Well Dressed Spirits – Salt in the air
Similar artists: Jason Isbell, Shovels and Rope, Turnpike Troubadors
You can’t really have a winning football team (that’s soccer to our North American readers) without a few South Americans, preferably Brazilians. I know that this might sound like a positive form of stereotyping, but if you run your finger past the squads of the best teams in the world, you will notice that it is true. Why? It’s a combination of factors, of course. However, the tradition and the genuine love of the Brazilian people for the sport have to be the biggest factors.
Just in the same way, try as anyone might, there is no way to replace country-influenced music by producing the very best songwriters. Here, as in the previous example, tradition plays a big role, as well as expectations. Although often parodied, what country does value, are well-written songs that, usually, tell a clear, relatable story. That’s the basis of good songwriting. And, songwriting is the most important aspect when it comes to the pop music of any sort.
Clearly, Well Dressed Spirits have been raised on the tradition of great country songwriting judging by their single Salt in the air. This is, however, not music that is afraid to integrate so alternative rock and to do things a little differently. In that way, it takes a lot of inspiration and liberty of playing with the alt-country groups’ direction. But, it’s all in the DNA. Well, Dressed Spirits have heard great songs all of their lives and, now, they can’t help but try and write their very own.
Liquid Light – Exit Sign
Genre: Pop Punk, 90s Rock, Alternative Rock
There’s much less camaraderie among modern musicians than you might expect. When uncomfortably placed together, musicians will judge each other like participants in a beauty pageant. Thoughts of sabotage cross the minds of most of them, and discussions often turn to how the most successful ones never really deserved all of the great things that have befallen them.
But, unlike the parent beauties, musicians are, most often unwilling to take notes, and take their enemies down through hard work. This is not universal, but the majority of the people who want to be in a band don’t actually equate it with getting a job. That would just defeat the purpose.
Still, once in a while some musicians do come along that is not only willing to learn to play their instruments really well but turn their ear towards the music being played on the radio, or kids in the skate park, or by grannies waiting for the bus. They listen to music that should technically be beneath them.
Liquid Light’s Exit Sign sounds like a Rush cover band taking a shine to pop-punk. It could all feel ridiculous and contrived, of course. But, it turns out, these folks actually feel excitement for the kind of music that they are playing. This doesn’t feel like a cash grab, and, yes, fret not, the guitar solos are kept to a minimum. Best of all, it goes to show what mall-punk tunes could sound like if produced by musicians with incredible musical proficiency.
