Winona Forever/Necking
Winona Forever
Feelgood // Kingfisher Bluez
Winona Forever’s technicolor new record Feelgood is a tall glass of cool water, stamped with the band’s usual flair for smooth melodies and rhythmic inventiveness. It’s a brisk collection of ten songs that flex and push and pull the dream-pop aesthetic to its outer boundaries without breaking what makes the genre appealing. There are traces of math-rock rhythmic complexity, and 70’s style horn lines soaked in analog warmth that compliment the “melted in the sun” guitar tone. This kind of attention paid to little sonic details pay off again and again, from the subtle pitch shifting on “Heads or Tails” or the crazy, acid drenched guitar solo on “Morning”. All the tracks inhabit a fairly similar sonic space, but the band clearly has a good understanding of how to make a record that is cohesive without being… well… boring. It goes without saying that each song grooves pretty hard, but the way that little musical curveballs are deployed throughout the record makes it something that you can relax to, but it also still has a capacity to surprise you if you’re really paying attention.
- Sean Newton
Necking
Cut Your Teeth // Mint Records
Necking’s debut full length album Cut Your Teeth is here to ring-in a summer of break-ups and break-ins, hang-outs and hang-ups outside telemarketing buildings. Snotty grunge-pop brashness out of this Vancouver lady 4-piece, paints vivid pictures of smoking hoots and chugging Lucky Lager while holding a magnifying glass up to the shrivelled member of your current and ex-boss. Three-chord, guitar-forward tunes driven by plucky baselines, and thudding percussion, will send you storming, head nodding, mouth twisted in a sinister smirk, back to your cubicle after a smoke break. Songs like “No Playtime” and “Boss” (see?) will serve as a temporary forcefield to protect you from the middle management stiffs who keep trying to smell your hair while suggesting that you could use a friendlier voice on the phone. The first two words on this album are “fuck me”… proceed at your own peril.
- JD Ormond
