If It's Too Loud...

I've been following Wyn Doran ever since I saw her play live in February 2020, back in ye olden times. Her solo releases were quite good, and we covered and enjoyed them. But then she teamed up with Lucia Jean on bass and Heidi Tierney on drums to form Wyn & the White Light, and something just clicked. Her songs with Wyn & the White Light have been absolute revelations, and today sees the release of their debut album, Luck. Luck is an absolute force of an album. A song like "Heal Me" is epic in size. Doran is just pouring emotion into the song, and it's one of the most powerful songs you've heard in years. It starts off as a quiet, plaintive song, and then the drums start kicking in and you know everything is about to change. "Heal Me" brings you on an absolute journey while condensing folk and indie rock into one sound. Doran still has her more pop leaning side throughout Luck , but this is unlike any pop you've heard before. The album is a ...

Ok, we know we always use the word "haunting" to describe music from Wyn & the White Light, but it always seems to fit. On their latest single, "Statue," Wyn Doran gets weird. The song starts off with this uncomfortable sounding intro before mellowing out and turning into one of the more lovely alt-pop meets folk style songs we've covered in a while. The song is quite orchestral and impossibly endearing before getting back into its oddly discordant beginnings. And then "Statue" just delves deeper into this interesting and unique mixture of its dissonance mixed with the beauty it showed earlier. No wonder Doran refers to this song as her "anesthesia dream." You can listen to "Statue" below. Luck is due out on March 19. For more on Wyn & the White Light, be sure to check out the band on Facebook  and Instagram . They're also playing The Overlook at Mill No. 5 in Lowell on April 13 with Glad Valley and Savoir Faire.

Photo by Marion Earley For Wyn & the White Light's new single, Wyn Doran looked back on a near death experience the day after Christmas in her 20's that left her hospitalized until her birthday in early January. During a songwriting retreat with Ben Folds, Folds issued a "six lines" challenge, where writers only get six total lyrical lines to form an entire song structure. The resulting song, "Can the World Change," is a sparse and intimate song that shows Doran's raw emotions and focuses on her vocals. Referring to a song as haunting is a bit of a cliche, but "Can the World Change" is one of the more haunting songs we've heard in a long, long time. As powerful and affecting as the songs is, it also feels quite fragile.  You can listen to "Can the World Change" below. Luck is due out this winter. For more on Wyn & the White Light, check out the artist's website .

Photo by Mike Doran For their latest single, Wyn & the White Light seem to be getting back to Wyn Doran's singer-songwriter roots. "White Noise" has that folk meets pop sound we discovered of Doran's nearly four years ago, but with a little more blues than normal. And then the rock kicks in propelled by drums, and the song takes on a whole new life and sound. "White Noise" is about when Doran ended up ill in a hospital run "covid hotel" last year, and the song reflects the sense of isolation and confusion she felt. The song is equally brutal and beautiful in its sound, and shows a side of Wyn & the White Light we haven't quite seen before. You can listen to "White Noise" below. The band has teamed up with Barewolf Brewing in Amesbury, MA to celebrate the release of the song with a "White Noise" White IPA. You can celebrate both November 11 at Barewolf Brewing with a free all ages show starting at 7:00 pm. For more on...

Hailing from Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador, Bus People have just released their debut single. "Luck" is a lo-fi keyboard jam. It's one of the best examples of modern bedroom indie pop around these days. It's a weird little song that is going to win you over with nothing more than pure charm. "Luck" most likely personifies the description of twee, but I hesitate to call it that because it seems like Bus People are a little more than twee (as much as we adore twee around here). I might stick with that, but the song does erupt into a more standard indie rock ending, which is what helps elevate this song to being spectacular. Aley Waterman and Scott Sheppard (aka Bus People) say of their new single: "Our debut single, 'Luck ,' was inspired by a nostalgia for being a young teenager in a small town. The conflicts of the time felt so simple when looking back through the lens of adulthood.  "There’s a calm narrative throughout the verses ...

Photo by Luke Awtry We've been loving Clever Girls since we first discovered them last year, and their latest single, "Dumb Smile," solidifies that even more. "Dumb Smile" is a straightforward ballad that defies all ballad rules. It's a laid back song that I'm having an incredibly hard time trying to describe. It's a jangly pop Americana song, like a happy and relaxed early Wilco. But the music drops out in unexpected places and then just barely comes back in for extended periods of time, until it erupts into too brief but absolutely perfect periods of time. It's frustrating and perfect at the same time. You can watch the video for "Dumb Smile" below. Luck , the new album from Clever Girls, will be out on April 2. For more on Clever Girls, check out their website .

Last March we were pretty high on Clever Girls's EP, Loose Tooth . Here we are pretty much exactly a year later and the Burlington, VT band is set to release a full length album. The first song off that album, "Loom," is everything we loved about Loose Tooth , but more so. It's a little less Tom Petty style Americana than the songs off Loose Tooth , and is more like Tom Petty's more rock style but mixed with the Pixies's loud/quiet/loud alt-rock. It's one of those musical blends I never knew I needed, but from this day forward I'll be obsessed with. You can listen to "Loom" below. The new album from Clever Girls, Luck , will be available on April 2. For more on Clever Girls, check out their website . Loom by Clever Girls