Buckle your seatbelts and startup your Spotify, kids, it's time for New Music Tuesday! I know I said I am working hard to be better at this, and I'm getting there slowly but surely. I think it'll take ages before I get to a place where I can really do this weekly, so for now monthly will have to do. This week I write to you about two of my favorite new finds: the most amazing Blues player I've heard in ages, and one of my favorite new bands I discovered while out on Warped Tour 2014.
HOZIER - Hozier
Andrew Hozier-Bryne, better known these days by his surname Hozier, is the Irish singer-songwriter credited with the Top 40 smash hit "Take Me To Church". If you thought you liked the one song you've heard, be prepared to have your brain melt. It sounds silly, but the man's radio hit does his full length album zero credit, and you can't just take my word for it. Filled with catchy beats, beautiful melodies, impressive guitar work, and even more impressive lyrics, Hozier's album takes you on a beautiful ride through love, doubt, faith, and imagery. This album has become a staple of my musical library in the short month I've known of its existence. My personal recommendation is to start the album with track number two, "Angel of Death and the Codeine Scene" since track one is the only song you already know. Let the rest of the music speak for itself, and by the album's end you'll hardly believe "Take Me To Church" and the rest of his album come from the same artist. Trying to pick my favorite songs off of this album is impossible, and spoiler alert: I have already decided that for Ultra5280's 2014 roundup, I will be naming this my top album of the year. Feel free to hop over to Ultra5280 and read my review of Hozier's show in Boulder last month, but if you want to just cut to the chase, set an hour aside and listen to this record the whole way through. If I had to pick, my 3 favorite songs are "Jackie and Wilson", "From Eden", and "Work Song". Trust me on this though, you want to hear all of it. Sweet Andrew Hozier, you have solidified yourself as one of my favorite artists... I pray God your next album blows my mind as much as this one does.
PVRIS - White Noise
When I was growing up, Warped Tour was the place to discover new music and slowly watch it rise to fame. Somehow in the late 2000's, that all changed and legacy bands began to rule the roster traveling coast to coast. It started to feel like the only way to discover new stuff at Warped was to lurk around the Kevin Says Stage for a few years in a row, and see who stuck around. This past summer was one of the first times in ages that I feel like new talent truly got to shine through at Warped, and one of the bands that succeeded the most is PVRIS. A band of youngsters from Boston, they played a quick two-week stint of shows across the east coast on the Ernie Ball Stage. In that time they managed to draw the attention of bands from every single stage on the tour, photographers, and even the production staff. Lead singer Lyndsey Gunnulfsen draws you in with her fiery yet seductive tone, a growl encroaching on her her smooth voice with every chorus. Her lyrics take the listener from a place of wonder and curiosity to a place of uproar with killer hooks like "It's my house / and I think it's time you get out/ it's my soul / it isn't yours anymore / it's my house / and i think it's time you get out". Iridescent synth tracks in the background lead you weaving through each song's melody, escorted by driving guitars and sharp drums. The ferocity of the vocals in songs like "St. Patrick" and "My House" give Gunnulfsen credibility as a vocalist in ways most females are written off in this genre. She can sing, but damn the girl can mean it too. The entire album front-to-back is a quick 40minutes, but it might just be the most successful blend of pop-punk, rock, and electronica that i've ever heard.