Spring Reverb – Mercury Sign Detriment
Genre: Surf Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Lo-fi Rock
Similar artists: Mild High Club, Allah Las, Beach Fossils, Cotton Jones
Pop music has created its own secret language. True students of pop music will understand them in the same way that a movie director will know why a certain type of lighting works for certain kinds of scenes.
Doo-wop was a triumph of 1960s pop culture. Have you met anyone who doesn’t like doo-wop groups? By the same token, have you come across many new bands that present themselves as doo-wop revival. Instead, the sweet melancholy of the style has remained an innocent, unapproachable artefact of the past, to be used as film soundtrack when characters’ attention fades into a pleasant flashback.
Spring Reverb is the work of a student of pop’s past. The back and forth vocals of Mercury Sign Detriment find the singers revelling in the beautiful, inherent sadness of doo-wop. It’s a beautiful recording, with the songwriter insisting on using tape. Spring Reverb has tapped into warm memories and shaped them into pop music.
Sarah White – Different Drum
Genre: Folk, Americana
Similar artists: Linda Ronstadt, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Lucinda Williams, Bonnie Raitt
Michael Nesmith’s career involved tremendous good and bad luck. Yes, he was made a part of the most successful group of the 60s, the Monkees. It is to debate though how much good this did him in anywhere else than in his chequebook.
Nesmith was also borne out of time. His moment in the spotlight also made him typecast. Had his years of the most intense activity happened in our era of genre crisscrossing and the ability to release endless amounts of content on the internet, the songwriter would have thrived. Most likely, he would’ve also had more fun.
Different Drum was a hit for Linda Ronstadt. It was written by Nesmith prior to The Monkees being put together.
The song deserves to be, again, unearthed and performed respectfully. This is what Sarah White does on her beautiful rendition. White’s resonant, country-twang compliments the freedom-yearning lyrics. The jangling guitars and subtle percussion help contour the performance. There’s a lot to be learned from pop music’s past. A lot of it may have escaped most of our record collections. Artists like Sarah White help shine a helpful light on those.
