2013 has handed over the baton to yet another year of highly anticipated indie record releases. After receiving new music from artists like Arcade Fire, MGMT and Lorde, a swarm of more veteran musicians are making reappearances.
Young the Giant’s poppy indie rock album Mind Over Matter was one of the many released on Jan. 21. The band is akin to Two Door Cinema Club, Cold War Kids and Ra Ra Riot, and their second full length album didn’t miss the makes-you-wanna-dance train that the latter musicians are also known for riding on.
While this isn’t typically my favorite indie genre, I found some songs from the album to be undeniably witty and catchier than last season’s flu. Though they typically appeal to a more youthful audience, a great deal of maturity and growth in their music was demonstrated with busy electronic soundscapes and wide-ranging vocals. This album was, if only in one word, fun.
Warpaint’s self-titled album, another one released on Jan. 21, has been greatly anticipated by underground music buffs since their debut album was dropped in 2010. This all-female quartet is known for their experimentation with stripped-down arrangements and far-away vocals, and their music is often referred to as “art rock.”
Their self-released 2009 debut EP gained attention from the prominent former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante and has since received a great deal of respect for their creative endeavors.
With experimentation aside, what I personally find even more admirable about their music is a certain strong, empowering, feminine atmosphere they create through their very natural-sounding vocals and intelligent, well-crafted lyricism.
“Love Is To Die,” the album’s lead single, was released in September 2013 to build up some hype for the album and did so rather successfully. The track serves as a fair representation of the album as a whole with a spacious, atmospheric opening and a lingering chorus of, “Love is to die/Love is to not die/Love is to dance.” Warpaint’s sophomore album, pun possibly intended, put up a solid fight.
Damien Jurado’s Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son transcended his traditional folk roots and offered something that, as producer Richard Swift said in a trailer for the album, “You can finally kinda dance to now.”
The album still carries out his tradition of storytelling, only I found it to be more idiosyncratic and more concerned with a building a deep, lush atmosphere with earthy and air drum-inducing rhythms.
“With this album, we’re trying to push it a little bit,” Jurado said, and it shows with his reggae and dub influences.
Jurado is the DiCaprio of folk music: forever earning high critical praise yet never taking home the Oscar. However, this well-anticipated album stepped outside the confines of his usual traditions.
“It is limitless,” Jurado said. “There’s no ceiling to it.”
And, of course, it cannot be ignored that Against Me! has finally released their new album Transgender Dysphoria Blues, building to their impressive resume of music that originated in 1997.
Lead singer Tom Gabel had a solo acoustic project before the dawn of Against Me! and began playing shows in Gainesville at the ripe age of 17. Ever since, the band has accumulated an expansive fan base and has built up a reputation of constantly being on tour.
Their punk ballads and socially conscious lyrics could be the band’s greatest identifying factors. In Transgender Dysphoria Blues, Laura Jane Grace (formerly known as Tom Gabel) touches on the subject of an identity crisis. She recently came out as a transgender in 2012 and began writing the tracks for this album around the same time.
In all my brief dabbles in punk rock music, I am only able to pin Against Me! as a sort of ideological anarchist punk band with strange folk elements thrown in the mix. Their music is studded denim vests and two middle fingers held up the air, and their newest album succeeds in carrying out their legacy.
It’s exciting to see more and more independent artists not only produce new music but experiment with their art and transcend their expectations. With the diversity of tastes delivered thus far, 2014 should be expected to cater to an interesting palate overall.
Jackie Braje can be reached at jacquelyn.braje@spartans.ut.edu