Title: Modern Life (Division 87)
You might like if you enjoy: M83, St. Lucia, New Order
Tell me more: The New Division came to life during the mid-2000s while John Kunkel attended Riverside’s California Baptist University and made synth-pop music inside his dorm room. Full-length debut Shadows emerged in 2011. Positive word-of-mouth spread quickly, and TND opened gigs for Peter Hook (New Order, Joy Division) and Peter Murphy (Bauhaus). Currently based in LA, Kunkel handles nearly everything on engaging latest album Modern Life. Swathed in reverb and featuring more electric guitar than 2020’s Hidden Memories (Brock Woolsey and Charles M. Labarbara assist on two new tunes), Kunkel deftly explores such dark lyrical themes as escapism, isolation, chaos, and technological effects. Danceable standouts here include the infectious title track, the mysterious percolating synth swirl of “Stateside,” a mechanical “Silent Films” and exotic “Sequence.” This is TND’s best album to date. Information: newdivisionmusic.com
Title: Future Strangers (Atom)
You might like if you enjoy: The Jazz Butcher, Lush, The Chills, Dinosaur Jr.
Tell me more: Singer/songwriter, author and college instructor John Andrew Fredrick has been making intellectually minded alternative rock music as The Black Watch for 35 years. On the critically acclaimed Santa Barbara band’s 21st studio album Future Strangers, he delves into jangle pop, Sixties psychedelia, British shoegaze rock sounds and more to create a truly enticing sonic blend. Frederick and frequent contributors Andy Creighton and Rob Campanella handled multiple instruments, while Emmy Award-winning composer Ben Eshbach (The Sugarplastic) returned to do string and orchestra arrangements. Annie Hayden and Lindsay Murray add heavenly backing vocals. “Wish I Had Something” boasts a hypnotic Middle Eastern vibe, while the plaintive, acoustic guitar-based “Julie 3” is just plain gorgeous. Other highlights: the melodically appealing, Cure-styled “Nothing Left to Say,” a densely poptastic “Neverland of Spoken Things” and the shimmering “Dani.” Information: facebook.com/theblackwatchmusic
Title: The Candle and the Flame (Tapete)
You might like if you enjoy: The Go-Betweens, Lloyd Cole, Edwyn Collins, Paul Kelly
Tell me more: As half of the duo The Go-Betweens – one of the most influential pop/rock music acts to emerge from Australia in the Eighties – Robert Forster penned darkly reflective ballads as well as atmospheric pop songs with late musical partner Grant McLennan. The Candle and the Flame, Forster’s eighth solo album since 1990, was mostly written before his wife’s ovarian cancer diagnosis. But as with other observational songwriters, the lyrical content on “It’s Only Poison” and “There’s a Reason to Live” proved prescient. Forster’s son, daughter, wife, and The Go-Betweens’ 2000s reunion bassist Adele Pickvance all helped out with the recording. Ruminating on marriage (“Tender Years”), European travel (“The Roads”), aging (“When I Was a Young Man”; a wryly humorous, Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash-esque “I Don’t Do Drugs, I Do Time”), Forster’s folk-based songs are warm and inviting. Information: robertforsterlive.com
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