SOUND BITES

For anyone who's paid attention to Bloc Party since they burst onto the scene a little more decade ago, an album likes Hymns isn't a wholly surprising development. Since that album's breakthrough of angular post-punk menace, the group has slowly but surely distanced themselves from it. By the time they got to Four in 2012, the rocking tunes were the surprising ones and the majority of the band's output had leaned further and further toward blissed out, electronically enhanced lite rock. Hymns , their fifth album, perhaps suffers from some nasty preconceptions borne out of the weird and warped pop-gospel of lead single The Love Within . That's not totally unfair, as the point of a lead single is to build hype for the album as a whole; that said, it's not all that representative of the album, more of a palette cleanser to dissuade any thoughts of this new incarnation of the group throwing back to 2005 (Bloc Party's bassist and drummer both left the ban...

Silence Yourself was going to be a tough act to follow. Released to universal acclaim in 2013, Savages' debut record solidified the foursome's status as Next Big Things, their pummeling and raw post-punk striking an unmistakable chord with critics and fans alike. So, like countless Next Big Things before them, Savages come into their second album with the added weight of expectation and the ever-present drone of anticipation. Not that we're owed anything, but those expecting Adore Life to be simply more of the stuff that everyone loved a few years ago have set themselves up for at least a partial disappointment. The frenetic rawness of the debut gives way to a more assured, calculated performance. The songs here won't shake you by the shoulders the same way Silence Yourself did, but it's due more to an increase in confidence and musicianship than a decrease in intensity. To be sure, this is a quieter affair, but it's also more varied emotionally. ...

EXPLORING A FEW OF ROCK'S GREATEST CONSPIRACY THEORIES. In honour of the return of The X-Files (one of my all-time favourite shows, and source of the rock-referencing pic above), I figured this would be a good time to talk about a side of music that doesn't get a lot of attention but has provided plenty of intrigue among dedicated fans.  What follows is a list of some of my favourite "rock n' roll X-Files"; intentional or coincidental, these musical mysteries all lend themselves to a fair amount of credibility, but have proven impossible to outright confirm. Whether you want to believe or prefer to only deal with facts, there's no denying that these wild theories are at least a little plausible.

It's that time again, where we rest up after another long year but take a beat to peek into the crystal ball and wonder about the things to come. So, for the fourth year, let's throw down swami style! In terms of success rate, last year wasn't so great; of the 13 artists I gave greater than a 50% chance of releasing albums, only 7½ did (Incubus only made good on the first half of their promised double EP). The under 50% category was much better, correctly predicting 11 of 12 would not release records (only Baroness managed to do so, and at pretty much the last possible moment by releasing Purple on December 18). That said, here's hoping for better luck on the upper categories this year, as these are all artists I'd really like an album from in 2016. Let's go!

For as dry as the last couple months of 2015 were, I'd have expected to be looking at a slew of exciting releases to ring in 2016. As it stands, though, not a lot has been confirmed as of yet. Still, what the release schedule is lacking in certainty is more than made up for in its possibilities for the coming twelve months. Before we head into the murky waters of speculation, let's check out some of 2016's sure things:

H ea d i ng i nt o B a r o ness' f ou rth a lb u m, I h a d c e rt ai n e xp e ct a t io ns f o r th e s o ngwr i t i ng a nd e x e c u t io n; a ft e r all, Y e ll o w/Gr ee n w a s my r u nn e r- u p f o r A lb u m o f th e Y ea r i n 2012, a spr a wl i ng a nd m a j e st i c p ai r o f pl a tt e rs th a t s a w th e b a nd t u rn a c o rn e r styl i st i c a lly a nd br ea k fr ee o f a ny c o nstr ai nts th a t m a y h a v e b ee n pl a c e d u p o n th e m a s a m e t a l a ct. H a pp i ly, P u rpl e s ee s B a r o n e ss i mpr o v e o n wh a t th e y w e r e d oi ng o n Y e ll o w/Gr ee n i n a lm o st e v e ry w a y. I t a v oi ds p o t e nt ia l f a t i g ue by str ea ml i n i ng th e r e c o rd t o ei ght s o ngs pr o p e r a nd a sh o rt i nstr u m e nt a l, c u tt i ng th e r u nn i ng t i m e by o v e r a h a lf h ou r a nd th e r e by l ea v i ng l e ss r oo m f o r f i ll e r (l i k e i t o r n o t, Y e ll o w/Gr ee n d i d h a v e...

Before we get around to handing out awards, I wanted to take a minute to say how much I appreciate you reading this. As a project I work on in my free time and without compensation, it's sometimes difficult for me to find the ambition required to generate content for Sound Bites; however, knowing there are people like you who like to stop by from time to time, I know the effort is that much more worth it. When this site launched a little over four years ago, I never would have guessed that it would ever amass 40,000 pageviews, much less so soon. With your support, though, it recently did just that; while numbers like this likely don't mean much to the bigger sites that pay people to churn out posts, it's damn sure a big deal to me. So thanks again for making Sound Bites a rousing personal success for me, and I hope I can continue to keep you all entertained and informed for many years to come. Okay, enough mushy talk, let's crown some champs!