Aster Tracks

As well documented earlier this year I was not totally in love with Paramore’s last record. To me This is Why was far too derivative and didn’t really feel like a proper Paramore entry, especially when stacked against both their self-titled record and After Laughter, the latter of which is still one of my favorite records of all time . Now, only eight months later the band has released a response to that album and on this one they are bringing lots of artists from their influence and proximity. To me, before I even heard the album, this was more what I was looking for; a collection of tracks born from collaborating with the community around you feels like something this band has never done and sounded like just the shake up I needed from the trio. While I try to stay away from the overall opinion from any fanbase I have seen that a lot of people are really underwhelmed by this one and I’m sort of surprised given just how much I’m resonating with it but that is what it’s all about after...

The members of Future Teens have come together with Take This to Heart records to new label, hands in. To celebrate the launch, they have released a sixth anniversary edition of their first record. I have written about every single Future Teens full length aside from this one up till this point and what better way to finally do that then to show support for the unveiling of their own label? The new edition comes with the base record as well as three bonus tracks, one of which is a cover song that was previously released as a single back in 2018. The first thing I notice going back to this one is, while Future Teens have always been honest, they were brutally so on their first go around. There are memorable and blunt lines all over this thing, one of which I think about quite a bit being “we disagree on everything except that we should not be dating.” “Expiration Dating” as a song concept is gut wrenching, the sense that at the start of something new you know it cannot possibly last. ...

  In October of last year Kristine Flaherty, also known as singer, rapper and songwriter, K. Flay announced that she had gone completely deaf in one ear. Never one to back down for obstacles she got to work on her fifth record. Now that record is here and regardless of the quality of these songs I want to say, up top, that I really admire this story. While I haven’t ever gotten to document it on this blog, I have been a pretty big K. Flay fan ever since 2017’s Everywhere is Somewhere and though I have found her discography inconsistent in the years since there’s always something to enjoy on each entry. “Are You Serious” opens the record with a recounting of the day her world went half silent and paints a really jarring and vivid image of what that must be like. The track ends with a ringing in just the left channel and between that and the brutal honesty of the whole thing it goes off really well. From there we get “Raw Raw” a song that represents everything I enjoy about K. Flay a...

Texas trio Waterparks are big, like really big, like bigger than I even thought. Not only did the band move from 300 Entertainment to Fueled by Ramen for this album cycle and have over one million monthly listeners but lately it feels like everyone has this band’s name on the tip of their tongue. I know I’m a bit late reviewing this album, but it seems like the band is teasing something else already so maybe now’s the time to clear this one from the list. A lot of modern albums use moments from the studio or from the artist’s life in general as segues in their songs, not a lot of them are doing it quite like Waterparks. The album opens with frontman Awsten Knight verbatim asking someone to imagine if the album opened like “this” before it simply does. Everything about this album’s set up is fairly meta in fact, that same song ends referencing the next one before transitioning into it. Not just self-referentially, Intellectual Property is really well sequenced in terms of both mood and...

If you haven’t heard of Fauxtrot today is the perfect day to get familiar. This Philly-based progressive rock band has dropped the music video for their debut single, “Retrace Embrace,” today. We aren’t much on visuals here at AsterTracks but we know songs, and this is a good one. Within just ten seconds of their first track Fauxtrot demonstrates that they are not here to play around. The intro to this one let’s everything breathe, first showing off some riffs, leading into a drum fill until the vocalist finally kicks in. They roll in really smooth too, this first verse is quite lovely. The band spends the entire first verse showing themselves off as a unit as opposed to parts moving independently. Everything is really given the chance to shine in unison and it makes for a great listening experience. Later the track absolutely changes on a dime with some bouncier, more fun sonics and a lot of attitude lyrically. When they get to the song’s chorus they slow everything down, then just l...

Last spring Silverstein released their eleventh official album, Misery Made Me. We over at AsterTracks gave that album the full track-by-track review treatment and while I did like most of it for the band’s consistency twenty years in, I also sort of scolded them for the lack of variety on the record itself. This year they’ve reissued the album with a second disc, and I thought it’d be fun to hop on here and look at Misery Made Me retrospectively as well as take a first look at the new songs as well. The retrospective part of this review is the first time I’m listening to this album in quite a while, but I also know I’m quite late to listening to this at all. When I turned the album on, “Our Song’s” riff hit me with just as much nostalgia as a riff like “Smashed into Pieces” does and it almost feels iconic in its own right. It hit me within the first few tracks that SIlverstein is sort of a blessing to this scene. They take their detours and do what they want and I want that for every ...

A few months ago, off of a feature from the latest Harm record I was pointed toward Atlanta, GA’s Sarah and The Safe Word. It took me a while to get to this record, if you’ve read the more recent reviews, you’ve seen me constantly refer to the backlog, but I’ve checked it out now and was pretty surprised by what I heard. Not that this is a genre I haven’t heard of but between Harm’s alternative metal record and the signing by Take This to Heart records, who I usually like for their emo output, I wasn’t expecting an alternative and cabaret blend. I cannot deny the songwriting chops that Sarah and The Safe Word display on Broken Glass, in fact I can’t really deny their proficiency as a band either. On the first real song on the record, “Ruby Off the Rails,” vocalist Sarah Rose hits a wide range of styles and does an outstanding performance on the song’s chorus. The Safe Word is equally as impressive, “Ruby” offers a background of musical theater without ever making it feel like a broke...

Disclaimer: The following is a re-post from earlier this year. This review was originally posted alongside three others but, in the time, since posting those reviews allegations of sexual assault have emerged about a musician, I gave a lot of praise to. I ask that you always believe victims and give your support to artists who work hard and manage to maintain being an unharmful person. Princess Nokia is a NY based rapper whose output I’ve been aware of but not very in tune to up to this point. Aside from the occasional feature I’ve never actually heard a project or single but on i love you she celebrates, not mourns, a love past. No disdain, no remorse, just keeping in mind the light given during a time past and the freedom that comes after it. To me, in my life right now, this is catharsis. I wrote you this album for my closure. In the grand scheme of their presentation these songs do just work. They’re a grand and inviting celebration; “complicated” keeps up on the mome...

The backlog is pretty deep, this album came out all the way back in January, but this was a recommendation from a friend back home and I really wanted to make sure I got to it. The Ohio emo scene is really booming lately, and this is another really good addition to the canon. First thing I want to point out is that it’s very Real Emo (™) to be as sad as this vocalist is and try to sell it as being totally fine. “Jelly Boi” is an especially compelling song as absolutely nothing goes right in this individual’s life, and he really tries to sell it as something cheerful and fun. At that though they don’t always fake that through the delivery until a joyous tone shift that keeps the exact same lyricism. I also enjoy how the album tells a coherent narrative of this depressive wave, even if I don’t quite think it sticks much of a landing it does always paint a vivid image of what’s going on. This is probably a silly criticism, but I don’t really buy the video game OST theme. The intro havin...