Skipped A Beat = Looking back at records that missed out on getting the annual recognition treatment.
DESOLATION WILDERNESS - NEW UNIVERSE - K
I feel like a damn idiot for this record not being in my Top 30 from last year. This album sat on my desk, literally for months, before it’s release even, before I played it. I was cleaning and packing things up in Boston and decided to put this on, and was automatically blown away by this kid from the Northwest making music with his friends. It goes to the summer and it stays there: the music is as hazy as the sun trying to peak through pesky fog and clouds on an August morn. The vocals, albeit buried, are also as if they were the sun trying to rise with the big star. It’s all captured greatly by the album cover as well - a black and white shot of the ocean meeting the sky, the band’s name and album’s title sneaking up in the middle.
“No Tomorrow”. “No Tomorrow”. “No Tomorrow”. What a fucking song. It’s a catchy gem; one of the ten on there. It starts with the simple chimes of a guitar, before the drums pounce on in with the vocals singing of the warmth of love, of there being no time other than now. There’s definitely a theme, look at some of the other titles, too - “Venice Beach,” “Boardwalk Theme,” — ok so they’re the only beach-y titles, but still! It’s a record that should’ve easily been in my Top 15, guaranteed Top 20, but instead it got lost in the shuffle somehow.
Download: “No Tomorrow (version)” [MP3]
