Harry Styles is most definitely not a name that commonly shows up on WKNC blogs.
However with this newest lead single from his third and upcoming album “Harry’s Home” perhaps Harry is entering his Indie Pop Era?
I am a casual consumer of Harry Styles’s music and one thing I find fresh about his music is that it’s always a unique and different experience each time. You might be picturing the highly popular pop song “Watermelon Sugar” or “Adore You” when you think of the name, however, many people have said that his single “As It Was” evokes a certain familiarity with songs you might see by popular Indie Pop bands such as The Strokes or Dayglow.
Essentially, if you are a listener of the Indie Pop or Bedroom Indie Pop genre, this song will induce similar feelings of wanting to dance around in your room.
This song is far from the radio pop music that has been produced by this artist recently and this is the result of the prominent instruments heard throughout this song. The electric guitar and the drums. The fast tempo and 80s synth-pop melody combined with heavily deep and melancholy lyrics put the audience in a whole new world of its own. Styles plays an instrument called the tubular bells towards the end of the song in beat with a sound of steel dreams, while his poignant lyrics almost feel like the listener is hearing his inner monologue from a diary entry.
A few lines that hit deep most specifically are from the second verse, “Answer the phone| Harry, you’re no good alone| Why are you sitting on the floor?| What kind of pills are you on?| Ringin’ the bell and nobody is coming to help| Your daddy lives by himself| He just wants to know that you’re well”
Like most traditionally popular songs, Styles commonly writes about relationships and romance, yet something about these introspective lyrics changed my perspective on him. The depth seen in these lyrics is quite personal and is one of the first times we’ve seen Harry Styles in this light since his debut as a soloist.
I know what you must be saying, no way is Harry Styles, a member of a former boy band making Indie music. Especially for you out there that regularly listen to Indie Rock and Alternative Underground music – this must be an unusual thing to read about.
But take my word for it.
Once you listen to “As It Was” you’ll feel like skipping down a sidewalk or frolicking around a field in the Spring.
I recently had the pleasure of watching “Turning Red,” the new Pixar film. I went into the movie pretty blind and thus had no idea what to expect other than the one song I had seen going around TikTok. The plot of the film is that a young Chinese-Canadian teenager discovers a secret her family is hiding and has to find the balance between pleasing her family and having her own personality. A big safe haven for the main character, Meilin Lee, is her friends and their collective love for the boy band 4*Town. The sound I heard going around TikTok was the main song that 4*Town sings in “Turning Red,” “Nobody Like U.”
Sibling duo Finneas O’Connell and Billie Eilish wrote the three songs that 4*Town sings throughout the film: “Nobody Like U,” “1 True Love” and “U Know What’s Up.” They struck pop music gold on “Nobody Like U.” You know that scene in “Easy A” where Emma Stone’s character can’t stop singing “Pocketful of Sunshine” by Natasha Bedingfield all weekend after she got that birthday card? That’s been me with “Nobody Like U” since I watched the movie.
The highly talented Ludwig Göransson was responsible for the film’s score and he did an excellent job at making a Pixar film score (which are always top notch).
The film and its soundtrack really brought me back to my tweenhood of being obsessed with One Direction and feeling like my whole world was ending all of the time (which for Meilin, was somewhat true but that’s neither here nor there).
If you’re looking to reminisce on middle school in a more positive light or if you just want a cute movie to watch, I highly recommend “Turning Red.” Or at the very least let the earworm that is “Nobody Like U” grace your ears.
A lot of new music has come out this week, and in case it’s hard for you to keep up, here’s a list of some of the new releases to listen to in the wide world of indie music. The three releases I’m highlighting this week are folky, but all in vastly different ways.
“That’s Where I Am” by Maggie Rogers
Maggie Rogers made a sweeping return with her single “That’s Where I Am.” It’s the lead single for her new album “Surrender” that she announced is coming out July 29. Produced by Rogers and Kid Harpoon, this single is simultaneously Rogers branching out into new realms whilst staying true to her folk-pop roots. I will definitely have this single on repeat all summer
“Chloë and the Next 20th Century” by Father John Misty
Speaking of folk, “Chloë and the Next 20th Century” is Father John Misty’s brand new album. It’s jazzy, lovely, folky and definitely a contender for my personal album of the year. He announced that he’s going on tour in support of this album (and will be stopping in Asheville and Durham this fall). Father John Misty is insanely talented and did not disappoint with this release.
“five seconds flat” by Lizzy McAlpine
Lizzy McAlpine also released a brand new album, titled “five seconds flat.” This former Berklee student is a talented lyricist and knows how to craft beautiful melodies. The album features collaborations with Jacob Collier, Ben Kessler, Laura Elliott and FINNEAS. It touches on themes of love and loss, and is perfect for those who are big fans of Phoebe Bridgers.
Often regarded as the most influential band of all time, it’s not hard to imagine that The Beatles have had their songs covered by other artists thousands of times. Their timeless repertoire proves its impact again and again each time an artist creates their own rendition of a song. Almost 60 years later, The Beatles’ music continues to be performed, evolved and cherished. While these following three songs are the most frequently covered Beatles songs, nearly all Beatles songs have been covered by other notable artists and I encourage you to listen to them.
“Yesterday”
From their 1965 release “Help!” the Beatles’ “Yesterday” quickly reached number one on US charts and placed in the top 10 in several countries in Europe. Since its release, “Yesterday” has been covered more than 2,200 times and is likely to be the most covered song in history. Notable artists to cover the song include Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson and countless others. All of these artists take their own creative liberties with “Yesterday”, providing their own personal touch and adding a new life to the song. While each of these artists does a brilliant job, no cover of “Yesterday” is quite like Aretha Franklin’s. Performed live in 1979, Aretha Franklin delivers a beautiful, soulful rendition of the classic that fans will never forget.
Aretha Franklin performing “Yesterday” live from YouTube
“And I Love Her”
Short and sweet, this Beatles classic from their 1964 release “A Hard Day’s Night” is the perfect love song to be reworked over and over again. Famous covered versions of “And I Love Her” include the renditions of Bob Marley and the Wailers, Sarah Vaughan, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles and Bobby Womack. Each of these covers creates an entirely different interpretation of “And I Love Her,” providing the chance for the listener to hear the song from the perspective of several different genres, from jazz to reggae. Although it seems that “And I Love Her” has been manipulated every way possible, an important facet of the song would be missing without Kurt Cobain’s cover. Cobain’s beautiful rendition of “And I Love Her” was released in 2015, years after his passing, and peaked at number two on US charts and number one in the UK. His dark, profound cover is the perfect chilling counterpart to the original light, airy Beatles version.
Written and performed as a solo piece by Paul McCartney, “Blackbird” was released in 1968 as a part of the Beatles’ double self-titled album, known commonly as “The White Album.” The song “Blackbird” peaked at number nine on US charts and was ranked similarly in the UK and other European countries. With hundreds of covers, “Blackbird” continues to be a beloved Beatles song. Notable renditions of the song come from Carly Simon, Zac Brown Band, Phish and Anderson .Paak. In the 53 years since its release, “Blackbird” has been performed as a country song, an R&B ballad and everything in between. A perfect addition to the wide array of “Blackbird” covers is the performance of Crosby, Stills and Nash. Less defiant of the original recording than covers of other genres, Crosby, Stills and Nash perform a simple and touching cover of “Blackbird” with beautiful harmonies.
Crosby, Stills and Nash performing “Blackbird” live from YouTube
The year is 2012, I’m 11 years old and in desperate need of braces. However, I have five baby teeth that won’t budge and thus the dentist is going to rip them from my skull. I’m young and scared, and am told that for the duration of this appointment I can listen to music really loud in my earbuds so that I don’t have to hear the tools that are ravaging the insides of my mouth. I have an iPhone 4 and a pretty hefty iTunes library that I had been building for the last couple of years on my iPod touch. I ponder what to listen to, but eventually land on One Direction’s then-brand-new album “Take Me Home.”
As I’ve touched on in previous blog posts, I was a huge fan of One Direction (or as we called it back then, being a Directioner). I was solid in my choice and thought it would be a good time to memorize some of the lyrics better since it had just come out the month before. I don’t remember how long the extraction of my teeth took, but I do remember getting through all of the songs at least once and also being told that some of my teeth were “stubborn.” Did the album succeed in drowning out the dentistry noises? Absolutely not.
I also remember listening to the album a lot in the week or so after my teeth were pulled in the recovery process. This is my first vivid memory with an album that I chose of my own volition, and I hope to share more memories with albums in the future.
On Saturday, March 26, 2022, the super fun and energetic alt-rock band Mom Rock played at the Pour House in Raleigh, NC, and I had the pleasure to be there. Straight from good old Boston, MA, Mom Rock is, as of March 2022, going on their Reunion Tour “everywhere but [on] the West Coast”, where they’re headlining 24 shows all around the US. While I knew that the audience at the Pour House is usually a pretty engaged one, I wasn’t expecting vocalist and guitarist Josh Polack to admit that we had been their best crowd so far.
Mom Rock was headlining that night, but two bands came before them to do their opening. The show started out with old school grunge band Lawn Enforcement. To put it shortly, I am as big of a fan of their name as I am of their music, and I hadn’t heard of either of them before. The raw passion they emulated on stage called for a great start. Then came Late Notice, a six piece indie rock band. Their friends and fans tend to follow them everywhere they play live, whether it’s on the NC State campus or in front of an ordinary house — and it’s pretty heartwarming to see. I’ve never been disappointed by a Late Notice live appearance, as I’ve seen them play a couple of times myself. I really enjoy their subtle blend of indie rock and hip-hop, and how the different vocalists take turns on stage singing and freestyle rapping.
When the first two bands were done, it was already 10:45pm. It was also around that time that Mom Rock arrived on stage, all dressed up in their bright blue jersey shirt, reading the band’s name in an old school white font on the front. I had the chance to exchange a few words with vocalists Curtis Heimburger and Josh Polack at the merch table a few hours before they got on stage. I took a picture of them posing with their “got milf?” shorts, and I could tell that their show was going to be a perfect reflection of their personality: super fun and electric. They were both rocking long, curly hair, glittery make-up and big black lines on their face. Drummer Wilson Reardon and bassist Tara Maggiulli stayed a bit more discreet in the back of the stage, although still perfectly aligned with the band’s style and energy.
They opened with the upbeat “25” from their 2021 EP “a song with a happy end”. “No one knows just who they are at 25”, goes the chorus. One thing Curtis and Josh knew how to do, though, was sharing their bright and bubbly energy with the audience. I was front row the whole time, and I was taking in all of it. When they weren’t sliding their feet like crazy and shaking their legs to the sound of their own guitars, they were either jumping high in the air or escalating the huge speakers in front of the stage. Mom Rock was the kind of band that was all about giving. They were truly dedicated to use every single one of their body parts and every single inch of the stage to dance, jump, sing or scream. At some point, Curtis even ended up lying down on stage, his acoustic guitar almost smothering him.
From time to time, Curtis would disappear — either in the crowd or upstairs, depending on the song — letting Josh take over. At other times, Josh would be the one merging with the front row, while Tara was pulling off eccentric dance moves and stroking her bass. And sometimes, Curtis and Josh would play the guitar (acoustic or electric) back to back, as close to each other as they could. They played a few of their hits, like “Conversation” or “Intheinbetween” (a personal favorite of mine), and even ended up including a few covers here and there, like “You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift or “The Middle” by Jimmy Eat World. “Grand Romantic Life” was probably the song that got me dancing the most, as it’s both one of their most listened-to singles on Spotify (so I obviously already knew it), and one of their most upbeat songs yet. By the end of the show, Josh was sitting at the edge of the stage, singing their folk-rock ballad “if i had better friends”, and he had the crowd singing in unison in a heartfelt communion. When everyone asked for an encore, Josh happily got back on stage and said, “I’m down for an encore, but it’s up to them now”, as he stared at his fellow band members backstage. They came back for one last song, and right before leaving the stage, Josh held up their white “got milf?” shorts, and other fun and colorful pieces of merch to show everyone.
After the show, I came up to Curtis like I had a few hours before. “You guys were amazing on stage”, I said, and a few compliments and thank you’s later, I offered to record a radio ID for the station. “That would be awesome!”, he shouted with a big smile on his still-very-glittery face. Wilson joined him, and I let out the loudest laugh when neither of them could figure out when or how to speak, after several failed (yet rehearsed) attempts. We all couldn’t stop laughing. Finally, we got one just right, and as I thanked them for their time, I walked away with a smile, knowing that I’d just had the best nights in weeks. I’m always excited to see smaller bands play live and to support local music venues. I’m even more excited when the music sounds amazing and the band happens to be this cool in person. I really look forward to Mom Rock releasing an album and headlining even bigger shows in the near future.
