Art Folk

Today’s Track: Andy Shauf – ‘Halloween Store’

February 16, 2023 — Leave a comment

Sending a signal from the outer reaches of the planet. Yes – I’m back with a new post!

Good Afternoon to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and, after a year and a half of going through an existential crisis, I have returned to my directing chair as I finally bring you a new post on One Track At A Time – because even though we have been apart for a while, it will always be my day-to-day pleasure to showcase the greatest emerging artists who deserve to be played more on the radio! If you were previously a long-term reader of One Track At A Time (First of all, thank you very much for your kindness and patience), you may recall how I used to adore writing about an artist called Jens Lekman – a Swedish indie pop/folk singer-songwriter – who really stands out for me due to his strong ability to tell engaging stories with an equal measure of melancholy and subtle appreciation for the profound moments in life. Well, Andy Shauf is an artist who I’ve been loving recently because they offer a very similar USP but their music is a little more gritty in its textures. With his origins rooted firmly in Saskatchewan in Canada – Andy Shauf later moved to Biennfait and Regina where he developed an interest in playing Christian music with his parents, a time where he learned how to play various instruments including the Clarinet. Today, I’m going to be telling you about ‘Halloween Store’ – so take a few to check it out and join me below.

If you are new to Andy Shauf, then you share the same story as me. I only managed to catch glimpses of his most recent music on BBC Radio 6 Music through various shows including The New Music Fix playlist and Tom Ravenscroft’s weekend show. ‘Norm’ is his latest album, having been released on February 10th, 2023 via Anti- Records. The full-length album is built around a fictional character of the same name, with Shauf commenting, “The character of Norm is introduced in a really nice way, but the closer you pay attention to the record, the more you’re going to realize that it’s sinister”, in press releases building up to the release date. If you have an ear for the softer side of music, you’re going to be quite pleased to know that ‘Halloween Store’ is a sparkling highlight of warm substance, and not a terrifying descent into chaos. Starting off the summer-friendly, concise indie pop/rocker with a raw acoustic guitar strum and an embellishment of drum cymbals, Shauf starts with a light rhythm as he tells an amusing anecdote about seeking a Halloween costume before a surreal encounter with an old flame. You can hear gentle sweeps of electronic Synths and a gentle Hi-Hat groove that creates more upbeat rhythms, soundtracking the butterflies in his stomach as he delivers lovely lyrics like “As my fog cleared/I realized, That you were sitting in your car/Smiling at me in the Halloween store” with a youthful bombast as the near Classical-like crescendo picks up. While his voice feels a little brittle and nervous, the twee nature of his anecdote fits the mood of the character with expert precision. The track feels like one of those dreams you experience where you wake up feeling cheerful and amused, but you’re never quite sure why because the positivity that you just felt was a half-remembered entity. It’s perhaps not a track that will tip the world on its axis commercially – which is exactly my type of music – but I find it gripping and enjoyable how Shauf manages to balance mundanity and drama in a way that feels warm and nostalgic simultanouesly due to his softly simple-but-effective approach. We just had Valentine’s – but this is as autumnul as late October.

Thanks so much for checking out my latest post! I may have lost my music mojo, but my dedication has always been to bring you my thoughts some emerging artists that simply take my breath away! I would love it if you would give me a follow on Twitter at @JacobBraybrook2 and I may help you to discover your next favourite artist there!

Today’s Track: Dana Gavanski – ‘Indigo Highway’

April 19, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Dana Gavinski in the official music video for ‘Yesterday Is Gone’ (2020) (Photo Credit: Tess Roby)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for me to settle my own nerves like a calming pill for a playful addition to my catalogue with yet another daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Inspired by the live performance aspects of David Bowie, Art-Rock singer-songwriter Dana Gavanski – a Canadian-Serbian musician based in London – almost followed in her father’s footsteps for a career in the film industry, but she developed her skills in music for a year and decided to release her first record back in 2017. Following that time, she has received acclaim for her work from sources like Exclaim, Monkeybiz and BBC Radio 6 Music, with the latter naming 2020’s ‘Yesterday Is Gone’ as their album of the week. She has recorded two live sessions for Marc Riley’s show, she has supported Damien Jurado on a tour across Europe and she has worked with Tuung’s Mike Lindsay as her producer. More recently, she recorded a cover version of King Crimson’s ‘I Talk To The Wind’ as a charity single. In the near future, she will be releasing her second full-length studio album – ‘When It Comes’ – as she gears up to add another release to her impressive resume for an artist who’s only been active since 2017. Set to release through Full Time Hobby on April 29th, she describes the release with “In many ways, this record feels like it is my first. When I could use my voice, I had to focus so there is an urgency and greater emotional trajectory than before. It’s very connected to vocal presence, which extended into an existential questioning of my connection to music. It felt like a battle at times, which I frequently lost”, in her own words. The new LP was recorded between Montreal and Belgrade, finally being mixed at London’s Total Refreshment centre by Mike Lindsay. Check out Dana’s single ‘Indigo Highway’ below.

Gavanski pitches ‘Indigo Highway’ as an unguarded Moog-built track that captures the loss of childhood relationships with sincerity and absurdity in her press release, as she explains, “From the beginning of my interest in songwriting, I’d tried many times to write about this relationship and never could. It felt too fragile, too fraught with experience and distant in many ways. However faraway the time feels, no matter what came next, ‘Indigo Highway’ endeavors to return to what made the relationship special. This song is like a prayer, or a way back, temporarily, to innocence and silliness and sunshine on a field”, in her words. The fun starts off with an idiosyncratic arpeggio groove and a distinctly retro kick drum beat that paves the way for Gavanski’s abstract vocals to find their mark, as lyrics like “I think I’ve found my way back home, Wandering out” and “When you come over and visit me, We’ll sit by the willow tree” offer pastoral and peaceful reflections on plunging yourself back through time to return to your innocence before the times that followed in adolescence. A Piano drops in rather whimsically, at a later point, to a jaunting set of verses where Gavanski passionately projects her voice with lyrics like “I’ll find your face, it’s changing in different ways/And I’m looking around to see” to contemplate the platonic friendships that she has been finding and declining, or naturally progressed away from, during her lifetime. Propelled by an obscure Synth hook and pierced Keyboard melodies that are locked together frenetically by a consistently no-frills drum kit, Gavanski conjures up a presence that feels highly original in the way that she mixes her playful musicality with youthful personality. Her warm crooning feels both familiar and otherworldly when paired to the otherwise percussive arrangement that feels reasonably melodic, but textured by the eccentric instrumentation and the transcendant qualities of her child-like lyricism. There’s shades of Nico and Cate Le Bon in here, as well as more Folk-costumed nods to Aldous Harding or Weyes Blood’s material, and so it should appeal nicely to a decent range of Alt-Folk and Country-Rock fans with it’s bright, yet widescreen brand of quirky atmospherics and whimsical daydreaming although it feels slightly faster in tempo than most of the music by the aforementioned influences. A joyful and cinematic piece that we could all connect to.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘When It Comes’ (LP/Album) (Available from April 29th, 2022) (via Full Time Hobby)

That brings us swiftly round to the end of the Indigo Highway for today! Thank you for coming along for the ride, and I honestly can’t believe how short this week feels because it’s almost time for a fresh new entry of ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ that will be arriving on the site tomorrow. This time, we’re looking back at a very influential Swedish Prog-Pop duo with a cult following who have been celebrating their 20th anniversary with a number of re-issues since 2021. They are also known for wearing Venetian masks in their public appearances, and managing their Rabid Records label.

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Today’s Track: Aldous Harding – ‘Lawn’

February 24, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Aldous Harding performing a live set for ‘Morning Goes Eclectic’ at KCRW (2019) (Photo by Elli Lauren)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to get invested in yet another daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of new music every day! Ever since being scouted by her fellow New Zealand-born musician Anika Moe, who came across Aldous Harding when she was busking outside of the venue that Moe was going to be performing at, who asked her to support her on that fateful night, the Lyttelton-born Alternative Folk anomaly of Aldous Harding has added a list of impressive credits to her resume despite still feeling relatively fresh for my ears. She scored an IMPALA’s European Album of The Year award nomination for 2017’s ‘Party’ and she won the APRA Silver Scroll Award in 2019 for her track ‘The Barrel’ taken from her third studio album, ‘Designer’. She has released music through various labels like 4AD, Spunk and Flying Nun, and she’s also proven to be a good collaborator for the likes of Perfume Genius, Fenne Lily and Marlon Williams over the years too. Next month, Harding is adding another album to her repertoire as her fifth full-length studio LP effort – ‘Warm Chris’ – is set to be released on March 25th, 2022 via 4AD. She will hit the UK and Europe for a tour in support of the new record in the Spring, with tour dates in North America to follow later in the summer. The new album was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales with producer John Parish. ‘Lawn’ is the lead single, and it comes accompanied by a reptile-themed music video which Harding co-directed with Martin Sagadin, a longtime collaborator, and it features a quirky cameo from Iggy Pop. Lets check it out.

“It sounds to me like there’s something completely new happening with my voice”, Harding told BBC Radio 6 Music in a recent interview about her new LP ‘Warm Chris’, where she added, “The vocals are tiny. I won’t try to speak about sound too much, because it’s here, and I don’t want to ruin or create a surprise. It reminds me personally and musically of a large horse trying to keep up with a train”, in her discussion about her follow-up to her one-off single ‘Old Peel’ that she released in 2021. Her vocals clearly become a point for emphasis on ‘Lawn’, where she stretches her vocals with a high-range that goes beyond her prior boundaries a little bit. She hacks away at the dead weight of a failing relationship lyrically, with some refrains like “Doors are the way you leave/Just be the way you are/Just be out and free/Can you imagine me?” and “If you’re not for me/Guess I’m not for you/I will enjoy the blue/I am confused by you” that are whimsical in tone and they retain a quirky energy throughout the track, but they also feel concise and to-the-point when you really sit and read between the lines. The instrumentation has a similar effect of pairing a lean and accessible arrangement with slow-moving melodicism that feels a little cerebral, too, in texture. The sparse smatterings of Drums and the steady bass melodies complement the vocals, where she confesses her annoyance on wasting time on “Writing b-sides” with her former partner and she dares herself to charge into the unknown with a proud declaration at the end, and she finds a new sense of liberation after being severed by the light shades of disappointment met by the situation of a relationship ending. The source material can feel a little dark in nature, but Harding’s voice has a whimsical and airy ring to it that makes everything flow smoothly and the formula grows from a fairly simplistic Alternative Folk track to something that takes a brazen step into more distinctive territory. Overall, ‘Lawn’ is a track that feels as exciting as it does intriguing, with cerebral acoustic production that is barely melodic enough to create some catchy and eminently listenable hooks, making for a sugar-coated equation of raw grit and gentle Dream-Rock influence which really stands out.

Pictured: Black Vinyl of ‘Warm Chris’ (LP) (Available from March 25th, 2022) (via 4AD/Rough Trade Records)

That brings us to the end of the page for another day – and thank you for your support as always. When you’re finished collecting B-sides, please make sure that you follow @OneTrackAtATim1 on Twitter and follow the site on Facebook to be notified whenever one of my new posts reaches the internet. Tomorrow, I will be marking the second appearance on the blog from a David Le’Aupepe-led alternative rock group from Sydney for ‘New Album Release Fridays’ as they will be releasing their third studio album tomorrow. The band won four awards at the ARIA Music Awards in 2017.

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New Year’s Day 2022 Special: Al Stewart – ‘Year Of The Cat’ (Live In Seattle, 1976)

January 1, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Year Of The Cat’ (LP) (Released in July 1976) (via RCA Records/Parlophone Records)

This is Jacob Braybrooke and I’m wishing you a good version of your own of what has been the best day of the year so far for me with yet another daily track on the blog, since it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A Scottish folk revivalist figure who found prominence in the 60’s and 70’s as a unique songwriter who would combine soft rock songs with stories of different characters or significant events from history, Al Stewart is a talent of delicate weaving who once recorded a very fitting single to ring the New Year in with his 1976 offering, ‘Year Of The Cat’. For a musician who played a live set at the inaugural Glastonbury festival in 1970, reportedly knew Yoko Ono before John Lennon caught wind of her activist work, and shared a flat in London with equally memorable artist Paul Simon when he was frequently collaborating with Bruce Woodley of The Seekers fame in his younger years – Al Stewart scored a #8 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1977 with ‘Year Of The Cat’. Famously described by AllMusic as “one of those mysterious woman songs” nearer to the time, Stewart recorded the track as the title single of his seventh studio LP release during a session at the iconic Abbey Road Studios in London, before recording sequences from his live tour, including one performance in Seattle, for a live album, ‘The First Year Of The Cat Tour Live In Seattle’, to spring off its success one year later, where the album had become a top five chart hit in the US. Becoming a popular record to be used to demonstrate Hi-Fi demonstration, ‘Year Of The Cat’ was certified Platinum to indicate sales of over one million copies in the US during 1977. Get the kettle on, take a moment to reflect, and hear a tale of a love affair in Casablanca as we enter 2022 as a ‘Year Of The Cat’ below.

When Al Stewart stormed the mainstream with ‘Year Of The Cat’, you may be forgiven for believing him to be an overnight sensation but, in reality, it took him six previous albums worth of material and logging a bundle of hours on the Folk festival circuit before achiveing his stardom. Described by Stewart during his live set at Seattle’s Paramount theater as “a South African love song”, it remains to be the only appearance in the UK Singles charts for Stewart, who reached #31 with ‘Year Of The Cat’, a track which he ironically wrote and recorded during the Vietnamese Year Of The Cat, as it was the Year Of The Rabbit previously in China. Kicking proccedings off with a straightforward Piano line, the guitars flutter along beautifully as Al continues to kick into a higher gear with his combination of soft Rock ‘N’ Roll melodies and Progressive Pop rhythms that eventually morph into a stirring symphony of romantic guitar arrangements and radiant Piano chords as Stewart’s moving vocals concerning a whirlwind relationship in an exotic locale hit their timeless mark. Lyrics like “On a morning from a Bogart movie, In a country where they turn back time” hit their stride as Stewart sets up a vibrant scene of a one-time fling transforming into something much more substantial. Lyrics in the verses like “She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running, Like a watercolour in a rain” ignite more poignant sparks that make the otherwise sensual lyrics feel genuinely meaningful in the story, which is nicely complemented by the elegant String sections and the somewhat downbeat vocals by Stewart that provide a grounded take on the flirtatious dialogue between the two partners. It almost feels like Stewart is singing a duet meant for two vocalists on his own for the most part and he strikes a great balance between poise and sincerity with the delivery. Moving on to the instrumentation, we find Stewart bursting through various styles and motifs throughout the song – including a long instrumental section that leans towards classical Jazz with a colourful Saxophone solo and taking turns between the explosive guitar solo and the abruptly placed Brass instrumentation, but his production feels coherent enough as all of these varied elements complement the warmth of the lyrical mood. Overall, through melding his anecdotal storytelling that seems quite influential for the likes of Jens Lekman later on, and playing with the contemporary Blues song structure of the time, Stewart created a suitable story for New Year’s season with a very stylish and sophisticated range of talents. With that – I wish you a fantastic new year, and I cannot wait to hear the music contained within it.

Pictured: Al Stewart in a publicity shot before his performance at the Libbey Bowl (2018) (Photo via Noozhawk.com)

That brings us to the end of the coverage for the best day of the year so far on One Track At A Time and, as always, I thank you a great deal for your interest and support towards the site every day. After a brief hiatus, ‘Scuzz Sundays’ returns to its normally scheduled placement from tomorrow onwards, where we will be remembering a popular track from a very famous East Bay native punk rock band who found fame in the early 1990’s as we kick off the new year with familiarity. One of their tracks is the centerpiece of a Broadway musical, ‘American Idiot’, that was first performed in 2010.

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Today’s Track: Marissa Nadler – ‘If I Could Breathe Underwater’

December 20, 2021 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Marissa Nadler in a promo photoshoot for ‘For My Crimes’ (2018) (Photo via Sacred Bones Records)

Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for you to catch up on some great music from 2021 that may have skipped you by during the first time with yet another daily track on the blog, since it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! If you’ve been a regular follower of my site for a while, you may know that I love a bit of moody, bluesy and sometimes Folk-ish Americana, with artists such as Weyes Blood, Sharon Van Etten and Alexandra Savior being some of my favourites of this style, to name just a few. One of the genre’s most memorable offerings from the past year was ‘The Path Of The Clouds’, an album released in late October by the Boston-based and Washington-born singer-songwriter Marissa Nadler via Bella Union Records. She has managed to sustain a 20-year-plus career, and her latest record was her tenth mainline studio album. She typically swings for a Chamber Folk style of sound with elements of Gothic Rock and Dream-Pop mixed into the cauldron, but myself and a few online publications, such as Pitchfork and The Boston Globe, have each also noticed an underlying influence of Black Metal within her production too, an element of her mezzo-soprano vocals and dark instrumentation that sets her apart from other fine artists of the genre. Raised as Jewish, Nadler studied Painting at the Rhode Island School Of Design, where she learned artistic drawing techniques such as illustration, bookbinding, woodcarving and encaustic painting while singing at Open Mic Nights in the Providence area while she achieved a bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree a year later, and the hard effort that she puts into the visual storytelling of her music is evident through her unique background in Art Education, later touring with Drone Metal bands like Earth and the American primitive guitarist Jack Rose. Like many others, the origins of ‘The Path Of The Clouds’ were established during the Covid-19 pandemic, where she spent her time of self-isolation by watching repeats of the True Crime documentary series ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ and began writing songs about, and inspired by, the subjects of the series through their perspective. Receiving a wealth of positive reviews throughout NME, UNCUT, Record Collector, MOJO and more, Nadler fulfilled her goal of immortalizing the stories of people who deserve to be told on the recent LP. She also enlisted guests like Mercury Rev’s Jesse Chandler and multi-instrumentalist Milky Burgess. Her longtime friend Mary Littlemore, who plays the Cosmic Harp, features on Nadler’s wistful song ‘If I Could Breathe Underwater’ below.

Accompanied by an official music video directed and edited by Jenni Hensler with cinematography by Nick Fancher that depicts a preternatural world of fiction where Nadler changes the colour of the water and the sky, while floating effortlessly through a lake, becoming one with the colours and the ink, Nadler says, “When I wrote ‘If I Could Breathe Underwater’, I was contemplating the possibilities of possessing various superhuman powers: teleportation, aquatic breathing, extrasensory protection, and time travel to name a few. As a lyrical device, I married those powers with events in my life, wondering if and how they could change the past or predict the future”, in her press release. ‘Ethereal’ seems like an over-used word to me in the music press of today, but, really, there’s no better word to use for describing the textures of Nadler’s soundscape craftwork here, using a pulsating keyboard rhythm and a delicate, seductive bassline to create a light and flute-like series of sounds. Lyrics like “Shapeshifter, a cloud above your door/Late winter, like a storm” merge together with a poetic fluidity that conjures up a Shoegazing atmosphere and creates some menacing, but defiant, chords that feel as if they’re skipping weightlessly between a row of imaginary clouds while carrying an anchoring resonance through the zoned-out state of the subtle grooves of her rhythm guitar melodies. Lyrics like “If I could bring the moon down/So the day would never come/Would you fly, circle around the sun?” ponder something more philosophical and shore up against her vocals like the tide slowly coming in during a frosty morning at the seaside. Overall, it feels like perfect listening for the dry and icy December or January season of the year, as the melodies feel a bit ‘dreary’ in a way. That’s usually a derogatory statement, but what I really mean to state is that her sound is very cerebral while just about reaching some melodic heights that make it feel catchy enough to resonate. Moreover, the very layered and hallucinatory toolkit of Mary Littlemore’s cosmic harp echo the tone of the story nicely, as to bring the conceit of the song’s title to life in a fictional dream-state way when met with the consistency of the mildly anthemic guitar beats and the gradually paced Drum riffs. An intricate beauty with plenty of diverse inspiration to it.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘The Path Of The Clouds’ (LP) (Released on October 29, 2021) (via Bella Union Records)

That’s all for now! It is almost time to float away into the good times of Christmas in just a few days away, and so we will be soldiering on with our ‘Countdown To Christmas 2021’ series tomorrow with a brand new and original Christmas single that is also raising money for Feed The Homeless in Bristol. It comes from an equally talented female solo artist who released her debut self-titled LP on Invada Records last year with a follow-up EP releasing earlier this year. She also performed ‘Mork ‘N’ Mindy’ with Sleaford Mods on ‘Later With Jools Holland’ on BBC Two earlier this year.

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Countdown To Christmas 2021: Jens Lekman – ‘The Cold Swedish Winter’

December 1, 2021 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Jens Lekman in a garden photoshoot for a Bandcamp Daily feature (2017) (Photo by Ellika Henrikson)

Good Afternoon to you! You are reading the words of independent music journalist Jacob Braybrooke, and it is time for me to clock in for yet another daily track on the blog – since it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! It’s the 1st of December today, and so a new entry in our ‘Countdown To Christmas’ series for this year is a must-have. However, it feels a touch too early for a true Christmassy ballad yet to me, and so here’s something a little bit more generally winter-specific for your enjoyment instead. ‘The Cold Swedish Winter’ is a gorgeous and transcendant one from Jens Lekman, a Swedish indie folk singer-songwriter from Gothenburg. Known for his lyrics that are usually anecdotal and wry, backed by sampled strings and guitar-oriented melancholic pop textures, Jens is one of my favourite purest songwriters in the industry, and so any excuse for me to talk about his creative choices is enough to make me grin from ear to ear. Written in the style of a narrative, as usual for the former Swedish #1 album chart holder Lekman, ‘The Cold Swedish Winter’ is one of the finest tracks to be found on his first full-length album, ‘When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog’, which he self-produced and released via Service in April of 2004. It was re-released with slight variations by the more well-known label, Secretly Canadian, later on that year. Let’s spin the winter ballad below.

‘The Cold Swedish Winter’ by Jens Lekman is also the namesake and theme tune for a radio drama series which airs on BBC Radio 4. Showrunner and voice actor Danny Robins was influenced to create the sitcom after hearing the ditty, which tells the story of a marginally successful London-born stand-up comic who has relocated to Sweden that began in August 2014, and it began airing it’s fifth series last December. Given that he’s still a pretty niche artist, I can only wonder if Jens actually knows about the programme. Still, it is easy to see why ‘The Cold Swedish Winter’ sparked some ideas because it truly is a very pretty number. As usual for Lekman, the lyrics are dry but lightly comedic, with sequences which compare Cliff Richard and Lou Reed’s ideas of Sweden briefly, and other lines that involve porn and gonorrhea. It feels intimate and striped back, and his instrumentation lacks the budgetary bells and whistles of contemporary acts but it still manages to encapsulate the comforting and frosty feelings of the festive season decently enough, so it therefore still manages to click together as a Christmas single despite not intentionally being designed as one. He uses simple refrains like “The Cold Swedish Winter is right outside, and I just need somebody to hold me through the night” to set the romantic scene of asking a girl to pretend that he likes her. She replies in a shy call-and-response format, hushing him with solid refrains that expose his simple desire to feel loved. It also ends with Lekman’s typically introverted twist on the material, where he predicts the future of Sweden where archaeologists will dig up their hearts of stone. On paper, it looks random and seems as though it plainly shouldn’t work. However, it does cohere, as Lekman manages to sound convincing with his voice and tell the anecdote with a sincere, somber note where although we don’t know whether the overall anecdote is true or fictional fantasy, but he makes me feel like it is, as his listener. A patient and thought-provoking songwriter, Lekman is the type of artist who I could write a full essay about if I could be assigned to. Meanwhile, the mournful Violin samples that underscore the point and the powerful female vocals are the metaphorical angel on top of this Christmas tree. Overall, its an icy visual as pretty as a hand-drawn painting.
Pictured: Jens Lekman performing ‘A Postcard To Nina’ live (in 2008) (Photo via Interface Sessions)

Last December, we effectively reacted here on the blog to the day where the UK government essentially axed Christmas, and the kind words of Jens Lekman came to our aid like Rudolph on that fateful night with a song that helped us all to put these things into some proportion. Relive the emotional moment with the post here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/12/22/todays-track-jens-lekman-the-end-of-the-world-is-bigger-than-love/

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Night Falls Over Kortedala’ (Released on Sept 5th, 2007) (via Secretly Canadian)

That’s all from me today! Thank you for your support with the site, as usual, and please keep an eye out for tomorrow’s post. It comes from a fresh face on the blog whose music resembles psychedelic soul, prog jazz and alternative folk. Raised in Richmond, California – she participated in the Red Bull Music Academy programme in Tokyo in 2014 – where she co-recorded ‘Late Night Munchies’ with RJ & Mark Maxwell.

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New Album Release Fridays: Bears In Trees – ‘Little Cellist’

November 19, 2021 — Leave a comment
  • Pictured: Cover Art for ‘And Everybody Smiled Back’ (LP) (Released on November 19, 2021) (via Counter Intuitive Records)

Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to delve deeply into one of this weekend’s most intriguing new LP releases, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! While Jessy Lanza will be releasing her ‘DJ-Kicks’ compilation this week and Kaytranada will be releasing his ‘Intimated’ EP today, new albums from the likes of Elbow and Deap Vally are likely to get overshadowed this week by the media attention that the week’s heavy-hitter, Adele, will be receiving from the release of her new album ’30’. Therefore, I’ve decided to provide another alternative option for you to explore this weekend. ‘And Everybody Smiles Back’ is the highly anticipated debut studio album from the Croydon-formed indie rock group Bears In Trees, who have been signed to the Boston-based label Counter Intuitive Records. With a large social media following of over 100,000 followers on Instagram and over 20,000 via Twitter, the band are seemingly poised for bigger things in the near future. The project is led by producer George Berry, who graduated from the Academy Of Contemporary Music with a first class honours degree in Professional Music Production. He’s joined by bassist/lead vocalist Ian Gillespie, classically trained flautist Callum Litchfield and songwriter/guitarist Nick Peters, who runs the majority of the band’s social media pages. Having just embarked on their long-delayed debut headline UK tour and supported NOAHFINNCE on a previous tour, Bears In Trees are keeping proceedings fresh by developing their new record as a concept album which tells stories of the day after the best or worst day in a person’s life, and each of the songs featured on the LP tells anecdotes being pulled from the band’s actual lives. Speaking about the unique concept, Nick Peters says, “In films and TV series, the plot line ends on the best or worst days of someone’s life and that we never really get to see the day after”, adding, “I think it’s important because the day after is where the healing and compassion happen”, in a press statement. Let’s check out their recent single, ‘Little Cellist’, below.

Commenting on ‘Little Cellist’, Iain Gillespie says: “This is a story about me and a good friend of mine. She plays Cello. She found me in a god-awful state, which finally began my treatment journey for my mental health”, describing, “I was lying on the floor of the student union building; me finally opening up to her allowed her to open up to me and we became each other’s shoulder to cry on, and she kept me safe during some very hard times”, in Bears In Trees’ press release. Bridging Spoken Word sections and poetry with a more conventional Indie Folk template, ‘Little Cellist’ is a narrative-driven tale about seeking hope and purpose through a common experience, with lyrics like “She often held in her intrusive thoughts for fear/That the weight of her worries was too much for him to hear” that discuss difficulty in speaking your mind truthfully, in the way that Brits do as we say what we don’t mean in terms of dialect. Later refrains, like “She quelled her anxiety to calm her fading friend” and “The ambulance rolled up like his limousine/To take him to a place where he reigned supreme”, mix a sense of whimsicality with more hard-hitting content in terms of narrating the story. The instrumentation is kept rather simple and concise, as floating Piano lines and brief String sections provide a slightly cinematic, uplifted underlayer to the rustic, heartfelt acoustic guitar melodies. The Spoken Word sections feel intriguing, as they provide a dream-like feel to undercut the set-up for the narrative and ensure some more variety to the songwriting. The lyrics are nice and easy, with a clear theme being communicated by a blend of poetry and contemporary Indie Rock production. Later lyrics like “Even Jesus Christ himself needed help to bear his cross/Please feel free to lean on me if the world becomes too much” tend to go darker in tone, recited with a delivery that reminds me of Jarvis Cocker in its mix of sardonic wit and emotional storytelling. When all of these parts are merged together, you get some story-based indie rock that feels crowd-pleasing and accessible, yet feels a little more complex in practice than your average release. Therefore, it feels like a sensible choice for a single. Overall, this was an engaging blend of sardonic storytelling and spoken poetry that carries a similar message to other mental health-based tracks, yet it still sets itself apart well enough because there’s an individual personality behind it.

  • Pictured: George Berry (Producer/Drums/Percussion), Ian Gillespie (Lead Vocals/Bass Guitar), Callum Litchfield (Ukulele/Piano/Backing Vocals) and Nick Peters (Lead Guitar/Chief Songwriter) (2019) (via PR)

That’s everything that I’ve got planned for today on the blog! Thank you very much for your support, and I’ll be back tomorrow to continue leading you through our ‘Countdown To Christmas’ series on the site. If you check it out, you’ll be treated to an alternative festive single from a Scottish indie folk band who were active until 2018, where the lead singer was presumed to have sadly lost his life after going missing. However, they were known for their work with the Invisible Children coalition project.

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