Music Spectrum

A bit of bouncy keys that opens Last Night on Earth is a bit of a misnomer. While Noah and the Whale employ keys, what they actually play is American Band Rock, the kind of music that opens up rock to anthems. It’s music for big spaces, music for throwing your arms open wide and defiantly, joyfully going confident into the world. “Life is Life” is about changing your ways, “Tonight’s the Kind of Night” declares that “things could change,” and “L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.” gives the characters hope despite what they’ve seen. All of those kind messages make the intersection with faith inevitable. Lead singer Charlie Fink declares on “Life is Life” that this change of life “feels like heaven.” Where that change comes from, where that hope comes from, those are spiritual questions inherit in these anthems.

Meanwhile, “Wild Thing” walks through Lou Reed’s New York, a compassionate character sketch of someone walking on the wide side. Xylophone opens up “Give It All Back,” before the guitar charges it forward in a move that comes like a pop-bounced Springsteen tale. Which brings about the best comparison here—Mike Dunn and the Kings of New England. It’s Springsteen riffs played on keys and softer guitars; it’s Springsteen tales of rising against the circumstances; it’s the hopeful in the midst of the challenges of life.

Noah and the Whale

Article first published as Music Review: Noah and the Whale – Last Night on Earth on Blogcritics.

Mirrors opens with the Smiths-like “The Mirror,” chiming acoustic guitar and a harmonica right out of Johnny Marr’s mouth. The instrumental track cranks up the volume a bit more than a Smiths tune, but the gist is there, the kind of instrumental that Morrissey kept Marr, Rourke, and Joyce from writing too often.

U.S. Royalty’s “The Mirror” leads right into the bluesy swagger of “Hollywood Hollows,” taking the band on a comparison ride through the Black Keys, 22-20s, and classic Blues Rock from the 70’s.

Yet, what clearly keeps U.S. Royalty from becoming a repeat of bluesy rock is that by the third track, we’re channeling other sources for the sounds. “Monte Carlo” opens with gentle, acoustic strumming akin and then an electric wave akin to the Church’s Starfish. Meanwhile, as the track hits its mark, beyond the 70’s comparisons, there’s something similar to Big Country—if you listen to more than “In a Big Country,” where the band really opened up to anthemic band rock. That Big Country feel continues on “Equestrian” with its harmonized vocals about “coming down from the mountain” and its big drums working a European tribal feel on the fills.

Other elements also appear on Mirrors, reflections of other inputs into this band’s aura. “Vacation Vacation” feels drawn from the twang rock of These United States, Romany Rye, or the Delta Spirit. “Give Up the Ghost” comes at the Blues Rock through a Country Blues opening that swaggers with a bit of twang and dust from the Great American West. The album closes with the acoustic “Voice Memo,” a plaintive tune with similarities to how the 22-20’s can pull back for a mesmerizing, folky contemplation.

Mirrors is out on January 25.

U.S. Royalty

I had the same sensation listening to Steve Wynn’s Northern Aggression as I had listening to another Yep Roc release a few years back, Ian Hunter’s Shrunken Heads (review): I expected something sounding more like 70’s excessiveness but got much more Americana. In the case of Hunter, I expected Glam Rock. With Wynn, I expected something like his days of the Dream Syndicate with psychedelic touches all over the place.

Instead, Northern Aggression cooks along with a bluesy Americana in the driving guitar rock. It’s not until the fourth track of the disc, “Consider the Source,” that Wynn starts to stretch out into something space-like meanderings, and even then, Wynn’s voice sounds like Lou Reed approaching Tom Petty’s sing-speak style. Not exactly the stuff of psychedelic harmonics—which makes Northern Aggression a surprise of the good kind. “We Don’t Talk About It” is a great hook. The full guitar barrage of “Coloured Lights” brings on a swaggering, staggering twang.

Definitely go back and grab this 2010 disc by Wynn & the Miracle 3, and don’t cut off your listening before you get to track 10—the aggressive “On the Mend” with its instrumental introduction and the blistering guitar soloing.

Steve Wynn
Yep Roc

It’s a band name that could be too much for a pop group. The City Harmonic recalls a symphonic standard which really isn’t in the sights of this band. However, on another level, the name does reveal what you can find in the band’s music—symphonic pop, rich harmonies, and orchestrations which raise the pop to great atmospherics.

Most surprisingly here is the way in which the catechism-like lyrics of “Manifesto” are set to good music. Reading the lyrics—which are in part like the Apostles’ Creed while also reciting the Lord’s Prayer—one might think of the song as being boringly pedantic. But the anthemic quality, perhaps closest resembling Leeland, rises to the occasion to declare the broad faith in Christ.

At only six tracks, Introducing the City Harmonic gives just a glimpse of what might be to come from this band with the lofty name. If vocalist/keyboardist Elias Dummer keeps up punctuating their songs with piano, then they will continue survive. Sweeping string sounds may threaten to paste over the songs with too much gloss, but that piano punctuation breaks it all up, keeps it organic, and has the ability to lead the group’s songwriting.

The City Harmonic
Kingsway