Loner Review

On her album Loner, Caroline Rose gives her listeners a thoughtful examination of female sexuality, punctuated by sick synth riffs. Each track blazes with originality and energy. Caroline's satirical lyrics find humor in serious issues like mental illness and misogyny.  

However, I think Caroline's thoughts on sexuality are the most compelling part of this album.

"Soul No.5" is Caroline's confident assertion of her own sexuality. She yells, "I like to keep a loser freak in the sheets." This declaration shows her casual, glib attitude toward a topic many people still find taboo.  

On "Smile", Caroline uses a cacophony of distorted voices to explore how annoying it is for women to be told to smile constantly.  "Bikini" deals with the commodification of the female body. 

"Getting To Me" and "Animal" both explore romantic relationships. "Getting To Me" expresses a desperate longing for romance.  "Animal" exudes physicality. Caroline explores the lust she feels for an ex. Anger toward her ex's new partner consumer her thoughts until she loses reason and becomes "like an Animal."  

The cover art is fantastic and belies the humor present on this album. Caroline creates a visually striking red and white color scheme, reminiscent of the sharp and focused color schemes of early White Stripes albums. This draws the eye to the album and holds the viewer's attention. The font choice and framing of the shot remind me of a Wes Anderson film. Caroline's casual attire, the red sweatsuit, gives the album a casual visual aspect, which matches with the frank tone Caroline addresses serious issues with. Of course, the most striking feature of the cover is Caroline's mouth filled with a pack of cigarettes. It's comical, but it also hints at the dark, mordant humor of the lyrics. 

Conclusion: It rocks and it has something to say. Listen.  

Wide Awake Review

Damn, I like this album.

The band first caught my ear with their 2016 album Human Performance. The singles "Berlin Got Blurry" and "Dust" were constantly on my Spotify rotation last summer. "Dust’s" fat, droning guitar sounds and chanted vocals provide a hypnotic listen. The spaghetti western guitar licks and witty lyricism of "Berlin Got Blurry" make it one of the most unique rock songs of the decade. I consider it an instant classic.

Parquet Courts occupy a unique lyrical space on this Wide Awake, dangling between seriousness and silliness, walking the tightrope between those emotional extremes.

The album tackles pertinent topics such as income disparity, violence and our polarized political climate without devolving into preachy sloganeering. The perfect example of the silly/serious duality comes off Total Football, which contains the political commentary, “Collectivism and autonomy are not mutually exclusive”. They also say “Fuck Tom Brady” on the same track. While the first lyric may be perceived as shallow, the second example shows that this band is truly at the height of their intellectual prowess.

The band’s punk roots shine as strong as ever in Wide Awake’s sound. "Almost Had to Start a Fight/ In And Out of Patience" starts out as an amateurish sounding punk song, but halfway though kicks into gear, developing a groove strong enough to spawn a mosh pit.  

"Mardi Gras Beads" reminds me of Mac DeMarco. I hope you forgive the overused comparison. The hazy vocals and reverb-drenched insurgents are reminiscent of the popular indie rocker. The style works well in this song. What really stands out to me on this track is the solo. While not technically dazzling, the phrasing is magnificent and the interplay between the rhythm instruments and the lead guitar effectively sum up the emotions of the song without the need for words.

The band reaches out from their punk and indie roots on this album. They have been listening to funk, and it especially shows on cuts like Wide Awake. The track is so groovy it blurs the lines between dance music and rock. I would be hard-pressed to even call it rock music. Like funk and disco music, the song lays primarily on the multilayered percussion section and the baseline. The baseline is funky enough to make Bootsy Collins blush.

Further drawing comparisons to classic Funk music a la James Brown is the simple and repetitive lyricism. The vocals act as another instrument in the mix, adding vocal timbre instead of telling a story or expressing complex emotional statements. This, of course, is not a criticism, the lyrics are masterfully executed and more complex lyrics might serve to ruin the songs spotless groove.

Conclusion: Damn, I really like this album. 

Listen to: Led Zeppelin Three

Listen to Led Zeppelin 3.  If you hate Led Zeppelin you will find sounds that are totally different from what you are expecting from the Zep. If you love them, you will only find more to love.

I’m a huge Led Zeppelin Fan. They are the zenith of Rock and Roll. They strike the balance between accessibility and musicality. They sound hard, need to put on a satanic show to prove it. They’re technically complex, but they never reached the self-indulgence of progressive rock. Some would consider Zepplin grandfathers of both genres.

The band is often criticized as overly bombastic and meat-headed. This may be true.  Don’t get me wrong, Led Zeppelin is dad rock. But goddamn do they rock.

Many people have only heard their big singles, played over and over by their local classic rock radio station. If this describes you I would recommend a dive into their discography. The four of five songs you have heard on repeat for the past twenty years fail to do their music justice.

Most people recommending a Led Zeppelin album would point you to their fourth album. It contains the bands most iconic songs like "Stairway to Heaven", "Rock and Roll" and "Black Dog".   

These songs are incredible, but if you’re anything like me, they are tired to your ears. Years of repetitive play have stripped them of their magic.  "Stairway" is 8 minutes long and seems to lack any actual lyrical content.

Enter Led Zeppelin 3. Out of the bands six classic albums, it is the most underappreciated. I would say it is criminally underrated.  The only cut off the album to receive any radio play is "Immigrant Song."

The album's sound from a typical 70’s rock album to an acoustic odyssey.  Robert Plant’s voice and John Bonham’s driving drum beat create an unmistakably Led Zeppelin sound. The lush instrumentation of the album takes Led Zeppelin in a new of sonic direction while never fully diverging from the bands classic sound.

However, I think the real treats of the album are the folk songs like "Tangerine", "Gallows Pole", and "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp". These songs are masterpieces in their own right. I think these songs specifically showcase the band's musical range.

"Tangerine" is my favorite song on the album. This song is the furthest thing from the typical lewd sex, drugs, and noise of Led Zeppelin. It is clearly the tenderest song in their catalog. Despite only having 12 lines of lyrics, the lush acoustic guitar and instrumentation of the track encapsulate the feeling of being in love on a hazy spring day. The gorgeous pedal guitar solo adds to the track's psychedelic feeling.

"Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" is a blast. Like many other of the songs, It draws inspiration from English and American folk music. Instead of focusing on the mournful or poetic elements of folk, it draws from the celebratory side of folk music. It conjures images of a small, late 19th-century town coming together to celebrate in the town center. "Stomp" has one of the strongest downbeats I have ever experienced in rock music.  This song makes me want to stomp my feet into the dirt. The beat is best explained as a “hoedown” style groove.

"Gallows Pole" has the most interesting history behind any Zeppelin Song. "Gallows Pole" is a traditional English folk song that existed in some form prior to the seventeenth century. The song describes a man’s desperate attempts to save himself from being executed.  As the song increases in tempo and lyrical desperation, a mandolin 12- string and banjo accompany the guitar. In the cruel and final verse, we hear from the hangman himself. Despite taking the bribes, he decides to kill the condemned.

Oh yes, you got a fine sister, she warmed my blood from cold,She warmed my blood to boiling hot to keep you from the gallows pole,Your brother brought me silver, and your sister warmed my soul,But now I laugh and pull so hard to see you swinging on the gallows pole.

The final song on the album, "Hats off to Roy Harper" is trash. Don’t listen to it.

Led Zeppelin 3 is worth listening to because it shows the maturing of a band from a purely hard rock outfit into a unit that could effectively perform songs that span the range of insturmentation and human emotion. Even if you dislike Led Zeppelin, I implore you to take an hour of your life and listen to this album.