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 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 and roll, jazz, heavy metal, R&B, singer-songwriter or indie, there’ll always be something to check out. Here’s what’s on the docket for the week of Feb. 25:
Show of the week 1 Brian Fallon — Union Transfer — Feb. 27
Best known as the frontman for New Jersey indie rockers the Gaslight Anthem, Brian Fallon is in the
midst of a North American headline tour featuring full backing from his longtime live band, The Howling Weather. The trek is in support of his November release “Night Divine,” an intimate collection of classic hymns and carols. Produced and recorded by Fallon, the album comprises powerful new renditions of spirituals including “Virgin Mary Had One Son” and “Amazing Grace.”
New releases
2 Sarah Elizabeth Haines — “Castaway” Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sarah Elizabeth Haines returns with her sophomore LP, “Castaway.” The 11 tracks showcase Haines’ impressive instrumental skills on viola, violin, guitar, arrangements and production, as well as her sharp songwriting and strong singing — both on the melodies and harmonies. A classically trained violist and violinist, she plays both instruments in the touring production of Tony Award-winning “Hamilton” — having performed in over 800 shows of the musical — and the New York City-based contemporary classical chamber group Contemporaneous.
3 Hammerfall — “Hammer of Dawn”
As one of the main forces in heavy metal, Hammerfall have dominated not only the album charts in their homeland of Sweden, but across Europe throughout their extensive career, while earning gold status three times. Faced with the daunting task of following up the band’s last studio album, “Dominion,” which fans and critics hailed as one of the band’s strongest releases, the group collectively met the challenge head on and have delivered “Hammer of Dawn,” which stands up as well as anything in their quarter of a century long history.
4 Sasami — “Squeeze”
On “Squeeze,” Sasami explores her wide spectrum of moods, from raging at systemic violence to wrestling for control in her personal relationships. Throughout, the singer, songwriter and producer surveys the raw aggression of nu-metal, tender plainspokenness of country-pop and folk rock and dramatic romanticism of classical music. “Squeeze” hammers home a sentiment of “anti-toxic positivity” and showcases Sasami’s vicious honesty and brutally uncompromising vision, partially inspired by the Japanese yōkai folk spirit called Nureonna, a vampiric deity that has the head of a woman and the body of a snake.
5 Blue Lab Beats — “Motherland Journey”
An album that has quite literally been years in the making, “Motherland Journey” is the result of tireless days in the studio, a celebration of pushing boundaries, taking risks and overcoming adversity. What started as over 70 demos from the Londonbased Jazztronica duo Blue Lab Beats has since been meticulously whittled down to the 17-track iteration that remains. It is still the pair’s largest project to date, and the fact it is delivered via the legendary Blue Note Records imprint reiterates its importance.
6 Sylvia — “Nature Child: A Dreamer’s Journey”
A concept album for children, families and the dreamer in everyone, Sylvia’s “Nature Child” is a soundtrack to a journey that will inspire young and old alike to pursue their dreams. The country-pop artist’s adult fans will appreciate that the effort stands right alongside all her previous recordings in terms of world-class artistry. Beautifully produced, imaginative and rich in storytelling, the album has a scintillating quality, with every track set, for the most part, in an acoustic timbre. As with any concept album, the sequence of the music is important, yet each song is complete in itself. Every vocal note, including harmonies and choral passages, is a product of Sylvia’s extraordinary singing talents and her legendary ability to bring the listener to the heart of her music.
7 Adult — “Becoming Undone”
After a quarter-century of nearly nonstop activity, dystopian Detroit synthpunk institution Adult have perfected a strain of stylistic cohesion in the album format. “Becoming Undone,” the ninth official full-length by co-founders Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller, explicitly succeeds in this aim, simultaneously rejecting and reflecting the planetary discord that inspired it. Written between November 2020 and April 2021, the album might be the outfit’s most non-conforming yet. There’s plenty of dance bangers, but ultimately, it’s riddled with impermanence, loss and looping dissatisfactions.