This week, WTSR Assistant Music Director Nelson Kelly highlights some of the best new albums that the College’s own radio station, 91.3 FM WTSR, puts into its weekly rotation.
Name: Ty Richards
Album Name: “Zillion”
Release Number: 1st
Hailing From: Austin, Texas
Genre: “Psychedelic Dance Rock”
Label: Tremolo Records
Ty Richards, born in Austin, Texas, quit his ad agency job to write psychedelic garage rock. “Zillion” is his first complete solo project. His fans call him “Beck Zeppelin,” Beck being his biggest and most obvious influence on the record. The album consists of steady drum grooves, thumping bass lines, sharp lead guitars and synths that pierce through the mix. While Ty toys with strange, futuristic effects and synths, most of the songs are basic feel good garage rock. The opening track, “Spaceman,” is a great track full of catchy melodies and a solid groove. It sounds like something from the ’70s. Unfortunately, none of the other songs are nearly as good.
Must Hear: “Spaceman” and “Going Out for a Cigarette”
Band Name: The Feelies
Album Name: “In Between”
Release Number: 6th
Hailing From: Haledon, N.J.
Genre: Jangly Post Punk Pop
Label: Bar/None
The Feelies are an old-school jangly rock band from the 1980s that came back in 2011 with the lackluster “Here Before.” 2017’s “In Between” shows the band in a much more honest, heartfelt light. Chorus-ed out acoustic guitars with a nice twangy bass and Violent Femmes-esque brush drumming showcase the twangy rock that the Feelies are most known for, though, more laid back and mature songwriting shows what they are capable of in the future. The Feelies are no longer a band trying to recapture what they once were, but one that embraces the past while focusing on the future.
Must Hear: “Turn Back Time,” “Stay the Course,” “Been Replaced” and “Gone Gone Gone”
