One Track Mind is proud to present the MP3 premiere of “In Your Head” from Berkeley, California quintet Winter’s Fall. The song is the penultimate track from At All Angles, the band’s new third album which was released on February 15th by Velvet Blue Music. A thoughtful three years in the works, At All Angles showcases the group’s deft hand with mood, tempo, and range, but on this cut they let loose with a rollicking sound that hearkens back to the heyday of new breed alt-country.

With “In Your Head,” Winter’s Fall have concocted an unexpected tune for a Bay Area band–a song vibrant with a sense of traditional American identity. Its backbone is all rock ‘n’ roll swagger and its fringes are dusted with a wonderfully unforced twang. One can easily imagine drummer Keith Gidlund banging away on his kit as his brother Pete leads the band through those plump chorus chords (whose hooks scream Dinosaur, Jr. as much as they do Uncle Tupelo).

Peter Winter Stanley’s distinctive vocal style is another obvious linchpin of Winter’s Fall’s sound. His slightly nasal timbre has an aching quality to it that nicely balances the intensity of this particular track and lends earnestness to lines like “If I could see myself, I know I would cry.”

At two minutes at thirty seconds on the nose, “In Your Head” is high on economy. Yet despite its punchiness, it still manufactures a strong build-up and a great pay-off. When the final chorus cruises by, it does so with the top down and the wind whipping through the listener’s hair.

If you liked this song, you should also check out:

The Head and the Heart “Lost in My Mind”

Early Winters “Spanish Burn”

One of the more common assessments you’re bound to hear about the modern music aficionado is that they are plagued with a very acute from of apathy when it comes to musical consumption. This assessment holds that the concert-going experience is usually marked by crossed arms and nary a stomping foot from listeners who are quick to judge and even quicker to dismiss. The assessment goes further in its indictment of irony as a tastemaker, generally positing that earnestness is a quality in music rarely seen or experienced. There are a handful of modern bands who have formed in direct retaliation to the idea that earnestness is dead, and Portland’s AgesandAges proudly wave the banner of proud sentimentality on their new debut record, Alright You Restless.

Today’s featured song is the lead track off of the album and there is no mistaking the joy in their approach. Invoking the sounds of Tusk-era Fleetwood Mac and the over-the-top delivery of The Polyphonic Spree, AgesandAges swing for the rafters with a swelling chorus of harmony, handclaps, and shuffling percussion. The all-out earnestness is bound to be a turn off to some people, as the band’s aesthetic teeters on the edge of an abyss of preciousness, but there is a broader conversation about sincerity, irony, and how we participate in the music we consume that this song fits into nicely.

Does the sincerity in this song and in AgesandAges’ message of inclusion and participation come off as organic or does it seem reactionary? Is there a difference?

If you liked this song, you should also check out:

Electric President “Safe and Sound”

Electric Tickle Machine “Part of Me”

Belle and Sebastian “Write About Love”

Marcus Lambkin may not have the most kid-friendly musical alias but there is no denying his status as a master of electronic pop. Once dubbed the “Godfather of DFA Records” by none other than the label’s co-founder James Murphy, Lambkin recently released his debut LP as Shit Robot, From the Cradle to the Rave, and will be releasing “Take ‘Em Up” as a single this coming Tuesday.

Given that Rave was so replete with guest contributors (from fellow DFA artists to Hot Chip frontman Alexis Taylor), it’s not surprising that the new cut features guest vocals, this time from The Juan Maclean‘s Nancy Whang. Whang, who is also famous for her contributions to LCD Soundsystem’s recordings, has a delivery reminiscent of The Human League’s Joanne Catherall, a style perfectly suited to the buzzing, bopping synthesizers on “Take ‘Em All.”

This radio edit clocks in at three and a half minutes, giving the track a perfect single length and making it ideal for consumption on “repeat” mode. Lambkin builds the song on a foundation of a simple drum machine beat, punctuated now and then with handclap fills. A little bit of ’80s guitar work occasionally rises to the front of the mix, which is dominated by the twin foci of Whang’s vocals and a sumptuous synth stack. The latter comes in different flavors: a bass line is grumbled throughout by one keyboard while another strings up soft synth pad notes like lights twinkling in the distance.

If “Take ‘Em Up” is guilty of not being much in the way of innovation, it does make a case for itself as the crystallization of what made artists like Giorgio Moroder, ABC, and OMD so fun to listen to in the first place (and all of these years later). Shit Robot’s music is as fun as it is familiar, and its throwback synth-pop style is nothing short of irresistible.

If you liked this song, you should also check out:

Selebrities “Can’t Make Up My Mind”

Doug Hoyer “Northern Lights”

Telepathe “Throw Away This”

The first single from Adam Haworth Stephens‘ forthcoming solo debut is filled with an irresistible charm, its gentle curves calling to mind the contrapuntal piano bounce of The Beatles’ White Album. Stephens, who is better known as the songwriter behind San Francisco duo Two Gallants, has a voice whose timbre strikes the ears as a more muscular cousin of Bob Dylan’s–less prone to the nasal registers and with more crisp edges.

While it may seem poor form (or at least a bit lazy) to invoke The Beatles and Dylan in the first two sentences of a review, one listen to “The Cities That You’ve Burned” will prove that the comparisons make sense. While not on quite the same echelon as those musical titans, Stephens is a gifted songwriter whose many talents are on display here, both lyrically and instrumentally.

His words have the weight of a poet’s, as when he sings of “the money spent to dam the rivers of your discontent.” Where lyricism tends to be an afterthought for most contemporary artists, Stephens’ vocals offer a consistent stream of surprising, striking turns of phrase which conjure up vivid mental imagery.

This verbal facility is perfectly coupled with his penchant for constructing songs with naturally engaging progressions. Stephens throws a string section, handclaps, organ, and the aforementioned jovially striding piano chords into the mix, but does so with smarts and restraint, never oversaturating the tune. Occasionally, he pulls back on the reins to reinforce moments of quiet drama.

You’ll be able to hear more from Stephens when his solo premiere is released September 28th courtesy of Saddle Creek.

If you liked this song, you should also check out:

Jeremy Messersmith “Violet!”

Nik Freitas “Saturday Night Underwater”

Electric President “Safe and Sound”