Crossfader

Bandcamp Picks of the Week 2/17/16

by · February 17, 2016

Like music? Need more of it for your special alone time with your ears? We’ve got you covered with our Bandcamp Picks of the Week.

bandcamp picks of the week shes beautiful

She’s Beautiful – OK

Genre: Experimental Pop

Favorite Tracks: “A Green Field,” “I Don’t Like to Fight Anymore,” “Bird Won’t Fly”

Suicide, depression, callousness, isolation, and, eventually, catharsis and relief are all laid bare on this surprisingly moving LP. Many Bandcamp bedroom projects such as this fall under the burden of only having a single sound to convey a single emotion, but OK really shines in its ability to take the listener on a wide journey through an intricate and varied soundscape to confess a litany of experiences. In the liner notes for this LP, She’s Beautiful writes: “I wrote this album over the last year while watching a lot of stuff change in my life. I moved away from a lot of my friends, had a resurgence in my depression and anxiety, went through the death of my grandmother, failed to get a lot of jobs, had my relationship with my family fall apart, came to appreciate the complexity of my own gender identity, and identified just how much of all this bad shit was my fault (a lot of it was).” It’s an album of intense emotional growth and change; sometimes it’s aggressive and terrifying, other times it’s incredibly depressing, but it never can be accused of being flat and unengaging. Borrowing from cloud rap and shoegaze while not entirely being consumed by either of those highly pigeonholing genres, this is the kind of introspective, innovative, and thoughtful record that the world simply needs more of. You can enjoy it here. [Carter Moon]

bandcamp picks of the week part of the yall

Ben Varian – PART OF THE Y’ALL

Genre: Jangle Pop

Favorite Tracks: “(Sun Sets on) The Furniture District,” “Throw Away My Hair,” “V-Blender”

It’d be easy to write this off as another Mac DeMarco jangle pop knock-off, but there is way too much going on here that is truly cerebral and freaky to not appreciate Ben Varian’s PART OF THE Y’ALL. Varian’s lyrics may be delivered with the same casual ease as DeMarco’s, but they are much more absurdist and dark than DeMarco tends to be. Additionally, Varian will regularly take breaks from the jangle groove he lays down for detours into weird sounds and some truly odd sound samples (my personal favorite being a track that appears to be nothing but a pitch shifted blender). The LP also really takes an interesting point of view in terms of romantic relationships, particularly on “Throw Away My Hair,” where Varian seemingly instructs a former lover to get rid of a clump of his hair and move on (and also informs the nature of the strange album artwork). If you’re looking for something to very gently take you out of your comfort zone, look no further than right here. [Carter Moon]

Carter Moon grew up in the desolate Evangelic capital of the world and responded by developing a taste in counter culture, which eventually bloomed into a love for filmmaking and screenwriting. Carter has average opinions on most things, but will defend them adamantly and loudly until no one else wants to bother speaking up. He runs Crossfader's podcast, IN THE CROSSHAIRS.

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