Tag: Open Hand

Top 30 albums of 2021: #’s 30 – 26

As always, I actually wait until the previous year has ended to put out my list of my top albums (and live performances, which will be listed in other posts), because albums are released all the time. Many excellent albums have been released in many Decembers and gone forgotten or ignored by music critics and bloggers.

So, without further ado, let’s get started. I reviewed sixty-five albums last year, so I cut the list in half to cover the top of the bunch.

#30: Shred Flintstone – Unlimited Power

This is a wild punk rock record from a band with a goofy name and serious chops. I mean, you have to be good with a name like “Shred Flintstone.” Unlimited Power is appropriately titled, because the whole thing is bursting with energy.

#29 Open Hand – Weirdo

This is a fun dance-rock record that was several years in the making. It’s like a combination of LCD Soundsystem and !!!.

#28: Jealous – Lover / What’s Your Damage?

This is a wild double EP of post-punk and krautrock from Berlin. It ranges from dance beats to rock riffs and was one of the best releases fro Dedstrange all year.

#27: Cuffed Up – Asymmetry

This four-song EP is solid alternative rock with catchy hooks, great double vocals, and heavy riffs that bode well for a full-length album in the future.

#26: The Black Angels – Live at Levitation

The Reverb Appreciation Society has been issuing “Live at Levitation” albums for a little while now, so it was no surprise that The Black Angels, who started the RAS and also started and still help curate the annual Levitation Music Festivals in Austin, Texas and Angers, France, should get their own release in the series. It covers some of the bands’ earliest performances at the festival and is a treat for fans of the band, the festival, and psychedelic rock.

Who cracked the top 25? Come back tomorrow to find out!

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you go.]

Review: Open Hand – Weirdo

Ten years in the making, Open Hand‘s newest album, Weirdo, has plenty of appropriately weird stuff, psychedelic fuzz, vintage synths, and seriously cool chops. The album opens with someone saying, “I’ve got a message for you, and you’re not going to like it.” Okay, Open Hand. You have my attention.

“The People’s Temple” has guitarist / vocalists Justin Isham encouraging us to leave because he’s feeling much better. It’s an interesting suggestion after a decade, and even more so as Isham sings that he’s considering running away from something (Stardom? A relationship? People in general?). It’s difficult to take him too seriously, however, because the opening track bumps and jams with funky keys by Kyle Hammond and damn funky drumming by Gil Sharone.

Mike Longworth‘s rapid bass chords open the danceable “It Takes Me,” which reminds me of the dance-funk stylings of !!!. Isham and Ryan Castanga‘s guitars shimmer on the fuzz-heavy “Again?”, showing off the band’s deftness at switching from dance-funk to shoegaze and doing both genres well. They go back to dance-funk on “Like I Do,” and Hammond gets another chance to strut his stuff with formidable synth bleeps, bloops, and beats.

“Return” (with guest drums from Mike Levine and guest vocals from Lisa Loeb) is a neat, spacey track, and “In My Way” gets us firmly back into shoegaze territory, reminding one of Hum and Failure cuts. Sharone puts down some of his fiercest beats on the track. Seriously, some of his fills will knock you back in your chair. Isham, Longworth, and Castanga crank up the fuzz on “I Think So,” and it mixes well with Sharone’s rocket fuel drums and Hammond’s sunshine synths.

“Loved,” with guest co-vocals from Brittany Snow, has a bit of a prog-rock feel to it that changes things up a bit. Bill Gaal takes over on bass on “Chances,” and proceeds to get his money’s worth by thudding us with glorious fuzz and low end as the rest of Open Hand unleash a track that Josh Homme would envy. “Draw the Line” ends the album with some space rock and, I think, samples from the weird John Carpenter horror film, The Prince of Darkness.

I don’t know why Open Hand took a decade off from releasing new material, but I’m glad they’re back in 2021. Everyone needs good music nowadays, and stuff as good as Weirdo is more than welcome.

Keep your mind open.

[Why not subscribe while you’re here?]