now, now: saved (2018)

https://static.stereogum.com/uploads/2018/05/a3060495817_10-1526071392-640x640.jpg

i love this album. it seemed a little one-note the first time i heard it, and it is kind of a succession of only lightly differentiated moods, but by the third listen the songs started separating out for me; for instance, the way "window" ends with a sort of half-time 1975-esque instrumental bridge into which they pour a waterfall of synths? the tautness of "sgl," a road rewinding beneath car wheels. the uncertain drowsiness between words in the chorus of "holy water." the way "az" sounds as dry and crisp and caught in a permanent shimmer as the desert. it is very synthetic pop-rock, like crj combined with the entirely fictional fifth rilo kiley album in my head. it rules. and i think some of y'all will like it as much as i do

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ahcV_3oE6Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahs7l3irsG0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldg_HU4_3RU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldg_HU4_3RU

oh lmao i did not mean to post "az" twice

ooh had no idea this was finally out! I was fairly obsessed with 'threads' for a nice long while and was a little wary of a big pop pivot on this new material from the track I heard, also missing Jess, but still def gotta give the album a listen.

i think "set me free" is actually my favorite rn

i hear third eye blind in parts of this or maybe i just hearing that inside of the 1975-resembling songs. it's very modern sounding but the songwriting feels like something that would've been on the pop-rock axis in 1998

"Thread" live is pretty damn rad, and in a perfect universe, would have been a Top 10 smash. It is totally on my list of awesome vocal counter-melodies that differ from what your stuffy Music Theory professor would decree as appropriate harmony (Tuff Love's "Slammer", Yes's "Does It Really Happen", Warpaint's "Undertow", R.E.M.'s "Exhuming McCarthy", and Agent Ribbons's "I'm Alright" also fall in this category).

i am disappointed that it's a little bit more one-note than i would have liked after really loving all the singles but it's still very enjoyable. love this sort of synth-emo thing

this is top top bradnelsoncore

Many thanks bradnelson for writing, performing and recording this great album all by yourself.

lol

like crj combined with the entirely fictional fifth rilo kiley album in my head

this might as well have been an @ me

Love this album.

brad's ilm rock album thread hot streak is unprecedented

Many thanks bradnelson for writing, performing and recording this great album all by yourself.

― Tim F, Sunday, May 20, 2018 11:28 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

:D

Also Brad this album rules and you are a prince for bringing it to the attention.

This is so addictive. I'm OD'ing on velvet hooks.

:D

ty :-*

the melody of "SGL" has this moment in it that sounds identical to a moment in Tinashe's "Feels Like Vegas" which is really distracting but I still love it

I hear like a hundred songs in SGL, I swear.

And SGL p much beats them all

this is currently my aoty, thank you bradnelson

you’re welcome! it’s a good one

was on a nine hour coach trip at the weekend and this sounded perfect as I looked out the window at the motorway, all those lyrics about driving as a means to escape. I can see why this isn't gaining traction - its a little one-note on firsst impressions but it really opens up after a few listens and I'm obsessed with her delivery, the way her stresses and breathlessness convey such longing, "don't you know I'm desperate for you"

all the Carly Rae Jepsen fans should probably be spending some time with this

it's really the gay alt-pop album i needed this year

"MJ" in 2019 is all kinds of meaning

new song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdeZg5H9p_g

it's like they've picked up exactly where the end of "P0WDER" left off, the crushing bass and strung-out desperation, it isn't the direction I was expecting but it really suits them

i love this

https://open.spotify.com/album/1lheFDawFapPL5LxyNx8bs?si=79p9PECTSZq5zfMQpQXeDg

"Welcome to our project M00DRING. We created the story of The Mirror and composed a soundtrack to it as if it were a horror movie."

They've taken the power electronics of "Enda" and "Powder" and gone even further

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWf9KLcpl04

amazing new christmas song

how does this band manage to be so fucking good at everything

wow!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHlrcljJweY

KC Dalager goes solo as KC Rae, makes music that picks up exactly where Saved left off

the kc rae album is really good but it seems to have zero traction

It is really good! It is very short though, and even though it is a solo album he did all the rhythm section stuff it seems so I'm not sure why it isn't credited to them as a band.

yeah wonder what the deal is

"Thread" popped up on a running playlist today, and it hit me that not only is it one of the best songs of the 2000s, but how the Linkin Park aesthetic of everything dropping out except for a piano crescendo accompanying the vocals (which is all over this song) is so fucking awesome, it justifies the Linkin Park legacy/Linkacy