We shine a SPOTLIGHT on what we here at RVR are listening too. Go get these albums!
NOAH KAHAN....Stick Season (Forever) Released Feb 2024 Hear it here on RVR.
Stick Season (Forever) is the final edition of Noah Kahan’s Stick Season series. Stick Season originally came out in 2022, but an expanded 2023 version titled Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever) added seven tracks, including the top 10 hit, “Dial Drunk.” Now, the singer and songwriter has compiled his various collaborations, bonus tracks, and the original album onto one large collection. Stick Season (Forever) features several notable guests accompanying Kahan, including collaborations with Post Malone (“Dial Drunk”), Kacey Musgraves (“She Calls Me Back”), Hozier (“Northern Attitude”), Sam Fender (“Homesick”), Lizzy McAlpine (“Call Your Mom”), and Gracie Abrams (“Everything, Everywhere”). The latest of these collaborations are Kahan’s duets with Brandi Carlile (“You’re Gonna Go Far”) and Gregory Alan Isakov (“Paul Revere”). “I’m grateful and beyond proud to be sharing these two songs with artists that have soundtracked my entire life. Gregory and Brandi have written songs that have carried me through pain, loneliness, dramatic life changes, and the entirety of my career. I am so honored to have them on this final re-release,” Kahan said in a press release.
“Forever is a long time. This album cycle has felt like forever, and I’ve loved every second of it,” Kahan continued. “The word ‘forever’ used to terrify me. I hate finality, there is too much uncertainty and boredom affiliated with ‘the rest of time.’ Now though, I’ve found forever to mean there is limitless possibility. There is so much joy in the world, waiting to be found. That is something that Stick Season has shown me, that this year has shown me. Sometimes it just takes a change in perspective.”
“Forever is a long time. This album cycle has felt like forever, and I’ve loved every second of it,” Kahan continued. “The word ‘forever’ used to terrify me. I hate finality, there is too much uncertainty and boredom affiliated with ‘the rest of time.’ Now though, I’ve found forever to mean there is limitless possibility. There is so much joy in the world, waiting to be found. That is something that Stick Season has shown me, that this year has shown me. Sometimes it just takes a change in perspective.”
JEREMY RENNER....Love and Titanium. Released Jan 22nd, 2024. Hear it here on RVR
Marvel actor Jeremy Renner had just dropped his seven-track EP, Love and Titanium. The album is inspired by Renner’s snowplow accident from this time last year, January 2023.
Love and Titanium has a runtime of 25 minutes, but every minute feels heavy with significance. Before the album’s release, Renner said that it was a cathartic project. Songwriting was a way for the actor to process and accept a multitude of things. From his injuries to the tough realities of physical therapy to the healing, both physically and mentally, that had to be done, Renner powered through it. And, Love and Titanium is the result.
In an Instagram post on the day of the album’s release, Renner spoke about his thankfulness. He wrote in the caption, “I am overwhelmed and astonished by the kindness of others….” He contiued, “I live and breathe in gratitude for the opportunity to witness these pure HUMAN experiences … I have nothing left to say except thank you all 🙏🏼
Love and Titanium has a runtime of 25 minutes, but every minute feels heavy with significance. Before the album’s release, Renner said that it was a cathartic project. Songwriting was a way for the actor to process and accept a multitude of things. From his injuries to the tough realities of physical therapy to the healing, both physically and mentally, that had to be done, Renner powered through it. And, Love and Titanium is the result.
In an Instagram post on the day of the album’s release, Renner spoke about his thankfulness. He wrote in the caption, “I am overwhelmed and astonished by the kindness of others….” He contiued, “I live and breathe in gratitude for the opportunity to witness these pure HUMAN experiences … I have nothing left to say except thank you all 🙏🏼
GREEN DAY....Saviors. Released Jan 19th 2024. Hear it right here on RVR.
THREE DECADES AGO, Green Day‘s Billie Joe Armstrong was sarcastically singing “Welcome to Paradise.” Now at age 51, he’s staidly singing “Welcome to my problems” on “Dilemma,” a plaintive, swinging rocker on Green Day’s 14th LP, Saviors, which owes a debt to Fifties rock and the Ramones. “I was sober now I’m drunk again,” he wails in the chorus. “I’m in trouble and in love again/I don’t want to be a dead man walking.” It’s one of the album’s best songs and, as another pop-punk trio once put it, well, I guess this is growing up. After all, “aging punk band” might be the most oxymoronic phrase in music. But Green Day, much like combat rockers the Clash, long ago figured out the path to mainstream salvation was leaning away from punk and into their big-box influences while satirizing the world at large. That approach made the Bay Area trio punk’s biggest-ever band, and it’s Armstrong’s alternating earnestness and sarcasm, combined with some typically hummable tunes, that make Saviors something of a return to form for the trio, Since merry melodies have always been Green Day’s forte, “1981” is particularly memorable with its chorus — “She’s gonna bang her head like 1981” — even if Armstrong’s lyrics about slam dancing in acid rain read, like, totally gnarly. “Coma City” and “Corvette Summer” are both Big Rock Songs for the sake of Big Rock and they state their mission to reestablish themselves as some of rock & roll’s top survivors on the propulsive title track: “We are the last of the rockers/Making a com-mo-shun,” which they punch up with some Pete Townshend guitar stabs. With Dookie co-producer Rob Cavallo, they mostly accomplish their intent. Armstrong’s lyrics fall into three categories: songs about growing up (“Dilemma,” the acoustic dad-rock ditty “Father to a Son”), silly songs about nothing (“One Eyed Bastard” is a Sopranos-esque goombah rocker that has refrains of “Bada-bing, bada-bing”), and, of course, heaps of social commentary. The band has never lost sight of its politics, and Armstrong recently updated “American Idiot” at a New Year’s performance to skewer the “MAGA agenda.” Some of Saviors’ op-eds are amusing — the conservative satire “The American Dream Is Killing Me,” the proud bisexuality of “Bobby Sox,” a dig at “assholes in space” bankrupting the planet on “Coma City.” Armstrong only misses his target on “Living in the ’20s,” when he snarks about the deadly 2021 King Soopers mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado. “I spent my money on a bloody, soft target,” he sings, “playing with matches and I’m lighting Colorado.” It hedges closer to voyeurism than a protest song, on which he could’ve sung something meaningful about gun control as opposed to, “My condolences/Ain’t that a kick in the head.” But Green Day have always been less about musical activism and more about laughing while the world around them burns — like the kid on Saviors’ cover. That attitude is what has made them survivors in the hazardous profession of punk rock, and they know it. “Everybody’s famous, stupid, and contagious,” they sing, sending up Nirvana on album closer “Fancy Sauce,” “as we all die young someday.” But what’s impressive about Saviors is how they’ve gotten (mostly) better with age. (Credit to Rolling Stone Magazine for the Review)
LETDOWN.... Crying In The Shower Released Jan 24th 2023. Hear It Right Here on RVR
While everyone else was learning to garden or make bread from scratch in 2020, Blake Coddington was busy finding a new way to musically express himself. The Chicago-based rocker launched Letdown. (period included), a new project that features his powerful range of vocals and deeply personal lyrics over catchy guitar hooks and hypnotizing drum beats.
Or in Coddington’s words, “It’s just me crying about my problems.”
But while the songwriter — who could pass as Jason Momoa playing the lead role in a film about rock ‘n roll — may be a little facetious in the description of his own music, Coddington’s mental health struggles have served as a primary creative focus for Letdown. thus far. The Big Loud Rock artist is looking to share his experiences to let others know that they’re not alone in their own struggles, and he’s found a home already in large swathes of the internet.
“I write music not only as therapy for myself, but for others who feel they are spread too thin, falling short or just not good enough,” Coddington explains.
In just six months, Letdown. saw 500k followers on TikTok, more than 265k monthly listeners on Spotify, and nearly 100k on Instagram — and that’s before counting the 12+ million streams Coddington’s singles have picked up. Of course, the emotionally vulnerable rocker is fully aware that TikTok hasn’t exactly become a bastion of heavier music just yet, and his bearded and tattooed look stands out from the platform’s assortment of teenage pop stars and dance routines.
“I started posting on TikTok because I figured if all these guys doing pop music can do it, then I can at least put myself out there a little bit,” Coddington says. “I didn't expect much, but then I started going to bed every night and waking up with 50,000 or 100,000 new followers. The first video I posted did like 500,000 views in the first three hours, and I didn't know what to do with that because I came from a world where you make music, put it on YouTube to show to your friends, and 10 years later it has like 100 views.”
At the time, Coddington was working a dead-end job (that he hated) in Indiana, and Letdown. was just supposed to be a little creative and emotional outlet for his spare time. But after achieving his initial online success, music (and getting people to listen to it on platforms outside of just TikTok) became a much larger focus for the artist. Ten singles, a handful of music videos, and bigger streaming and social numbers than he ever thought he’d see later, Coddington is ready to take the next step in his musical journey and start bringing his music live to the fans who have stuck with him throughout the pandemic.
“Touring is the only thing I can think about these days,” Coddington says. “I lose sleep over it every night. I dream of playing music in front of people every day, so touring is hopefully going to be a big part of the next few years of my life. I just want to get on the damn road!”
Or in Coddington’s words, “It’s just me crying about my problems.”
But while the songwriter — who could pass as Jason Momoa playing the lead role in a film about rock ‘n roll — may be a little facetious in the description of his own music, Coddington’s mental health struggles have served as a primary creative focus for Letdown. thus far. The Big Loud Rock artist is looking to share his experiences to let others know that they’re not alone in their own struggles, and he’s found a home already in large swathes of the internet.
“I write music not only as therapy for myself, but for others who feel they are spread too thin, falling short or just not good enough,” Coddington explains.
In just six months, Letdown. saw 500k followers on TikTok, more than 265k monthly listeners on Spotify, and nearly 100k on Instagram — and that’s before counting the 12+ million streams Coddington’s singles have picked up. Of course, the emotionally vulnerable rocker is fully aware that TikTok hasn’t exactly become a bastion of heavier music just yet, and his bearded and tattooed look stands out from the platform’s assortment of teenage pop stars and dance routines.
“I started posting on TikTok because I figured if all these guys doing pop music can do it, then I can at least put myself out there a little bit,” Coddington says. “I didn't expect much, but then I started going to bed every night and waking up with 50,000 or 100,000 new followers. The first video I posted did like 500,000 views in the first three hours, and I didn't know what to do with that because I came from a world where you make music, put it on YouTube to show to your friends, and 10 years later it has like 100 views.”
At the time, Coddington was working a dead-end job (that he hated) in Indiana, and Letdown. was just supposed to be a little creative and emotional outlet for his spare time. But after achieving his initial online success, music (and getting people to listen to it on platforms outside of just TikTok) became a much larger focus for the artist. Ten singles, a handful of music videos, and bigger streaming and social numbers than he ever thought he’d see later, Coddington is ready to take the next step in his musical journey and start bringing his music live to the fans who have stuck with him throughout the pandemic.
“Touring is the only thing I can think about these days,” Coddington says. “I lose sleep over it every night. I dream of playing music in front of people every day, so touring is hopefully going to be a big part of the next few years of my life. I just want to get on the damn road!”