Birch Street Radio

Sunday, May 4, 2025

Suzanne Vega, The Beths, OK Go, Adult Leisure, Turnstile land in our New Music Bin

Suzanne Vega: Speakers' Corner

It's surprising to realize that Flying With Angels is just the 10th studio album in a discography that begins with 1985's Suzanne Vega. But the songs are as sharply observed and beautifully crafted as ever. This opening track slyly comments on today's political situation by emphasizing with someone ranting on a streetcorner - "The doomsday prophet / Whose words have all come true."

The Beths: Metal

It's good to hear again from this Auckland, N.Z., quartet. Since 2022's Expert In A Dying Field, vocalist Elizabeth Stokes says she has "been on what one might call a 'health journey.' For parts of the last few years, I kind of felt like my body was a vehicle that had carried me pretty well thus far but was breaking down, something I had little to no control over." This single, she says, is "about being alive and existing in a human body."

OK Go: Love

We dip once more into And the Adjacent Possible to feature this track that Rolling Stone calls "a charming, yet hard-charging tune that pairs crunchy guitars with a tender message: “In this grand ballroom of nothingness / We soar, we sail to the only song there’s ever been: Love.”

Adult Leisure: See Her

The band from Bristol put out an EP in 2023, and now is prepping its debut album, Things We Don't Know Yet. It will include this new single that features guest saxophone from John Waugh, known for collaborations with The 1975 and Sam Fender. The song is billed as "a sarcastic take on the breakdown of a relationship and the biting realisation that you're happier now that it's over."

Turnstile: Never Enough

This is the title track from the upcoming fourth album by this Baltimore group. Pitchfork says the "experimental hardcore band sinks deeper into its stylistic hallmarks" on the track, and "sound[s] rigid and fluid at once, playing into blasted guitars and dreamy interludes that tempt escapism." (Photo by Atiba Jefferson)

Sunday, April 27, 2025

What's New: Sunflower Bean, My Morning Jacket, Faded Paper Figures, The Darcys, Free Range

Sunflower Bean: Nothing Romantic

This indie trio, formed in Brooklyn in the mid-teens, took a break after 2022's Headful of Sugar - "walking away with no promise of coming back, moving to different states, floating in the abyss," as the band puts it. "Yet there was also a language that pulled us back together, the dream that there was more we needed to say together." They reunited and put out an EP last year, and now follow with their fourth album, Mortal Primetime. AllMusic says the LP showcases "the group's hard-won maturity and broad musical influences, balancing guitar-heavy rock with AM pop and introspective singer/songwriter ballads."

My Morning Jacket: Half A Lifetime

We pull another solid track from Jim James & co.'s 10th album (annoyingly titled is). New Noise Magazine says has "upbeat and funky energy" as its lyric "dives into the longer journeys of life and all the little moments that suddenly add up."

Faded Paper Figures: Forget All The Days We Died

This trio is working on its seventh album of synthpop - Triangles - while balancing their "day jobs" as a physician (Heather Alden), an English professor (R. John Williams) and a composer for film and TV (Kael Alden). We've been including their music in our mix for nearly a decade, and we're happy to present this early taste of the LP due in the fall.

The Darcys: Dreaming

Now based in LA, this duo from Toronto released Rendering Feelings last fall, so we're late picking up this track, but it was just issued as a single. Jason Couse and Wes Marskell say this song is "about the irreversible damage we’re inflicting on the planet and how our individual efforts to create change often fall on the deaf ears of those in power. ... If anything, we probably should have called the song Nightmares."

Free Range: Concept

The sophomore album from this Chicago indie-Americana band, Lost & Found, is a set of songs about that time of life when you’re transitioning out of adolescence and into adulthood, grappling with self-discovery and self-acceptance, and feeling alone but seeking connection. So lead singer Sofia Jensen tells Paste Magazine. This track is one of the higher-energy, rocking numbers on the LP.

Sunday, April 13, 2025

New Music: Arcade Fire, Garbage, Valerie June, Aurora, Current Swell

Arcade Fire: Year of the Snake

The lead single from the just-announced LP Pink Elephant is "all about how times are weird and bad, but feeling uncomfortable can be positive," writes Stereogum. "It’s the season of change / and if you you feel strange / It’s probably good," says the chorus. Win Butler and his spouse/bandmate Régine Chassagne produced the album with Daniel Lanois at the couple’s studio in New Orleans. (Photo by Danny Clinch)

Garbage: There's No Future In Optimism

Ahead of a new album, Let All That We Imagine Be The Light, comes this single inspired by being in Los Angeles in the aftermath of George Floyd's killing. The lyrics, say band leader Shirley Manson, "are an action against that title. Because if we allow our fatalism or our negativity to really take over, we will crumble." (Photo by Joseph Cultice)

Valerie June: All I Really Wanna Do

The singer-songwriter from Tennessee, "who began her career as a blues singer, has moved pretty far away from that with her fourth album, Owls, Omens, and Oracles," writes Glide Magazine. "Call it Americana, but there are heavy tinges of pop and indie, with lighter hints of gospel and neo-soul. Here, she explores the many aspects of love but celebrates the joy of being alive." This number features "an array of keys from piano to glockenspiel to organ behind June’s layered vocals.".

Aurora: The Flood

The Norwegian art-pop singer follows her fifth studio album, last year's What Happened To The Heart?, with this new single. "This is a song about the invisible enemy. What brings you anger, what brings you worry and sadness. What makes you crawl into yourself instead of meeting the world fully."

Current Swell: If You Want My Time

This Victoria, BC-based indie-rock band returns six years after it's most recent LP, Buffalo, with this new single. Canadian Beats calls it "a heartfelt and infectious track that captures the balance between love’s deep affections and everyday frustrations. Wrapped in catchy melodies and nostalgic warmth ... Blending elements of rock, roots-rock, and indie-rock."

Saturday, April 12, 2025

Brad Paisley/Dawes collab, Tunde Adebimpe, The Ramona Flowers, Krooked Tongue, Deep Sea Diver

Brad Paisley & Dawes: Raining Inside

The press notes about this track say country star Paisley co-wrote this song with Taylor Goldsmith from Dawes and Lee Thomas Miller in 2024. "It was initially recorded with just Brad’s vocals but turned into a collaboration after the magic of the Grammy performance with Taylor and his brother Griffin Dawes on Randy Newman’s 'I Love L.A.'"

Tunde Adebimpe: God Knows

Of the latest single from his new album Three Black Boltz, the TV On The Radio frontman had this to say in a press release: "Breaking up is hard to down dooby doo down do." So yeah it's a breakup song, which includes the lyric "God knows you’re the worst thing I ever loved."

The Ramona Flowers: Human

The Bristol-based band says this new single "is a song about learning from mistakes, letting go of guilt, and realising that every moment is a chance to begin again and grow into a better version of yourself. At the end of the day we’re all Humans, everyone on this planet makes mistakes, it’s just how you learn from those mistakes and move forward which makes the difference." (Photo by Guy Aroch)

Krooked Tongue: Marigold

Can we have two Bristol groups in the New Music Bin at the same time? Why not, and we're previewing this trio's new single. Vocalist/lyricist Oli Rainsford says this single "Is a love letter to the 'what might've been'. ... Most of the time when we interact with strangers, it never gets a second thought. Maybe a subtle glance, or a smile here and there ... But then there's those moments where you have instant chemistry with someone, and for a minute it's electric ... And then you never see that person again. Who knows where a split decision could've taken you."

Deep Sea Diver: Emergency

We dive (ahem) back into Billboard Heart, the Seattle band's fourth LP, and surface another strong track. Pitchfork says this track's "frenetic energy is kept aloft by indefatigable drumming and whining synths," as frontwoman Jessica Dobson "seems to sing the verses through gritted teeth."

Sunday, March 30, 2025

New Music: My Morning Jacket, Kilowatt Parade, Stereophonics, Mumford & Sons, Lucy Dacus

My Morning Jacket: Everyday Magic

The tenth album by the five-piece band from Kentucky continues its "pattern of inspired yet accessible rock music," writes Glide Magazine. "Each song has layers that build upon each other, with little guitar flourishes or pieces of percussion adding nuance to riffs that draw from funk, southern rock, and psychedelic rock."

Kilowatt Parade: The Minute I Wake

This is the first release from a new project by Ottawa-based guitarist, songwriter and producer Andre Nault, who's also the artist behind Stand Up And Say No. The pitch is that he's "venturing into new musical territory with his latest indie-rock project." It's too early for us to say how different it will be, but this track seems to be in the same groove as, for example, SU&SN's "Shared Interests."

Stereophonics: Seems Like You Don't Know Me

Here's a preview of the Welsh rock band's 13th album, Make ‘em Laugh, Make ‘em Cry, Make ‘em Wait. NME writes that the song takes the group "into new territory, experimenting with nostalgic synths, drum machines and acoustic guitar elements to create an eye-catching yet spacious sound. The vocals from Kelly Jones explore the nuances of relationships and the questions that arise about how well we really know one another." (Um... eye-catching sound?)

Mumford & Sons: Caroline

A mixed - and very amusing - review in the Irish Times calls the new album Rushmere "spirited if uneven." It adds that the LP "is at its most enjoyable when the musicians focus on straight-ahead tunefulness, as they do on the single 'Caroline.'" And that's our choice for the New Music bin. (Do yourself a favor and read the snarky-fun review!)

Lucy Dacus: Forever Is A Feeling

This is the title song from the new album by this singer-songwriter from Virginia. AllMusic describes the LP as "examining 'it's complicated' relationships through an adult lens." The review calls this track "an obvious centerpiece." It includes Dacus' boygenius bandmates Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker, Blake Mills' bass, Madison Cunningham's 12-string guitar, Melina Duerte's drum programming and synths, Bartees Strange's additional drums, and more. "It temporarily changes keys and passes through several emotional contradictions" as the singer concludes she's in a relationship for the long haul.