Jessica Pratt – “The Last Year”
Jessica Pratt on Bandcamp. Is Jessica Pratt the indie Adele? Pops up every few years, dominates the year with her incredible voice and better-than-average songwriting, somehow unites music critics and fans, and then disappears again for several more years. Unlike Adele, I couldn’t tell you a single thing about Pratt, which fits and benefits her […]
The Joy – “Amaqatha Amancane”
The Joy on YouTube. The bass singer deserves a raise. Beautiful harmonies. Forgive the bad wordplay even by my standards, but listening to The Joy gives me … joy. These lads could be singing about chicken tenders and I would still be in love. -Brady Gerber BACK TO OPE! SIGN UP FOR OPE!’S NEWSLETTER TO […]
Charly Bliss – “Nineteen”
Charly Bliss on Bandcamp. I mean, I guess Lady Gaga and 2018-era The 1975 are cool again. Did Charly Bliss record their keyboard in GarageBand? I’ve never been more consistently disappointed by a band I still really like. At this point, it would be more interesting if a guitar band didn’t have a saxophone. -Brady […]
Sabrina Carpenter – “Espresso”
Sabrina Carpenter online. I like Sabrina Carpenter and “Espresso” how I like seltzer water. Refreshing, lovely in the right mood, and I don’t care about the brand because it all tastes the same to me. Is there anything cooler than us misremembering ’70s Los Angeles? -Brady Gerber BACK TO OPE! SIGN UP FOR OPE!’S NEWSLETTER […]
Yannis & The Yaw – “Walk Through Fire” feat. Tony Allen
Yannis & The Yaw online. Bad music video, good jam, great Tony Allen, really great first impression that Yannis & The Yaw would crush it live. Coming to a KCRW BBQ near you. Why is it so hard to trust dudes who show off their ankles? -Brady Gerber BACK TO OPE! SIGN UP FOR OPE!’S […]
Hockey Dad – “Safety Pin”
Hockey Dad on Bandcamp. I have to be a little guarded talking about Hockey Dad because I’m writing their bio for their (excellent) new album. Y’all know I only do bios for artists I actually like, so I’m really excited for y’all to check out this LP. This didn’t make the bio draft, but “Beach […]
Finom – “Haircut”
Finom on Bandcamp. LCD Soundsystem if the bandleader wasn’t shit. Good music video, too. I like the idea of hearing more bands like Finom and songs like “Haircut” and taking it as a sign that more people are going back to dance clubs and being out and about in the world again. Or maybe I […]
dust – “Trust U See”
dust on Bandcamp. Longtime OPE! readers will know that a band like dust is right up my alley: spooky riffs made by weirdos who love melody. Aka seductive smooth Internet jazz. Even if post-Britpop post-punk isn’t cool anymore (a scene I still love as someone who interviewed black midi around their debut album), there’s a […]
Ben Seretan – “New Air”
Ben Seretan on Bandcamp. Ben Seretan felt like a great open secret in 2020 until I realized this past week that every single other music critic also loved “Power Zone.” You can be talented in music and in picking the right publicist apparently. Or maybe the music was just good? Worst case, Allura turns Seretan […]
Noé Socha – “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room”
Noé Socha online. My buddy Adam just turned me on to Noé Socha, who’s making the rounds on the Internet for his very seductive John Mayer cover that replaces Mayer’s vocals with a railroad harmonica that literally made me go “holy shit.” A quality blues player. A a nice cheat code too for listening to […]
Taylor Swift – “The Tortured Poets Department”
Taylor Swift online. Yesterday I was walking past The Grove in Los Angeles and saw a dog urinating on deluxe vinyls of Joni Mitchell’s For the Roses, Michelle Branch’s The Spirit Room, and Mitski’s Laurel Hell, and I thought well, at least that dog didn’t write the lyrics to The Tortured Poets Department. Now, I […]
Nia Archives – “Silence Is Loud”
Nia Archives online. Another entry in OPE! ever-growing “I’m very very very late to the party but I still love it enough that I want to talk about it” catalog. What a song. I’m mindful that I’m coming across as the same 40-year-olds who thought Wet Leg were the next Beatles. Whatever. Nia Archives has […]
Fontaines D.C. – “Starburster”
Fontaines D.C. online. Oh no, Fontaines D.C. discovered bright colors and drum machines and novels published after 1922. The music videos get better while the songwriting gets lazier. Or am I using “lazy” as lazy criticism for a band that wants to try new tricks after spending the past few years living in the shadow […]
Jamie xx – “Baddy On The Floor” (feat. Honey Dijon)
Jamie xx online. I like “Baddy On The Floor” and I am now officially worried about the new Jamie xx album. In Colour had to grow on me but I now appreciate it as the last gasp of optimism of the early 2010s among music fans who don’t have any friends outside of New York […]
Cindy Lee – “DIAMOND JUBILEE”
Cindy Lee online. OPE! is all about song reviews, yet Cindy Lee decided to smear our good name and release a new album only on YouTube (and on some Geocities website, linked above) and package the whole thing as one continuous listen. Most artists I come across while doing research for OPE! also pull this […]
Jhariah – “PIN-EYE”
Jhariah on YouTube. Dog bless the theater kid with a truckload of confidence. Jhariah is a compelling and clear talent as a singer and performer. I wonder what he would sound like if his manager emailed him a LinkedIn Learning Course on singing with melody and not just spamming listeners with church choir yelling. When […]
Katie Pruitt – “Self Sabotage”
Katie Pruitt on Bandcamp. Phoebe Bridgers if she was more of a Jaco “Portrait of Tracy” head and her entire personality didn’t scream “Did you know I’m from LA! !! !!! hahaa hah ha!!!” Oh wow, someone who can actually play guitar. I’ve been listening to more Glen Campbell ever since I moved to LA, […]
DOLLHOUSE – “Be Nice to Me (Part II)”
DOLLHOUSE on Bandcamp. I have nothing smart to say about this DOLLHOUSE song (and EP) that makes me feel a whole lotta lotta. “Be Nice to Me (Part II)” feels like someone jumping through my laptop wearing jorts and yelling “YR LIFE SUCKZ NERDZ” and me politely nodding in severe agreement as we mosh in […]
Antenna – “Lost”
Antenna on Bandcamp. Another winner from the recent see/saw round-up of amazing Bandcamp punk records, except I know the lead singer. “Know” as in I used to be a big Royal Headache fan. It’s nice to see that that band’s frontman has landed on his feet by making music that memyselfandi like. Amazing how self-care […]
Alien Nosejob – “The Executioner”
Alien Nosejob on Bandcamp. Evan Minsker starts a new punk blog (see/saw) and immediately shares a bunch of amazing Bandcamp punk records and now we have competition and oh no we’ve already lost The Battle of the Blog™ to Evan and now OPE! is doomed to be a site just for posers and nerds and […]
Wisp – “Pandora”
Wisp on YouTube. Happy EP release day to an artist who blew me away when I saw her live—her second-ever show apparently—a few months ago in the back room of a posh Chinese restaurant full of well-dressed young folk experiencing the mind-melting power of shoegaze and actual songwriting in real-time. The now maybe-too-well-documented rise of […]
bad tuner – “repeat to fade” (feat. Pollena)
bad tuner on Bandcamp. I meant to write about bad tuner back when “24 hours” came out but was so aw-struck by their attempt to write an MFA take on Moby that I had to spend a few weeks recovering my breath and eyesight. Some washed Gen X executive probably watched this music video and […]
DeepFaith – “PATTI SMITH”
DeepFaith on YouTube. I caught DeepFaith live for the first time a few months ago in someone’s quaint little home in LA, which was also the first time I heard any of DeepFaith’s music. The show felt like an IKEA rave, if the band members covered themselves in Swedish meatball goo and threw Das Kapital […]
Susan Bear – “Drift”
Susan Bear on Bandcamp. I literally reviewed Truman Black yesterday so Susan Bear must have bought a Home Goods walkie-talkie (ordered from The Grove of course) and has a hotline with the Milky Way’s underpaid intern and was like “Oh BOY do I have a song for you that’ll make you want to lick a […]
Truman Black – “Loads of Crisps”
Truman Black on SoundCloud. As a member of the unpopular “I like electronic music when it’s made by rock dudes” club, of course I like Matt Healy’s Diet Coke take on introvert club music, where the club is in my room at night watching YouTube Dark Souls recaps by strangers I’d probably not like in […]