Rapid Fire Reviews: Shaky Knees Weekend
This weekend I'm away at Shaky Knees music festival so there's won't be many new reviews and the best new tracks might be late. To supplement I'm covering a trio of bands that will be playing at the festival this weekend.
(Editor's note, when this was started Manchester Orchestra was scheduled to play at the event but had to back out before the show)
The Valley Of Visions - Manchester Orchestra
2000's indie band Manchester Orchestra recaptured the attention of indie fans, me included, with their 2017 album A Black Mile To The Surface which felt like a fittingly dramatic and emotional blend of the styles of indie music both old and new. While I wasn't nearly as into their follow-up The Million Masks Of God I do plan on seeing the band this weekend and part of that was giving this new shorter album a few relistens. The record's two singles didn't necessarily impress me but they also didn't give me any reason to look away. The first of which Capital Karma is a pretty sparse and acoustic outing that does eventually reach a pretty satisfying climax, the second The Way is a bit more involved though less impressive all things considered. The album actually feels much more familiar the closer it gets to minimalism, highlighted by Quietly whose first half has a chilling electronic minimalism that almost reminds me of James Blake but with less interesting sonic texture. Unfortunately, the track kind of fails to commit and spends its second half as a mostly underwhelming indie rock outing. If there's any defining motif of the record it's that, having a halfway-decent idea at its core but failing to stick the landing or commit to a strong concept. The album was pretty interesting on first listen but I found the more chances I gave it the sooner I started to get completely underwhelmed with this routine and ultimately while it serves up some decent songs I think it fails to live up to expectations for the band at their best. 5.5/10
That's Life EP - FIDLAR
Every few years FIDLAR would drop a new record and everybody would say it was the worst thing ever and I would think it was okay, not great but not terrible. Their last album actually had a pair of surfy flavored cuts that I still enjoy quite a bit in Scam Likely and By Myself. But hearing the singles leading up to this EP really made me feel like I was experiencing what everyone else had been talking about all along. Songs like FSU and Sand On The Beach predicted a pretty drastic fall off in quality but thankfully they represent the lowest points of the project, not the standard. Unfortunately, it really isn't THAT much better elsewhere. Occasionally the band manages to be funny like on each of the first two songs Centipede and On Drugs but it isn't nearly enough to overpower the conceptual shortcomings of the songs. As I was listening to the project one of my girlfriends informed me that the hook from On Drugs also rips off a track from a Disney skateboarding video game, do with that information what you will. Taste The Money is the closest thing it has to relief but even then, what a low bar. After hearing that the "bad" FIDLAR project had arrived at least two times in the past, now I can comfortably say that it's here. 3/10
Pineapple Sunrise - Beach Weather
Beach Weather are a sun-bleached pop rock band that have been around for quite a while now without releasing much material but had a breakthrough hit last year with Sex, Drugs, etc. and now I've had the chance to see them at two festivals already in 2023 so far. The record gets off to a decent start with a pair of generic but undeniably effective bouncy pop rock summer jams but after that things tend to get much more inconsistent. There are highlights though. Trouble With This Bed dropped as a single last year and while I wasn't crazy at first the fuzz malaise it delivers on the hook grew on me as did the catchiness of its refrains. Even Sex, Drugs, Etc. which closes the record sounds like a pretty good The Neighborhood song if they fell into an alternate universe of crop-top weather instead of sweaters. Unfortunately, the record is just a bit too all over the place for me and serves up VERY little in terms of compelling lyricism. The pastiche tiktok buzz words and Pinterest ass imagery gets old kind of quickly and nothing ever really comes along to take its place. While I appreciate the band's dedication to being this thoroughly summery I also wish the record had something else to offer at some point. 5.5/10
