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Album of the Week : Artist : Haint Blue Album : Overgrown Quick Description : A debut album from a fully-formed roots act. Why You Should Listen : This is great for fans of David Wax Museum or other more left-of-center roots/folks acts. Overall Thoughts : Ken was a big fan of this, and I don’t blame him. This is an independent act on their first full-length, and you’d assume upon listening that they have been at this for ages. There is an aged maturity to this, combined with a very palatable mainstream sound that mirrors some of the breakthrough roots acts of recent years, that really makes this stand out. A solid listen, and one that I would expect many readers here in particular to keep in rotation for a long time, myself included. Recommendation : My favorite this week. Artist : Ladytron Album : Quick Description : First album in a while from the indie synth act. Why You Should Listen : It's been too long, and Ladytron has been too good. Overall Thoughts : Ladyt...

Photo by Rachel Verhaaren "Another Year," the latest single from Haint Blue, is a powerful alt-folk song that is going to draw virtually all of our readers in. The song builds painfully slowly, starting off with just a quiet piano and drums. Oh, and then you'll notice this intense noise filling up the background. It's not quite feedback, but it's definitely the folk version of feedback brought in to amp up tension like this is a horror movie. The song slowly adds instruments and just keeps getting bigger and bigger until it just overflows with singer Mike Cohn's absurdly powerful voice exploding into your brain. All of this sounds like a painful, uncomfortable listen, and it is. But it's also incredibly gorgeous and somehow mainstream enough to possibly go huge. And then, just when you need the song to bring you somewhere safe, it just ends. Cohn says of "Another Year":  There's a lot of rage/frustration in the song, the kind of frustrati...

Photo by Rachel Verhaaren Baltimore's Haint Blue might be releasing the first great album of 2019. Right now we can only hear one song off of it, but "Bear the Burden" is great. First, we all love a great backstory for an album. Overgrown is about frontman Mike Cohn's ten year struggle to flee the fundamentalist faith he was raised in and then overcoming drug addiction. The backstory aside, there is "Bear the Burden." The single goes through phases while remaining a solid whole. There is something for everyone who likes Americana here. There is plenty of traditional instrumentation, but it's also a completely fresh and modern take on the genre. Haint Blue keeps it poppy enough for the mainstream arena rocking folk fans, but it's also just odd enough for anyone who wants some experimentation in their music. It's a brilliant all-encompassing song, and you'll be able to tell everyone that you started listening to them way back when. You ca...