25. Jade Relics – With You

My main gig is covering cover songs, so I appreciate a song that shouts out “Nina Simone covering Bee Gees” (that’s the 11th Best Bee Gees Cover Ever, in case you were wondering). A new production trio from three veterans of Vermont’s hip-hop scene – Elder Orange, IAME, Rico James – “With You” brings some freak-funk vibes, like some old Stevie Wonder sample. Maybe someone will cover this soon.

24. The Pyros – King of the Internet

“King of the Internet” is not just about the internet – it sounds like the internet. A rock band temporarily taking cues from chiptune, the sonics recall the MIDI soundtracks of pre-YouTube Flash videos.

23. Tom Pearo & Michael Crain – Love Wave

No song came with a better backstory than Tom Pearo’s “Love Wave”: He recorded the entire thing submerged in a lake. But you don’t need all the details to enjoy this new age-y guitar instrumental. A few years ago, Pearo released one of the best albums of 2019 with I Am a Mountain. Though “Love Wave” is only a small fraction of the album’s length, it offers a miniature sample of the composer’s sonic mind at work. And underwater.

22. Bilé – New Kid

Quoting British theologist Alan Watts talking about Carl Jung to open your rap song seems like a flex Drake might make. “New Kid” echoes streaming’s reigning champion musically too. Bilé’s debut album INSULT TO INJURY came out in April and he seems to have already taken it off streaming services. At least this song is still up…for now.

21. Trackstar – Hello Easy

“Hello Easy” is the title track of Trackstar’s new EP, and “easy” is the perfect word. A little easy-listening, a little soft-rock, all filtered through a supremely chill delivery. Recordings likes that sometimes fall into the trap of being all vibe with no actual song behind them, but Trackstar buttressed all that relaxation with some solid hooks.

20. Abby Sherman – I’ll Be There

This past July, when I first wrote about this track, I complimented “Sherman’s bluesy belt in the Susan Tedeschi vein, which she really unleashes near the end.” And, get this, just a few days after I wrote that, Susan Tedeschi actually performed this song with her! I’d take credit…except I hadn’t actually published my writeup yet. Damn. Tedeschi kills it, of course, but Sherman holds her own standing right beside her.

19. Omega Jade – MommiEbonics

It’s no coincidence that Omega Jade’s new EP Elevate: The Rise of Mama MC dropped on May 9: This year, May 9 was Mother’s Day. The EP is a hip-hop tribute to motherhood and all its joys and struggles, never more so than on the witty and moving “MommiEbonics.” As the hook goes, “I love my kids, but they get on my nerves.”

18. Nate Gusakov – Coming Apart

On “Coming Apart,” banjo player Nate Gusakov sounds like an old blues singer growling over an outtake from Mark Knopfler’s Sailing to Philadelphia. That’s his dad on the fiddle, too.

17. Troy Millette – Stay (Please)

Country singer Troy Millette’s new song “Stay” has been kicking around unrecorded since 2016, but when he began to record his new album with producer Chris Hawthorn, he decided to give it another shot. He explained the back story in an email: “I wrote it about a girl who was in a pretty serious relationship, but I was convinced that I was the better choice. When we went back into the studio to start recording our new record, the melody just seemed to fit the vibe of the other songs, so I revisited it and finally finished a full draft in the studio with Chris Hawthorn. I loved the sentiment of the bridge, looking back on how I actually would have been TERRIBLE for her in that situation, but the melody felt jagged and forced, so Chris suggested that we just talk it out, and it played out into one of my favorite moments in the song.”

16. Leon Ampersand – These Blue Skies, They Are a-Callin’

The title “These Blue Skies, They Are a-Callin’” sounds like an outtake from Oklahoma!. The actual song, an inviting slice of breathy Britpop, very much does not.

15. Portraits of Sawyer – Mullet Action

Ben Wiggins and Adam Henry Garcia of Portraits of Sawyer released two very different songs in advance of their album Whatever You May Say. The title track is a lighters-in-the-air piano ballad, while “Mullet Action” is a hearty ’80s-inflected rocker. Though the genre is experimental indie-rock, the combination of a big holler-along rock jam and a sensitive piano ballad feels very hair metal. I like them both, but “Mullet Action” takes it by a – ugh sorry – hair.

14. Francesca Blanchard – Loon Song

Depending on your age and scene, the phrase “loon song” might conjure up visions of Bon Iver or Tom Green. For those unfortunates in the latter camp, any memories of Green putting his bum on things should be wiped (no pun intended) out by Francesca Blanchard’s beautiful synthpop song, which channels the energy of Lorde’s effervescent Solar Power summer. (And don’t miss Blanchard’s other killer 2021 single either, and a timely one right now: “New Year’s in Paris”).

13. Eastern Mountain Time – A Little Bit of Rain

Remember the days of the CD single? Where you’d pay for the one song you wanted, and then, to try and make you feel less ripped off, they’d throw on a couple extraneous versions – a crappy remix, an instrumental? Eastern Mountain Time’s new single has that throwback energy, with his version of “A Little Bit of Rain” followed by a cover of the exact same song by Willoughby J Morse. They botched the retro execution, though, by accidentally making both versions essential. Too late to add a “Tambourine Part Only” remix?

12. Strangled Darlings – Terrible Monsters

Shortly before Covid hit, I saw David Byrne’s Broadway show American Utopia. When I listen to new-weird-Americana duo Strangled Darlings’ “Terrible Monsters,” I picture Byrne’s army of barefooted percussionists marching around on stage. From the ominous chorus – “All that I want, and it’s good, is the terrible monsters” – to the propulsive rhythms waterfalling around the melody, it’s peak Byrne. Add some nonsense words and you’d get “I Zimbra.”

11. Robscure ft. Eva Rawlings – Echoes

Vermont Hip Hop, which follows its titular scene at a granular level, recently wrote, “Even among the most packed & diverse crop of young talent [Vermont] has ever seen, Robscure has distinguished himself with a prolific and adventurous body of work.” And that was before his new single “Echoes” came out. A collaboration with singer Eva Rawlings on the indelible hook, it’s a great showcase for a rapid-fire rhymer.

10. Ryan Montbleau – Ankles

The tasteful folk-rock opening doesn’t exactly scream “comedy song,” but then the first line comes in: “I am thankful / for my ankles.” It continues like that for a bit before impressively pivoting back to not-a-comedy-song territory, as Montbleau delivers a sincere and heartfelt ode to music itself. Then, bam, we’ve boomeranged back to Montbleau talking about his pancreas. These is-it-a-joke-or-not transitions sound jarring on paper, but somehow when he sings it all makes sense.

9. New Erotics – Thicc Thighs

A silly and extremely fun new-wave dance song, the only thing that dates “Thicc Thighs” as not hailing from 1986 is the spelling of “thicc.” It could be an old Go-Go’s or Cars song, only with lyrics that sound like a Sir Mix-a-Lot who’s gotten some lessons on body positivity.

8. Dave Richardson – Keep Trying

The first time I wrote about Dave Richardson this year, I said he seemed like a super positive person. At the time, he had released a song called “It’s Gonna Be OK.” The follow-up track, the opener of his album Palms to Pines, came with a similarly encouraging title: “Keep Trying.” In this case, it’s clearly him talking to himself, offering a bit of encouragement to a shy person doing his best to avoid social isolation over some extremely catchy folk-rock.

7. A2VT – I’m a Soul Survivor

A2VT’s new single blends the group’s trademark sounds of Afropop, R&B, and hip-hop with a surprising twist: ’80s metal. After three extremely catchy minutes of singing and rapping, an epic guitar solo bursts forth by an actual ’80s-metal vet, Andre Maquera of 8084. It reminds of that time Kirk Hammett guested on a K’naan song, in the best way possible.

6. Repelican ft. Sam Herring – All Our Heroes

Repelican aka. Jon Ehrens recruited a host of collaborators to co-write and sing almost all the songs on his new album I’m Not One: Vol. 1. It was hard to pick a favorite. For a while, it was the soft-funk of “Oh My God” with Giant Wave. Then it was the folk-rock “Wrong End of the Rise” with Tom Vollmer. But I finally landed on the indie-synth-rock of “All Out Heroes,” which features Future Islands frontman Sam Herring.

5. The Silent Mile – Better Days

The extremely catchy “Better Days” brings a healthy dose of Blink-182 pop-punk with surf-rock drums and a snotty sneer. Some killer lines too, both funny and honest about struggling with depression, starting with the opener: “I’m fucking crazy, but not in a fun way.”

4. Lowell Thompson – Blood Season

Lowell Thompson is a great and extremely un-prolific singer-songwriter. He hasn’t released an album since 2014, well before I started this site, so I haven’t been able to write about his music as much as I’d like. But he snuck out two singles this year. The first, “Doorstep Religion,” is excellent. The second, “Blood Season,” is excellent-er. It’s a very Neil Young and the Stray Gators vibe (minus the honeyslides…I assume), country-rock with some real grit.

3. The Smittens – Year of Happiness

A pure little blast of pop balladry that barely tops a minute, “Year of Happiness” seems destined to serve as a concert intro number. After all, it ends with “Let’s start with a song / let’s start with a beat / Let’s start with a 1-2-3 / 3-2-1 / Let’s go.” From there they could segue right into the indie-pop vets’ similarly-themed “Year of the Lake.” Also, I appreciate the audacity of naming a song “Year of Happiness” in 2021. It’s kind of like the new Band of Horses album title: Things Are Great.

2. Liz Simmons – When the Waters Rise

Liz Simmons had logged time singing backup for Melanie. Yes, that Melanie, of Woodstock and “Brand New Key” fame. On her own new album Poets, Simmons stays more in the singer-songwriter Americana lane than Melanie’s ’60s pop, but she knows her way around a hook, and has a hell of a voice to deliver it. Nowhere is that more true than opening track “When the Waters Rise,” which evokes current Newport Folk Fest-type mainstays like The Lone Bellow and Lake Street Dive.

1. Jesse Taylor Band – Disaster

When I first wrote about Jesse Taylor Band’s EP Ever-changing, I focused on the song “Blue.” When I wrote about it again, I switched to the title track. Now, after almost a year of listening, I can say I got it wrong both times. Both those songs are great, but the best of the EP – and the entire year – is “Disaster.” It’s a hooky alt-rock look at growing up, drawing from Taylor’s contemporary influences like Courtney Barnett and Big Thief as well as further back to ’90s college-rock stars like Dinosaur Jr. and Pixies. The song came out on January 1st. The competition was over before it even began.

Note: Best Albums is here and Best EPs is here. In an effort to broaden the lists and avoid redundant blurb-writing, every list this year will have a totally unique group of artists.

The post The Best Vermont Songs of 2021 appeared first on County Tracks.

Adam Rabin – Winter Song

Prog-rock veteran Adam Rabin’s “Winter Song” sounds pure Jethro Tull. All that’s missing is a flute solo. Oh, wait – there it is.

Chipmunk Economy – Would You Sacrifice

Band reunions are typically premised on reigniting existing fan groups, but I’d never heard Chipmunk Economy during their first run. By the sound of their comeback record Ten After Ten – that’s ten new songs after ten years away – I missed out.

Clever Girls – Baby Blue

The latest preview of Clever Girls’ upcoming album Constellations, hotly tipped to be among the year’s best, “Baby Blue” sounds claustrophobic, a contained storm just waiting to explode. Songwriter Diane Jean says, “I wrote Baby Blue about three years ago and we recorded it in early 2020. Now, it reminds me of the darkest stages of the pandemic – the days where everybody in the music industry was holding out hope for their fall tour dates. I spent all of May of last year, while Vermont was still very much on lockdown, in complete isolation with the exception of my cat, Hank. It was exactly the type of experience that the song was born out of in the first place – feeling isolated, and cut off from the world even when it was still turning – if not on fire – outside of my door.”

Couchsleepers – All the Worst Things

I was going to write that “All the Worst Things” is the most straightforwardly poppy song in Couchsleepers’ growing catalog, but that was before the guitar explosion that sounds like that tone that never ends. It’s like Robert Fripp crashing an Ed Sheeran song. Couchsleepers’ last album was inspired by the frontman’s insomnia – no wonder he’s having trouble sleeping if these are the sounds he’s listening to!

Dave Richardson – It’s Gonna Be OK

Dave Richardson seems like an optimistic guy. In mid-December, during an extremely bleak stretch, he released a song called “It’s Gonna Be OK.” He’s not naive, but each verse shows him trying to keep a positive mental attitude. “If I didn’t work and I didn’t try / I would worry the time away / So I’m going to work and I’m going to try / And it’s gonna be ok.”

Derek O’Kanos – So It Goes

Derek O’Kanos’ new EP On the Sleeve dips its toes into blues and folk, but “So It Goes” expresses its pure pop-punk heart. It’s a two-minute-fourteen-second blast that, Ramones-like, never lets up or wears out its welcome.

The Eschatones – Just Walk

The Eschatones is a garage band, but you wouldn’t know it from their debut release. After playing shows for seven years, the trio hoped to finally, belatedly, record an album in 2020. Then 2020 actually happened. So frontman Kai Stanley recorded the songs himself. Even if these recordings do turn out to be just demos in the long run, the acoustic style works (and he can still get pretty loud even by himself).

Henry Jamison ft. Darlingside – The Parting Glass

Bob Dylan fans may recognize the melody of the old Scottish folk song “The Parting Glass”; Bob borrowed it for his ’60s song “Restless Farewell.” On his new all-but-a-cappella collaboration with Darlingside, Jamison resurrects the very auld original for the new year.

Jade Relics – With You

My main gig is covering cover songs, so I appreciate a song that shouts out “Nina Simone covering Bee Gees” (that’s the 11th Best Bee Gees Cover Ever, in case you were wondering). A new production trio from three veterans of Vermont’s hip-hop scene – Elder Orange, IAME, Rico James – “With You” brings some freak-funk vibes, like some old Stevie Wonder sample. Maybe someone will cover this soon.

Jesse Taylor Band – Ever-Changing

I already tackled one song on Jesse Taylor Band’s great new Ever-Changing EP, so here’s another, the title track. The video, she says, is an only lightly fictionalized recreation of a real breakup and, months later, sidewalk confrontation. Taylor says of the story behind it, “One day I see him with a new lover and the dog that we got together. I freak out, pull over the car, and run to them. I cause a scene, I yell, I cry, long story short – she was leaving that day anyway to go back to her home state out west and after that my ex and I talk and reconnect and are back to the beginning of what do we do from here.”

Leon Ampersand – These Blue Skies, They Are a-Callin’

The title “These Blue Skies, They Are a-Callin'” sounds like an outtake from Oklahoma!. The actual song, an inviting slice of breathy Britpop, very much does not.

Maple Run Band – Hangin’ Round

Lou Reed fans might recognize the look of Maple Run Band’s new single art; it mirrors Reed’s 1972 album Transformer. Sure enough the single is a cover of a song off it. They don’t pick one of the better known tracks – “Perfect Day,” “Walk on the Wild Side,” “Satellite of Love” – but go for the relative deep cut “Hangin’ Round.” They turn it into a twangy honky-tonkin’ country song.

Michael Chinworth – I Don’t Follow

The music video, such at it is, simply shows Michael Chinworth changing lightbulbs. It reminds me of Frank Ocean launching his new album by building a staircase. It’s similarly sparse and meditative, helping you zone out and focus on the soothing music.

Milk Weed – Use a Stencil

A lot’s been written about bands adapting during the pandemic. Here’s something more unusual: Bands forming during the pandemic. The trio of Milk Weed began over the phone in 2020, three childhood friends reconnecting even though they now live far apart (two in Vermont, one in Colorado). They managed to record an entire debut EP without this band ever having been in the same room.

Narrow Shoulders – Day Off

Spare and haunting, the debut EP from Narrow Shoulders’ Zach Pollakoff does a lot with a little. Ambient noise, synth tones, the occasional pluck of guitar string or simple drum beat get layered just so to create an immersive instrumental world. The fact that Pollakoff works for A-list pop producer Ariel Rechtshaid in his day job is no surprise. Though the genres couldn’t be more different, Pollakoff clearly knows to to construct a soundscape.

Nate Gusakov – Coming Apart

On “Coming Apart,” banjo player Nate Gusakov sounds like an old blues singer growling over an outtake from Mark Knopfler’s Sailing to Philadelphia. That’s his dad on the fiddle, too.

Nodrums – La La La I Love This Song

The title “La La La I Love This Song” sounds like a Pixies songs, but that’s where the similarities end. A strange and silly talking blues about, among other things, L. Rob Hubbard, “La La…” sounds like if Tenacious D if Jack and Kyle were into old county music instead of metal.

Omega Jade – Miss Simone

If you missed the documentary What Happened, Miss Simone?, rapper Omega Jade delivers a pretty solid overview of Nina Simone’s life and career in under two minutes, “Thanks to Miss Simone, I know I’m young, gifted, and black,” she says.

The Pyros – King of the Internet

“King of the Internet” is not just about the internet – it sounds like the internet. A rock band temporarily taking cues from chiptune, the sonics recall the MIDI soundtracks of pre-YouTube Flash videos.

San Mateo – Sorry Doesn’t Dry These Tears

San Mateo lead singer Craig Mitchell moonlights as a Prince tribute act, and you can hear that influence in his buttery-smooth vocals. “Sorry Doesn’t Dry These Tears” has definite R&B slow jam vibes throughout, aided by wonderfully eerie slide guitar accents just this side of Morricone.

Tiger Fire Company No. 1 – Be Together

Tiger Fire Company No. 1 call themselves “Northeast Vermont’s Premiere (only?) rap trio.” They’d surely be the best even if there was more competition for the title. Tight and inventive, they deliver clever lyrics and hooks aplenty. “Be Together” adds a touch of punk edge, evolving into a Fucked Up style shout-along by the end. (And, because the album cover already features people sitting in chairs, you better believe it’s been Bernie-memed).

Ula Blue – Carry On

Ula Blue’s debut single “Carry On” sounds like the work of a much more experienced artist. Though she plays in alt-country-leaning band Chazzy Lake, her solo work is all swooning electro-dreampop, splitting the difference between New Order and Mazzy Star.

Winooski Anvil Co. – In Search Of

Like Tom Waits meets Black Flag, “In Search Of” brings some weird and old-timey imagery – it’s the sort of song that rhymes “rune stones” with “whale bones” – to a loud sonic assault that splits the difference between punk rock and doom metal.

Wool See – Antibodies

Wool See, aka IAME from the aforementioned group Jade Relics, delivers a downtempo coronavirus anthem, working in a nod to the late MF Doom. Songs quite so topical usually have a short shelf-life, but he blends the timely (“I got the vaxx and the antibodies,” an extremely 2021 boast) with broader concerns.

Check out previous best-of-the-month lists here.

The post The Best New Songs of January appeared first on County Tracks.

This Top 40 looks nothing like the actual Top 40. None of these songs charted, and I don’t think any of them aspired to. That is no knock against them, which probably goes without saying here – anyone reading music blogs knows that much. The adjectives “great” and “popular” occasionally attach themselves to the same track, but not often enough.

So just think of this as an alternate history of 2019 singles. It has no horses, and no town roads. It doesn’t teach love, patience, or pain, and isn’t 100% that anything. It also, as the headline says, only includes artists from one rather small state. But this wildly subjective, somewhat arbitrary survey of the past 12 months should serve as a small introduction to the wealth of talent in one community on the geographic fringe. There was a lot of wonderful music being made this year, much of it far from the big cities, or the Billboard charts. Duh.

40. Amelia Devoid ft. Bleach Day – Afraid to Touch Her

Clouds dominate the single cover, and it’s hard to think of a more fitting image. This dreamy reverie seems the perfect soundtrack to staring into the sky and getting lost in your own thoughts. The electronic musician’s last album tackled some heavy themes (for one: genocide), but the new single seems light as a breeze.

39. Allison Fay Brown – Summit

Like a good short-story writer, Brown offers just enough narrative details to intrigue while leaving plenty of gaps to fill in yourself. For instance…what’s in that box on the doorstep??

38. Zak Kline – I Will

When I first stumbled across Vermont singer/songwriter/producer Zak Kline’s personal-empowerment single “I Will,” his gorgeous falsetto and intricate production immediately grabbed my attention. Like a Bon Iver song, it managed to sound intimate even buttressed by string sections, backing choirs, and huge crescendoing choruses. Compared to the earlier material I found on his Bandcamp, “I Will” leapt out. It seemed to indicate a bold new direction – except he’s already moved on to other sounds. Hopefully he’ll revisit this style, as he seems to still have a lot to offer.

37. Abby Sherman – Hand with the Devil

If the only Satan-themed violin song you’ve heard is “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” Abby Sherman’s “Hand with the Devil” might throw you for a loop. Rather than rollicking fiddlin’, Abby Sherman and violinist Katie Trautz – who we’ll hear more from in a second – create something truly spooky, like the sort of Gillian Welch track you don’t play in the dark.

36. Ionee – We Are More Than I

Electronic music producer and singer Ionee’s latest music video features a lot of great visuals, but the first truly important shot is subtle: A map of the world with a lot of little dots coming out of Africa and heading to the Americas. As anyone who explored the New York Times’ 1619 Project knows, this year marked the 400th since the beginning of slavery in America. The Times took a sober look at this history in a magazine supplement and podcast. Ionne, aka. Maurice Lajuane Harris, takes a very different tack on the same sad history, creating a haunting house track and a mesmerizing animated video.

35. Katie Trautz – Ghosts

Katie Trautz uses a little to say a lot. Each verse of “Ghosts” is only three lines of plain-spoken language (rare is the word that hits two syllables). But it paints an evocative portrait of a couple trying to find tranquility away from some unspoken darkness. Similarly understated, the music creates a tasteful Americana bed of slide guitar and brushed drums on which the lyrics can lie.

34. Blackmer – Flash Flood

The idea of “digital detox” has grown a lot of currency in the last few years. The New York Times seems to run an article a week about the importance of unplugging (and I always see them on my phone… hmm, they may have a point). “Digital detox” is a dry phrase, though. Sam Dupont brings more beauty to the concept on the meditative “Flash Flood.” The narrator yearns to escape to Arizona’s open skies, away from the news, away from all the LED displays. It’s certainly a relatable feeling, and rarely expressed so poetically.

33. Chazzy Lake – Not Afraid of Your Crying Eyes

After post-punk band Bison broke up, Charlie Hill looked forward – while looking much further back. A far cry from post-punk, his single “Not Afraid Of Your Crying Eyes” channels Roy Orbison – and not just with a key word in the title. Though Hill doesn’t have Roy’s deep voice (who does?), the song’s jangly sound and soaring melody line recalls the blends of country and pop that Orbison was stirring up at the dawn of the rock era. But, despite echoes of the ’50s, “Not Afraid Of Your Crying Eyes” may actually be less retro than his post-punk band was. Hill veers well clear of any nostalgic trappings by melding these old influences with more recently-minted sounds like bedroom pop and chillwave.

32. Danny & The Parts – Misdirected Allocations

I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what to write about this song beyond “it’s really good.” Then, after listening to it a few times in a row yesterday in search of inspiration, I found it got stuck in my head for the next 24 hours (and counting). Maybe that’s all the recommendation it needs. Listen at your own risk.

31. The Grackles – Glitter

Despite the bird’s name, the common grackle seems a relatively uncommon inspiration for a band name. But now there are at least two. There’s Canadian duo Common Grackle, who a few years ago released the hilarious country ballad “[I Don’t Want to Die] At the Grindcore Show.” And now there’s another duo, with a similar name but a very different style. Duffy Gardner and Ariel Zevon (Warren’s daughter) released their debut album earlier this year, the high point of which is this poignant piano duet.

30. Hallowell – Another World

Hallowell’s Joseph Pensak came early to the year’s Mister Rogers-appreciation trend. He wrote “Another World” as a tribute to both his childhood hero and a second figure from the television show: François Clemmons, who played the neighborhood policeman. Pensak incorporated samples of the pair’s dialogue from the show into this inspirational pop croon. Then he did one better, getting Clemmons himself to sing on the song.

29. The Pyros – Coffee

The Pyros cite 1950s rockabilly and Pulp Fiction as inspirations. The first you can hear in their single “Coffee,” and the second you can see in its slightly crazed retro video (one of three on their “video EP” Christian Mingle). Like a Sun Records artist trying to make a big first impression on one side of a 45, they blast through the track in under 90 seconds, sending you right to YouTube’s replay button.

28. Henry Jamison – True North

In a recent interview with Henry Jamison, the journalist compared narrative songs like “True North” to Mark Kozelek. Jamison gently pushed back – because who wants to be compared to Mark Kozelek in 2019? But if you jump back a decade in Sun Kil Moon’s discography – when his songs still had melodies, and his persona wasn’t full troll – the similarity makes sense. A beautiful retelling of a pedestrian experience that took on emotional significance, “True North” recounts Jamison driving down the great highway, talking to his girlfriend on the phone and mulling over past mistakes.

27. Omega Jade – Tricks Of The Trade (Petty With A Purpose)

“I write these verses to break generational curses,” rapper Omega Jade rhymes on “Tricks Of The Trade (Petty With A Purpose),” the final track on her debut album. She passes on some hard-earned business lessons to her kids: “Follow your heart but take your brain with you / Not every damn friend is meant to work with you.” She spits proverbial fire going after fake friends and slacker collaborators, grinding her way to the top.

26. Bishop LaVey – The Myth Has Broken

Bishop LaVey (aka. Kane Sweeney) describes his music as “doom-folk,” a genre label that’s pretty dead on. Over spare and echoing guitar, he hollers a deep guttural roar, bringing heavy goth undertones even when the instrumentation reads as Americana. And what heavier topic for a heavy sound than ancient mythology. Specifically: how the Judeo-Christian belief system effectively murdered the old gods.

25. Michael Roberts – Jolene

No, this ain’t Dolly begging Jolene not to take her man. In Michael Roberts’ version, some other man already took Jolene. Quite a while ago, from the sound of it. This regret-filled winter lament gets lifted by a perky horn section in a high point of Roberts’ overall excellent debut solo album.

24. SoundBrother – Plastic Baby

The formerly-known-as DuPont Brothers become the newly-rechristened SoundBrother exactly 52 seconds into their debut single. When they first announced the name change in 2017, Sam and Zack DuPont billed it as a move to a new genre, from folk to indie rock. For the first almost-a-minute into “Plastic Baby,” it’s hard to hear the difference. Then pummeling drums come in, with echoing guitar on their heels. You can see why a new sound needed a new name.

23. Strangled Darlings – Buckets of Sand

Jess Anderly and George Veech spent three years on the road living in an RV before recording their new album, and you can hear those travels in “Buckets of Sand.” To be honest, I’m surprised more of those years weren’t spent in New Orleans. That’s the location I hear most on this – less the city’s famed jazz side, but its weirder Americana scene that birthed Hurray for the Riff Raff and Benjamin Booker. The song boasts a ramshackle DIY feel, with perfectly loose harmonies and an easygoing attitude.

22. Madaila – Clandestine Magic

When Vermont’s dance-pop breakouts Madaila announced an indefinite hiatus last year, they had the better part of a new record in the can. I figured we’d never hear the rest, but, as indefinite hiatuses so often do, it finally came to an end. They haven’t lost a step in their new-wave catchiness, and frontman Mark Daly’s falsetto remains as soaring as ever.

21. Kristina Stykos – State Line Diner

Using a beaten-up Chevy as a metaphor for an aging narrator’s resilience, “State Line Diner” would prove compelling no matter who sang it (in fact, someone like Emmylou Harris should cover it). But Kristina Stykos’ sing-speaking delivery lends a weight to lines like “The day I surrender and lay my chassis down / and empty my compartments, and crumble to the ground / I’ll still be full of living, ‘cause I ain’t done yet.”

20. A2VT – Wave Your Flag

Refugee pop group A2VT released one of last year’s best singles with “Faas Waa.” The Burlington-based Said Bulle and George Mnyonge originally hail from Somalia and Tanzania, respectively, and their story infuses their music. Their follow-up single “Wave Your Flag” keeps the energy high, mixing languages over a colorful video. They’ve also added more members from Vermont’s refugee community: guest singer Meax (Tanzania/Burundi) and dancers Mr. Oli (Tanzania/Congo) and Fantome J (Nigeria).

19. Princess Nostalgia – The Talking Drug

Lilian Traviato’s “The Talking Drug” incorporates shades of Sade or SZA, arty R&B with some Nile Rodgers-esque funk guitar (by frequent collaborator Joe Leytrick). And, as with all her singles, it comes with an intriguing piece of visual art the college student does herself.

18. Mal Maïz – Pizuica

Maïz Vargas Sandoval, frontman for cumbia band Mal Maïz, says the band’s new song was inspired by the Costa Rican folk take of Pizuica, the god of the underworld. Despite the scary-sounding name, a devil like Pizuica was considered a good spirit who helped scare off invaders, oppressors, and conquistadors. All of that is vibrantly depicted in the music video (slightly NSFW, though there’s a lot of body paint).

17. Lean Tee – Expected

That terrific EP cover art (painted by Drew Parkinson) perfectly encapsulates the vibe of this melancholy song. The music meanders along, pleasant but slightly unsettled, for a couple minutes until an unexpected drum pattern kicks in.

16. Couchsleepers – In My Head

The band formerly known as The Giant Peach made both of our best of 2018 lists with a sprawling Talking Heads-inspired pop music. They’ve since changed their name, but show a similar ambition under the new moniker Couchsleepers. They’ve stripped down their sound a bit on their first new song – though stripped-down for them means one horn instead of a half dozen.

15. Reed Foehl – If It Rains

Singer-songwriter Reed Foehl teamed up with roots mainstays Band of Heathens for his new album, and the pairing works wonders. He brings the powerful and catchy songs, and they help bring a rich tapestry of sound, with just-so touches of organ and slide guitar blending together so well it can be hard to identify the individual instruments. Nowhere do both artists hit harder than on “If It Rains,” which sounds like early Wilco or the sort of lush Americana record Dan Auerbach produces down in Nashville.

14. boys cruise – A Stupid Song for Stupid Me

“A Stupid Song for Stupid Me” is every bit as self-loathing as the title implies. But, to me at least, it reads as the sort of cathartic self-pity that can be therapeutic. Just a guy wallowing in despondency for a bit, knowing there’s time to pick himself back up tomorrow. The vocals follows the lyrics; every line is basically an agonized moan. Until it amps up to an equally agonized holler, and the band explodes behind him. Bet he started to feel better after this dose of primal screaming.

13. Cricket Blue – Corn King

Looking at the track list for folk duo Cricket Blue’s debut album Serotinalia, one song leapt out: “Corn King.” It’s not the title as much as the run time: 11 minutes and 57 seconds. On a folk album, one imagines a song this long must be an epic ballad comprising dozens of verses, their “Desolation Row” perhaps. The reality is much stranger. Though quiet and acoustic in its presentation, the song’s structure leans more progressive-rock than folk. Add drums and a fretless bass solo and “Corn King” could be a Rush song. The duo bring a dream-logic approach to lyrics that wind as quixotically as the music, retelling an old myth of a ritual sacrifice.

12. Francesca Blanchard – Baby

“Baby” is not a song title that implies much backstory, but the simple name masks some complicated feelings. She wrote it after returning from five months in Ecuador hiking and teaching guitar. A relationship that started shortly before she left had fizzled in the meantime, and her return precipitated what she termed a “quarter-life crisis.” “Baby” also continues Blanchard’s transition from folk to a sound closer to indie-R&B, and has earned her some of the biggest acclaim of her career, including praise from NPR, which called it a track for “when you’re crying in paradise” (I couldn’t tell you what that means, but still think it sounds about right). 

11. Eastern Mountain Time – Different Tomorrow Night

All those artists supposedly “saving” country music often do so by bringing in non-country elements, from Sturgill Simpson’s psychedelia to Kacey Musgraves’ disco flair. But on new single “Different Tomorrow Night,” Eastern Mountain Time saves country music by playing the genre right down the middle. A cry-in-your-beer weeper that George Jones could have sunk his teeth into, “Different Tomorrow Night” chronicles songwriter Sean Hood’s breakup over appropriately mournful harmonica and slide guitar.

10. Lissa Schneckenburger – I’ll Stick Around

I don’t know whether Regina Spektor was a conscious influence “I’ll Stick Around,” but she’s the obvious point of comparison. The similar lilting stutters on certain lines (“He hides in my daughter’s smi-i-i-i, i-i-iiiile”) comes off so beautifully you wonder why more singers don’t do it. Just swap out Spektor’s piano for Schneckenburger’s violin.

9. Glorious Leader – Sweet Louisa

“Sweet Louisa” sounds like Kishi Bashi. I’d like to add another artist to that list for readers for whom a Kishi Bashi comparison means nothing, but no one else comes close (just Google him once you finish this list). I used to think Bashi’s featherlight plucked-violin pop was singular, but now there’s one more artist on this road less traveled. Kyle Woolard, who records as Glorious Leader, nails the soaring vocal leaps, xylophone choruses, and all the other accoutrement. In lesser hands, this would seem insufferably twee. In his, it works wonders.

8. Clever Girls – Remember Pluto

Emotions run high and guitars get turbulent in Clever Girls’ “Remember Pluto,” but the volume knob never turns above a 6. Imagine if Mazzy Star covered Nirvana, or if some sound engineer turned the vocals up and guitars down on My Bloody Valentine.

7. Fever Dolls – Adeline

Never short on ideas, Fever Dolls pack a lot into under three minutes. In this case, an entire piece of musical theatre written in miniature, plotted around a husband and wife both in love with the same woman. “[Singer Renn Mulloy] and I spent years playing in different bands with people that wanted to make Radiohead’s Kid A,” songwriter Evan Allis said, “while we were trying to make Disney’s The Kid.” Yeah, they give good quotes too. The madcap video stays true to that cinematic vision. The rest of the band serves as Mulloy’s backup chorus, channeling musical-theatre tropes from Grease white tees to West Side Story finger-snapping over a country-cabaret singalong.

6. Dino Bravo – Pop Music

“All the songs are about addiction, the ocean, My Morning Jacket, party rocking, and my wife,” Dino Bravo singer Matthew Stephen Perry said about his writing contributions to Dino Bravo’s debut album. You can hear a bit of all that on “Pop Music.” Party rocking and My Morning Jacket come through loud and clear in the roaring music. The others pop up in the lyrics. Just one exception: in this song, he goes home alone.

5. Miriam Bernardo – I Got a Well

Singer Miriam Bernardo’s debut album has been a long time coming. In her many years performing around Vermont, she’s connected with many of the local folk musicians, most notably recent Tony-winner Anaïs Mitchell. Mitchell even contributed a song to open Bernardo’s album, the beautiful “I Got a Well.” When they one day stage the Hadestown revival, this could fit right in.

4. Ernest – Wish I Knew

Off the 22 songs on Mark Daly’s sprawling double album I’m Gonna Do It (Anyway), probably half were in contention for this list. He divided the set into electropop and Americana halves, and proves equally adept at both genres. From the former half, “Wish I Knew” doesn’t bounce as much as some of its competitors, but the catchy ballad (is “catchy ballad” a contradiction? Not in Mark Daly’s hands) showcases the inventive production touches and beautifully layered vocals.

3. Erin Cassels-Brown – Classic Records

Few street musicians boast songs a club crowd could pump its fists to, but former acoustic busker Erin Cassels-Brown amps the volume way up on the hard-rocking “Classic Records.” His tight backing band channels a tight ’70s rock combo (speaking of classic records), injecting energy and muscle as he pushes his vocal chords on the yell-along chorus.

2. Sabrina Comellas – Romeo

Despite Sabrina Comellas’ background in Shakespeare (she graduated from Emerson in 2017 with a theater degree), her Romeo and Juliet homage doesn’t center on either character. She narrates from the point of view of an invented third party looking to the doomed duo for answers. The unnamed protagonist, a hopeless romantic removed from the Elizabethan trappings, offers a relatable way into the narrative and avoids the song becoming a sonic CliffsNotes. Even if you know nothing about Shakespeare, the gorgeous melody and Comellas’ big belting-to-the-Globe-balconies voice will draw you in.

1. Matthew Mercury – Contessa

“I am the worst singer in the band,” Matthew Mercury’s Ezra Oklan said. He is, as you may have guessed by my mentioning it, the band’s singer. And, as you might have also guessed by this song’s placement here, he undersells himself. Though perhaps his low croon wouldn’t work in other genres, it perfectly fits this band’s post-punk rumbles. A high point of the band’s self-titled debut, “Contessa” piles killer vocal hooks and inscrutable lyrics atop pounding drums and an insistent bass line.

Now check out the Best Vermont Albums and Best Vermont EPs of 2019!

The post The Best Vermont Songs of 2019 appeared first on County Tracks.

Ali T – Electric Haze

Alison Turner is an artist out of time. She’s a singer-songwriter, but not with the folky connotations the phrase often takes on. Rather, something like “Electric Haze” sounds made for radio. Late-’90s radio, that is, when artist like Jewel and Meredith Brooks were racking up top-ten hits. It wouldn’t have a chance today, but “Electric Haze” ably walks to tricky line of engaging with nostalgia while creating something new.

Bishop LaVey – I Am the Atom

Last time I wrote about doom-folk singer Kane Sweeney, he was bellowing about the death of ancient gods. His outlook hasn’t gotten any cheerier, but the deaths are more recent on his new single. Inspired by the recent Chernobyl miniseries, he wrote a song about “the danger of harnessing atomic power and the consequences of its mismanagement.” A heavy topic, and delivered powerfully.

boys cruise – Peachfuzz

boys cruise pack a lot of pop smarts in a sloppy package. Very sloppy, in some cases. When I saw them live, all band members swapped both instruments pants mid-set. They they cut off a band member’s hair in huge hunks that got thrown into the crowd. Their debut album is equally shaggy, but these greasy and garagey performances don’t hide the hook-packed tunes lurking just beneath the chaos.

Bull’s Head – Names

Parts of Bull’s Head’s debut album sound like one of those lost private-pressing folk records that some vinyl reissue label might unearth. I’m not quite sure what “Names” is about, but the enigmatic lyrics and the barely-there music demand the listener lean in.

Clover Koval – Yoga Mat (Don’t Know Where I’m At)

Clover Koval excels at slice-of-life lyrics that echo Courtney Barnett over music that sounds like a lo-fi Best Coast. “Yoga Mat (Don’t Know Where I’m At)” might be one of the best song titles of the year. Thankfully, the song itself lives up to its billing.

Couchsleepers – In My Head

The band formerly known as The Giant Peach made both of our best of 2018 lists with a sprawling Talking Heads-inspired pop music. They’ve since changed their name (is the Roald Dahl estate litigious?), but show a similar ambition under the new moniker Couchsleepers. They’ve stripped down their sound a bit on their first new song – though stripped-down for them means one horn instead of a half dozen, and the list of instruments main man Harrison Wood Hsiang plays only appears to be going.

Danny & the Parts – Saturday

After sticking in the country lane for their first 2019 EP, this alt-country band swerves to the “alt” side of the hyphenate for a song that channels the Replacements via Wilco’s Being There. Come to think of it, are their early-Wilco homages overt? Follow me here: Wilco have a song on that album called “Monday,” and this song is “Saturday.” Plus, Danny & the Parts’ new song “Mississippi Queen” echoes “Casino Queen” on Wilco’s first album. Okay, my Claire-Danes-on-Homeland sleuthing doesn’t get much further than that; it’s a sad conspiracy wall with only two red strings. But you’ll hear the musical connections, even if the titular ones may be a stretch.

Eric King – Take Me Away

The phrase “folk-rock with a flute solo” may trigger Jethro Tull haters, but “Take Me Away” uses the combination quite differently. This pretty love ballad doesn’t have an ounce of prog in its DNA. The flute mostly adds more subtle auxiliary flourishes, but even during its moment in the spotlight it almost gets overshadowed by beautiful backing vocals.

Glowwworm – Keep Your Solitude

DIY isn’t dead! Glowwworm’s lo-fi EP Things’ll Never Be The Same! recalls the sounds flooding the blogosphere a decade ago, when the ability to produce a decent-sounding rock record in your bedroom was still a novelty. As with much of that music, it demands a bit of attention to hear the catchy songs underneath the haze, but the extra effort pays off.

Ionee – We Are More Than I

Electronic music producer and singer Ionee’s new video features a lot of great visuals, but the first truly important shot is subtle: A map of the world with a lot of little dots coming out of Africa and heading to the Americas. As anyone who explored the New York Times 1619 Project knows, this year marks the 400th since the beginning of slavery in America. The Times took a sober look at this history in a magazine supplement and podcast that will undoubtedly win every journalism award there is (and deserve to). Maurice Lajuane Harris takes a very different tack on the same sad history, creating a haunting house track and a mesmerizing animated video.

Jason Baker – The Last Coral Left Alive

Jason Baker refers to his music as “socio-political Americana,” though he admits that genre tag “doesn’t really roll of the tongue.” “The Last Coral Left Alive” puts it a little more poetically, bringing gospel-blues inflections into Baker’s folk music. It wears its environmental message on its sleeve, but injects a dose of wit and melody.

Lean Tee – Fern

“This is a song about hysteria,” is the entirety of this song’s Bandcamp description, but if anything the watchword is “restraint.” For most of its duration, it evokes a barely contained energy, slow but certainly not mellow. When it finally does expand into a Yo La Tengo-esq guitar jam, the moment of catharsis is fleeting.

Madaila – Clandestine Magic

When Vermont’s dance-pop breakouts Madaila announced an indefinite hiatus last year, they had the better part of a new record in the can. I figured we’d never hear the rest, but, as indefinite hiatuses so often do, it finally dropped the “in.” They return with a local concert tonight, and two new singles from that rumored album. Thankfully, they haven’t lost a step in their new-wave catchiness, and frontman Mark Daly’s falsetto remains as soaring as ever.

Matt Valentine – Minor Rager > Calliphygian Niekro > Minor Rager

Anyone who’s ever heard a Grateful Dead tape will recognize the formatting in the title (for everyone else, > indicates segues between different songs). In this case, though, it’s a bit of a feint; “Minor Rager” and “Calliphygian Niekro” don’t exist as separate songs (except maybe in Matt Valentine’s head). This is the first we’ve heard them. The Dead comparisons don’t go far beyond the title and the sense that some people might enjoy this on mushrooms. Valentine brings dance music into his jams, giving an electronic beat to his weird atmospherics.

Miriam Bernardo – I Got a Well

As detailed in two excellent local-news stories, singer Miriam Bernardo’s debut album has been a long-time coming. In her many years performing around Vermont, she’s connected with many of the local folk musicians, most notably recent Tony-winner Anaïs Mitchell. Mitchell even contributed a song to open Bernardo’s album, the beautiful “I Got a Well.” When they one day stage the Hadestown revival, this could fit right in.

Omega Jade – Tricks Of The Trade (Petty With A Purpose)

“I write these verses to break generational curses,” rapper Omega Jade rhymes on the first single from her debut album Wounded Healer. On “Tricks Of The Trade (Petty With A Purpose),” she puts that into action, passing on some hard-earned business lessons to her kids: “Follow your heart but take your brain with you / Not every damn friend is meant to work with you.” She spits proverbial fire going after fake friends and slacker collaborators as she grinds her way to the top.

The Pyros – Casanova

Two things I doubt have ever been used in the same sentence before: “Stacy’s Mom” and Jackie Chan. But The Pyros claims them as the two inspirations behind the final installment in their “video EP.” The comparison sounds like stretching promo-hype until you watch the video. Yep. “Stacy’s Mom” and Jackie Chan (albeit a Jackie Chan whose fight moves perhaps aren’t what they once were).

Sarah King and the Guilty Henchmen – Oh Mama

Sarah King’s new blues-rock album What Happened Last Night hits the genre’s typical bar-band notes, but the most impressive song strips the sound down to barely more than her voice. “Oh Mama” starts as more or less a folk song. The band does join in eventually, but, as on many other blues ballads, the star remains the vocals.

Vivintinn – Hypocrisy

I don’t know what Tim Burton’s up to right now, but whatever it is, I think we’ve found the soundtrack. Spooky church organ and string quartets and child’s piano would fit right in with some Nightmare Before Christmas sequel. The album cover’s even got fancy-dressin’ skeletons!

The War Turtles – The Oblong Box

Our second Halloween-appropriate song in a row! “The Oblong Box” sounds enough like some old sea-shanty folk song I had to Google to check if this was a cover. It’s not, though I’ve now learned there’s both a Vincent Price movie and Edgar Allen Poe short story of the same name. Dig into the Bandcamp credits and discover that the Poe story did inspire the song at least. It’s as depressing a lyric as you’d expect once you guess what that “oblong box” must be.

Western Terrestrials – WWWJD (What Would Waylon Jennings Do?)

Nick Charyk knows his honky-tonk history. He nods to a whole host of heroes from Johnny Paycheck to George Jones on “WWWJD (What Would Waylon Jennings Do?),” slipping in lyrical nods to old country songs like a More important than cramming in the references is nailing the sound of classic outlaw country, which his band Western Terrestrials does with aplomb. The lyrics attack modern pop-country, but you could tell these guys aren’t Blake Shelton superfans just by listening to the way they play.

Willow Ash – Into the Willows

October 30 was the perfect release date for this EP. For one, it’s called Creeping Winter, and the season will be creeping especially quickly in the band’s Vermont homebase. Plus, it’s almost Halloween, and there’s a creepy skull cover and a song called “Witchgasm.” The high point, “Into the Willows,” works for any season though, stoner psych-rock that mixed Sabbath and Sleep.

Check out the out previous best-of-the-month lists here.

The post The Best New Songs of September/October 2019 appeared first on County Tracks.

Abby Sherman – Hand with the Devil

If the only Satan-themed violin song you’ve heard is “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” Abby Sherman’s “Hand with the Devil” might throw you for a loop. Rather than rollickin’ fiddlin’, Abby Sherman and violinist Katie Trautz create something truly spooky, like the sort of Gillian Welch track you don’t play in the dark.

Damascus Kafumbe – Twala Obulamu Bwange (Take Charge of My Life)

Damascus Kafumbe plays every instrument on his new EP, and I bet you’ll only recognize one of them: adungu, mbuutu, mpuunyi, nsaasi, claves, and lead vocals. This Middlebury ethnomusicology professor knows his stuff: his speciality is the music of East Africa and last year he published a book on the music of the Kingdom of Buganda, in Uganda. The description that accompanies his new album is beautiful: “In an era of metastatic geopolitical fear and xenophobic loathing, Damascus Kafumbe offers Teach Me To Love, a song cycle EP to remind listeners that we live in a beautiful world. Far from the irrational paranoia that Americans should be suspicious of all foreign influence, this record implores people to listen more carefully, to love our neighbors, to seek transcendent wisdom, and ultimately, to hear a world full of goodwill and hope.”

Eric George – Found Out

This prolific folk singer ventured into punk-rock on an earlier album this year. He’s back closer to his roots on new album Where I Start, but dips into the blues a bit on “Found Out.”

Fridge and the Spins – God in Good Times

No joke: I was planning to call Fridge and the Spins’ album “trashy beach-rock” and then I noticed they beat me to it. The album is literally titled Trash / Beach. Like early Best Coast, the band fuzzes the hell out of delectable pop sounds like blend girl groups and the Beach Boys.
[Note: After I wrote this blurb, I discovered that, though the album just popped up on streaming services this month, it first came out in 2012.]

G Rockwell – Spark

G Rockwell’s website boasts a quote from Tony Trischka. For banjo players, that’s like a pop artist getting a quote from Taylor Swift. Or maybe Trischka’s Katy Perry and Béla Fleck is Swift, but Rockwell’s covered there too: the 16-year old jammed on stage with Fleck just last month. He’s clearly an old soul, though; I assumed this song was some bluegrass staple with its old-timey phrasing. Turns out he wrote it himself.

Ionne – Lovers They Need Never Know

“Tech house” sounds like a genre I would very much dislike, but “Lovers They Need Never Know” by artist Ionne (aka Maurice Lajuane Harris) is basically a catchy disco song wrapped in an EDM production. And for the real house-heads, there’s a remix on the flip side that sounds more like what I initially imagined “tech house” to be.

Mezrah Masada – Death of the Titans

You probably guessed from the title (“Death of the Titans”), band name (Mezrah Masada), or album art (swords, mountains, winged creature), but this is heavy metal – and of the most grand and unapologetic sort. Across seven fast-paced minutes, the band builds an epic instrumental suite, symphonic in its scope but with a bit of a hardcore edge underneath. One part math-rock, two parts Maiden.

People Watchers – Dark Thoughts

The chorus lyric “I have dark thoughts inside of my head” brings the subtext of most punk music right onto the surface. You probably could have guessed the sentiment from the sound: fast and loud and over in 81 seconds. Also from the “album cover,” which is just a black square. To the point.

Plastique Mammals – Three Rainbows In The Same Day

Plastique Mammals are nothing if not ambitious. They titled their debut album The Best Of (accurate, technically) and are charging $1,000 on Bandcamp for this five-song outtakes collection. Maybe some billionaire with nothing better to do will take them up on it. The duo’s grooves always hit beautifully, spacious and meandering but without the aimlessness of so much instrumental rock music.

The Pyros – Coffee

The Pyros cite 1950s rockabilly and Pulp Fiction as inspirations. One of those you can hear in their new single “Coffee,” and the other you can see in its slightly crazed retro video (the first of three on their “video EP” Christian Mingle). Like a Sun Records artist trying to make an impression on one side of a 45, they blast through the track in under 90 seconds, sending you right to YouTube’s replay button.

Transitory Symphony – Nothing But A Hole In The Ground

Like any protest song worth its salt, “Nothing But A Hole In The Ground” takes on an incredibly specific story to make a bigger point. The subject being protested in this case is a construction catastrophe in Burlington, Vermont, but you don’t need to know or care about that particular issue to relate to the song’s closing verse: “250 million dollars / It could help a lot of folks when spread around / But in land known as the Queen City / All it could buy was a hole in the ground”.

Tyler Davidson – its all luv

This sort of woozy, lo-fi hip-hop gets tagged “Soundcloud rap,” but I’m pretty sure Tyler Davidson doesn’t have a Soundcloud. Is “Bandcamp rap” a thing?

Check out the out previous best-of-the-month lists here.

The post The Best New Songs of August 2019 appeared first on County Tracks.