)
Where’s the One? - Congotronics International (Alternative/World)
Love & Algorythms - Seratones (Funk)
Cruel Country - Wilco (Alternative)
‘Flicted - Bruce Hornsby (Singer/Songwriter). Just had to note that the transition from “Maybe Now” into “Bucket List” is one of the most undetectable transitions I have ever heard—despite the minor to major key change. The songs are seamlessly bridged by maintaining the same tempo. Worth a listen!
Forest in the City - UMI (R&B/Soul)
The Playlist!
These are my favorite songs off of each new album I listened to this year listed in chronological order of listening. The songs from the albums in this issue are at the end of the playlist. It’s updated weekly.
365 Albums in 2022 - Apple Music playlist
365 Albums in 2022 - Spotify playlist
Thanks for reading! Next week I’m listening to albums from Post Malone, Angel Olsen, and 070 Shake (among others). I’ll review my favorite. If you haven’t already, make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss it.
What have you been listening to lately? Anything good? Let me know in the comments.