SEVEN IN SEVEN music
Welcome to Seven in Seven, where each Thursday in this space we typically take a look at shows coming to the region over the next week. Due to the coronavirus pandemic though, venue doors have shuttered, and no concerts are taking place. That doesn’t mean the music stops, and new releases are coming out weekly from artists you know and love and some waiting to be discovered. Whether your musical tastes are rock and roll, jazz, heavy metal, R&B, singer-songwriter or indie, there’ll always be something to check out on the docket each Friday.
Here are seven of the best hitting shelves and streaming services May 22: 1 The Airborne Toxic Event — “Hollywood Park”
“Hollywood Park” is the first album from The Airborne Toxic Event in five years, arriving alongside a new literary work of the same name by frontman Mikel Jollett, which comes out Tuesday, May 26. “Hollywood Park: A Memoir” sees the singer/ guitarist chronicling his extraordinary personal journey from his early childhood in one of the most infamous cults of the 1970s, through a childhood of poverty and emotional abuse, before finding his voice as an artist among the confusion of an adult life spent nursing the wounds of childhood, and the redemption that came from looking inward and an acceptance of self and the fierce love of family. The companion album by the indie rockers makes for one of the most interesting multimedia events of the year.
2 From Hell — “Rats & Ravens”
Led by guitarist/vocalist Aleister Sinn — the dark persona of George Anderson — From Hell released its
2014 debut album, “Ascent From Hell,” a dark concept album that told the story of a corpse who wakes up in hell only to find he must go back to Earth, recover his soul, which still lives inside another body, and drag it back to hell. The horror metal band has a new story with “Rats & Ravens,” which is set in mid13th century Eastern Europe and weaves an eerie and epic tale of witchery throughout
its 10tracks. Since we’re officially halfway to Halloween, what a perfect time to dig into this LP.
3 The Blossom — “Bleeding Buttercup”
Los Angeles-based The Blossom, aka Lily Lizotte, grew up in Sydney, Australia, grappling with her own sense of identity as both the daughter of a Southeast Asian immigrant trying to fit into a majority white Australian culture as well as navigating the precarious terrain of coming out as queer. Both of her parents were artists, making it only natural that she found writing and singing about her struggles with anxiety and depression to be an act of cathartic release. The Blossom’s debut EP, “Bleeding Buttercup,” features a blend of bedroom pop, dreamy shoegaze and skittering, trap-influenced songs that expertly capture all those feelings.
4 Woods — “Strange To Explain”
Indie folk-rock outfit Woods return with their latest effort, “Strange To Explain,” which sees them continue to evolve thoughtfully and beautifully. The musical colors were always there, but now the familiar jangling guitars recede to the background in favor of warm keyboards and twining Mellotron rising to the forefront. It’s evident when digging into “Can’t Get Out” or “Fell So Hard,” with the affable hooks and fuzzed-out bass combining with the fun harmonies that the group has produced reliably since way back in 2004.
5 Dennis DeYoung — “26 East: Volume 1”
Former Styx frontman Dennis DeYoung is back with his sixth solo album. “26East” was the address where the singer grew up in Roseland on the far south side of Chicago and where Styx was formed in his basement in 1962. One of the special moments on the record began with a tribute to DeYoung’s musical idols, The Beatles, leading him to recruit Julian Lennon, son of John Lennon, to duet with him. Instead of working on that track though, he wrote an entirely new song for them to do together called “To the Good Old Days.”
6 Dave Miller — “Dave Miller”
Guitarist and composer
Dave Miller has been a prominent fixture in the Chicago music scene for nearly two decades. His last record, “Old Door Phantoms,” explored themes of nature, spirituality and the human condition through the lens of an instrumental psychedelic garage rock band. Now, on his new self-titled LP, he has expanded his focus to include detailed arrangements and more refined production techniques. Miller’s songs have become even more alive and exploratory, with beautiful mellotrons colliding with fuzzed out guitars over swampy drums and non-ironic bongos, aiming to create his own utopian universe where all the cool music coexists.
7 Maelstrom — “Of Gods and Men”
The story behind Maelstrom and their upcoming debut full-length is parts both uncommon and unbelievable. Forged in the late ’80s, the thrash metal unit emerged from the Long Island scene and quickly began to gain notoriety on the national level. However, despite a pair of highly acclaimed early demos to their credit, Maelstrom would enter an indefinite hiatus in the ’90s as the music industry further turned its attention away from the heavy metal renaissance of the ’80s to the Seattle grunge movement. Now, more than three decades later, they return with a three-act, 69-minute epic, “Of Gods and Men.”
It’s full of complexity, endless riffage and a nagging feeling that 30 years has been way too long of a wait.