And, of course, being comprehensive is impossible these days, so let us know if we missed your favourite and maybe we’ll add it to the collection.

Tall Friend – Tawl Friend
(RIYL: bedroom pop, lo-fi, bugs)

Talons’ – Growing Up / Work Stories / Shitty Aja
(RIYL: lo-fi, sad, post 9/11 angst)

Terry Vs. Tori – s/t
(RIYL: indie pop, summer)

The Grey Estates – Summer at The Grey Estates Volume 2
(RIYL: garage, dream pop, summer)

The World is a Beautiful Place & I’m No Longer Afraid to Die – Formlessness
(RIYL: indie rock, emo, re-takes on older songs)

These Bashful Claws – Everything, All At Once
(RIYL: emotive pop, alternative, Gleemer)

Thiago Nassif – Tres
(RIYL: alternative, electronic, experimental)

Tiger in My Tank – Skinned Genie and the Same Chords
(RIYL: indie pop, dream pop, “mid-fi”)

Trace Mountains – Buttery Sprouts & Other Songs
(RIYL: bedroom pop, LVL UP, lo-fi)

Triathalon – Cold Shower
(RIYL: pop, r&b, smooth moves)

Varsity – Smash / Still Apart
(RIYL: indie pop, sports)

The Wandering Lake – From James’ Garden / Ashame
(RIYL: psych folk, indie rock, desert rituals)

The Washboard Abs – Have U Scanned Ur Club Card?
(RIYL: indie pop, lo-fi, nostalgia)

Will B & the Teen Creeps (now Lanky Boy Club) – Slackers
(RIYL: bedroom pop, slacker)

Woods End – I
(RIYL: folk, alternative, winter)

Young Jesus – Void as Lob
(RIYL: indie rock, lo-fi, spoken word poetry)

Your Heart Breaks – From Mount Eerie / Ryan Woods / Toby Foster / Theo Hilton / Clyde Petersen
(RIYL: folk punk, Nana Grizol, Defiance Ohio)

Yours Are the Only Ears – Low
(RIYL: bedroom pop, sad, melodrama)

Be sure to check out the previous sections of our favourite free music of 2016 list here.

The post Favourite Free Music of 2016: T – Z appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

1) Evening Loving – Jenny Gillespie
2) Luxury – Patio
3) Low – Yours Are The Only Ears
4) Either Way – Sorority Noise
5) Home at Last – The Sports
6) Braver – Sally Fowler
7) Chow Chow – FAYE
8) Meant – Spartan Jet-Plex
9) Stained Glass Eye – The Dead Tongues
10) October – These Bashful Claws
11) Bad Vibrations – Naps
12) Baked Goods – Young Jesus
13) Heroine – BB Cream
14) Winona Death Ryder – Boy Problems (No Dice Tapes comp)
15) The Only Other Girl From Back Home – Advance Base
16) When it Feels – Soft Spell (STAY RAD SAV comp)
17) The Unnatural – Claire Cronin
18) Same Old Ocean – Crabapple
19) Diet Coke – Lake Michigan
20) Ferris Beuller – Flatsound
21) See Good – Jobless
22) Anything but Yourself – Tom Greenwood
23) Under the Mountain II – Mermaidens
24) Liars – Gregory Alan Isakov
25) Warning Sign – Mikko Joensuu
26) Candy – Fish Food
27) White Gold – Good Good Blood
28) We Bury Our Dead Alive – Coping Skills
29) Joke/Rope – Haybaby
30) Slacker – Will B & the Teen Creeps
31) Double Bacon Cheeseburger – Yikes
32) All I Have – Derek Ted
33) Try Hard – Hovvdy
34) Dark & Gloomy – Horse Teeth
35) Migratory Birds – Western Skies Motel
36) Endless Wave – Hanging Valleys

The post May 2016 Roundup – A Mixtape appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Opener ‘Easter’ sets the tone for the album, sounding slow and melancholy but also somehow not, hitting a reflective but hopeful note. The breathy and patient vocals deliver lyrics which seemingly detail a mutually dependent relationship, “You need me, you stole the skip in my step / I think I know when you smile at me, and I can’t feel my toes, even if I’m empty”. ‘October’ starts sad and simmers until it lights up bright-white, becoming a crashing, epic finale. The lyrics here hark back to nicer times:

“October
I remember when we met
the things you once had said to me
when our skin was cooled
and how we felt at ease”

The following track, ‘Felt’, feels like the morning after the storm, coming across as a mix of Typhoon’s expansive indie rock and Manchester Orchestra’s slower emotive moments. “Things will be alright, I tell you every night”, O’Neil sings, “I should open my eyes when you doubt me,
you’re probably right”. ‘Grow’ is soft and patient, open spaces between the lines filled with just the doleful bubble of guitar. The lyrics are dark and desperate, but the whole thing comes together (almost in spite of itself) into something stirring when the background vocals join O’Neil’s. The sound shifts into almost post-rock territory on ‘Paper’, building and building with thick emotion and a marching drum beat, eventually hitting a heavy crescendo, while ‘Eyes’ is one of the tracks that conjures thoughts of Hospice, especially the corporeal imagery of the lyrics in detailing the end of things.

“I saw smoke around the front yard of our house
you were right,
I don’t know what’s on my mind
but I feel fine”

‘Spider’ is another track that slowly unfurls, eventually a crash of drums and epic guitar, while ‘Keeping’ is based on a pulsing drumbeat, the vocals stalking around like the gloomy spectres of what could have been, emotions from another time. Penultimate track ‘December’ seems to describe an incredibly painful deterioration, a person trying to hold things together as they slowly fall apart. The track’s closing offers little consolation, grief replacing the clawing sensation of trying to hold on. Closer ‘Unfold’ ends on a typically anxious note, forgoing any resense of peace or closure.

“For the first time I feel a little older.
Am I acting the same as ever around you?
Behind your back I think I act the same.
But this ring still bites, and my friends all fight, and this will never change”

You can get Everything, All at Once now on CD or as a name-your-price download via the These Bashful Claws Bandcamp page.

The post These Bashful Claws – Everything, All At Once appeared first on Various Small Flames.