Some album recommendations

 

 Hi, just here to talk about some albums I've discovered this year that really hit!

Glide was a band from Australia in the 90s, and I really enjoy their style. Borrows from power pop, shoegaze, jangle pop—all the good stuff, impressively all at once. Really tight songwriting and some surprising chords you might expect in a Radiohead song a few years later. All the albums are great, but I recommend Open Up & Croon (1995) for the most shoegaze influence and Disappear Here (1996) for a more alt-rock sound, though I adore both. If you're jonesing for more, try the posthumous Last (1999), which has a favorite of mine in "Pull in Your Claws," a demo that singer William Arthur produced in his garage before his unfortunate passing.

Lowgold was a British band that I found via the Slowdive drummer Simon Scott being a member for a time. I picked their album Welcome to Winners (2003) to listen to on a commute the other day and it blew me away. Pretty chords, slow-ish tempos, and simple vocal melodies to drive it home. It reminds me of an all-time favorite, The Gloria Record EP A Lull in Traffic (2000). I guess some britpop influence is present in both, maybe an avenue for me to find similarly slow-and-dreamy bands like these.

The band Riverside had an album called One (1992) that I've adored lately. I couldn't believe they're not British! Certainly could have passed for one of the many Scottish dreamy-jangle pop bands of the time. Instead, Riverside was from Philadelphia. Maybe I'll get to see them someday. A simple album that does everything right, even if it doesn't innovate a ton. You'll like it.

Finally, I discovered Kleenex Girl Wonder some months ago via a bandmate and I instantly loved it. I heard a track from Ponyoak (1999) that I immediately put on repeat for a while, and eventually I listened to the album in full and came to appreciate its diversity. He seems to come from the midwest Guided by Voices scene, and sounds the part, but his witty lyricism and edgy, nonstop vocal delivery are truly unique. There's some trivia about this album-- it's a breakup album, half of it about an imagined breakup while he was still in the relationship, and half of it written after that relationship had actually ended. Read more here, it's fun to guess which tracks came from which circumstance.

If anyone reads this, I hope you enjoy one of these albums, have a good day! □