The big song on this record — the one they seem to think will bring Dodie a lot of attention — is “Sick of Losing Soulmates”, the final track on the EP. For me, I don’t think it’s the money track. It’s got a lot of emotional power, but it sacrifices charm for it.

And to be clear, at her best, Dodie oozes charm. “Intertwined”, the opening track, strongly reminds me of the French folk I’ve heard over the years. (I had to check to make sure it wasn’t a cover of a song I’ve heard before.) The music is familiar, but Dodie’s voice is perfect. Haunting, but filled with youth, Dodie sounds like she’s been performing for years. It’s so surprising that Intertwined is her first EP.

Much of the charm continues throughout the record. “I Have a Hole in My Tooth (And My Dentist Is Shut”) and “Life Lesson” are both under a minute long, but they’re perfect little breaks from the rest of the album and reminders that music doesn’t always have to be serious. And while Dodie spends her time largely meandering in a genre most people take much too seriously — folk — she never takes it seriously herself.

“Absolutely Smitten” takes that fun and makes a full track out of it. I love it. For my money, this is the song from the record they should play at the bars and the pubs. It reminds me of what The Lumineers were doing on their debut record, but Dodie is a much better singer.

For people who are getting tired of listening to the same old sad folk on a loop, Dodie is a refreshing breath of fresh air.

You know what’s great about Dodie? If you like her music, you can find her performing it all in her home on Youtube. She was a Youtube “sensation” before she got signed to a label. And that’s fantastic.

For fans of music, there’s nothing better than seeing somebody’s progression from relative unknown to a label, and then maybe, to success. With Dodie, there’s never been a better way to start tracking with somebody’s journey.

If you like Dodie, you’ll definitely want to search for her on Youtube.

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I’m on record as being a huge Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor fan, but it’s hard not to acknowledge that the group’s last few records have either been formulaic or, in the case of Ghosts, different to the point of being occasionally uncomfortable. While Not the Actual Events is sometimes predictable, it often has a brashness and urgency to it that Reznor hasn’t had in a long time.

A quick listen to the alternately pulsing and attacking “Branches / Bones” reveals Reznor at his peak. “The Idea of You” is reminiscent of the angriest moments of With Teeth, but it goes beyond that and reminds me of The Downward Spiral’s most furious moments. And finally, “Burning Bright (Field on Fire)” mixes Black Sabbath-style ferocity with the curious meandering of “Right Where It Belongs” to create something that truly embodies a modern Reznor-ian sound.

Now we just have to wait for the actual event.

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Take “Hard Liquor”, the opening track. It’s more energetic than anything was on Tremors, with a beat and chorus that get stuck on your head for days. (I also love the “tremor” beat at the beginning of the track; it’s an acknowledgement of where SOHN is coming from even while he’s revealing where he’s going).

“Conrad”, on the other hand, melds this energy with a blues and soul rhythm that captures the style du jour without betraying SOHN’s sensibilities. That reveals a trend throughout the album: while SOHN’s electronic sound is always more soothing and restrained than some of his contemporaries, he’s not afraid to embrace trends.

At the same time, though, not everything here is trendy. “Proof” sounds like old-school Justin Timberlake melded with some of Radiohead’s ambitious stylings, a sound that certainly won’t be popular with many. Similarly, “Falling” feels like the most percussive track on Rennen. It reminds me so much of what Radiohead was doing with In Rainbows, or what Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor were playing with on The Social Network soundtrack.

For me, these tracks are the ones where SOHN eschews trends and embraces what he loves. They are, without a doubt, the best tracks on the record for my taste. But that’s not to say the rest of the record is bad; arguably, the presence of catchy and mainstream tracks like “Hard Liquor” make the experimentation of “Falling” so much sweeter.

The album’s pacing is impeccable. If there’s one thing that SOHN’s inarguably gotten better at, it’s pacing his record. It was hard to listen to Tremors on a loop. Each track was good, but the record’s overall pacing was fatiguing. With Rennen, that’s not the case.
I know many will disagree — and a lot of other critics already have — but I think Rennen is, taken as a whole, a better record than Tremors. It’s more accessible and has a stronger pacing, and SOHN is able to maintain his impeccable production and style even while he embraces more mainstream sounds.

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But somehow, despite being reminiscent of indie darlings like Dirty Projectors, The Lemon Twigs have made an album that’s approachable despite its quirks. “I Wanna Prove to You” is one of my favourite songs of 2016; it’s an anthemic originality with an incredibly sing-along chorus. I took a road trip over Christmas, and there and back, my wife and I found ourselves hollering along with the chorus. (My brother-in-law and his girlfriend, understandably, thought we were slightly odd.)

Then there’s the majesty of “These Words” and the Beatles-esque simplicity of the piano-driven “How Lucky Am I?”. “Hi + Lo” has one of the most crowd-worthy choruses I’ve heard since Rah Rah’s “Art & a Wife”. The twenty-year-old version of me in college would have proudly proclaimed Do Hollywood as one of the best records of the post-Arcade Fire indie rock movement.

All that aside, what we’re left with here is a record that’s hard to make sense of. The duo puts music together in, shall we say, interesting ways. I’m often reminded of The Beatles while I listen to The Lemon Twigs — not because they sound similar, but because The Lemon Twigs have borrowed so much from the songwriting language of The Beatles without aping their actual sound.

As a result, The Lemon Twigs have a truly original record on their hands, and a unique sound that will serve them well for (hopefully) many albums to come. Miraculously, it just so happens that The Lemon Twigs have the ability to back up their inventiveness with great songwriting.

I couldn’t recommend Do Hollywood more if I wanted to. This is one of 2016’s hidden gems.

Photo by Brian W. Ferry.

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If anything, RTJ3 feels like the first record to be anti-Trump.

But what I haven’t read about as much is how musically sound RTJ3 is. It may be a protest record, if a vengeful one, but it’s an incredibly well-made one. It’s the culmination of everything the duo has been working on over the past several years.

As always, the beats are sharp and tonally dark. “Hey Kids” is a classic El-P production, with a swaggering beat that seemingly hums with its ire. “Stay Gold” reminds me of the beats from Cancer 4 Cure, El-P’s best production effort. “Don’t Get Captured” and “Thieves! (Screamed the Ghost)” are delightful counterparts that exemplify the record’s perfect pacing.

But the guest appearances here are notable for the texture they add to the record. Kamasi Washington’s turn in “Thursday in the Danger Room” adds so much to the song; without his saxophone work, the track would be notably starker and less emotive. Washington’s sax work makes El-P and Killer Mike sing over the beat, rather than rap over it.

There is truth, though, in the reviews that suggest this is RTJ at their angriest. The final track (“A Report to the Shareholders / Kill Your Masters”) is a reflection of Killer Mike’s year as a social and political activist. It’s an essay about the months he spent volunteering for Bernie Sanders on the campaign trail and the disappointment in the establishment’s inability to defeat Trump. That the track is partially titled “Kill Your Masters” is an indictment in and of itself.

My one wish is that RTJ would release instrumental versions of their records. I’d love an instrumental version of Run the Jewels 3 alongside my instrumental version of Cancer 4 Cure to work to.

RTJ3 is many things. It’s a record of revolt and protest, a promise of revolution, and an angry letter from a hip hop duo who’s been warning us all about bad politicians for years. But perhaps more importantly, it’s also a savage hip hop record. The beats are slick, the rhymes are sharp, and the production is absolutely impeccable. RTJ3, like Run the Jewels’ previous efforts, is an easy recommendation that’s easily among 2016’s best.

Image above by Tom Spray. You can download RTJ3 for free on Run the Jewels’ website.

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With Scenes of the Tourist, Wall picks his guitar less frequently than he has in the past. Most of the songs heavily feature additional instruments — like the piano, or the electronic sounds of a keyboard.

Wall told me that the vision for Scenes of the Tourist began to crystallize when he moved in to a Brooklyn house with a piano and four experimental jazz/classical musicians. The new style suits Wall’s voice perfectly. As Wharfer, Wall has always had a unique voice among DIY folks groups. Reminiscent of Leonard Cohen, but without the seemingly pre-eminent age that Cohen’s voice came with.

But the new group expands what Wharfer’s voice is capable of by expanding the soundstage. Standout tracks like “Rye Wish” and “The Suitcase” have wider horizons than any of Wharfer’s previous material. The additions create a magical, ethereal quality there’s no way Wall could have created on his own.

Occasionally, some moments are laid back and simpler. “In the Old Magnolia Trees” has a guitar-focused tune, but even it turns into something more spacey by the end. The piano-focused tracks, like “Breeze (Since I Was Born)”, “Blue Lewis”, and “The Wild” all carry the same simplicity of previous Wharfer tracks, but the piano gives Wall’s voice a classical quality.

Nearly every track on the album is fantastic. It’s always an impressive feat when an artist is able to transition from one sound to another. With Scenes of the Tourist, Kyle Wall takes Wharfer in a direction that feels more ethereal and textural than he did previously. But he does all that without sacrificing his vision or his personality. As a result, while Scenes is a bigger record than Wharfer’s ever made, it still feels incredibly intimate and authentic.

I haven’t been able to stop listening to Scenes of the Tourist, an indie record that kickstarts 2017 in grandiose fashion.

Photo above by Justin Camerer.

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