The Fresh & Onlys

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The Fresh & Onlys

“We make albums to be heard as albums,” says Tim Cohen. “We always toil over the sequencing and slight pauses.” House of Spirits, The Fresh & Onlys’ fifth album since 2008, testifies to their rigorous full-length approach. Their most adventurous outing yet, House of Spirits devotes its A-side to the character of dreams. Written partly during his stay at an isolated horse ranch in Arizona with only a guitar, Korg keyboard and drum machine, Cohen focused the album’s lyrics on firmer narratives than on past material, but his imagery veers towards absurdity, reflecting the unreliable visions culled from his nightly subconscious activity. The album’s latter half finds his speaker awoken, resolute and lucid. All throughout, Cohen says the album grapples with the “idea that home is where your feet are.” While still possessing the impeccable pop faculties displayed on Long Slow Dance and Soothsayer, The Fresh & Onlys also deal experimental atmospherics and drum-machine anchored ballads like never heard from the group before.

“The things I remember from dreams are when something is slightly off. You’re in your house but realize suddenly that it’s not yours,” says Cohen. In that sense, album opener “Home is Where?” is a statement of the album’s intent. When Cohen’s speaker notices a “bowl full of eyes on the floor,” or “cauldron of hearts on the stove” during his comforting walk through “the good life,” the brisk but nuanced track morphs into a surrealist nightmare.

Cold Beat

New project from Hannah Lew of Grass Widow and Greer McGettrick of The Mallard

The notion of catharsis and healing through rock music is not a new one. We’ve all experienced chills and deep emotional responses to the music we love, and it’s doubly true for those who create it. Following the release of last year very personal “Worms/Year 5772” EP, Cold Beat, led by bandleader Hannah Lew (Grass Widow), is ready to unveil their first full opus, Over Me, which will be July 8th on her own Crime on the Moon imprint. Lew sourced difficult personal experiences to create an immersive lyrical world sometimes fraught with paranoia, anxiety and impending doom, and also an exploration of hope and imagination - themes felt ever more acutely by a native San Franciscan artist in the midst of a tech boom cataclysm once again. Seething with circuitous anxieties, even teetering at times towards terror, Over Me ultimately marvels in the face of staggering unknowns. Over Me was recorded by Phil Manley (Trans Am) at Lucky Cat Studios in San Francisco, and mixed and mastered by Mikey Young (Total Control, UV Race) in Australia.

Devon Williams

Devon Williams performs a shimmering pop music that tempers sweetness and bliss with an honest, unguarded perspective. Williams' music is informed by his broad musical knowledge and diverse tastes; while the past echoes through his tunes, his song-writing skills, strong musical voice and arrangement/production prowess mark him as a truly unique talent on the scene. The past can be a window on the present, and Williams' distinctive blend of power-pop, orchestrated soft-rock, folk-rock and lush, layered jangle-pop takes full flight on Euphoria, his new album.

Euphoria presents an homage to things romantic and rare. A powerful and catchy set of songs matched with a more intricate and layered production than his 2008 debut solo album Carefree, Euphoria retains a uniform feel though it was recorded and mixed in several studios by producers like NYC's Jorge Elbrecht (from the excellent Violens) and Vancouver's Dave Carswell, who also produced Williams' onetime touring mate, Destroyer. From the gushing crescendo of "Slight Pain" to the trance-like state of "Dreaming," the album's vast emotional landscape embodies the tough-minded/tender-hearted spirit that animates Williams' live performances. The 12 songs on Euphoria live in a dizzy head space of quiet desperation, progressing from the loving and warm "Revelations" to complacency in "Sufferer," then back to the optimistic "Right Direction" directly into the claustrophobic, pounding chorus of "How is There Always Room?"

Lush and layered, Williams chooses this colorful world to make light of dark thoughts. First single "Your Sympathy" is a perfect illustration – a gorgeous, rolling jangle-infused tune that wraps romantic resignation in the stateliest of melodies. Songs like "Favor Tree" and "All My Living Goes To You" continue with this theme, heady meditations on the heart set against lovely musical backings that would make any fan of Felt or The Church swoon. This is Williams' statement of musical intent and he's been carefully crafting and tweaking the songs for maximum effect, building them up and then paring them back down to find the ideal balance of immediacy and depth, of melodic richness and lyrical concision. Euphoria is Williams' finest record yet, a very personal work of great beauty that is as thought-provoking as it is musically intoxicating.

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