Slow Fiction – Niagara
Genre: Indie Rock
Similar artists: Karen O, The Strokes, No Doubt, Arctic Monkeys
Slow Fiction try their hands at a quick, fast, expressive single and hit it out of the park.
Glorious and terrible things are all worthy song material as long as the events are felt by the writer with the right intensity. The ability to add action sequences convincingly is what separates the really good rock bands, from the ones without as much potential.
Once in a while, a writer equipped with only a few power chords and energy that needs to be used up somehow will find themselves not having to try to write a great single. Sometimes these things just fall out of the sky. Usually, they end up in the lap of those innocent enough to believe in rock music’s gloriously corrupting potential.
One of these may have just ended up in the possession of Slow Fiction. Here’s a band whose music sounds as if it was accidentally removed from your playlist of great 2000s indie-rock groups. They write about heartbreaking matters in a clever, streetwise way. They make their point fast, and they don’t wear out their welcome. You could feed an AI information on how to program the ideal rock single by using this as a template.
Michael & The Pentecost – Revisionaries
Genre: Folk, Americana, Alternative Rock
Michael & The Pentecost go looking for rock music’s fabled, mystic howl on the single Revisionaries.
There’s a great, shuddering growl that seems to permeate through most of the great rock records. In fact, one might argue that when listening to a truly magnificent rock singer, it’s the purity of their growl that truly elevates them to the status of visionary. This sound must not be confused with shrieks, yells, and manic shouts, varieties that generally occupy the interest of metal musicians and the mentally disturbed.
The howl is a sound as burned into the soul of the true believers as the rooster facing daylight, or a watchdog facing a burglar. And, it’s the closest that rock musicians have managed to get to the art’s purest form without having to depend on words to paint pictures and spell out the meaning.
There’s something of that great, recognizable howl with which Michael & The Pentecost teases listeners on the single Revisionaries. The tune moves like a burning wagon’s slow spin into oblivion. It’s a love song methodically torn apart by too much passion. And, there’s a howl to that longing that won’t require any sort of interpreter for the true believers.
