Various Small Flames’

Songs of 2017

Anamon – Kneel Old
Android Automatic – Dark Roads*
Angie McMahon – Slow Mover
Basement Revolver – Johnny Pt. 2
Baxter Roy Long – Paribanou
Bea Troxel – Let Them Know
Big Thief – Mary
Black Belt Eagle Scout – Soft Stud
Bully – Running
Cayetana – Mesa
Charly Bliss – Percolator
Chastity Belt – Different Now
CHUCK – Happy Birthday
The County Liners – Maria
The Courtneys – Tour
Craig Finn – God in Chicago
Crumb – Locket
Crushing – Emery Board
Cut Worms – Like Going Down Sideways
David Bazan – Care
Distant Reader – First Try
Emperor X – God Save Coastal Dorset
Fits – Ice Cream on a Nice Day
German Error Message – 2017*
Gleemer – Soothe Me
Great Grandpa – Favorite Show
Haley Heynderickx – Oom Sha Lala
Hiccup – Teasin’
Horse Culture – Texaco
Illuminati Hotties – ‘(You’re Better) Than Ever’
Japandroids – No Known Drink or Drug
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit – If We Were Vampires
Jay Som – The Bus Song
Jeremy Squires – Night Cars
Katie Ellen – Drawing Room
Lizzie No – Monuments
Lomelda – Bam Sha Klam
Mike Pace and the Child Actors – Audits & Surveys
Meursault – The Mill
Mount Eerie – Crow
Nice Legs – Mighty Three
Oceanator – Nowhere Nothing
Ohyeahsumi – Daisy
Old Earth – Pit Dynamics
PASTEL – Stammer
Peter Silberman – New York
Phoebe Bridgers – Motion Sickness
Pope – Talk Me Out of It
Protomartyr – Windsor Hum
Rainwater – Place
Ratboys – Elvis is in the Freezer
Rick Rude – Bald & Fat in Houston, TX
Roadkill Ghost Choir – Classics (Die Young)
Rose Dorn – Dirt
See Through Dresses – Lucy’s Arm
Shannen Moser – A Funeral, A Friend, My Sanity
Sinai Vessel – Died On My Birthday
Slaughter Beach, Dog – Phoenix
SOAR – Fort Funston
Soft Fangs – Jordan // Jackson Elementary
Spartan Jet-Plex – We Believe
Strange Ranger – House Show
Strawberry Runners – Garden Hose
Timid, The Brave – Alice
Us and Only Us – Bored of Black
Vagabon – Cold Apartment
Viewfinder – Instant Moonlight
The Washboard Abs – Veil
Waxahatchee – Never Been Wrong
Wild Pink – Albert Ross
William Ryan Fritch – In Our Blood
The Wooden Sky – Swimming in Strange Waters
Ylayali – Cherry Tomatoes

*Strictly released in 2016, but barely, and we covered it in Jan. 2017.

If you missed it, you can see our Favourite Albums of 2017 list here. Also, the curious can find such lists from previous years here.

The post Favourite Songs of 2017 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

‘Diamonds’ is perfectly titled and serves as an excellent introduction to the new See Through Dresses aesthetic. It’s a big glittering thing, as dreamily atmospheric as it is wide and spacious, 80s synth pop meets morbid post punk, all cast in a wide-screen twenty-first century clarity. What’s still the same is the dynamic between the two primary songwriters and vocalists—Sara Bertuldo and Mathew Carroll—who take turns at spearheading songs across the record.

Despite being heartsick and hopeless, ‘Radiant Boy’ is full of fuzzy pep, the disbelief of death and its permanence layered behind a the radiant rhythm, while ‘Pretty Police’ sees Bertuldo take over vocal duties. The track is rich with syrupy dreaminess but shot through with an undercurrent of shadowy unease. “I always knew you would return one day with teeth,” Bertuldo sings with disquiet, making it increasingly clear that this is not the innocent nostalgia of poppy shoegaze. “To tear out of me the secrets I can’t keep.”

‘Herbivore’ feels slightly harder at the edges, with hints of the complex indie rock of End of Days, while ‘Violet’ returns to the more familiar synth pop sound, a big warm nostalgic song that retains a sense of positivity despite the lyrics, Caroll delivering his lines with a sense of directness and sincerity. ‘Shelley’ returns to crystalline synths and heavy, humid air, a song that recalls the emotive rock of Gleemer or heady bedroom pop of the recent See You At Home EP in its thick and smoky emotion. Again, the track acknowledges pain and darkness while championing the effort of holding on to hope.

‘Lucy’s Arm’ is a chance for See Through Dresses to rock out, giving bassist Alex Kirts and drummer Nate Van Fleet a real chance to shine, although it maintains the atmosphere that’s been crafted up to this point. The euphoric chorus punctures the gauzy MBV shoegaze vibe, though again the lyrics are anchored to something far darker, the imagery ominous and loaded:

“You wear that black dress well
Take it off on Tuesday morning
I used to watch that dark horse run
through the veins in Lucy’s arm”

The title track is far more introspective, the vocals barely more than a whisper to form what seems a sparse and vivid epilogue, that is until around the 2:30 mark, when everything explodes in a cacophony of wailing guitar and pounded drums. Just like the album it caps off, the song is caught between anger and fierce love, as though protecting those you care about and a desire to avenge their pain are two competing emotions, neither quite winning out. As such, Horse of the Other World is both tender and furious—the themes of abuse and addiction peeking out from behind the haze, See Through Dresses meeting their eye and staring right back, unmoving.

You can get Horse of the Other World now from Tiny Engines and the See Through Dresses Bandcamp page.

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