Richard Tripps – Blue Eyed Open Sky
Similar artists: Thee Oh Sees, White Fence, Cate Le Bon, The Velvet Underground, The Clientele
Genre: Lo-Fi Rock
Plenty of little kids dream of being rock stars. Most of them act out their fantasy with friends, creating imaginary shows and making up songs designed to be adored by fans across the world. But there’s a problem. They can’t actually play instruments; they need to buy real stage clothes. The music business is really done by and for adults anyway.
Kids have to wait a few years before they can chase their dreams. That’s a shame. Because while they wait and get professional, some of the glimmers of brilliance that they possessed fades away. Sure, if they study well enough, they will one day be able to play a guitar solo in every possible mode. But rarely will they come up with better songs than they did when they were just making believe on the playground.
Richard Tripps’ “Blue Eyed Open Sky” does everything it can to sound like it wasn’t recorded in a professional studio. It does everything it can to sound like it was conceived by a child playing pretend. And because of these brave choices, it stands aside from the pack. This is a tune of hope and wonder, something that most adults, let alone bloated rockstars, know nothing about.
A Days Wait – Laggard
Genre: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
Whenever a Hollywood movie tries to write the part of a rock musician, they have a few stereotypes that they go with. Maybe they have long hair or a beard, practice meditation and are members of some bizarre cult. Maybe they wear leather jackets and aviator glasses indoors and drive their bikes down hotel lobbies. Or, perhaps, they’ve practised their instrument without rest for the past decade and have accumulated almost supernatural abilities of playing.
Those are all nice stories. But if these were the only rock stars available, then regular people would have few reasons to be interested. The truth is that regular people, for the most part, want songs about regular things. They need songs about their families, about their small troubles and glorious joys, about all of the things that they’ll go through that others will face as well.
A Days Wait’s “Laggard” is a pop-rock song that sounds homely and welcoming and tells a simple but honest story that music listeners may connect with. This is a love song about not being able to see what is there in front of you. It is, essentially, a romantic comedy set to music. It takes a light touch to approach this kind of subject matter, but luckily for everyone, A Days Wait has that.
