In The Pines – Speaking In Tongues
Similar artists: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Post Animal, Hiss Golden Messenger, Kevin Morby
Genre: Shoegaze, Psychedelic Rock, Indie Rock
Why does so much of the new music being made suck? Well, if you walk with a cane and pretend to have a limp long enough, you’ll actually develop one. One explanation is that making music has simply become simple. You could teach someone to be an artist in one afternoon. But that doesn’t often do much for the world.
I’m not suggesting that everyone who touches a guitar ought to study in the Conservatory and practice six hours daily before they are allowed to pick a chord. I’m just staring at the past and quoting the facts. The folks forced to stiffen their ability and creativity ended up creating great works of art while reassembled modern songs just create great works of TikTok.
In The Pines’ “Speaking In Tongues” is the work of a band anxious to take the hard way back and, hopefully, get lost along the way. It’s a psychedelic rock sound that has found favour with audiences once again, but to call In The Pines the result of the times would be unfair. This is a band determined to dream it all up the hard way.
The Unlimited Stars – Open Your Eyes
Similar artists: my bloody valentine, PJ Harvey, Josh Homme
Genre: Shoegaze, Indie Rock
If anyone in the music biz was mad enough to hire me to solve their problems regarding plummeting interest in their pop stars, I could sort them out in a couple of minutes. Sure, there are issues with the number of songwriters that they use, production techniques, and even the economic model of the business as a whole.
The real problem is that they don’t have pop stars with any sort of charisma and personality. It’s no wonder why the world’s biggest pop stars avoid giving in-depth interviews if they can help it. They have nothing to say. Little has happened in their lives, and so they have little to share with the world. Their only merits are arriving on time to the singing and dancing lessons to which they are routinely sent.
The Unlimited Stars’ “Open Your Eyes” is a rare, sweet pop song that makes you want to know more about the performers. When was the last time that a radio song made you want to get to know the people singing the lines truly? “Open Your Eyes” features a pristine arrangement of great poppy vocal lines and could easily be a global hit. However, there’s something unsettling here, an undercurrent of a life lived in search of something great. If you can hide that inside of a pop song, you have the world by a string.
