{"id":7805,"date":"2019-08-05T08:00:02","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T12:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=7805"},"modified":"2019-08-04T23:54:54","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T03:54:54","slug":"music-update-july-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/05\/music-update-july-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Music update, July 2019."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I always feel a bit disappointed when my monthly playlists are on the short side, like this one is, as if I didn&#8217;t look hard enough for good songs. There is so much music released each month that it seems like even a &#8220;bad&#8221; month should still have at least twenty or so great songs, right? I did look, though, and stalled out with this list, which probably includes a song or two I might have omitted had the list been longer (including a cover and an unreleased track from the 1980s). Anyway, as always, you can <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/user\/keithlaw1\/playlist\/5eTAR7TIIydSjpStxBH8Cq?si=ASh0zX3zS16_ZxCQj4duUg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">access the Spotify playlist directly<\/a> if you can&#8217;t see the widget below.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/playlist\/5eTAR7TIIydSjpStxBH8Cq\" width=\"300\" height=\"380\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allow=\"encrypted-media\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Prince &#8211; Holly Rock<\/strong>. Prince wrote and produced the original &#8220;Holly Rock&#8221; for Sheila E., whose version appeared on the <em>Krush Groove<\/em> soundtrack, but this is the first time that his own recording of the song &#8211; which is more polished than the demos his estate has been releasing this year &#8211; has appeared in official form. It&#8217;s vintage Prince with a heavy funk influence and Sheila E.&#8217;s ornate percussion work.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ride &#8211; Repetition<\/strong>. I wonder if it&#8217;s even fair to call them shoegazers any more; their sound across two albums and a few singles since their return from a 17-year hiatus has been far more upbeat and accessible. It&#8217;s a positive evolution, though; I liked their early stuff but have connected more with their post-hiatus output.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lauren Ruth Ward and Desi Valentine &#8211; Same Soul<\/strong>. A very bluesy duet from one of my new favorite singers in Ward and a classic R&amp;B singer in Valentine, who had a modest hit in 2016 with &#8220;Fate Don&#8217;t Know You.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Of Monsters and Men &#8211; R\u00f3r\u00f3r\u00f3<\/strong>. The Icelandic band&#8217;s third album <em>Fever Dream<\/em> dropped two Fridays ago, and it&#8217;s a definite shift in their sound, with more electronic elements, a mixed bag of a handful of tracks that showcase Nanna Hilmarsd\u00f3ttir&#8217;s voice and others that lose her amidst generic drum machine sounds and weak melodies. This, &#8220;Alligator,&#8221; and &#8220;Wild Roses&#8221; are among the highlights.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Frank Turner &#8211; The Death of Dora Hand<\/strong>. Turner&#8217;s new EP <em>No Man&#8217;s Land<\/em> has three very intimate acoustic tracks that almost feel like Americana (interesting, since he&#8217;s English) rather than his usual folk\/punk style.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ceremony &#8211; In the Spirit World Now<\/strong>. Ceremony&#8217;s transition from hardcore punk band to direct descendants of Joy Division continues with this title track from their forthcoming album, due out August 23rd.<\/p>\n<p><strong>White Reaper &#8211; Real Long Time<\/strong>. White Reaper&#8217;s punk-pop sound hasn&#8217;t failed me yet &#8211; they have a real knack for strong, new hooks that always sound just a little bit familiar to me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DIIV &#8211; Skin Game<\/strong>. This is DIIV&#8217;s first new track since founder\/singer Zachary Cole Smith spent six months in rehab for addiction.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ben Gibbard &#8211; Keep Yourself Warm<\/strong>. This is easily my favorite track from <em>Tiny Changes: A Celebration Of Frightened Rabbit&#8217;s &#8216;The Midnight Organ Fight&#8217;<\/em>, a cover album in memory of the Scottish band&#8217;s lead singer Scott Hutchison, who took his own life in May of last year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Floating Points &#8211; Coorabell<\/strong>. The B side to his single &#8220;LesAlpx&#8221; is also brilliant &#8211; another pulsing, driving electronic track that stays accessible despite its experimental leanings.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Just Mustard &#8211; October<\/strong>. Speaking of shoegaze, this Irish band&#8217;s music might have fit better in that early 1990s movement than it does today.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vivian Girls &#8211; Sick<\/strong>. The Vivs are back together &#8230; okay, I didn&#8217;t really know their work prior to bassist Katy Goodman&#8217;s solo project La Sera, but they&#8217;ve now reunited after a five-year absence with their pre-hiatus lineup.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Struts &#8211; Pegasus Seiya<\/strong>. This song doesn&#8217;t sound like anything the Struts, who are kind of a glam\/pop band with hard rock trappings, have done before &#8211; it&#8217;s like a strange homage to Judas Priest-era British metal, and I can&#8217;t get the thing out of my head.<\/p>\n<p><strong>High on Fire &#8211; Bat Salad.<\/strong> This instrumental, part of a three-song EP that includes covers of Celtic Frost and Bad Brains, first appeared for record store day in April, and just hit digital last month. It&#8217;s outstanding, and a good track for folks who like heavy guitar riffing but can&#8217;t deal with Matt Pike&#8217;s yelling vocals.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Opeth &#8211; Heart in Hand.<\/strong> Maybe my favorite song of the month, &#8220;Heart in Hand&#8221; (also released in a version with lyrics in their native Swedish) is a nine-minute prog metal opus that seems to draw equally on the complex progressive styles of 1970s icons like King Crimson while providing more 1980s-level thrash and metal riffing than Opeth has given listeners in their last two albums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I always feel a bit disappointed when my monthly playlists are on the short side, like this one is, as if I didn&#8217;t look hard enough for good songs. There is so much music released each month that it seems like even a &#8220;bad&#8221; month should still have at least twenty or so great songs, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1085,359,757,852,787],"class_list":["post-7805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2019-in-music","tag-alternative","tag-metal","tag-music","tag-progressive-metal","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7805"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7806,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7805\/revisions\/7806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}