Look, we know we throw a lot of new music at you. We also know that not everyone who comes to this site has the time to be as involved with or informed about the local scene as maybe they’d like to be. So for those casual readers who either can’t or have no interest in keeping up with the parade of artists we try to cover, who may not know the difference between Bitter and Biters, we have created our TRIPLE THREAT feature. The premise is simple: Our writers will put their heads together and come up with three tracks that grabbed our attention over the past week. Then we tell you why the songs are great and worth listening to. That’s it. Maybe some weeks we’ll have a guest commentator come in and share their favorites, but the format will always remain the same: three songs, some words, and we out. Enjoy.
Credit: Christian Högstedt
Algiers – “Dispossession”
From the forthcoming LP, There is No Year
It’s tempting to believe Algiers’ politically charged anthems are uniquely suited for this moment in history, but the truth is as long as America exists, the group’s existential songwriting will continue to ring with undeniable clarity. Their new single “Dispossession,” the first off their upcoming LP There is No Year, finds the four-piece channeling foreboding gospel melodies over surprisingly spacious piano. It’s difficult to know whether the track addresses gentrification and colonialism, or if it’s a violent reckoning for those in power hoarding ill-gotten gains, but in either case, Algiers ratchet up the tension with increasingly frantic energy until the track culminates with frightening silence. – Russell Rockwell
There is No Year, is out Jan. 17, 2020 via Matador Records. Pre-orders are available here.
More Info
Web: algierstheband.com
Facebook: @algierstheband
Instagram: @algierstheband
SoundCloud: @algiers
Twitter: @AlgiersMusic
Old Trees – “Velvet Moonlight”
From the standalone single
With a name like Old Trees, the suggestion is one of brittleness and decay, yet also a certain wisdom and majesty. And truth be told, as a warm fog billows through the center of “Velvet Moonlight,” there’s some push and pull between the stately melodies that pace the track and the gauzy atmospheres that threaten to dissipate into dust. With help from producer Diego Hermoza, project mastermind Zachariah Watson beguiles us with some head-spinning magic full of lush textures and dreamy reverberations. Like a long walk in the woods, the experience is transfixing, a spellbinding journey that is both beautiful and pensive. – Guillermo Castro
More Info
Facebook: @oldtreesofficial
SoundCloud: @oldtrees
Credit: Jared Elliott
Safety Net – “How Does It Feel?”
From the standalone single
In so many movies and video games, we’re primed to expect some external force as the “bad guy.” But you likely know as well as I, that the demons we tend to fight instead claw from within. If you’ve ever felt that gnawing in your chest that tugs you down and robs you of worth, then you know what Caroline Walden is talking about on “How Does It Feel?” And unlike the villains that the hero has to kill on sight, depression doesn’t just back off at gun point.
The fledgling trio of Safety Net pricked these wounds open back in 2018, as their first EP Wake Up stands in defiance against “the fear of falling.” But now Walden, her college mate Alex MacIntyre, and recent inductee/drummer Ian Rowland plant us in the shoes of someone who can’t summon the same strength just yet: “Do you know what it’s like to be scared of the fight ‘cause you’re not sure if you want to win?” If you don’t, then the melodrama of the tip-toeing piano and the surging power chords might sound a little overwrought. But for those of us that do—those of us who have fallen to our knees on the bathroom floor, or had to retreat from a crowd as loneliness swallowed us whole—this is the devil we know. But with like-minded souls like Safety Net, we don’t have to fight alone. – Lee Adcock
More Info
Web: safetynetatl.com
Facebook: @safetynetatl
Instagram: @safetynetatl
SoundCloud: @safetynetatl
Twitter: @safetynetatl