Listen to This – Three albums from October you should be listening to

Andrew Critchelow mug

Andrew Critchelow

Listen To This provides info on all the best new music.

 

1- “Thank Your Lucky Stars” by Beach House

2015 has been a good year for Beach House fans. The Baltimore-based dream pop band released its fifth album “Depression Cherry” in August and just gave us another full-length album: “Thank Your Lucky Stars.” Fans of the group have good reason to be thankful for another record, but it will probably do little to change the minds of others.

The album opens with “Majorette,” a title that fits perfectly with the sonic movement of the song. Shimmering guitars and churchlike organs spin around the track, twirling like psychedelic batons. The dance continues throughout the album with singer Victoria Legrand choreographing multi-instrumentalist Alex Scaly’s dreamscapes on tracks like “She’s So Lovely”

2- “II” by Fuzz

It’s safe to say that garage rock wizard Ty Segall is a total workaholic. The multi-instrumentalist has made records with six different bands and has an exhaustive solo discography. The prospect of getting into his music may seem intimidating. Fortunately, his latest output with the band Fuzz is a great place to start.

The band’s sophomore album, aptly-titled “II,” is an album best heard at loud volume. The guitars are fuzzy, the drums are thunderous and the vocals are seldom pretty. Such a description makes the band sound like a metal group, which — in a very loose way — they are. They are metal in the same way groups like Black Sabbath and Blue Cheer are with slow tempos, sludgy riffs and skeletal instrumental arrangements.

3- “Divers” by Joanna Newsom

Joanna Newsom comes across as a strange, mythical voice from long ago reminding a generation of technology-obsessed listeners to remember a more simple time in which music appealed to the folks. But what kinds of folks are Newsom addressing in her lyrics?

“Divers,” Newsom’s first studio album in five years, is all over the map in terms of both lyrics and instrumentation. Newsom once again proves she’s not a one-trick pony. Analog synthesizers, Nashville-style guitars and delicate piano touches enchant the record in a way that brings life to the eclectic subject matter.

On the title track, Newsom sings, “See how the infinite divides/and the divers are not to blame/for the rift spanning distant shores.” One would be hard-pressed to label lyrics such as these that transcend the human condition as “folk.”