Songs Of Hope And Comfort

Unapologetically genuine, wry, and soft-hearted - Mariel Buckley has planted her flag firmly as a songwriter who’s in it for the long haul. She aims to find herself squarely on the fringes and exactly where she belongs: singing and writing songs for the underdog. And that’s exactly where her new album, Everywhere I Used to Be, lives.

From teddy grahams to pussy hats, California forest fires to cash cabs, the stuff of American nostalgia and horror adorns a personal reckoning on Christina Schneider’s triumphant third album as Locate S,1. With a name culled from a Daschel Hammitt noir novel, Wicked Jaw pulls from wildly disparate references and textures to survey the history of American pop music. Like Carly Simon soundtracking an Adam Curtis documentary, the album trades in dramatic juxtapositions across its kaleidoscopic ten tracks.

Sarah Nixey will never be as famous as Lady Gaga or as ubiquitous as Katy Perry. She will never need to wear a dress made of meat, or belly flop into a giant birthday cake. What she does is quiet, understated and elegant; as polished as a beautifully cut diamond, but worn discreetly. Having tied-up business with Black Box Recorder, she has at last found the perfect setting for her songs. Where popular music's very own Andy Gray & Richard Keys cast her as a precocious, sinister ice-maiden who could make the phone book read like The Story of O, Brave Tin Soldiers reveals her to be something else entirely: a warm, connected, exceptional musician and songwriter.

Practical Songwriting Theory for Songwriters | Break Out of Your Songwriting Habits and Develop New Chord Progressions

The latest offering in a discography often described as the ultimate symmetry of music and emotion, Dear Avalanche is the most accomplished and fully realized expression of sounds to date from cinematic post-rock powerhouse LIGHTS & MOTION. Although many claim he is a magician, the band's braintrust, Christoffer Franzen, is a storyteller…and a masterful one at that. From the majestic climax of "This Explosion Within" to the hopeful build of "Silver Lining" to the delicate innocence of "Anomaly", every Lights & Motion track tells its own story by transporting the listener through tenor and tone to a place where anything and everything is possible.

There’s one thing Forth Wanderers want to make clear as they prepare to release their third album The Longer This Goes On: “We’re not back,” guitarist Ben Guterl says emphatically. It’s perhaps an unexpected sentiment to pair with the band’s first album since they parted ways seven years ago, but the band insists it’s just an honest answer—they came together to record the ten intricately constructed gems that make up this new record, and they’re still figuring out what being in Forth Wanderers means to them, over ten years after the project’s conception. Listening to these songs, each a glittering celebration of vocalist Ava Trilling’s urgent and intuitive lyrics and the band’s natural musical chemistry, though, it’s hard to feel like there’s much of anything left unsaid. Filled with spit-shined melodies, chiming vocal harmonies, and slinky, slanted rhythms, the album is more expansive than just a return to form. Here, the band aren’t afraid to take the scenic route to a hook, layering instrumental flourishes to fill in the empty spaces, creating room for Trilling’s haunting range, or repeating a riff or a lyric until it becomes a Zen koan. On The Longer This Goes On, Forth Wanderers sound more self-aware and self-assured than ever before. Just don’t call it a comeback.

Though classically trained, pianist Jim Brickman prefers to play more pop-flavored, gently lyrical new age music. His unique compositions are emotional and structured, but not rigidly so. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Brickman enrolled in the Cleveland Institute of Music in his late teens. The focus was on classical music, but Brickman could not escape the lure of mainstream music, and at age 19 began writing commercial jingles. This led him to compose music for such major outfits the Gap, Isuzu, Sprint, and Kellogg's as well as with Jim Henson and Henson Associates. During his association with Henson, he composed for the Muppets and for projects on Sesame Street. He also assisted on some of Henson's Disney projects.