It’s an interesting time in my life as a music fan. No longer an angsty teen with ears tuned to the pulse of pop, the heavy rotation of MTV, or the late-night reign of 120 minutes which served as a great venue for maturing my adolescent musical tastes circa the early 90’s. Now I’m 43 and finding myself vulnerable to the allure of 25th anniversary releases of some amazing albums from bands that I’ve long loved. I’ve steadily picked up every anniversary edition box set from R.E.M. since they started releasing them a few years ago, the 25th anniversary of Soundgarden’s BADMOTORFINGER is now on my radar and the 25th anniversary of R.E.M.’s MONSTER is due this fall. All that said, I do, occasionally, get excited about new music, too and the last couple of weeks have been kind in that regard.
“Be Love,” is a heavily Beatles-infuenced song from DC Talk-member/former Audio Adrenaline frontman/prolific solo artist Kevin Max that was just released in conjunction with a book called LOVE OVER FEAR by Dan White, Jr. I’ve yet to read the book, but, the song is a delightful track featuring some spine-tingling riffs from guitar extraordinaire Erick Cole and a direct, universally-relevant message of love in lyrics masterfully interpreted by the unmistakable voice of Kevin Max.
Friday, May 3rd saw the release of not one, but, two different Soundstripe collaborations involving talented producer/artist Aaron Sprinkle.
II by Luna Wave is the second EP blending Sprinkle’s expertise with the talents of Jessie Marie Villa to produce a seemingly effortless, irresistible electronic pop sound that paints with liberal brush strokes the textures of all that is right about 80’s pop music, but, on a canvas of electronic beat drops and programmed textures native to a time just beyond the present. Check out the beautiful lyric video for “Born For This,” on Vimeo. II is available for streaming on Spotify and download on iTunes.
BEGIN TO BEGIN is a three-song EP by Snow Bones, which features vocals and lyrics by Aaron Sprinkle and music by Adrian Walther. This release has me firmly in its grasp. Sprinkle articulately floats deceptively substantial lyrics on delicate, cascading melodies in a manner that begs for this short set of three songs to be played on repeat. If the lush, inviting sound wasn’t enough, the fact that the tone of these lyrics are hitting me square in this season of my life would surely finish the job. But, rest assured, the music as a whole is altogether worthy. Available to stream on Spotify and to download through iTunes and Amazon Music.
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