Listen
Linda Smith - I So Liked Spring
singer-songwriter/indie
Spring is easing its way out of dark cracks of winter here. Early blooms are throwing pollen into the air and walking now carries the satisfying knowledge that with each mushy step, something good is beginning to pour forth. Linda Smith gets it—crunchy guitars crushed underfoot as cherry blossom vocals paint the air above.
The Mahavishnu Orchestra - You Know, You Know
fusion/jazz
What scans at first as a respite from a ferociously over-the-top jazz fusion album quickly reveals itself to be much, much heavier. This is potent and heady, the type of tune to sink you into the couch. What’s weird is that it appears so straightforward—there’s no odd time signature spelled out by the loping tom rolls; string section and electric piano are harmonious partners to a determined, plodding guitar groove. Yet the whole thing rips and snarls like fracturing a bone.
Two Shell - No Reply
electronic/pop
Someone you’ve been seeing texts you they’ve been feeling there could be something more. Giddily, you savor the text; your mind racing off at sedan-totaling speeds about what comes next. There’s a lightness in your heart. Here’s a song for that.
Tom Nehls - Clean Air
psych/rock
I keep getting mad at the backstory to this. Tell me how a 17 year old kid from Minneapolis and his friends could make something this brilliant. It sounds like a fairy tale or some theme to a forgotten Planète Sauvage sequel. Hypnotic and transportive.
Pavel Milyakov & Yana Pavlova - Strong-willed
dream-pop/ambient
I cued this one up as the lights smeared past my train window, dozing, arm braced against the glass. A perfect somnambulant gem for getting back home through a rainy night.
Watch
The Gospel According To St. Matthew
Despite it being literally the text of the Bible, I teared up watching this because the faces were so entrancing and the landscapes so beautiful. Maybe that’s New Testamentary power, but I’ll credit it more to Pier Paolo Pasolini’s able hand, drawing out the humanity and radicalism of the historical Jesus.