ALTER.NATiON
Courtney Barnett, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Bodega, Soccer Mommy, Yo La Tengo,Flasher, The Beths, Superchunk, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Caroline Rose, Amanda Shires, Haley Heynderickx
Courtney Barnett, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Bodega, Soccer Mommy, Yo La Tengo,Flasher, The Beths, Superchunk, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Caroline Rose, Amanda Shires, Haley Heynderickx
Selection from PASTE The 50 Best Songs of 2018
weekly favtraX
06-01-2019
Probably one of the most talked-about #MeToo anthems this year, Courtney Barnett’s “Nameless, Faceless” vocalizes so well every woman’s fear: “I wanna walk through the park in the dark,” she sings, then citing a tactic many of us have, unfortunately, utilized before: “I hold my keys / Between my fingers.” She also quotes The Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood in her three-minute diss track of both a nasty internet troll and the patriarchy: “Men are scared that women will laugh at them / Women are scared that men will kill them.”
Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Sex & Food is, at times, a delirious pleasure-kick, a dancing-in-the-dark denial of the absurd times in which we live and a call to indulge. Other times, though, UMO face 2018’s ugly sides head-on. Though he hails from New Zealand originally, Rubin Nielson has spent enough time in America to know our ways—including our unfavorable ones. Sex & Food is not an intensive political record, but “American Guilt” shunts nasty, nationalist banter to the wayside in the form of a driving fuzz-rock jam. It’s pretty clear how Nielson feels about the U.S.’s harboring of right-wing ideals, including the “America First” policy, in 2018: In the “Land of the expensive,” “Even the Nazis are crying.”
Endless Scroll, the remarkable debut record from Brooklyn-based band Bodega, exists in a very specific time and place. Each song makes references to particular bars, music venues, and New York City landmarks relevant to the Bodega story, one that spans the death of their former band, the relationship of lead singers Ben Hozie and Nikki Belfiglio, their boring day jobs, the nightly catharsis onstage on various Bushwick DIY stages and everything in between. Album opener “How Did This Happen?!” sees Hozie and Belfiglio walk past the post 2016 election protests in Union Square, processing the same thoughts that we all had after Trump’s election—a mix of “How did this happen?!” and those smug post-Bernie loss feelings of “These people should be here regardless of outcome.” Bodega turn this all into a driving post-punk song, packing as much punch into its three-minute running time as humanly possible, complete with the perfect lyrical references to place us in the scene.
Few opening lines this year have shook and scorned like, “I don’t wanna be your fucking dog / that you drag around.” The story of being trapped in an abusive relationship is not an easy one to consume, and Soccer Mommy’s Sophie Allison doesn’t sweeten any of the details. “Your Dog” is honest and painful and necessary, a massive “back off” to every man who’s ever emotionally or physically abused.
“For You Too” is a transcendent act of noise-rock introspection. Yo La Tengo’s song is one of the most entrancing from their new record, There’s A Riot Going On. The scintillating guitar line, soft synth drone and deceptively propulsive percussion combine to create an inviting, yet layered soundscape, while Ira Kaplan delivers near-whispered lyrics that are brimming with heart-swelling affection: “For you / whenever there’s hurt / and when things are uncertain / Maybe I could be that guy / I’d like to try,” he sings.
Picking a standout track from the stellar debut from D.C. trio Flasher is a steep task, but “Skim Milk” is a solid representation of the band’s strengths on Constant Image. Contrary to what you might think, the song doesn’t foreshadow an empty future (“No future / No fate”). It reminds us that even fantasizing about the future is a right only afforded by those who aren’t living hand to mouth, so why not try to transcend the late capitalist, cog-in-the-machine life that’s laid out for you? The song’s bridge has a rapturous vocal interplay (“As though / But yet / And so”) while the rest of the track is marked by spring-loaded drums and mischievous guitar riffs.
Elizabeth Stokes named her band after herself, or, rather, her nickname. So it should come as no surprise, then, that the debut album from New Zealand-based rockers The Beths, Future Me Hates Me, is sharply self-aware. One of those self-assured (or, rather, self-doubting) rock tunes is the toe-tap-inducing examination of overthinking, “Future Me Hates Me.” “Sometimes I think I’m doing fine / I think I’m pretty smart,” Stokes sings on the title track before, later, completing the thought: “Oh then the walls become thin / And somebody gets in / I’m defenseless.”
For this song from their 2018 album What a Time to Be Alive—whose excellent title track did not meet the timeline criteria for this list—beloved North Carolinian rockers Superchunk rounded up a few of their Merge Records labelmates to collaborate on a resounding, thumping power track. Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield and The Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt, both Merge signees, offer backing vocals during the chorus, which leads to an immaculate melding (Merging?) of voices. “Erasure” is pure, driving power-pop, and that energy is in part due to Crutchfield’s and Merritt’s solid additions.
Denver’s Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats broke through in 2015 with the polished honkytonk rock of their self-titled debut on the famed Stax Records label. Three years later, on their sophomore LP, the band, with Rateliff at the helm and the dearly departed Richard Swift behind the boards, have become one of the finest Americana acts in the nation, and “You Worry Me” is the best song Rateliff has ever written. Solitary keys play as the song opens, a now bold and signature indicator that Rateliff & The Night Sweats are about to embark on their crown jewel. Intensity builds through gracefully careening strings and Rateliff’s gravelly vocals ascending into a glorious explosion of horns. A superb saxophone bridge atop a kick drum raises Rateliff’s delivery to mountainous levels of soul and emotion, and you can’t help but just feel something powerful inside of you.
It’s hard to believe the Caroline Rose who made I Will Not Be Afraid, her first album and a swinging, folk-fueled rockabilly record, is the same Caroline Rose who, this year, released an absurdist, darkly hilarious pop record called LONER. “Bikini,” from the latter, is weird and wonderful and, like many of LONER’s best tunes, oozes with satire. On standout “Jeannie Becomes A Mom,” Rose tackles aggressive suburban ideals, but “Bikini” freaks out on the insane expectations facing women in the spotlight (and women in general).
Amanda Shires made a huge splash when she released “Leave It Alone,” the first single from her excellent album To The Sunset. The record is still deeply grounded in Shires’ typical twang and stomp, but “Leave It Alone” is very nearly a pop song, bursting with light and color, like the “fishtank-green” she references in the lyrics. Shires combines more highly produced beats and riffs with twangy, Shania Twain-esque vocals, a complete sonic break from anything in the 400 Unit’s catalogue (or, for that matter, Shires’). The coolest part about this song, though, is Shires’ manipulation of her instrument of choice, the fiddle: She feeds it through a mellotron pedal, which makes it sound like a violin from outer space.
There’s no chorus to speak of in this little gem from Haley Heynderickx’s brilliant debut album, nor any answers to the questions that this singer/songwriter is posing within it. This is a modern version of a talking blues, but a more poetic take on that well-worn style, because throughout, we’re never quite sure if she’s actually conjuring up new deities or if she’s commenting on how we tend to deify our lovers during the heat of a relationship.
Courtney Barnett, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Bodega, Soccer Mommy, Yo La Tengo,Flasher, The Beths, Superchunk, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Caroline Rose, Amanda Shires, Haley Heynderickx
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