Since he joined Twitter in 2011, around the same time he joined his first Super Rugby club in Canberra, former professional player Cam Crawford has mixed Rugby chat with tweets about other sports, music and film.
Now back in Sydney and working for Morgan Stanley, Cam has taken us up on the offer to provide some greater depth to his entertainment reviews.
Kali Uchis (Ft Tyler, The Creator) – After The Storm (January, 2018)
Pop
Solange. Charlie XCX. Lorde. SZA. These are just a few of the female artists that have produced some of the best pop music over the last couple of years. Kali Uchis may be the new girl on the block, but she is leading the way in 2018 with her debut record Isolation – a fantastic blend of reggae, funk and R&B infused pop songs. ‘After The Storm’ is the best song on Isolation.
The Colombian-born Uchis channels her inner Billie Holiday on the track, offering up sweet vocals that float over a smoky beat seemingly stripped straight out of the seventies.
Tyler, The Creator also makes a feature on the track, his husky rhymes helping to provide the perfect complement to Uchis’ beautiful tones. Prior to the release of Isolation, Uchis spent six years perfecting her craft along the West Coast of America. With ‘After The Storm’, it’s evident she’s ready for the limelight.
“The Sun will come out. Nothing good ever comes easy. Someday we’ll find love. ‘Cause after the storm, the flowers bloom”.
Click here to check it out.
The Voidz – Leave It In My Dreams (January, 2018)
Rock
Scroll back through Julian Casablancas’ career to date and you’ll see that it makes for pretty impressive reading: lead singer for the Strokes on five albums – their debut Is This It proving to be an absolute game-changer, a solo venture in 2009 and multiple collaborations working with the likes of Pharrell Williams and Daft Punk.
In his most recent venture though, Casablancas has formed The Voidz, a psychedelic sludge band that seems content on doing their own thing altogether.
Out to please no one, the band’s second album, Virtue, is not for the faint of heart and consists of both wonderful and many painfully enduring moments. Luckily, listeners don’t have to sit through the whole album, with opening track ‘Leave It In My Dreams’, providing a joyful reminder of what Casablancas is truly capable of.
‘Leave It In My Dreams’ sees the lead-man at his best, sifting through melancholic lyrics with his typically laid-back delivery, as very Strokes-like guitars jangle playfully throughout. There’s even a surf-rock vibe during the breakdown section of the track as Casablancas sings, “It’s my life and I can’t delete it. Is that the life I lead?” Personally, I’d like to delete a few of the other songs featured on this album, but ‘Leave It In My Dreams’ is definitely one to savor.
Click here to check it out.
Soccer Mommy – Cool (January, 2018)
Indie
The standout track off Soccer Mommy’s debut album Clean, ‘Cool’ is everything its title suggests it’s going to be.
In an ode to a school classmate, Sophie Allison’s vocals hang in slow motion over stubbing guitars, “Mary has a heart of coal. She’ll break you down and eat you whole…She’s an animal”. The chorus then opens up into a beautiful mixture of textured, breezy layers with Allison cooing, “I wanna be that cool”.
The song’s warped final thirty seconds end the tune in a fittingly melted, effortless fashion.
We’ve all had times in our lives where we’ve desperately wanted to be like someone else. And there is something appealing and very tangible in the way Soccer Mommy depicts this notion from her perspective. If you ask me, Allison should stop longing to be so cool, because based on this song and her studio debut as a whole, she already is.
Click here to check it out.
Want to reach out to Cam about his Sights & Sounds article? Hit him up on Twitter; @camcrawford1.
