Love, Lani is an aptly named album. Across nine tracks, its creator reflects on love and relationships while shifting through musical genres that are clearly dear to her. Released in late July, Love, Lani comes from Lani Eclatt, a Des Moines-based musical artist who performs simply as Lani. The first two songs are upbeat break-up […]
Album reviews
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: T.A.N.G. — ‘Big Bright Empty Nothing’
Big Bright Empty Nothing by T.A.N.G. Space is the place and T.A.N.G. is here to tell us about it on their 2023 release, Big Bright Empty Nothing. Recorded and mastered at Flat Black Studios by Luke Tweedy, T.A.N.G. has unleashed a doom-tinted contemplation of the cosmos and the emptiness that stares back. T.A.N.G. consists of […]
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Album Review: Andersen Coates — ‘New Lands’
New Lands by Andersen Coates Describing his debut EP New Lands, arriving Oct. 20, Iowa-based singer-songwriter Andersen Coates says his songs are born out of the sense of fear and existentialism that comes with the transition into adulthood. “I’m 24 and clueless,” he says. If these four songs are about fear and existentialism, it isn’t […]
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Album Review: Nevāda Nevada — ‘Past Life’
Past Life by Nevāda Nevada It isn’t often I review a band that isn’t heavy metal that includes a diacritical mark in its name. This one is there as a pronunciation guide: Neh-Vay-Duh Neh-Vah-Da. It indicates a particularity that carries over to the music itself. Nevāda Nevada wants to be understood, to be paid attention […]
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Book Review: ‘The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story’ by Grant Faulkner
Readers may know Grant Faulkner for his work as director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) — a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging aspiring writers to pen a whole novel in 30 days — but his newest book, The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story, focuses on a different kind of literary challenge: […]
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Album Review + Q&A: Joytrip — ‘Mr. Time and the Joyful Ploys’
“You said you didn’t want love. You said that you didn’t want nothing. I don’t think it matters at all,” wistfully recites Joytrip’s Michael Schodin on “Taken Aback,” the infectious opening song of the band’s debut EP, Mr. Time and the Joyful Ploys. Schodin, Joytrip’s vocalist and guitarist, describes the band’s sound as “road trip […]
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Album Review: Early Girl — ‘Lovers Out to Pasture’
Lovers Out to Pasture by Early Girl On their Bandcamp page, Iowa City trio Early Girl proudly proclaim to be “bringing queer aesthetics back to pop rock.” The gritty opening riff of “Green Eyes” telegraphs this plainly, immediately invoking the shimmy bop of the B-52’s iconic “Private Idaho.” But Early Girl builds on the influence […]
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Album Review: Subatlantic — ‘Say It Again’
Say It Again by Subatlantic Quad Cities band Subatlantic’s new album Say It Again opens with a sparsely arranged synth/guitar/vocal thematic overture titled “Fate” asking, “What would you say if we tried today? / What would you say if we died today?” Every word counts, and we’re measured by how we use them. “Fate” acts […]
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Album Review: 24thankyou — ‘Everything I Was, Burning Slow’
Everything I Was, Burning Slow by 24thankyou The bedrooms in old, rented houses from Fairchild to South Lucas are held together by paint — layers upon layers of beiges and grays that do the semester’s tenants the courtesy of covering up mold colonies and mysterious stains. If those bedroom walls could talk through those layers […]
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Album Review: Elizabeth Moen — ‘For Arthur’
For Arthur by Elizabeth Moen The teenaged Arthur Russell left Oskaloosa in 1968. He was a musical prodigy (cello and piano), a hippie vagabond and a spiritual seeker. He moved to a Buddhist commune in San Francisco, passed his high school equivalency, then became Allen Ginsberg’s accompanist and perhaps lover. Five years later, he hopped […]
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Album Review: Sam Locke Ward — ‘Thrift Store Gtr Gold’
Thrift Store Gtr Gold by Samuel Locke Ward “Everything that they ever warned us about, all the sad things, all the bad things, all of those things, they are coming. They are all coming to pass.” So singeth Samuel Locke Ward, master of minimalism, grim jester and bard of Iowa in the unhinged 2020s. In […]
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Album Review: Miss Christine — ‘Bittersweet’
Bittersweet by Miss Christine Christine Moad, who records under the moniker Miss Christine, gave themself an unenviable task: to take the dumpster fire of the last three years and turn it into music. Their latest album Bittersweet released in June, and in both its construction and its resultant music, this is a pandemic album through […]
