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The third full-length offering from British born songwriter Southway was recorded in a variety of hotel rooms and bedrooms in South Korea whilst touring Asia. On Suitcase, Southway, a seasoned multi-instrumentalist/producer and longtime San Francisco resident, exposes his powerful voice and songwriting expertise from a palette of raucous guitars reminiscent of the glory days of Brit-pop before Radiohead discovered drum machines and the Gallagher brothers Oasis had bank accounts. The resulting 11 tracks are modern rock fueled by the road and lost love, but with Southway's perpetual optimism, there's always a chance that good times are right round the corner.
We've always been big fans of Luke Temple, and it's good to see that, together with the Here We Go Magic crew, the man is keeping at it with increasingly beautiful records and videos. The band's new album "A Different Ship" (stream it here) will be out on May 8, and betrays at least a partial return to Luke Temple's more intimate and melodic sound from his solo repertoire - in this regard, lend a ear to "Hard to Be Close," "Alone but Moving" and "Over the Ocean". This is welcome news for fans like us who always thought that in most HWGM material Luke's noteworthy songwriting skills seemed a little sacrificed on the altar of textural experimentation. This doesn't mean that the band's signature hypnotic, impressionistic sound is lost - it's just that these two elements work together better than they did in past records, and this is what makes this album one of the NYC highlights of the year so far. Indeed, this collection also features songs more in line with the band's past releases ("Make Up your Mind", "I Believe in Action"), which follow on the steps of brainy-pop icons like Brian Eno and The Feelies, but there's definitely a balance here, also betrayed by the almost perfect alternation of melodic songs and less traditional ones.The just released video of "How Do I Know," telling the story of a rejected dancing robot that ends up revitalizing an older man's appreciation for life, seems to reflect on this brain/heart, mechanic/organic dichotomies and somehow bring them to unity. - PDG
