SEVEN IN SEVEN
Welcome to Seven in Seven, where we typically take a look at shows coming to the region over the next week. And while venue doors are slowly opening again, due to the current pandemic they aren’t quite there yet. 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. Each week we’ll be looking at some of the best hitting shelves and streaming services and a can’tmiss show in the region.
Whether your musical tastes are rock ’n’ roll, jazz, heavy metal, R&B, singersongwriter or indie, there’ll always be something to check out. Here’s what’s on the docket for the week of Feb. 4:
Show of the week
1
Bruce Dickinson — The Fillmore — Feb. 7
Best known as the frontman for metal legends Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson brings his acclaimed spoken word show to the Fillmore on Monday. The show sees the singer taking a humorous and often satirical look at the world from his own very personal perspective, treating the audience to private insights into his drive and ambition, peppered with plenty of Maiden anecdotes. Dickinson also goes into a myriad of other experiences encompassing not just the giddy heights but also the extreme lows, told first-hand in his inimitable, riotous style, punctuated with photographs and sometimes even erupting into song a capella.
New releases 2
Mitski — “Laurel Hell” “Laurel Hell” has long been one of 2022’s most-anticipated albums, with the recent release of the song “Love Me More” following earlier singles “Working for the Knife,” “The Only Heartbreaker” and “Heat Lightning”
further showing how Mitski is determined to deliver nuanced profundity on a current of contagious dance beats. The LP is a soundtrack for transformation, a map to the place where vulnerability and resilience, sorrow and delight, error and transcendence can all sit within our humanity, and be seen as worthy of acknowledgment and, ultimately, love.
3 Sam Weber — “Get Free”
Singer-songwriter Sam Weber’s storied exodus from his homeland of Canada to find new footing and opportunity in America resonates like a classic story of pain, loss and rebirth. That narrative thread is woven throughout his new record, “Get Free,” offering a warm, intimate and multidimensional portrait of the 28-year-old. With this new collection of material, Weber reaches fresh emotional depths, commanding more expressive personal moments than ever before — at times within the margins of a single verse.
4 Hollis Brown — “In the Aftermath”
Hollis Brown’s “In the Aftermath” is the deliciously depraved outcome of an allnight rock ’n’ roll riot. The Queens, N.Y.-based quintet escaped to the Poconos to record with a few handles of whiskey, and, in one 24-hour session, ran down the Rolling Stones’ seminal first album of all originals, 1966’s “Aftermath.” Tracked live in the studio with minimal overdubs, the LP is potent proof the five-piece group may very well be one of the last great
American rock ’n’ roll bands. 5 Hembree — “It’s a Dream!”
Kansas City-based Hembree’s second effort has a funky looseness and hip-shaking approach that perfectly pairs with Isaac Flynn’s emotionally kaleidoscopic lyrics. “It’s a Dream!” is a record about getting freaky even while you’re freaking out. It’s a beyond-relatable sentiment couched in music that burrows its way into your mind and stays there, and finds the band looking inwards and refining its own sonic approaches while embracing a newfound maturity. The album represents new levels of sonic immersion for Hembree as an artistic entity; it’s practically a window into their creative minds, as they explore and incorporate new textures into their rapidly expanding worldview.
6 Persefone — “metanoia”
Founded in 2001 and hailing from the European country of Andorra, progressive/ melodic death metal outfit Persefone is known for their blend of meticulous instrumentation that sets new standards in the genre. Each one of their albums showcases the band’s myriad of musical principles like high technicality,
distinct melodies, plenty of head-turning riffs and musical acrobatics. That continues on “metanoia,” an atmospheric and gloomy journey through rich soundscapes seeing them cross melodic boundaries with ease and create their own cosmos, mesmerizing the listener with a high variety of songwriting and methodical precision.
7 Animal Collective — “Time Skiffs”
“Time Skiffs” is Animal Collective’s first studio album in more than half a decade and feels like listening in on a conversation among four old friends, just as it felt during their inchoate early days or their “Strawberry Jam” heyday. The nine songs are love letters, distress signals, observations and relaxation hymns. It’s the collected transmissions of four people who have grown into relationships and parenthood and adult worry, but they are rendered with the quartet’s singular sense of exploratory wonder, same as they ever were. There are harmonies so rich you want to skydive through their shared air, textures so fascinating you want to decode their sorcery, rhythms so intricate you want to untangle their sources.