
Blind Adam and The Federal League – There Was a Ball Game
Genre: Punk, Pop Punk, Alternative Rock
Similar artists: Anti-Flag, Lucero, Bouncing Souls, Gaslight Anthem, The Clash, Green Day, Deer Tick, The Menzingers
The greatest songwriters spend their early years trying to convince the world that they’re different from everybody else. Then, if they’ve achieved fame, they’ll spend the rest of their lives trying to convince people that they are just your average Joe. Neither of these two versions of themselves is entirely correct, of course.
At the heart of it, the reason for people taking an interest is their ability to write songs and embrace the craft. Usually, if they’ve done a good enough job, their work will have a universal feel. They’ll make ordinary problems show up like Greek tragedies. And they’ll make tremendously tall hurdles seem to be just common distractions. It’s a strange balancing act.
Blind Adam and The Federal League write and perform like your neighbor that never ever wanted to live anywhere else on There Was a Ball Game. This is working-class punk rock. It’s a song about being weighed down by the pressures of life yet forcing oneself to walk tall. It’s an earnestness that is needed and, consequently, one for which there is a big market. But, it will be measured based on the perceived honesty of the performers. These folks sound sincere.
Little Destroyer – Only Way Out
Genre: Alternative Rock
Similar artists: Yeah Yeah Yeahs; Sonic Youth
Most serious-minded rockstars dream of making music that will confuse their audiences yet, eventually convince them to love them more. There aren’t many prepared to throw a Metal Machine Music at them. And, perhaps, one record like that is enough. But, they would all prefer to see themselves as mavericks than as mere competent rock musicians.
One of the ways to try and achieve this is by distilling anger, poured through from a punk-rock vein, into electro-driven music. After all, the guitar is a relatively old instrument, while the sounds produced by modern synths, controllers, and their use in DAWs are not. It’s a vision all of its own, however, and many fail at this. Not even the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, a band referenced sonically here, have been able to maintain their vision and fire and later-day releases.
Little Destroyer’s Only Way Out sounds like an angry flipper table, like an arcade game processing a classic punk-rock song. Yes, it shines in how it cleverly uses technology and integrates strong hooks. Lyrically, this aims toward the anthemic and ends up sounding a little too vague. But, one can never argue with rock tunes that can provide the right thrills.