Cayley Thomas/Dead Friends/POSTNAMERS
Cayley Thomas
How Else Can I Tell You? // Independent
With a voice as smooth as it is strong, Cayley Thomas may just have cemented herself as a Canadian-crooner staple with the release of her latest EP, How Else Can I Tell You? Through this 5-song EP, Thomas filters modern story-telling through a vintage lens, reminding listeners that the human experience is both ever-evolving and timelessly relatable.
As the album begins, “Two Minds” transports listeners to the living-room where the album begins to unfold; dampened drums, cigarette smoke, dissonant guitar chords, orange floral furniture, vinyl records, bangs, dancing bass lines, and the finest scotch. This album lives a couple houses down from Andy Shauf’s The Party and just further down the street from Jenn Grant’s Love, Inevitable. Even from the first track, it’s hard not to notice the exceptional production of Nik Kozub (Shout Out Out Out Out, Humans, The Wet Secrets) and Steve Chahley (U.S. Girls, FRIGS, Badge Époque, Darlene Shrugg); each sound is perfectly layered to create the vintage vibes, including humble horn lines and barely-there piano octaves. These vibes only further evolve in track two, “Midnight Hours”, which might perhaps be Thomas’ most vocally striking song as she switches up the melody and introduces new swooping harmonies near the end of the track.
Summer, sunshine, and vintage lovin’; if you aren’t yet feeling completely transported back in time, tracks three and four will be the ones to take you there. “Blue Jean Baby” pairs a familiar bass progression with modern synth sounds and guitar picking. “Sunshine” could be the track of the summer; the samba-like beat, anthemic chorus, and rock-out ending make it hard to sit still.
The album ends with what sounds to be Thomas’ most personal and painful song, “In a While”. She processes the death of a loved one, saying, “seasons keep on changing, but you remain the same, always one month short of 25”. The beautiful chords, fuzzy vocals, and simple instrumentation provide a delicate soundscape for Thomas to cherish the simple memories that warm her heart, and pose the “what-ifs” that make it hurt. Thomas has a talent many songwriters wish for—to say so much through very little. This track, and its placement as the finale, gives this entire body of work a new sense of depth, causing me to return right to track one and do it all again. With Thomas’ pain in mind, I relisten to the album with a deeper sense of respect for her intentionality, and hear new emotions, passion, grief, and candor in each song.
- Lana Winterhalt
Dead Friends
Shirley // Wallflower Records
After two years we see the resurrection of Edmonton’s Dead Friends with their second release, Shirley. This time around they’ve added spurs to their Converse high tops and they’ve torn holes in their Wranglers as their sound takes a Western turn toward the setting sun. On their 2018, self-titled debut, Dead Friends opted for a heavy hitting wall of sound and dizzying psychedelic overtones. Shirley shows their maturity, lightening the sound and expanding on their great knack for melody.
From the opening track “Honey Darts,” those familiar with Dead Friends will notice the upgrade in production quality. On their self-titled effort, a lot of the charm was delivered through the grit in tracks like “Can’t Sleep.” With production on their sophomore effort completed by Arnel Ethier at Edmonton’s Royal Studios (Dead Friends’ first “studio” album) there’s a lot of panache added like in the opening rise in “Honey Drop” as the band cascades into the albums inaugural drop.
While studio production adds a lot of sheen, Shirley leans deeper into the band’s songwriting ability as it’s chock-full of extremely catchy riffs and melodies. Singles”Joy” and “Molly” are perfect examples as lead vocalist, Jesse Ladd’s distorted and hazy vocal melodies earworm their way into your subconscious (those guitar hooks too… damn. The opening hook of “1912”...c’mon!).
With tracks “Ennio’s Desert Dessert” and “Uncle is an Eremite” the Edmonton four piece showcase their ability for balladry and crooning, a talent only glimpsed upon on their previous release. Both songs take a slower more laid back approach which hits much differently than the rest of the album. The haze of the vocals along with the pulled back tempo of both tracks touch the listener with images of being lost in the desert under the dreadful sun with no lifeline, crows circling above.
Of course, signature to the Dead Friends sound is Callum Harvey’s haunting organ tones. While organ plays a key role throughout the album, Harvey’s use of organ is discernibly more purposeful throughout Shirley. The organ work is much more complimentary, though moments where we get that dose of keyboard and organ are strikes of ingenuity. The rising synth line over the verses of “1912” laying deep in the mix are largely complimentary but hit so hard when you first hear them.
Shirley thrusts to its climactic moment in album highlight “Wells,” a track that finds the quartet hitting their country western stride in its greatest output. The song maintains a catchy melody throughout, hits the laid back signature haze of Ladd’s vocals, and seamlessly transitions part to part with such ease as the band breaks into the bridge with a guitar solo; laden in subtlety, yet arguably the best Dead Friends guitar solo.
With that, we’re propelled into the album closer “Dandelion Blues.” A lofi acoustic diddy that stamps a big fat period on an album that is a very digestible and easy listen. Dead Friends best work to date.
- Kennedy Pawluk
POSTNAMERS
IMIM // Independent
IMIM is the third full-length release by POSTNAMERS, a post-goth music project currently based out of Calgary, Alberta. POSTNAMERS formed in 2011, when it was based out of Grande Prairie, Alberta. As they became a seasoned touring band adept in the esoteric and eclectic arts, the project has since relocated to a palace in the basement of the United States Federal Reserve. IMIM is a collection of 13 songs put together over the course of seven years by the prolific Matthew Wilkinson, who wrote, recorded, performed, and mixed the album in its entirety under the orders of the archangel Michael.
IMIM was independently released on March 25, 2020 through Soundcloud, YouTube, and Bandcamp. Though written over an expansive length of time, the record maintains a consistent and thought-out sound throughout. At its core, Wilkinson’s musical compositions incorporate intersplicing synths and strings that raise the album to modern operatic heights. Lyrically, Wilkinson taps on an eclectic tone that poetically carries the weight of the music’s sound. Thematically, the songs breach into different philosophical contemplations and lingering partial dialogues between transient interlocutors who are trying to get a hold of themselves to no avail.
The first track, “Perfect Sorrow,” introduces us to the album through a recorded conversation. Through a noise-filtered ambience, the first impression of is a distant and anachronistic tone as if one is entering a scene from the past. “Perfect Sorrow” captures the central sound that extends most predominantly throughout the album, with songs that are enveloped through whispering vocals, melancholic strings, and haunting synths. What gets introduced in the first track gets reasserted in “Tongue-Ties,” where Mary Wood’s vocals solidify the wispy sound that the album aims to establish. Then, songs like “Organ in Tongues” and “Lethbridge is 666” highlight some of the album’s most upbeat moments. “Organ in Tongues” gets at this through its inspiring orchestral arrangement reaching an elated peak. And “Lethbridge is 666” is uplifted through the vocal work by Riley Therese and Hope Madison Faye, as they contribute to the rhythmic pace of the song through their harmonies. And “Mirthpeal and Roses” is the last track of the album, and through its discreet demeanor the song acts as a relief of tension built up throughout the record as it comes to a rest.
IMIM is a thoroughly fleshed production, where all of its components are carefully lined up together to offer a developed, enveloping sound. It is the kind of album that you want to listen to loudly to pay attention at its finer details, as Wilkinson recommends the “play it loud” approach and I concur.
- Simone A. Medina Polo
