Weekly Spins
Teen Movie Soundtrack
Dad Rocks!
Mount Modern
Paper Garden Records
Snævar Njáll Albertsson is a cute, bearded Danish guy who makes music under the moniker Dad Rocks! (the exclamation is in the title; I’m not quite that enthused). He plays happy-go-lucky folk-pop that could probably pass as a children’s album if it wasn’t for the occasional profanity. Hell, he could get away with leaving that in too, because Albertsson certainly has the indie-pop power to make even “fuck” sound cutesy.
Mount Modern is something that you might put on a mix-tape for someone if you were being lazy, and will probably be highly appreciated by people who’s favorite movie is still Juno.
Strangely enough, the album somehow tricked me into thinking that all of the songs sounded the same, but in reality, they don’t. The differences aren’t subtle either, but the only impression I was left with was that once you’ve heard one Dad Rocks! song, you’ve essentially have heard them all.
He’s kind of charming at best and annoying at worst, but seriously needs to tone down the hand clapping and whistling because at the moment the only thing I could compare it to is what The Weakerthans might sound like if they were to put out a really bad kids album.
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Psychic Ills
Hazed Dream
Sacred Bones Records
If I am ever in the position to choose the backing music for a teen movie, this is exactly what I would want played when they all do drugs for the first time. However, I could also say the same about practically any other laid back psychedelic rock album, which is unfortunately the issue with Hazed Dream. It’s good, very good in fact, but it’s nothing groundbreaking. The 90-minute acid rock album’s name says it all, it’s hazy and dreamy. With lo-fi guitar and the occasional harmonica, it feels experimental but incredibly well executed – especially considering it was recorded live to tape.
It’s hard to criticize this album, because it’s quite simply an honest to goodness solid album. At times I wished that the difference between the tracks were more apparent, but in this case having every song sound like the previous can’t be much of an insult when they were all good to begin with. Comparable what The Brian Jonestown Massacre might sound like if they were slightly less crazy and more into making haunted organ music, the Psychic Ills may not be making anything new, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth a listen.
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