If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Rachael Pony Cassells We don't normally cover remixes or reworkings of songs here at If It's Too Loud..., but we loved Jess Cornelius' 2020 album Distance  quite a bit, and she's reworked the song "Body Memory" to the point that it's a completely new song. The album version of "Body Memory" is a catchy dance adjacent track about the lasting effects of a miscarriage. "Body Memory (Peach Fuzz Version)" is a much darker version. It's stripped down to a more bare version, heavy in reverb with other instruments muted. It's not all dark. Eventually the song does come around with an ending that feels more uplifting, but still not the jam of the original. This is like the difference of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" versus Johnny Cash's, but by the same artist. Jess Cornelius talks about the new version of "Body Memory": “ I’d started playing the song for myself in a totally different way – on echoey guitar...

Photo by Nina Raj Last year, we loved Jess Cornelius' album Distance. But, I truly hate The Eagles. I know I'm not alone in this, but it's a truly deep hatred made worse by people that need to argue my hatred for them. But, I'm correct. They are terrible. When I first saw that Jess Cornelius had covered "I Can't Tell You Why," a song I don't think I realized was by The Eagles but still deeply hated, I almost didn't listen. But Cornelius' version is a complete reimagining of the original. The lyrics are the same, and there are some similar guitar parts, but instead of generic, watered down 70's folk pop cheese, it's a noisy, discordant mellow indie rocker. There's much more reverb here than any other music, which is a-ok with me. A stark contrast to the music is Cornelius' vocals. She's singing "I Can't Tell You Why" pretty straight, so it creates a great difference with the music she's singing over. Jess Co...

Artist : Taylor Swift Album : folklore Quick Description : Surprise folkish release from the pop megastar. Why You Should Listen : It's either good to be on the pulse of popular music, or good to hear a nice change of pace from one of the world's most famous singers. Overall Thoughts : It's difficult to listen to Taylor Swift in a vacuum. Her star power is so bright, and the weight behind everything she produces so strong, that it's hard to just take something she puts out on its own. From her shift from pop country to straight out Top 40 music, combined with her very confessional and in-your-face lyricism, it's hard to just let go, but folklore tries, in a pandemic setting, to put some distance between Taylor Swift the star and Taylor Swift the songwriter. Here's the thing: this album is the real deal, and is arguably some of the best music she's put out (with the understanding that she has produced some superlative pop and country songs in the pas...

Photo by Rachael Pony Cassells Just in case we weren't excited enough about Jess Cornelius's album being released Friday, she went and released another single to give us more to look forward to. "Here Goes Nothing" is a light and breezy sounding song, perfect for the summer. Laid back without being slow, the song has a modern folk/pop meets 60's soul and doo wop sound. It's an impossible to dislike track that is going to suck you in deeper and deeper the longer and more you listen to it. This is all despite, according to the press release, the song being about "...  Cornelius [parrying] with a messy affair." Jess Cornelius explains the song:  “ ‘Here Goes Nothing’ is about fantasy, really – the way we unconsciously create dramatic situations as an escape from whatever in our lives isn’t working. But I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. We need fantasy – you could argue that we’ve built entire lives on it." You can watch the lyric video for...

Photo by Rachel Pony Cassells Jess Cornelius started out in Australia as the lead singer of Teeth and Tongue, but now resides in Los Angeles and is set to release her debut solo album. The first single, "Kitchen Floor," hits a lot of our musical sweet spots. The song lives firmly in the current indie rock singer/songwriter world, but Cornelius also dabbles into some 60's doo wop to give it a unique feel. Plus, the song has its very own unique groove. It all feels familiar and fresh at the same time.  You can watch the video for "Kitchen Floor" below. The video was recorded at 5 a.m. to show an empty Los Angeles. Jess Cornelius says of the video: “ I have a weird fascination with Hollywood Blvd — it’s such a grotesque place most of the time .  But I knew we’d have the chance to experience it deserted and empty, and it was like a different place. I’d been watching a lot of  ‘last human on earth’ apocalypse-type films. Mostly, the concept behind the clip wa...