Half of today’s post comes from one of the weirdest media releases to fall into the Alternative Airwaves inbox; now I will admit that I am very bad when it comes to reading emails to this address, forget even responding, but in my endeavor to get back to writing about music, I was drawn to this strange email about a new music release, Pokémon 25: The Album.
Looking at the track list, I only recognized 2 names (Katy Perry and Post Malone). The first track is “Electric”, by the aforementioned Katy Perry; the rest of the album is a mix of electronic and hip hop, with some sampling of music from the game (one track opens with music from the original Red/Blue games). The standout track for me was Post Malone’s cover of Hootie & The Blowfish’s Only Wanna Be With You, but even that wasn’t really a great track. It was definitely identifiable as Post Malone singing it, but other than changing “Dolphins” to “Cowboys” he didn’t add much to his version of the song.
If you’re really hyped about Pokémon you’ll love all the references to names of the adorable creatures but otherwise I think you’ll be just fine to pass on the album and listen to something else.
Pokémon 25: The Album was released Friday October 15, 2021.
Said The Whale – Dandelion
As one of my favourite Canadian indie artists ever since I heard their track ‘Camilo (The Magician)’ on CBC Radio 3’s weekly podcast, I’m happy to see that Said The Whale is back with a new album released last Friday (October 22nd) called Dandelion.
I was surprised to find out that the second track, ‘Honey Lungs’, was a song I’d already heard for a few months now on my Local Alternative Radio Station. I quite enjoy that track, and it reminds me a lot of what I consider to be the “classic” Said The Whale style. I say that with a caveat, because I fully admit to not following their discography very closely. If I had to name more than one song by STW, I’d be stuck at two (and just barely): ‘Honey Lungs’ and ‘Camilo (The Magician)’.
But the rest of the album didn’t sound like a straight derivative of what I came to love from their sound in ‘Camilo’. To me it sounded very reflective; I don’t listen to lyrics very closely when I listen to music so I can’t say that’s what they’ve done with Dandelion, but that’s the feeling that I get when listening to it. It’s got a good mix between a melodic and slower songs and what grabs me in their fast-paced, more rockier tracks (such as ‘Honey Lungs’).
I was surprised at the short length of the album – just 33 minutes, only 9 tracks. But that only made it easier for me to listen through the album and get down to writing.
I enjoyed it, but not as fully as I expected when I first heard about it. ‘Honey Lungs’ is definitely the standout track but I doubt I would return to the album as a whole other than that one track. You can find it on streaming platforms and can also buy it for yourself directly from the band.
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