For this nondenominational harvest meal week, here are four album reviews from our diligent DJs--three new adds plus a Mazzy Star classic from the vault--to groove to on your days off, or on your commute if you've still gotta study or work.

- Lucy Talbot Allen, Music Writing Director

Surf Curse - Heaven Surrounds You

All the way from Reno, Nevada with sounds of the indie rock and beach punk persuasions, comes a band called Surf Curse, whose fan base and popularity is rapidly growing. The band features two songwriters, Jacob Rubeck and Nick Rattigan, who explore their lives through music in three very distinct places (Los Angeles, New York, and Las Vegas) where each culture is drastically different from the other. Rattigan is also the sole member of the band Current Joys, which has a more somber yet also dreamlike sound in comparison to the upbeat vibes of Surf Curse. I discovered the two artists whilst immersing myself in the surf rock genre with bands like SWMRS, The Frights, and FIDLAR (to name a few). What I find strikingly unique about Surf Curse is not their music itself but the background behind each track, and indeed the record itself. Their music feels youthful and innocent, but also has an added layer of teenage and adolescent despondency and uncertainty that keeps the band’s listeners coming back for more.

Surf Curse’s third and most recent album, released this September, is a masterpiece of storytelling and obscure but intriguing allusions to the songwriters’ childhoods that flow together to create Heaven Surrounds You. The title itself is very open to interpretation, as it has a religious connotation, but also can inspire hope in that goodness and pleasure are all around you, and there is no need to turn a blind eye to it. What is special about this album is that each song is loosely related to a film from either of the musician’s pasts. Never have I ever seen an album so complex in that each track is inspired by another platform of entertainment such as film. For example, track 6, “Hour of the Wolf” comes straight from the 1968 Swedish thriller Hour of the Wolf, which consists of hallucinatory visions of a cult after it becomes isolated on a deserted island; it evokes more broadly the empty feeling of being alone for long periods of time. Although the songs are only loosely related to the films they correspond to, they are not titled with the dull references to teenage heartbreak one might expect from a small indie band. “Disco,” the first track on the record, is by far my favorite. I am not kidding when I say that I listen to this song at least three times a day, and I can never get it out of my head. The music video to go along with it is also extremely well done, and gives a seemingly nostalgic and innocent play on a night out with your significant other, that ends in a simple choreographed dance routine. At the other end of the spectrum is track 5, “Midnight Cowboy,” which depicts a young man in Las Vegas trying to support himself and his girlfriend by selling himself on the streets to freaky men. There are tons of societal references on this album that I feel are rarely on display in most artists’ albums today. This album is a must listen and I am definitely ranking Surf Curse at the top of my list of favorite bands/records at the moment. Check them out!

- Emma Goad, DJ

RIYL: The Frights, SWMRS, Current Joys, Goth Babe, Together PANGEA
Recommended Tracks: 3, 5, 10
FCC: Explicit (track 10)

The True Blue - If That's How You Feel

I was walking back to my dorm one day when a song I didn’t recognize started playing on my Spotify. My hesitancy towards the unfamiliar led me to bring my hand to my ear to skip the song when I realized I liked it. I liked it a lot. Curiosity got the best of me and suddenly the assignments I should have been working on seemed substantially less important. Just like that, I became acquainted, or rather obsessed, with The True Blue.

The Detroit based band is comprised of powerhouse lead vocalist Christian Koo, guitarist Ben Wilkins, bassist Koda Hult, and drummer Jake Burkey. One of the most remarkable things about the band is the ease with which they mesh genres without sounding confused or disingenuous.

Their 8-track album, If That’s How You Feel, demonstrates this mastery of genre perfectly. “Easy” and “Could Be Done” are marked by the synth pop vibes I’ve come to associate with The True Blue, but as the album progresses more and more genres are introduced to the point that one song can’t be definitively identified as pop, indie, or R&B, but only some kind of amalgamation of all three. “20-20” demonstrates this genre hybridity most clearly. “20-20” is full of Koo’s smooth vocals and a gentle synth that doesn’t seem to conform to any one genre. The anthemic “God Complex” demonstrates their mastery of genre as well; while the song doesn’t sound like any other on the album, it still has a sound that is distinctly that of The True Blue.

Beyond their mastery of genre, the quartet perfectly unpack the many frustrations of unreciprocated love, breakups, crushes, and hindsight in If That’s How You Feel. The simple yet poignant lyrics of “Crush” acknowledge the unrealistic nature of his crush are unbelievably relatable. Koo questions “Who says you have to look at love, infatuation, like they’re practical?” The universal romantic themes of If That’s How You Feel makes it the perfect album for this year’s “cuffing season.”

- Samantha Stewart, DJ

RIYL: The Ivy, The 1975, Coin, Hippocampus
Recommended Tracks: 1, 4, 6, 8
FCC: Explicit (tracks 1, 3, 4, 5)

Desert Sessions - Vols. 11 & 12

Anyone who’s spent time in the desert knows what a singular place it is. No other landscape is quite as harsh, exposed, or intimidating. Simultaneously, however, the desert captures the imagination and compels any who enter it. The vastness of the sky and the land, full of coarse earth and prickly things. Everything around you feels better adapted at survival than you, and the infinite horizon pulls at you to succumb and admit to that truth.

Josh Homme has been tapping into that desert energy for his entire career, doubtless as a result of his Joshua Tree birth and upbringing. His latest project, Desert Sessions Vols. 11 & 12 continues down that desert road, taking the listener out under the sun and into the open.

Vols. 11 & 12 is, as one would guess, the latest installment in Homme’s Desert Sessions experiment. Over the decades, Homme has been known to occasionally form a pseudo-supergroup of friends and colleagues, heading back out to Joshua Tree for about a week’s worth of intensive songwriting and recording. Names like PJ Harvey, Brant Bjork, and even Dean Ween have been, at times, associated with the group. The Desert Sessions players are constantly changing, blowing in and out of the picture (to use a terrible desert pun) like tumbleweed.

Vols. 11 & 12, (the first DS installment in 16 years) follows that tradition of being more than the sum of its parts. The album opens with the slinky, groovy, “Move Together,” sung by ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons. Gibbons’ in-your-ear voice glides easily over the smooth backing, building slowly into the guitar and drum sounds that will define the rest of the album. It’s followed swiftly by ethereal rocker “Noses in Roses, Forever” (one of two Homme-fronted tracks) and the modulating, shuffling instrumental “Far East For the Trees.”

The next pair of tracks, “If You Run” and “Crucifire,” both feature guest vocals, by Libby Grace and Mike Kerr respectively. Grace, a relative unknown prior to this release, appears for a somber and sobering performance over a track which is equal parts abrasive, haunting, and beautiful. Her presence at the midpoint of the album serves to anchor the wild energy surrounding it in both directions, offering some much needed weight. “If you run,” she sings, “you better have a place to go.”

Grace’s performance adds all the more impact to the first ripping bars of “Crucifire,” delivered with gusto by Royal Blood’s Kerr. It’s a short track, coming across in the vein of Fugazi’s “Waiting Room” --- a whole lot of energy, short and sweet.

The album’s lowpoint is “Chic Tweetz” which, almost immediately, comes across as just on the other side of trying too hard. Although the strange, faux Eastern European delivery used by mysterious frontman (and potential alias) Töôrnst Hülpft could be humorous on its own, and the weaving guitars and samples are interesting in concept, the two in tandem just serve to diminish each other. The track drags out its nearly 4 minute runtime, which is disappointing on an album that really has very little else working against it.

Homme tightens it back up for the final two songs, “Something You Can’t See” and “Easier Said Than Done.” The former is another smooth rocker, the kind of track you turn up as you’re rolling down your windows, ripping down the freeway at dusk. Scissor Sisters’ Matt Shears sounds effortless and natural on the vocal, letting the songwriting shine through.

“Easier Said Than Done,” the album’s closer, sees the return of Homme to the microphone. He winds line after line through the piano-driven backing, each one more quotable than the last. No one thought lasts too long, not dissimilarly to the way the rest of the album listens.

Homme’s return to the Desert Sessions was inevitable. Listening to these tracks, spanning such a massive spectrum of thoughts and energies, one can’t help but marvel at the ingenuity of the Queens of the Stone Age frontman. This album feels like the desert itself. Certainly, it could and does stretch out in all directions. Even looking at what’s directly in front of you, however, you’ll be astounded by the confusing, abusing beauty before you.

- Sam Feehan, DJ

RIYL: Josh Homme, Ali Farka Touré, Walking barefoot on sand
Recommended Tracks: 5, 7, 8
FCC: Explicit (tracks 1, 7, 8)

Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See

As we embark on yet another family fun holiday season, which for some comes as a welcome break from the daily grind of school—some of us may be searching for a reprieve from the wonderfully complicated and easily tempered dynamic of family togetherness. If you find yourself nodding in agreeance with camp #2, look no further than this album when searching for something to blast in your room after leaving the dinner table to sulk. Alternatively! You might be fortunate enough to bear witness to some true fall weather, think ~leaves~ and looking out the window angstily as though you were the protagonist in some indie film.

Though this album came out in 1993, it is definitely one that I believe collectively, we—or maybe my Gen Z is showing— have been sleep on. Mazzy Star’s So Tonight That I Might See is the album that gave birth to what is arguably their most famous track, “Fade Into You.” Even if you don’t think you don’t know it, you know it. It is in the ranks of quintessential 90’s teen movie soundtracks. A song that is at once sweet and innocent while also undoubtedly telling of a bittersweet plotline. Though this track is great its overplay has pushed it into the gamut of cliché. It is for this reason that I had refrained from diving deeper into Mazzy Star’s discography, an assumption of merely more “Fade Into You” soundalikes.

However as I was listening to Spotify on shuffle the other week, “Five String Serenade” snuck its way into my radio. Immediately I recognized the voice as belonging to lead singer Hope Sandoval. “Oh wow, this is Mazzy Star,” I thought, and then suddenly: Oh WOW! this is Mazzy Star! On this much slower track, Sandoval is able to express more vulnerability in her voice in a way that says no, this is a sad song. Add gentle guitar picking, and the song becomes just so raw. Taking the time to listen to the rest of the album, I was met with more rawness, in a no frills take-me-as-I-am kinda way. The seemingly minimal production combined with these gorgeous vocals makes for a very human and oddly reassuring listen. Which is just what we need when trying to sort through the stress and anxiety that plague our unnecessarily chaotic lives. Listening to this album is like receiving an auditory hug.

- Violet Ames, DJ

RIYL: 90s soft grunge, The Smiths, TOPS, Galaxie 500, Frankie Cosmos
Recommended Tracks: 2, 4, 5
FCC: Clean

NEW (AND OLD) ADDS: Surf Curse, The True Blue, Desert Sessions, Mazzy Star