Around the time of 2015’s Pageant Material, Texan Kacey Musgraves started to appear in places such as Pitchfork.com and Uncut magazine along with other newer country stars Margo Price and Sturgill Simpson. Musgraves followed that album up with a very well received Christmas album in 2016 before starting work on Golden Hour in 2017. Many songs from Golden Hour are sparked by new found love when she started dating then married Ruston Kelly, specifically first single “Butterflies”.
This is a slick sounding album ready made for radio and online playlists. “Slow Burn” shows off Musgraves pleasing vocals while she sings of trying to find her place in the world – “I know a few things but still got a lot to learn”. The catchy “Lonely Weekend” could soundtrack virtually any number of TV commercials whereas the spare “Mother” barely lasts a minute. Touches of Daft Punk style electronica appear in “Oh What A World” and “Love Is A Wild Thing” features celestial sounds towards the end.
Reserving some of the best tracks for the second half – single “Space Cowboy” appears before the pop of “Velvet Elvis”, the catchy “Wonder Woman” and disco lite “High Horse”. Touching on many different styles, most tracks are still rooted in country pop. Musgraves’ vocals will not blow you over but her experimentations, both musically and with LSD, make for a varied and memorable 45 minutes.
8.5/10
25 years ago The Breeders released their classic album, Last Splash featuring the iconic single “Cannonball” and “Divine Hammer”. That line-up included Kim and Kelley Deal on guitar along with Josephine Wiggs on bass and Jim Macpherson on drums. The band broke up soon after but came together for the 20-year anniversary tour. Sparked by that tour, the reformed band released All Nerve in earlier this year.
Following up on two well received EPs, Melbourne rockers Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever have now released their debut LP, Hope Downs. Preceded by dynamite single, “Talking Straight”, the album contains a spry 10 tracks that trend similar indie rock ground to one another. A great bassline propels “An Air Conditioned Man” whereas “Bellarine” ruminates that it “feels like rum is taking all my time…I never did my best”. “How Long” simply repeats the line “what are you running from” while your foot bounces up and down to the beat.
Courtney Barnett’s 2015 debut, Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit was a big hit with both critics and fans. Tracks like “Elevator Operator” and “Pedestrian at Best” treated audiences to Barnett’s witty banter mixed with early 90s guitar sound. Many tours later, plus a well-received effort with Kurt Vile, Barnett releases sophomore effort Tell Me How You Really Feel. After listening to the attention weary album, the title comes off more of an inward question than an outward one for the Melbourne artist.
Way back in the 90s Belle & Sebastian became a much loved band in the world of indie rock. Besides excellent albums such as If You Are Feeling Sinister and The Boy With The Arab Strap, the band released several coveted EPs. In late 2017 and 2018 B&S released three EPs one month apart which were then collected on one disc entitled How To Solve Our Human Problems. This idea recalls the 1997 boxset of three early EPs albeit in different packaging.
The Light Appears 