The Crit List Autumn Listening Guide

I read an article recently about how so many people in their 30s give up on music and it made me sad. I totally get it, no judgment, life happens, but it made me sad. It made me want to put more time and effort into this little thing. A few things that stuck out to me from the article:

The only things I like almost as much as listening to music is sharing music with people and talking about music, so here we are. Maybe you feel like checking out a great new record from an old band or some great new tunes from some other bands. If so, you’re in the right place.

Sometimes it feels like we’re just counting time by the twelfth anniversary of some great record and then it’s the thirteenth anniversary of that same great record and then it’s the… well, you get it. They didn’t tell you this in science class but the leaves are changing because they’re cross-faded on the potential heat death of the universe and the fact that it’s getting darker earlier again.

I tweeted this last week and to me, in my humble opinion, I mean since you’re asking I’ll go right ahead and tell you, it deserved one billion more retweets than it got. I’m a genius but you won’t realize that until I’m dead. “Understated and unappreciated in his time,” the New York Times won’t write. This should be the “it’s gonna be May” of fall. The “wake me up when September ends” of… uh, September. It should be so popular that it annoys people every year and there are more tweets complaining about it than tweets using it earnestly. Maybe if I’d included “We’re lying in the grass next to the mausoleum” in there it would have been better. Yeah, that’s probably why it didn’t take off.

The other day I was thinking about how zombies love eating brains but you never hear about them finding a tough skull to bust open, which is a super normal thought to have so let’s just move on. Stephanie said “I think they just eat flesh?” Turns out it wasn’t until Return of the Living Dead (1985) that zombies ate brains and the guy who made that film also co-wrote Alien so hell yeah, sure let’s snack on some brains and hummus.

I hope the winner of the Mariners/Blue Jays series wins the World Series.

I’m excited for Fest. Everyone should go to Fest.

I went to five shows over the past two weeks and every single one had two bands on the bill. That’s perfect. Let’s keep that energy going.

Okay time to listen to some music.

The Crit List Presents The ALGorithm(Autumn Listening Guide…orithm)

(Click here for the Spotify playlist)

Death Cab for Cutie - Asphalt Meadows (Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music)

I don’t think I need to tell anyone reading this about this band, but I do need to tell you that the Death Cab magic is back. It’s been 17 years since the last truly great Death Cab record (Plans, 2005) and since then they’ve released two good ones (Narrow Stairs in 2008 and Codes and Keys in 2011) and two decent ones (Kintsugi in 2015 and Thank You For Today in 2018) but when you’re DCfC, even a good record seems like a disappointment. The bar is just too high. The magic was fading. Along the way they lost founding member and producer Chris Walla, who left the band and moved to the Norway because he wasn’t into the band’s lyrics anymore, saying “[I] was feeling like Ben’s stories weren’t coinciding with my own life in a way that I could continue to prioritize my whole living experience for.” Okay first of all, ouch dude. But I think a lot of fans agreed with him there.

Folks, the Death Cab for Cutie magic is back. With Asphalt Meadows, they are a band that once again sounds like themselves at full power. They deconstructed what made them a band, went into the studio with a new producer, tinkered and edited and played around while considering every idea, and put themselves back together in a new yet familiar way.

So many of these songs just explode, so it makes sense “Roman Candles” was the first single. They deliver (insert Postal Service joke here) right from the first moment. It’s Death Cab, for sure, but it’s fresh. 50 seconds into opener “I Don’t Know How I Survive” we get our first vision into the dynamic and expansive textures they’ve created. Even when they get loud, the music feels warm and Ben Gibbard’s ethereal voice invites you in like an old friend you haven’t seen in years and weren’t really sure what he was up to all this time and maybe haven’t thought that much about, but you’re right back into your rhythm.

“Rand McNally” is a song about the discontent of youth, perseverance, and always moving forward, and you can imagine the coffee-stained title atlas might be a “souvenir from better times” mentioned in “Title and Registration.”

Title track “Asphalt Meadows” features a near-perfect summation of what the band does so well, as Ben sings these lines over a steady snare beat and light piano: “The glow of the downtown lights / casting shadows across your face / as if all the buildings knew / I could only know half of you.” I mean…yeah, Seth Cohen would probably say if he were a real person and listened to this song.

Halfway through the album, we are blessed with an unexpected spoken-word post-rock epic, “Foxglove Through the Clearcut” which immediately enters the holy pantheon of great DCfC songs. Clocking in at five minutes and fifteen seconds, longer than average for them but not long long, yet it feels like an entire universe you could live inside. It’s a gorgeous, sprawling song about the fraught relationship between humankind and the planet where we reside, references the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, and is sure to be one of those songs that is even better live. (Wrote this before seeing them last weekend, so a lil updatey: yes.) This song may have been too powerful as a closer, so it works well right in the middle of the record.

Side B songs continue to explore new sounds while reexamining the history of the band. “Wheat Like Waves” is like if Plans and The Photo Album had a large adult son who was half brought up by his cooler-than-his-real-mom, got-him-into-all-the-cool-bands, let-him-stay-out-late-and-drove-him-to-shows stepmom, Transatlanticism.

In “Foxglove,” Ben sings: “he said he'd driven all the way across America / and when he got to thе edge, therе was nowhere left to go.” This feels like it could speak for the band as well. They peered over the edge with nowhere left to go, an impressive career and a discography to be proud of. They then made a conscious decision to regroup and refocus, and while they might not be blazing new trails, they’re traveling familiar roads with a new sense of purpose and excitement and it shows in every note. Anyone who has been a fan of the band at any point, for any length, is going to find something here to like. A band pulling that off with their tenth record is impressive.

A Place for Owls - S/T (Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music)

This one punched me right in the mouth with how special it is right from the first listen. It had Manchester Orchestra I’m Like a Virgin… vibes mixed with John K. Samson. Those are not comparisons I use lightly. Virgin is still extremely special to me, and I know how highly people think of JKS. I got just about the whole Spanish Love Songs Discord onto this one and they were making comparisons to Death Cab and Bright Eyes as well. If any of those four artist comparisons did anything for you, there’s a very good chance you’re going to dig this. There is a deep well of power in these songs, asking lots of questions and providing their version of answers through musical catharsis right up until the final line: “is it love that rebuilds us all?” Music like this does its part to rebuild us all.

Expert Timing - Stargazing (Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music)

Turn this one all the way up. Stargazing rocks right from the opening drums of the first track through the final track “Kick Rocks.” These songs are just fun. The melodies rocket right out of your speakers and will bounce around in your skull like they’re a kid at a trampoline park. They’re big, they’re hooky, they’re catchy, they’re well-written. “The Bigger Picture” is one of the best songs of the year. It’s always nice when you hear someone singing about the same type of anxiety and existential dread that keeps you up at night, except that it means someone else out there is struggling with the same type of anxiety and existential dread that keeps you up at night! If you listen to bands like Camp Trash, Into It. Over It., or Hey Mercedes, it’s time to gaze at the stars. And just to be clear, I mean you should listen to Stargazing by Expert Timing. Whether or not you actually look up at the stars, that’s up to you. The universe is expanding and that freaks me out. Better listen to good music while we still can.

Momma - Household Name (Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music)

I’ve told you to listen to Momma before but since then their record dropped and it’s awesome, so I’m going to mention it again. These ladies are just cool as hell. The 90s rock vibes are immaculate. My (wishful thinking?) prediction that they become the next Indie It band is still TBD. They’re opening for Death Cab soon, hopefully that will help.

Future Teens - Self Help (Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music)

Local rock band Future Teens continues to make very sad music that makes me very happy. Daniel and Amy write smart, sad, clever “bummer pop” (their term) songs that make me smile, and seeing them live is even more fun. Everything they do is great, it’s that simple. I’m still mad about their canceled tour with Spanish Love Songs and I hope it happens one day. Definitely the single worst thing to happen as a result of the pandemic.

Birthday Dad - The Hermit (Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music)

I’ll copy/paste from Birthday Dad’s Bandcamp so you can get the vibe: “Imagine if Bright Eyes locked themselves in a room for a year and only listened to Jack's Mannequin. Birthday Dad's debut album, The Hermit, would be the result.” It’s way more Jack’s than Bright Eyes, but that is a fair descriptor. It’s different and unique and big and theatrical. It’s like a distant cousin of Dog Problems; two cousins who barely know each other and only see each other once every few years and probably don’t get along because they know how alike they are and don’t want to even imagine what they could get up to if they hung out. This is the project of one singular mad genius, Alex Periera, who wrote it all and then fleshed the songs out with a group of musicians he found through Reddit and Fiverr, and then even got All Get Out’s Nathan Hussey to master it. These songs about about anxiety, isolation, numbing your feelings, and morbid curiosity played over jazzy horns and upbeat piano hit just the right way. Sad songs to tap your foot along to. The tune “Hollywood Forever Cemetery” is a good encapsulation of all the best things about the record, including the lines “Couldn’t tell you why, but I feel weary / maybe it’s this endless search for meaning that I didn’t ask to join.” There are nine songs and they clock in just under 25 minutes — “Spleen” is just 95 seconds but always stuck in my head — but The Hermit feels full of life, and Birthday Dad as a project is full of potential.

Timeshares - Limb (Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music)

A straight up rock record that just goes. “Clumsy Fingers” is one of the best songs of the year. I feel like this band could and should be so much bigger. I don’t even know what else to say, but don’t let that fool you, this is the good shit.

The Wonder Years - The Hum Goes on Forever (Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music)

This one goes last because a. everyone knows about it already and b. I’ve been so busy listening to all this other stuff that I haven’t had a chance to really dive into it. I’m sure I’ll love it when I do because they are excellent. I just couldn’t leave it off because I knew someone would ask where it was.

—

You can reply to this email (or leave a comment if you didn’t get this as an email) if you’d like to say hello, tell me I’m handsome, tell me I suck, agree with me that Grimace is the worst, tell me if you like these bands, or tell me your favorite current song that isn’t mentioned here.