Best of the Midwest 2021
Earlier this year [REDACTED] Magazine asked me to do a roundup of my five favorite albums that came out of the Midwest in 2021. But they killed the piece. So here is my list coming to you live from my little blog. Less and less I engage with AotY lists etc, partially because of the increasing tedium and partially because of what an exhausting year it’s been. But I’d hate to let these words go to waste and it’s always a pleasure to hype my favorite region.
There is something distinctly Midwestern about long stretches of road, a constant state of departure and arrival. I can’t help but soundtrack my way around through the year, and I like to begin where I began (in the Chicago area) and pay homage to bands that started humble there too. Now in Minneapolis I am still writing from a place of discovery, still receiving a music education from basements and mosh pits where everyone is holding their giant winter coats in one hand. The albums I take time with here have also, with great care, carried themselves across the many seasons of the Midwest. VIAL entered my life during a heat wave, The Ophelias as the air started to crisp. They are albums best listened to either brazenly stripped down or tenderly layered up, on your way to wherever it is you belong in this very moment. May these albums find you both traveling far away, and always close to home.
Bless My Psyche - Sincere Engineer
The sophomore album from Chicago based Sincere Engineer, A.K.A. Deanna Belos, is hit to emo hit. The introduction ‘Trust Me’ transitions seamlessly into ‘Tourniquet’, never allowing for the beginning chunk of the album to catch a breath in between. It’s like there’s no time left and Belos has to play it all before the sun goes down and there’s work again in the morning. There are some breaks on the album, ‘Recluse in the Making’ is soft and acoustic save for a surging bass line. But it’s only for a minute before Belos is proclaiming “I wanna touch you with my mouth/I wanna drink ‘til we pass out” on ‘Hurricane of Misery’. Bless My Psyche is largely a product of self awareness, unrequited love, and late nights. Deeply into self deprecating humor and earnesty, Belos continues writing gruff anthems for the underdog.
Crocus - The Ophelias
The Ophelias are narrators that tend to bring you in at the middle of a story and force you to consider all of the characters in a song. It adds to the surreal nature of their songwriting, where former lovers are “carcassed like hunted game.” Frontperson Spencer Peppet sings about figures that claw her eyes out and trees that look like a former lover; ‘Spirit Sent’ is a song of the ghosts of love, finding each other one last time and apologizing, confirming that The Ophelias make music in another realm. Crocus moves between string heavy and low-fi with Mic Adams’ weighty drumming adding more meat to the sometimes sparse bones of the Ophelias. ‘Biblical Names’ is led by a heavy piano that reverberates and lingers before being joined by a fluttering violin. ‘Neil Young on High’ tends a delicate harmony between Peppet and Julien Baker. ‘Spitting Image’ is gentle and folksy, invoking a Midwestern kind of pain, “a pair of kids beneath the winter snow.” There is something both warm and incredibly brisk about Crocus. The Ophelias, like the climate in their home state of Ohio, refuse to be just one thing, just one genre, just one person. If you’re someone who may find themselves walking home from a party in the cold or enjoying the frozen sidewalks reflecting streaks of sunlight, then this album is for you.
I Want The Door to Open - Lala Lala
More than anything, I Want the Door Open, the third album from Lala Lala or Lilie West embraces the unknown. There is an abundance on the album, both in its feeling of water and its collaboration. It is generous in talent with everyone from Sen Morimoto to Ben Gibbard lending their creativity. At the same time it lacks presence, doesn’t need to be perceived, sits in the center of the light. West seeks a pureness, “I want to look right into the camera”. On ‘DIVER’ she is frustrated, “I can't look directly at it.”. The album moves through extremes, extreme love, extreme fear, extreme pain. And to feel the emotional extremities is worth it. West finds thrill and fantasy in looking what scares her in the eye. ‘Photo Photo’ is almost Gregorian in nature, a layered round of harmonies featuring Ohmme. There’s a surreal quality to it that appears more blatantly on tracks like ‘Castle Life’ and ‘Utopia Planet’. ‘Castle Life’ is a synth thrumming to life, “I wish that I could see / what’s right in front of me / which reality / is actuality (fantasy)”. And ‘Color Of The Pool’ pulls nothing short of a magic trick with its fever of horns. The door never really opens, but we’re always reaching.
Favorite Son - Gully Boys
Though Gully Boys’ Bandcamp bio describes them as “three scrappy boys writing songs in the basement,” the boys ain’t so scrappy these days, parading full rock n’ roll theatrics. Their latest EP, Favorite Son centers around the titular track, guitarist and vocalist Kathy Callahan wailing “power is born/a beautiful boy/I was born/knowing what I want.” The trick is that Gully Boys aren’t a girl band--Callahan might’ve been born in the margins, but now she’s the first boy of her kind. Gully Boys take the power back. As much as they are the rocker boys they’ve always dreamt of being, they’re also their own mothers. ‘In Another Life’ is a devastating look at what if, a nostalgia for a life never lived. The track enters with gentle keys and a strummy accompanying guitar, Callahan’s voice pitching up into a gentle soprano. It’s a narrative detour for the band, building a world where a woman will “never raise her voice, never resent her choice, [and] might even do this again”. ’I’m Not Yours’ has a pop sensibility, the shinier side of the EP. Which isn’t to say it doesn’t get loud. The track refuses to “fade away” into a relationship that’s not working and instead decides to step away and get to know itself. ‘Russian Doll’ is surging, a powerhouse effort all topped off with Callahan’s snarl. It’s the final act of independence for the band, “there's no one comin' to makе things right”. In a world void of the real, where the algorithm tells us exactly what kind of consumers we are and we buy our security, Gully Boys set out to save the world. And they just might.
LOUDMOUTH - VIAL
I had the pleasure of interviewing bassist Kate Kanfield and guitarist KT Branscom of VIAL earlier this year when I was spending several days of the week laying out in the sun, listening to music. VIAL is not a sun soaked band but perhaps the catharsis found in their newest album LOUDMOUTH will help me through the loveless months. LOUDMOUTH is a fever break in the cis male dominated music scene. The quartet are angry, gutsy, and unapologetically queer, landing themselves somewhere in the Riot Grrrl lineage but ultimately breaking tradition. The album shifts from revenge fantasies about running boys over with your car to rock n’ roll odes to anxious introversion. Vocalist Taylor Kraemer is a delightful spitfire on tracks like ‘Planet Drool’ and ‘Mr. Fuck You’ while bringing a welcome sweetness to ‘Something More’. Blowing the concept of “Minnesota nice” to smithereens they shriek at boys to get therapy and call them boring to their faces. LOUDMOUTH also contains a no holds barred feminist look at the DIY music scene where too often the most manipulative men are seated on a pedestal. With feisty music and fierce friendship, VIAL carves out space for girls, gays, and ghouls in the music industry.