THE MOORS – Thoughts and Prayers
Genre: Power-Pop, 90s Rock, Alternative Rock
Similar artists: Guided By Voices, Teenage Fanclub, Big Star, The Replacements, Tom Petty, Guns n’ Roses, The Clash
According to lore, Alex Chilton and the rest of Big Star obsessed over the guitar parts and sound on their debut album #1 Record. I tend to believe those stories. The simple guitar lines, the melodies, and the hooks are what make musicians cover those songs today, or attempt to write their own versions.
It’s also a testament to a time when songwriting and quality recordings were the goals of most modern musicians. It made sense. The Beatles or The Beach Boys were the superstars of the previous generation and they’d built their empires on those strengths.
Many guitar bands might be a tad more concerned with learning to compress as much material in their music, but The Moors are traditionalists, as can be heard on Thoughts and Prayers. They write the sort of tunes that they can go out with and face just about any type of audience. Any possible hostility should be deterred by brilliantly crated melodies, well-thought-out arrangements, and a clear indication that they are paying tribute to power pop’s greats.
Black Sea Deluge – Century Sound
Genre: Garage Rock
We receive and process most information through some form of hypnosis. That’s what marketing agencies understand and can do really well. This is why music that is offered a significant enough backing usually is accepted by a very large audience, why certain causes receive more backing than others, and why presidents earn their spot in countries where people are allowed to vote.
Music can be a pleasant form of hypnosis that we use on ourselves. After all, hypnosis, especially when administered willingly is not necessarily something harmful. It can be used effectively to change one’s mood, one’s bad habits, or to overcome painful memories.
Perhaps, no other form of hypnosis is as potent as the one involving music. It takes a good deal of brains, but, especially, beating rock n’ roll hearts to create this effect while using the basic template of garage-rock. Black Sea Deluge manages just this on Century Sound, a live recording that could likely be played on an endless loop and should provide the same type of therapeutic effects each time.
