Ah, Sunday Morning Music: that is what this column is, at its core, all about. RealSunday Morning Music, rife with minor chords, wistful melodies and introspective, melancholy lyrics, doesn’t come along every week, but this week: jackpot! Please watch and listen to “Garden of Delight” from the solo debut of Cory Hanson — vocalist/guitarist of LA-based psychedelic trio, Wand — and get your bittersweet nostalgia fix for the week ahead!
Music: if it isn’t about some kind of catharsis, it isn’t about anything. This week’s spot-on Sunday Morning Music clip, from Nashville-based Photo Ops, is “Memories That Glow,” a sublime, dream-pop tune that — like so many great, deceptively Pop-sounding songs — is deeply rooted in the desire to transcend lingering emotional pain through an effective aural medium. It hurts so good, as they say.
The video for “Memories That Glow” is pleasingly seductive and visually abstract in a way that fully evokes warm waves of haunting nostalgia. Aurally, vocalist/songwriter Terry Price recalls both Brian Wilson and 70s-era Todd Rundgren (whose enduring “Hello, It’s Me” manages to be both sweetly uplifting and profoundly melancholy simultaneously). And with its simple, one-line lyrical hook, “Leave me Alone,” Price creates a 4-minute gem that would have fit perfectly among the track listing of the The Beach Boys‘ masterpiece, Pet Sounds. Listen and tell me you don’t agree.
“Memories That Glow” can be found on Photo Ops‘ sophomore offering, Vacation, just released on February 11th via Bad Friend Records. Vacation is available now on iTunes and Spotify. Enjoy!
The aim of this weekly column has always been to find a song that epitomizes the wistful, gorgeous vibe that defines Sunday Morning Music. A lot of people do not know what they means, but we know it when we hear it. This week’s featured clip is “Giver,” a solo outing by Co-Pilgrim front man Mike Gale, and it is just sublime.
Inspired by masters of lo-fi acoustic song-writing Robert Pollard, Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse), Gram Parsons and Elliot Smith, Mike’s latest solo record, Another Planet — from which “Giver” is culled — is modern folk music with cues taken from classic pop, doo-wop and soul as well as shoegaze. Filled with winding, scattershot harmonies it mixes Brian Wilson’s sublime talent for a heart breaking melody with Justin Vernon and My Morning Jacket’s reverberant bliss. On home recording and the writing process, Mike says – “I need to keep writing and recording all year round – it keeps me sane! I write everyday but I’ve only recently started recording at home by myself.”
Visually, what we’re given as a minimalist palate is a scene of the sea on a grey, grey day. What a perfect backdrop to encourage imaginative extrapolation.
The new Co-pilgrim record Slows To Go is out on October 16th, 2015. In the meantime, enjoy!
