Billy Bobak – Respite
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Indie Rock, Indie Pop
Billy Bobak writes a loving song for escapism in all of its life-saving forms on Respite.
Depending on who it is that you ask, music is either an enhancer or a tool for escape. Few people have a lukewarm opinion about it. There are few people who don’t care for it, and if you happen to meet them, run far away without looking back.
There’s no party without music like there’s no dream-sequence in a movie without it. Even Buddhist meditation involves a form of chanting. And, many of the greatest abstract painters speak about how they wanted to paint the sound that they were hearing in their minds.
For Billy Bobak channelling this kind of imagination is not only pleasant but vital for survival. Respite, over its Mediterranean rhythms and pleasantly sung lines, is a song about finding a way to avoid the drudgery of a soul-destroying job. It’s a Leonard Cohen song for people whose greatest love affairs need to happen inside of their own minds.
Hayley Mary – Fall In Love
Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Alternative Rock
Similar artists: The Pretenders, DMA’S, Middle Kids, Ali Barter, Alex Lahey, Liam Gallagher
Hayley Mary digs up some of the great pop-rok hooks of yesteryear for the impressively catchy Fall in love.
Not enough merit is given to old-fashioned good taste when speaking about the world’s best bands and songwriters. Sure, everybody looks to try and learn to sing and play really well. Everyone invests money in building a great wardrobe. And, all the smart cats try to avoid the kind of scandals that would ruin their careers. These go without saying.
However, the bands that made success seem effortless also had something else. They had someone to cherry-pick the best influences, the best hooks, the best clothes. Someone like The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde who left her home in Ohio and became a punk/new-wave star in Britain.
Hynde, more than anything, has always had impeccable taste in music. Picking up the best influences is something that Hayley Mary has learned to do. Fall in love sounds like the kind of single that The Pretenders never got to release. For fans of the ’80s new wave, its effects ought to be immediate. Hayley Mary triumphs in knowing what to choose and why.
