2021 in Review: Water From Your Eyes Structure

Structure was released in August 2021 on Wharf Cat Records.

Water From Your Eyes burst onto my radar over the summer of 2021 like a lot of new releases do: I lug a bunch of downloaded records with me out on one of my extended weekend walks. So there I was, bebopping and scatting along when I pull the experimental duo's fifth record (and first on Wharf Cat), Structure, up from the queue. 

And it starts innocently enough. The lead cut, "When You're Around," begins and you quickly get this peppy late 60s/early 70s vibe. It is like a song from a montage moment in a film from the era. Think "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head," B.J. Thomas' song that appeared in one of those moments in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Now, that was a song that -- to me -- was typical of the period in which the movie was produced but not necessarily the era it was depicting. In other words, there was a disjunction. 

And I don't choose that song at random (even if I don't really think When You're Around is at all like Raindrops; just of songs of its ilk). I found it an effective starting point for the record (and super poppy paired with my walk¹) as I initially listened to it. But it in no way prepares you for what follows.

When You're Around fades and then silence for a few moments that are broken by three knocks. And then a brief silence again. The pattern continues, only with two knocks succeeded by a discordant note in the same sequence. That is the turning point. Because then, after a couple of seconds of pause, the bottom drops out. A loud, fuzzy synth blasts the door open and the record immediately takes a left turn into something completely different on "My Love's" and beyond. 

I mean, I love that feint, especially as a first encounter with the group. Here are the expectations for this album and our music. Psych! In some ways, it lures you even more into how Water From Your Eyes bends convention in crafting their music. 

There are a pair of spoken word tracks, so Structure really is just six proper songs in a little more than half an hour. But the duo of Rachel Brown and Nate Amos pack so much into that.""Quotations"," the album's closer, seemingly made a lot of year-end lists of top songs, but "My Love's" is such a genuine gem of synth pop noise. It pulsates with that same fuzzy blast echoing throughout, often in a call and response of sorts with the Brown's vocals. But even those give way to a staticky break in the transmission two-thirds of the way through the song. And in the absence of vocals, that jaunty little synth line and dissonant keys take over. It just works.

"Quotations" (not to be confused with the aforementioned tune) and "Track Five" tread similar ground Although, the latter layers in the most danceable beat on the LP. That drum machine just screams late 80s hip hop and R&B. It isn't "If It Isn't Love" -- like, AT ALL -- but there are elements of it that are evocative of the late era New Edition single (for some reason in the musical hodgepodge in my head).  And "Monday" slows things down to a tick tock pace and into ballad territory, but ballad with a stripped-down, airy twist, perhaps.

This is a fun record. It sizzles and cracks in all the right, weird places, and it has had me dipping back into its well for more since late August. Structure is definitely one of those not to be overlooked LPs of 2021.

Notes:

¹ Honestly, the vocals, not to mention the pacing, were reminiscent of Broadcast in my eye. That'll always check a box on my ledger.

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2021 in Review: Goat Headsoup

Headsoup was released in August 2021 on Rocket Recordings.

Okay. Let's get this out of the way. 

Enigmatic Swedish group, Goat's 2021 record, Headsoup, is dripping with 60s psychedelia. It's inescapable.

But that's just the baseline. It's a wild ride. The first half of the record takes on a kind of jam band feel. No, not in that way. It's King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard with a world music flare. And while that marriage of psychedelia and world music might evoke Khruangbin, Goat delivers in a different, more African-tinged way with woodblock percussion on "Dreambuilding" or the woodwinds on "Union of Mind and Soul".

"Union" sends things off in a different direction on side B. That King Gizzard foundation remains, but the jam expands. It's like Carrie Brownstein and Mary Timony from Wild Flag came over to lay vocals down and Bill Ward and Geezer Butler ducked out on Black Sabbath to add a darker, fuzzier, more brooding layer to that foundation. That heaviness peppers much of the back half of the album but is most apparent on both "Let It Burn - Edit" and "Fill My Mouth," the latter of which may as well also have Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson swooping in with a flute solo. [It sounds that way.]

And if that sort of amalgamation does create enough of vision of a wall of experimental sounds, then Goat also veers off toward free jazz on "Friday, Pt. 1" in between those heavier two tunes toward the end of the record.

Again, it is a wild ride, this album. I think I may have balked at side A on my first listen, but was drawn in once I started hearing Black Sabbath influences seep in as the record progressed. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but Headsoup is a nice diversion if you're looking for a solid palate cleanser or just a fun, challenging listen.

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2021 in Review: blue smiley return

Return was self released in 2016.

Sometimes the algorithm giveth. 

And sometimes it giveth and makes you shake your head in disbelief that you haven't already stumbled upon a group. I don't even remember what record I was listening to in the late summer -- maybe the latest Quivers album or maybe the new Film School -- that ultimately fed into a blue smiley song from its second LP, return. But I doubled back and gave "bird" a couple more spins before  I was won over enough to give the full album a go. 

Throughout return, the vocals often hover in the fuzzy ether as an instrument but not a predominant one, in the same way they often do on any number of My Bloody Valentine cuts. Yet, this is a tough record to place musically. There is a very definite fuzzy (yeah, I used that term again) heaviness wedded to a jangly pop edge with an occasional synth layered in that makes the whole thing the musical equivalent of a bike with a warped wheel that is also out of alignment. It works, and works well even, but there is something just a little off about it. However, it is off in the most beautiful way.

The aforementioned "bird" and "tree" serve as bookends on the record and are the clear standouts on an album that doesn't mess around. Nine tracks in total clock in at just more than 20 minutes. They almost all arrive with a sort of reckless abandon (raw and urgent), make their point and head out the door, often in under two minutes. It is all just enough to make you want to listen again. 

...and again. 

Sure, I'm late to the party, but return was one of the happiest of my accidental discoveries in all of 2021.

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2021 in Review: Motorists Surrounded

I don't know. The back half of 2021 saw -- at least where I was looking -- a lot of hype for Geese as an heir to The Strokes. I get it: young, up and coming NYC band with a DIY/garagey sound. Fine, but I'd honestly take Gustaf and their album if I had to choose in the New York space.¹ 

The thing is, that sound is not confined to Gotham. In fact, north of the border in Toronto, Motorists cooked up a mélange of sound on their 2021 debut LP, Surrounded. (We Are Time [US], Bobo Integral [most everywhere else]). The trio jangle their way through twelve tracks that consistently marry the post-punk of Gang of Four or Pylon with the 80s college radio sensibilities of REM. And yeah, those are lofty comparisons, but Motorists deliver time and again. 

The title track kicks things off catchily enough, but it feeds into the even hookier "Vainglorious." Then you spend the rest of the record saying to yourself, "It can't get any catchier/hookier than this, can it?" I don't know that it does match those first two cuts, but damn, it comes close. 

...a lot. 

This record reminds me of that Barney Stinson line about the science behind a good (music) mix from the early New Year's Eve episode of How I Met Your Mother: "Now, people often think that a good mix should rise and fall, but people are wrong. It should be all rise, baby!" 

Surrounded rises quickly and maintains a plateau throughout. It is one of the most underrated albums of 2021. I mean, the lo-fi 80s VHS video for the title track -- complete with masked drummer (yeah, covid mask) -- should sell you on that right off the bat. 

Notes:

¹ Seriously, with a record called Audio Drag for Ego Slobs, how could you not give the nod to Gustaf anyway?

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