Sand Box – Same Old Star
Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Pop
The world will always contain haters. And this group will never be more cynical than toward the people living their lives in a way that they cannot. It’s the terribly handsome, the wonderful talent, and the filthy rich that get criticized.
You’ll hear these detractors complain about just how many tender tunes some songwriters are able to write. “How many times do these folks fall in love?” And they’ll doubt that they’ve felt as much blues as their compositions seem to suggest. “Just how many breakups do these people have?”
The truth, however, is that we need these people to fall in and out of love frequently. Or, at the very least, we need them to convince us that they do. And, most importantly, we depend on them to write love songs.
Sand Box’s Same Old Star is a bright, warm poem about love that circles back to the same affirmation. There’s grunge rock lying underneath the hard surface of this indie-pop composition. It’s the honesty of the delivery, the simple but masterful lyrics, and the singing that makes this all true. It won’t even matter if they’ve made this up.
Elia Casu – Lima
Genre: Jazz Fusion, Indie Rock
The truth is any form of communication that doesn’t require any additional info. It’s a hard thing to tell the truth. This is especially true in music, where there is almost something more than a crafty instrumentalist can add to a piece.
That’s the maddening dream of most artists. Why do so many put themselves through all of this? Working so hard for something that, potentially, few will appreciate or even understand. It’s a quest for truth, for something that could explain the world around them.
The majority in chaotic environments also try to make sense of the anarchy that governs our own life. Time is spent trying to find moments of peace where we can only hope the essence of what is going on with us and around us will become evident.
Elia Casu’s Lima is a sophisticated but truthful piece of music. There’s nothing missing from it, and nothing that can be added to improve it. The song acts as the rare still point within the pandemonium of urban life. It’s a jazz-influenced number that lets the cavernous, urban landscapes tell their story. Elia Casu has found a way to tell it.
