weekly spotlight
Jason Pilling
Post Nursery Rhymes
Post Nursery Rhymes has a lot more heft than you’d perhaps expect, if all you knew was that it’s a ukelele record. The cover art lends an immediate weight to this album from Toronto songsmith Jason Pilling, even before you’ve ever heard a note.
That first temptation is really all it takes, because once you let the album start playing, it’s so seamlessly likable, so starkly beautiful and cuttingly clever, you’ll feel like you owe it to yourself to listen over and over and dissect it down to the bone.
Somewhere between traditional folk and something on the outskirts of pop, the album contains a lush and thoughtful production effort from Gabrielle Papillon that elevates all of this from something simple yet beautiful into something that sprawls delightfully across the pages of your mind.
The Strange Vines
Turbulence
Geneva-based rock band The Strange Vines make music that will send a certain set of listeners spinning back to their angsty teenage years, all crunchy guitars and alternative vibes, an attention to detail without being too fussy, and a pretty spectacular stage presence - yes, it’s a real band you can really see on stage, a rarity in this era.
Their new album Turbulence contains most of the material they’ve been working out on stage this last year, and serves as a testimony to the group’s ability to construct memorable and effective set pieces that are made to be heard live.
Anyone who remembers turning on the alternative radio station in the late 90s or early aughts and letting the angst and melancholy wrap them up will find something to make them smile in this record.