Deep Thoughts

The Smithereens' excellent sophomore effort picks up where their debut, Especially for You, left off, with Pat DiNizio delivering another impressive batch of superbly constructed pop gems; tracks like "Only a Memory," "House We Used to Live In," and "Drown in My Own Tears" are immediately ingratiating – instantly familiar, yet performed with more than enough energy and flair to sound new and exciting…

If you’ve been following the site for some time, you may remember the name Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving. They were among the first bands that sent us their stuff for our listening pleasure—their 2008 EP Tiny Fragments—and it was one of my first reviews, which I won’t be linking to because my writing wasn’t so great at that point and the post was fairly insignificant. At any rate, I’ve known of the band for almost two years, but for some reason their new album passed by unnoticed until I stumbled upon it by chance when I was looking for a different album altogether. Lucky I saw it, because it was great to listen to these Aussies tear it up once more and I had nearly forgotten about them entirely.

Some of this third Bo Hansson album was done at home, while most of it was a formal studio creation. Violin and acoustic guitars are added to the mix of sounds on this proto-new age collection of instrumental music…

Long Thoughts is ambient music master Steve Roach’s first long-form electronic release on Projekt since 2012. In an era where a constant deluge of overstimulation from all directions challenges and fractalizes our attention span into smaller and smaller packets, 73-minute sanctuary provides solace: a soul-renewing immersion in the deeper end of the self-reflection pool.