5 Great Albums To Prove That Rock Is Not Dead
Take a look at these picks before starting your musical journey in 2019.
For many music publications but also the average music listener, 2018 seemed to be the year of ‘peak trap’ and hip-hop overall. Truth be told, hip-hop appears to be the zeitgeist and musical expression of the current generation and there is no end in sight.
Rock’s cultural impact, on the other hand, seems to dwindle by the day in the eyes of the casual music fan. That doesn’t mean, however, that it is dead or anywhere near that. In fact, more than ever before, appealing rock music is made by underground artists, completely disregarding the pressure to conform to major labels’ demands or the mainstream’s notions of ‘rock’.
1. Sundays by Tanukichan
The album’s opener Lazy Love sets the tone for what’s to come: swirling layers upon layers of guitars with ample amounts of psychedelia spliced throughout the record that manifest themselves in Tanukichan’s airy vocals and the occasional synth. Her guitar playing, while not flashy, is not at all dependent on her pedal board though as she displays on every track, be it her rhythm guitar playing or the rare solo.
Sundays takes great inspiration from shoegaze legends such as My Bloody Valentine and mixes the noisy, fluttering guitar textures from the latter with modern indie rock sensibilities and introspective lyricism.
Released on Carpark Records and produced by fellow label mate and indie darling Toro y Moi’s Chaz Bear (formerly Bundick), the album doesn’t overstay its welcome consisting only of ten greatly sequenced tracks with a total runtime of mere 31 minutes.
Nonetheless, it’s enough time for Tanukichan to present us her artistic statement without any filler, making Sundays of indie rock’s finest albums this year.
Favorite tracks: Lazy Love, The Best, Like The Sun, Hunned Bandz, This Time
2. Love Will Let You Down by Lounge FM
Compared to the previous entry, Love Will Let You Down by the Winnipegian project Lounge FM isn’t as clearly indebted to one particular style of rock music. Instead, it brings together the sounds of r&b, album-oriented rock, Japanese city pop, smooth jazz, jazz fusion and jangly indie rock ala Mac DeMarco while adding some tasteful sprinkles of hazy psychedelia.
With its 50 minutes runtime, the record is neither long nor short, but some parts can feel slightly exhausting. It doesn’t take away however from the beautiful compositions and immersive atmosphere the album has to offer.
The songwriting and musical skill on Love Will Let You Down is nothing to sneeze at, featuring mesmerizing guitar solos, a variety of keyboards, and unusual chord progressions a la jazz compared to the average band you’d find on Bandcamp.
It’s a shame how the album passed by mostly unnoticed, so you should do yourself a favor and check out this hidden gem immediately.
Favorite tracks: Love Will Let You Down, So Wonderful, Sometimes, Play Nice
3. Time ’n’ Place by Kero Kero Bonito
Kero Kero Bonito went through with the sound they showcased earlier this year with their EP Totep: Mostly gone are the days of plasticy synths, spastic drum machine beats, bilingual lyrics, and the all-encompassing happy-go-lucky sound of their previous releases.
Instead of that, we got guitars, guitars, and more guitars. Some of the power pop-inspired riffs even sound like they came straight out of a time capsule from the 90s.
Kero Kero Bonito changed.
That’s a risky thing to do for a band that had such a signature sound and cult following. But the bravery was worth the risk: The trio gave us their most fleshed out, cohesive, and ambitious release yet.
Time ’n’ Place is pop-rock in its core, but instead of just playing it safe, KKB experiments with the very structure of a rock song by adding glitzy, chiptune-inspired synth lines and noisy, abrasive breakdowns, first deconstructing and then reconstructing pop and rock according to their vision.
On Time ’n’ Place, Kero Kero Bonito make all those contradictions seem like they were never contradictions to begin with, doing it so effortlessly you can’t but admire their exact understanding of music on its meta-level.
Favorite tracks: Time Today, Only Acting, Flyway, Make Believe, Swimming
4. 7 by Beach House
7 may be a shockingly simple name for Beach House’s seventh album, but its content is fortunately not. It might even be the duo’s best full-length project to date.
The record is the darkest and heaviest Beach House released up until now while still remaining firmly dream pop, trying to approach the genre from a different angle than before. The drums especially, explode from time to time into thunderous arrays that sound like Zeus himself hurled them at us.
Leaving their longtime producer Chris Codey and allying themselves with MGMT producer Peter Kember aka Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3 fame, may have played an expectedly big role in that.
The result is a wall of sound reminiscent of shoegaze records such as Loveless that is pure bliss through proper headphones or adequate speakers.Be assured though that 7 is not shoegaze. For that, it is too lush and tender, compared to the ‘sonic assault’ shoegaze is known for.
The terms may have been used interchangeably in the past, but Beach House shows us with 7 that there are a time and place for hard-edged, dark dream pop.
Favorite tracks: Dark Spring, Lemon Glow, Drunk in LA, Last Ride
5. Clean by Soccer Mommy
Nashville’s Soccer Mommy stepped out the bedroom onto the stage with her full-length studio debut Clean, giving her deeply personal bedroom pop just enough studio sheen to make Clean feel more polished compared to previous works while still keeping the raw, lo-fi sound at the core of her music intact.
Sonically the album, while pleasant to hear, is nothing to write home about, relying on a tried and trusted indie rock sound with some slight grunge influence evocative of 2017’s I’m Not Your Man by Marika Hackman.
Still, the beauty of Soccer Mommy’s craft lies not in studio trickery but in her songwriting: Deceptively simple but beautiful melodies supported by her blunt yet perceptive lyrics, focusing on her message itself instead of its packaging.
Favorite tracks: Cool, Your Dog, Blossom (Wasting All My Time), Last Girl
Honorable Mentions
Here are some of the albums that are on par with the ones I showcased. I had to do some tough decisions, so be sure to check out the following releases too:
1. Lush by Snail Mail
2. Be The Cowboy by Mitski
3. Tell Me How You Really Feel by Courtney Barnett
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