Sometimes, I drop draft posts into the either/or machine with the intention to write about them later. Usually, I’ll put a link to a song or something so that, you know, I remember what I wanted to post about. All I did for Martha Tilston was save her name as a draft post… AND THAT’S IT. Dangit past me, that is super not helpful! I don’t even remember how I stumbled onto her music in the first place, but that just means I get to rediscover her lovely, folky-twangy songwriting style that evokes a lovely, autumnal feeling.

Holy cow, it’s 2018! When did that happen? Who snuck it in here when I wasn’t looking? Oh well, it’s here and I’m determined to get it started right! So, let’s pep it up with a… haunting, emotional track… from 2017. I… dangit. I am bad at this!

Daughter went ahead and created a soundtrack album to the game Life is Strange: Before the Storm, which is a graphic adventure about a girl who can rewind time. Which seems pretty rad! As per usual though, Daughter have come through with the supremely sumptuous goods, dishing out this beautifully powerful track.

george (and, by extension, Katie Noonan, who fronted the group) deserve far more prominence and fame than what they currently have. For one, the music is astoundingly good, and two, Katie Noonan’s voice is heavenly. Case in point: this single from their debut album, Polyserena, released in 2002, which is a mesmerising pop/lounge ballad. Heartfelt, striking and soulful, it’s perfect for those sleepy, rainy days and nights when you’re feeling just a tad bit blue!

george is mostly dormant these days, but they had a decent following in their home country of Australia back in the day. Noonan has thankfully pushed on with a solo career, but we here in Australia have done the traditional ‘dismissal of home grown talent’, for… reasons I guess?

Melancholic Mondays is what I like to deem the start of a working week. Well, now I do. To that end, allow me to present Ontario-hailing songstress, Christine Leakey, who brings you fine people this sumptuous folk tune. Deliberate and soothing, this feels like the type of song you’d use as an adult to drift away and forget about things for a bit – where you want to go sleep feeling a bit sad, but still knowing that much beauty exists in the world.

Do you like songs that remind you of the life you spent as a child in the countryside? The sky never changing from the vivid pink of sunset, the cool breeze ruffling through the tall fields of golden wheat and your hair, as your soared gloriously from the tire swing hanging from that old oak tree? No? Man, I’ve made myself wistful for a time I just completely made up, but dangit, that’s where this supremely beautiful and heartfelt song will take you.

Anna Atkinson hails from the far too talented land of Canada, where she brings us a whole mess of sparsely instrumented, but elegant tunes that I guess could be considered dark folk. It’ll pluck you right in the feels, I tells ya!

Our friends over at Kill Rock Stars have recently re-released Elliott Smith’s third record, either/or (hmm, now where have I heard that name before), in a brand spanking new edition with a bunch of new content. Now, I say friends but we’ve never met or had any interaction, but I’m sure that if we did, we’d get on like an old, happily married couple.

either/or marked the start of Smith’s push into more sonically layered music, which this track demonstrates aptly. It’s incredibly catchy, but it never loses sight of what makes his music so damn special: his incredible lyrical and compositional ability to tap right into your heart.

Bit of rock with the teeniest, tiniest bit of country thrown in? Yes please! How about a catchy, pop-oriented hook for a chorus? Bung it on in! Terrence Jack brings us this gloriously catchy pop-rock number while also looking like the Canadian version of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. Which is a plus!

Musically, this feels a little bit like Bernard Fanning mixed with a dash of Harvey Danger for taste. Supremely listenable, my Canadian pal!

Pale Honey has a sound that I can only describe as Joan Jett by way of Swedish electro-pop. Which sounds like ten pure helpings of ridiculous, but I submit that that combination is definitively awesome – why would you possibly say no? Of course you wouldn’t so wrap your ears around this.

Pale Honey are a Swedish alt. rock duo with a crunchy, ‘take no shit’ attitude. This lil’ track is relatively simple, but it’s full of spunk and grit – from the drawn out vocals to the collection of percussive and electronic elements riding in the background, it’s a sure fire good time!

Sometimes, you get a little “POW!” from music; a spark that kicks you in the keister, runs up your spine and starts tap dancing in your head. Or, to put it in far less stupid terms, sometimes music just makes you go “Oooo, that’s pretty sweet!”. So with any lucky, here is some rad Swedish electro-pop that’ll hopefully give you that reaction!

There’s a big ol’ mix of crazy, punchy drumming contrasted with soothing electronic drones and wrapped up with some wild vocal work that kind of gives this tune a bit of a modern jazz feel. Something about that mix of craziness and relaxation is certainly zapping me in the keister right now!

Ah, how I do love some summer cruising music: reminds me of all those long, relaxing road trips along idyllic beaches with close friends… that I have never taken in my life. Oh well! Let’s call it an aspirational dive into the memory bank then, shall we?

Here is a wonderful track that very much reminds me of the output of Triptides, only a tad bit more hi-fi. That added boost of hi-fidelity techno-wizardry has, thankfully, done nothing to dull the simultaneously soothing and peppy tone that immediately harks back to all those days lost to the summer haze (now THAT’S poetry!). It’s what I imagine the Beach Boys might’ve been like if they removed all that natty earnestness from their music.