The Turning Wheel, Chrystia Cabral’s third album under the project Spellling, offers bewitchingly captivating progressive folk and neo-soul songs. A shift towards natural instrumentation marks a stark change from 2019’s synth-heavy Mazy Fly, giving these songs a new liveliness, and pushing Cabral’s songwriting towards the theatrical. The sonic palette on its own can be bewildering at first–veering off without warning into performances of soul, hard rock, classical, folk, and of course, synthwave. It’s no surprise that the personnel list reveals more than thirty performers–all of whom sound great. The songs are left with an enchanting sense of otherworldliness and magic. The opener, “Little Deer” showcases the album in all its grandeur. Instrumentally expansive but melodically simple, Cabral uses the symbol of a hunted deer to explore ideas of love and shared consciousness across living beings–oneness–themes returned across the album in lyrics that read like incantations. The title track, “Turning Wheel” is a surprisingly catchy and approachable folk pop tune. Here, the narrator struggles with conflicting ideas of unity and isolation, though the chorus affirms the solace in loneliness. “Queen of Wands” finds strings morphing into synths held up by electronic drumming, reminiscent of some of the eeriest moments of her previous work. This album is a witchy and mind-altering experience–one I could recommend to anyone.

–Jaden Amjadi

Japanese Breakfast – Jubilee

Japanese Breakfast’s third album, Jubilee, balances dance-worthy anthemic tracks with a storyline that pulls at the soul, highlighting moments of tragic beauty at the center of the human experience. Songwriter Michelle Zauner explores moments of weakness in love, in personhood, and in coming to terms with the nature of loss, but within these themes she masterfully paints a picture of hope and perseverance. In the opening track, “Paprika”, listeners are called into the world of Jubilee with repetitious horn melodies & symphony strings while Zauner reflects on sharing her loss with the world through performance. In the following track, “Be Sweet”, she juxtaposes lines like “Tell the men I’m coming” with “Be sweet to me baby, I wanna believe in you” telling the ever-relatable story of wanting to dive back into love while at the same time being painfully aware of vulnerabilities revealed in past encounters. Similar themes of vulnerability are explored in “Posing in Bondage”, where Zauner uses the idea of waiting for one’s lover in bondage while time passes and the lover’s failure to show becomes increasingly apparent. Another noteworthy track, “Side Tackle”, composed of punchy synth and revelatory sax melodies, reveals Zauner’s objective as she sings, “I’m tackling this void”. This line feels like a perfect metaphor for the album–a story about finding jubilee in the void. In the album’s seventh track, “Savage Good Boy”, Zauner strays from personal exploration and steps into the shoes of the wealthy to highlight a more tangible vulnerability that exists in classism and socioeconomic disparity. In Jubilee, Japanese Breakfast has constructed a deeply personal yet relatable inquest into the nature of human vulnerability. It is a testament to her incredible artistry and a beautiful listen.

–Marisa Rude

Backxwash – I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES

On the newest album from Backxwash, she continues down the path of dark, industrial metal-infused hip hop, rapping verses that mix the personal with the occult. Following a short introduction, “THE PURPOSE OF PAIN”–which introduces the album’s themes of pain and healing–Backxwash spits her opening verse over distant screams and waves of distortion on “WAIL OF THE BANSHEE”. The first single and title track “I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES” is a perfect encapsulation of why this album rules. Ada Rook’s screeched chorus is cathartic and infectiously catchy. In shouted bars, Backxwash points to the enemies of liberation and their advantageous co-opting of Black and queer identity: “Lost in addiction / Exiled from my sisters / The colonies and their vision / Robbing me of my diction.” On “TERROR PACKETS” she recalls the pain of drug addiction at her lowest points, and Censored Dialogue opens with a laid back verse concerning the fracturing of relationships after coming out–they even have a hook after this verse which is memorable in its own right–before Backxwash comes in with her own screamed chorus. While Backxwash stuffs a lot of quality into just over thirty minutes, it seems to go by much quicker–another great entry into her catalog.

–Jaden Amjadi

Squirrel Flower – Planet (i)

Planet (i) by Squirrel Flower feels like a trip down memory lane, as songwriter Ella Williams guides the listener with her captivating voice and introspective lyrics. The album starts with the dark, brooding “I’ll Go Running” with the guitar and drums crescendoing towards the finish. “Hurt A Fly” flirts with poppy melodies, her voice backed by energized drums, piano, and guitar solos. This track feels like indie pop, but it fits into the album because of Williams’ silky vocals. Tracks like “Roadkill,” “Big Beast,” and “Flames and Flat Tires” start off barren with airy vocals but soon transition to a stronger vocal performance accompanied by grounding electric guitar and drums. Williams lived in Iowa for a bit and reminisces on playing her guitar in the love-song-like “Iowa 146.” A prime example of Williams’ thoughtful lyrics is “Pass” with lyrics like “I’m staying up all night/To wrestle with it/The good and the bad.” “To Be Forgotten” features layered vocals and large melodic leaps creating an expansive sound that is heart-wrenchingly beautiful. From the dark sound on “I’ll Go Running” to the calm acceptance on the album closer “Starshine,” Williams assures listeners there is hope in the dark with the comforting and reflective sound of Planet (i).

–Daniela Rybarczyk

The Mountain Goats – Dark In Here

Lately, John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats has been a personification of the working writer. When not penning novels, his prolific songwriting makes a year without a new album or EP a rarity. It just so happens that this new set of songs on Dark In Here is some of the band’s best work in years. The instrumentation is never particularly showy–folk rock guitars, some keys across piano and organ, some spare woodwinds–restrained drums which only hit hard when the time is right. Attention is primarily on Darnielle’s lyricism and vocal performance, which he keeps on the softer end of his register. These songs are sad, or at least, they explore different aspects of loneliness and darkness. On the first single from the album, “Mobile”, Darnielle returns to his classic calling card of biblical imagery. A narrator reflects on Jonah’s travels in shame after rejecting God–each verse ending with a return to their current situation–”I’m on a balcony in Mobile, Alabama, waiting for the wind to throw me down.” Meanwhile, “The Slow Parts in Death Metal Songs” also addresses a kind of loneliness, one rooted in social anxiety and the easing of it with devastating music. Dark In Here does what many of the best Mountain Goats albums do–and greets the most disaffected and alienated among us with open arms.

–Jaden Amjadi

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I was rather unfamiliar with The Mountain Goats before I attended the show, having only listened to their 2002 album All Hail West Texas, as well as half of their last album Beat the Champ from last year in an attempt to quickly familiarize myself with the group before the show.

As I walked through the doors to my seat, the opener, Oh Pep!, took the stage and filled the room with lovely pop tunes that more-often-than-not erred on the side of alt-country. The four-piece, comprised of a bassist, percussionist, mandolinist/violinist, and guitarist with the latter two performing vocal duties, performed forty minutes of mainly acoustic-based songs. The set contained either up-tempo rockers or slower and more intimate ballads. Other than intonation issues with the vocalists and a few minor sound problems, the group put on a mad decent show.

The stand-out performer of the group was the mandolinist/violinist, Peppita Emmerichs, who brought unique contributions to the band’s material. She added something interesting to the equation on every song: staccato violin melodies, mandolin rockouts, and, my favorite of the night, slide mandolin solos. A few songs into the set, the group introduced themselves and talked about how it was their first time playing in Iowa city, and other stage banter involved the background of some of their songs and their friendship with one another.

Although I was unenthusiastic from the beginning, the set improved as their time on stage went on, and the last few songs they played had some lively buildups that had my foot tapping by the end of it. Oh Pep! proved themselves to be a lovely warm-up to The Mountain Goats and the audience agreed through their applause, but The Goats themselves took Monday night’s event to another level.

Twenty minutes after Oh Pep! left the stage, the lights went out and a game show-esque theme began to play.

One-by-one, the members of The Mountain Goats entered the stage, last-but-not-least frontman John Darnielle. The group performed as a four-piece as well, and mainly performed acoustic-based songs but a decent amount of the set also consisted of songs with more lavish instrumentation, including saxophone and keyboards. Most of the set featured up-tempo tracks from the band’s latest album paired with Darnielle’s passionate vocal performances, a highlight of The Goats’ set. Darnielle often quipped about professional wrestling (the subject of their previous album) before performing, which gave myself and the rest of the audience quite a laugh. However, the best part of the show was when the other band members left the stage, leaving Darnielle performing solo.

Although it was their first time performing at The Englert, Darnielle shouted “it’s good to be back!” in-between the first two songs, and when he was alone on stage, Darnielle elaborated on his personal history involving Iowa.

Before introducing the songs he played solo, John Darnielle described, at length, his time living in Iowa. He shared stories of his trips to Hy-Vee for party dip, and his unfortunate time working at a grain elevator. More-interestingly he talked about how he recorded a series of Mountain Goats albums in and around Iowa from his boombox, namely, Ames and Grinnell. Myself and the audience reacted to his stories with empathy (the audience groaned when he began telling his grain elevator story) and laughter which gave the entire performance as a whole more of an emotional significance than other shows that I have been to.

The intimacy of Darnielle sharing his life experiences in Iowa created a deeper connection between him and the audience, and made the performance that much more special to all attendees.

After the band rejoined Darnielle on stage, the band finished out their set while again talking a little bit more about Iowa, as well as Darnielle’s usual remarks about pro-wrestling. After the band left the stage, the audience stood up and cheered for an encore, and two minutes later, The Mountain Goats reemerged from the sides of the stage, playing a stellar five-song encore that included the best full-band performances of the entire set, particularly the track “Blood Capsules.” The encore saw the audience at their most lively, with a good amount of the audience moving to the rhythm and some even straight-up dancing to the songs outside of their seats. The audience rose and applauded once more when The Mountain Goats left the stage for the final time, bringing the show to a close as the house lights illuminated the theater. The Mountain Goats may be gone for now, but the atmosphere and emotions that the group brought to Iowa City on Monday night will stay with the audience members for years to come.

You can find The Mountain Goats’ website here and Oh Pep!’s website here. If you missed the show on Monday, you can make a quick trip to their show in Maquoketa on the third of October!

Upcoming events at The Englert

The post Concert Review: The Mountain Goats @ The Englert 9/26/2016 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The Mountain Goats are an American folk band that was created by John Darnielle in his small studio apartment with nothing more than his poetry, a dual-cassette recorder, and a guitar that he got for a couple dollars up the street. He went on to share his poems with his friend Rachel who just happened to play the bass. They went on to tour the US and Europe, along with the Midwest and San Francisco. Then in 2001, when asked if he’d like to make records, John called his friend Peter and the two went on to make Tallahassee, We Shall All Be Healed, The Sunset Tree, Get Lonely from 2002 to 2007. All the while having different drummers play with them until the day they met Jon Wurster. They enjoyed him so much that the trio later went on to make Heretic Pride in 2008, and in early 2009, The Life of the World to Come.

This song, to me, is so full of upbeat feelings and sweet lyrics that it’s hard to not want to sing along or tap my foot. Despite the sad subject matter- Frankie Lymon’s drug-induced death at one of those rehabnear.me facilities– the phrase that stuck out was “Every dream is a good dream, even awful dreams are good dreams, if you’re doing it right.” Something about it just makes me want to keep scrolling through their playlist and especially check them out this Friday since they’ll be here in Iowa City at Blue Moose!

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