Greer's Ears

Image Source Vibrant, dynamic, radiant—these are some of the most apt descriptors one could assign to Dan Deacon's latest full-length project, Mystic Familiar . The album serves as a somewhat elementary yet earnest and uplifting thesis on personal philosophy. The Baltimore producer excels at crafting songs that sonically reflect what is being expressed verbally—resulting in an experience that's as cathartic as it is spirited. Throughout the project, Deacon ruminates on concepts such as fear, fate, and ephemerality—but does so with a keen sense of optimism and hopefulness. Using a rich and vivid sound palette, he transports you to new worlds—leaving you entranced and utterly enthralled with the colorful expanses that surround you.  The lush and resplendent  "Become a Mountain"  is a strong opener—beautifully epitomizing the most remarkable and distinguished aspects of the album. What begins as a singular, pulsating piano progression soon swells into a vast ...

Image Source Remind Me Tomorrow  is a dramatic reinvention for Sharon Van Etten that introduces us to an entirely new and diverse sonic palette. Etten abandons the simple, stripped-down, guitar-driven balladry we’ve come to expect from her, and in turn gives us a record that is characterized by dark, complex, and synth-heavy instrumentation. Not only is this a stunning testament to her artistic versatility, it's also a befitting aural manifestation of the themes this album explores.  Remind Me Tomorrow  is a stark and unembellished portrayal of love and intimacy; throughout the album, Etten finds herself trudging through the good, the bad, and the ugly. The album opens with "I Told You Everything," a piano-driven ballad with staggering instrumental entrances and dainty lower harmonies. Etten discusses the relief, comfort, and closeness that stems from becoming totally and completely transparent with your significant other. She describes the moment she opened up to h...

2016's  The Colour in Anything  found James Blake in an alarmingly dismal state of mind; the album centered around miscommunication, heartbreak, and despair. These somber themes, accompanied by Blake's intricate and melancholic instrumentation, resulted in a wonderfully poignant and captivating record. Admittedly, however,  Assume Form 's drastic and romantically charged shift in tone is a breath of fresh air. The album's title track, "Assume Form," serves as a felicitous introduction to the record .  Amidst the glimmering piano chords and arpeggios, Blake expresses that he's finally found someone to help bring him out of what he calls "the ether" (likely a reference to the depressive state of mind we were introduced to in  The Colour in Anything ). About halfway through the song, Blake even samples a line from "Depression"—a poem written and performed by slam poet Rage Almighty: "[Depression] feels like a thousand pounds of w...

Los Angeles rapper and record producer Earl Sweatshirt has finally returned with his third studio album entitled  Some Rap Songs— but don't be fooled by the record's seemingly arbitrary title and album art; this is one of the bleakest, heaviest, and densest projects you will hear this year. In Some Rap Songs , Earl paints a somber and heartrending picture of grief and loss. His struggles are existential in nature, stemming from traumatic life experiences—namely the recent death of his father, Keorapetse Kgositsile. Earl aims for and successfully maintains a distinct aesthetic throughout the entire project. The album is predominantly comprised of chopped-up vocal and instrumental samples that sound grainy, stripped down, and lo-fi. The bass and vocal stems are both mixed low, making the production feel less layered and more two-dimensional. This is likely intended, as it aptly complements Earl's melancholic lyricism and tone. There are some tracks on the record that...

If you would have told me back in January that the 1975 was going to release one of my favorite albums of 2018, I probably wouldn't have believed you- but here we are.  A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships  is a career-defining moment for the group. In a recent interview, front man Matty Healy told Entertainment Weekly, "Soundtracks are how I see my albums because they go all over the place but they make sense." That's certainly the case here, and  A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships is a soundtrack for the screen age.  Conceptually, this record paints a stark and honest picture of modern life, in a time where interconnectivity and isolation are one and the same. While it touches on topics like self-identity and drug addiction, it really homes in on the nature of relationships in the postmodern world. We live in a society that is characterized by things like division, dishonesty, insincerity, insecurity, miscommunication, polarization, addict...

Anthem of the Peaceful Army is the new debut LP from Greta Van Fleet—a young, up-and-coming rock 'n' roll band based out of Frankenmuth, MI. The group took the rock music industry by storm with the release of their debut EP Black Smoke Rising  in April 2017. Their debut single "Highway Tune" quickly reached the top of the charts and stayed there for weeks to follow. The group raised a lot of eyebrows due to their uncanny sonic resemblance to the band Led Zeppelin. Nearly every nuance of lead vocalist Josh Kiszka's voice calls to mind the iconic vocals of rock legend Robert Plant. The crunchy and distorted blues riffs of guitarist Jake Kiszka are quite redolent of Jimmy Page's modus operandi. And between his tightly-tuned bottom heads and his strong emphasis on triplets, drummer Daniel Wagner is very noticeably influenced by the late John Bonham. But do all these similarities work in the group's favor? Well, yes and no. To some extent, Greta Van Fleet ...

Twenty One Pilots is an alternative pop duo from Columbus, OH. Surely you've heard of them by now. Their third studio album  Vessel  broke them into the mainstream, and their follow-up album Blurryface launched them into superstardom. I've always respected their passion, ambition, and melodic sensibilities. They have a real talent for creating "earworm" hooks and melodies that stick with you for hours or even days after listening. However, those catchy and memorable melodies are often paired with painfully generic instrumentation. And while the themes of their songs are often admirable, I've usually found their lyricism to be slightly mawkish. In the past, their music has generally left me underwhelmed. However, all of this changed with their newest studio album Trench.  Trench feels like the duo's most mature, consistent, and unique album to date. In terms of production and instrumentation, this album is leagues above anything else the band has ever...

American indie rock/synth-pop duo MGMT released their fourth full-length studio album last weekend. Following their poorly received self-titled studio release, the group took a hiatus from making music for a while. Little Dark Age is their first album release in over four years, and fortunately, it is well worth the wait. Musically, this album strikes a perfect balance between creativity, experimentation, and accessibility. This is definitely their most pop-centric and accessible release since their debut album Oracular Spectacular . Lyrically, this album tackles an incredibly wide range of topics: relationships, depression, death, friendship, phone addiction, political climate, and more. However, the way they approach these sorts of topics is refreshingly unconventional. The album begins with the witty masterpiece "She Works Out Too Much," which is my favorite track ever released by MGMT. As the title suggests, this song chronicles a relationship that failed because the...

When your favorite artist of all time curates a soundtrack for the newest installment of your favorite movie franchise, it's a good day. Last Friday, Kendrick Lamar released the soundtrack for the latest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Panther . This album is nothing short of impressive - especially considering how busy Kendrick has been as it is for the past eight months touring the world with his latest award-winning album, DAMN.  Kendrick and Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith (CEO of Top Dawg Entertainment) have done a great job at bringing together a very eclectic group of talented artists. In addition to Kendrick, there are 22 artists featured on this record—and nearly every feature feels significant/worthwhile.  Black Panther The Album  is thematic, cohesive, and fun. I started writing this review a lot earlier in the week, but I decided that it might be beneficial to see the movie before finishing/publishing it. That was a good decision. Granted, only ...

Hookworms is a psychedelic indie pop/noise rock band consisting of five members from Leeds, England. The group released their first tape in 2011 and have been slowly climbing their way up the ladder of success ever since. In 2013, they released their debut LP, Pearl Mystic , which was widely praised. Following Pearl Mystic , they released The Hum  in in 2014, which was even more critically acclaimed. Today, the group finally released the highly-anticipated Microshift— their third full-length LP. In short, this release is a huge leap forward for the group, and an important installment in their discography. Microshift is without a doubt the cleanest sounding record I've heard from Hookworms. The album features the most intricate and compelling instrumentation in their catalogue. There's a much greater emphasis on electronic production in this album than there ever has been before, and the production quality is higher than it's ever been. This propels them even further i...

"M A N I A" is the seventh studio album release from American rock band "Fall Out Boy" (although I would hardly consider them a rock band at this point.) Following in the footsteps of their 2015 release, " American Beauty/American Psycho," Fall Out Boy tries to reinvent themselves with this record. In doing so, they take a pretty terrible turn.  I literally laughed out loud listening to the album opener, "Young and Menace." From that song alone, it was clear that Fall Out Boy had officially sold out. It sounds like a teenager took a song from "American Beauty/American Psycho" and made a trap remix of it on GarageBand for a Call of Duty Quick Scope montage. While I suppose they deserve some credit for constantly taking risks and trying to reinvent themselves, they don't really bring anything unique or original to the table. It sounds like they listened to a pop radio station for a few hours, took notes on every trope they hear...