So while Melted’s album art is a little hard to decipher, and makes the album look a lot more intense than it is, it owes as much to the Beatles as it does to The White Stripes. The album feels as diverse and eclectic as Ty Segall’s taste. From one track to the next, Melted rarely disappoints.

On Sad Fuzz, Ty Segall practically channels The Beatles in the chorus. Only a couple tracks later, he borrows from vintage punk for Imaginary Person. It’s as if he can’t decide what he wants to be as a solo artist, so he just throws a giant heaping of rock spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks — and this is one of those rare times that strategy actually works.

We could argue for days about what Ty’s best record is, particularly for his more hardcore fans, but I’m not sure that there are many better starting spots than Melted: it’s as good an introduction to the weird and wild world of Ty Segall as any.

The post Ty Segall: Melted appeared first on Unsung Sundays.

Apple summarizes their style as electronic folk, but I think that betrays it a little bit. These four songs are beautiful and calming displays of electronic ambient music. It’s like the folks behind Fleet Foxes decided to sing choral arrangements overtop of electronic music: it’s layered, gorgeous synth.

What makes The Japanese House so compelling is that, beneath all the layering and autotune work, there’s a clear soul. This isn’t a quality unique to The Japanese House — it’s been a visible trend in electronic music for a couple years — but The Japanese House excels at pairing it with a sense of minimalism that really puts a focus on the vocal arrangements. So while the music is clearly electronic, it sounds incredibly human and organic.

I think these guys have a good thing going and I can’t wait to hear more.

The post The Japanese House: Pools To Bathe In appeared first on Unsung Sundays.

His album has been described as a merger of folk and hip hop, and while I’m not sure that’s the best description, it might be as close as you can get. Beats and acoustic guitars intermingle, people sing in a chorus arrangement, and then Raury begins rapping. It’s like Fleet Foxes or Boy & Bear adding hip hop to their repertoire, and it works way better than you’d imagine.

The best of the bunch, from a songwriting perspective, is Love Is Not A Four Letter Word. He pairs slamming an ex-girlfriend with a vocal background soothingly singing “I miss you” on repeat in a choral arrangement. It’s truly stunning, and revealing of an emotional capacity well beyond his own years.

When Raury gets popular — if he’s not there already — I think there will be people who compare his production skills to Kanye West, thanks to his unique ability to surprise and entertain with what sounds like obvious connections between un-obvious sounds. But he’s really more like Common: he’s coming in with a unique perspective on the sound and the scene, and he’s rapping about things that are a little counter-cultural to the hip hop scene. If you ask me, rappers like him are the future of this genre. Check out Woodcrest Manor II for a taste of where this music is going.

The post Raury: All We Need appeared first on Unsung Sundays.

Courting the Squall is a jazzy adventure of sorts with all sorts of eclectic blues influences. And while this isn’t the jazz your grandmother grew up with in New Orleans, it goes down better than almost all of the jazz I’ve heard in the past couple years.

And that might be because, like a lot of people, Guy Carvey is still a rocker, but he’s using rock as a vehicle to explore alternative genres — and allowing more jazz in than before. Courting The Squall feels like it’s an accomplished rock musician’s love note to jazz, but it also feels like the results of a resurgence of jazz fusion influence in rock.

It serves as a foundation for Guy’s voice to shine through, which is the important part. I wouldn’t compare Guy to Adelle, necessarily, but he has the sort of sultry voice that fans of Adelle might find familiar. It makes for a great experience that bears repeat listens.

The post Guy Carvey: Courting the Squall appeared first on Unsung Sundays.