#MusicMonday Review - November 2024

[osornios]

#MusicMonday is the hashtag I've been using for quite a while to share music recommendations from up-and-coming artists. Always fresh, and always different, trying to look for trends before they become one. You can check October's review for more music.

As the holidays approach rapidly, let's dive in to the dark side of the human condition, with a touch of traveling through time, and space. Give them a listen, with a word from the artists themselves.
🎧

Faulty Cognitions – Sad Sack

Staring at the ceiling while the guilt sloshes round my head
I don't wanna die, but think I just might wanna be dead

You look at me like I'm crazy, you don't know what you're talking about
Can't keep my eyes open, want to pass right out on this couch
My list keeps on growing while my motivation wanes
What do you do when what makes you feel better causes you so much pain?

We begin this month's music tour in San Antonio, TX, for a Punk Rock track about the misfortunes of life, looking for our place in the universe, existing in the moment, even if we don't understand it:

"I wrote this song soon after I had decided that my drinking was reaching problem levels. Basically, It was simultaneously the only thing helping me feel okay and the thing that was making me feel like absolute shit. I quit last September and started really throwing myself into mediation and mindfulness, and this is the first song I wrote on the journey. It was also the last song I wrote for the record."

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To Kill A Monster – The Past

Here's to the past
Yeah I'll drink to that
Raise a glass
To all we had

Here's a toast
To you my friends
Until the next time
I see you again

Let's keep rockin' all the way to Colombus, OH, for a track about remembering, and being grateful for the people that made us glow with happiness, that may no longer be in our lives. It may seem far away, yet it feels like it was yesterday:

"A lot of reminiscing about old times. Some of my fondest memories are a bunch of nights with a bunch of dumb friends just living in the moment. Not worried about anything, just having fun. Thinking back on all the campfires we sat around I wanted to make something that would hopefully take listeners back to a similar memory.

Musically we went through half a dozen different versions, riffs, and styles before finally landing on this one. I was looking for a very certain feel to the song and I don't think I could be happier with the final result."

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Alice Kat – Waves

I can't seem to get a grip on reality
My hands aren't serving me
And I can't turn around

Held up in my mind
I was doing so well for my circumstance
Then it all just fell apart

If this journey is mine, how do I change it?
If this journey is mine, should I change it?

We move now to Boston, Lincolnshire, England, for an energetic Indie Pop song about the need to calm down, and finding more room to breathe. Just take the waves as they come:

"I had been experiencing a lot of anxiety and trying to find ways to cope with it, one day it all felt too much so I went for a run to try and cool my mind a bit and when I stopped running I sat down and the lyrics just came out. It was like a moment in time of processing feelings out of my control and how I move forward with life after grief and feeling like anxiety was taking over my life.

The chorus is questioning if our lives are designed or we have the choice to choose our own destinies. I wanted the song to feel like that thought process so the instruments drive continuously 🙂🙏🏼"

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The Dredge – Brake

You might feel all right
But you are mine tonight

You might take offence
But you are mine to break

Don't you ever tell me
All the sh*t that's in your diary
'Cos I don't want to hear
How the stars are there to guide me

Let's take a short jump to Bergen, Norway for a dark Rock track about figuring out if you're a leader, or a follower, and the concept of duality in life. Band member Kjetil explains:

"The track - as much of our music - often has random, happenstance metaphoric starting points in simple word pairs, and then a story evolves around that.

This one started with the simple observation of a skiing slope, that certain skiing poles were sold, whole metal (and heavy) and others where hollow (and lighter). So that became a very convenient metaphor for how people are in general: Whole or hollow. Obviously, a pop-lyric cannot probe the debts of life, but it CAN nonetheless use words to convey some universal perspectives.

So, starting from that word-pair (whole/hollow) a story got attached. We all have certain people we meet in our lives, romantically, professionally or family-wise, where our outwards attitude might be benign, but our inwards thoughts are quite the contrary: one of loathing that persons inability for wholeness.

The idea of the lyric was to give a relief of this movement/transition from the outward attitude to the inward one: moving from something that could be considered benign and perhaps even positive, slowly moving towards something more sinister.😊"

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The Acid Machine – Pyschedelic Trip

In the psychedelic journey
where the walls begin to fade
floating through the universe
leaving the world behind
electric waves are flowing
taking me on a trip

Finally, we end up in Porto Alegre, Brazil for an Acid Rock journey that delves into Stoner Rock and Psychedelic Blues. Enjoy the ride:

"Psychedelic Trip is exactly what the title suggests. As travel through the universe, the lyrics were inspired by Sabbath's Planet Caravan. With a lot of fuzz and groove."

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Listen to them and much more on the complete Playlist

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See you next month!