Entering The Pop-verse
Albums Listened To
Brightblack Morning Light (2006) - Brightblack Morning Light 🇺🇸 | At War with the Mystics (2006) - The Flaming Lips 🇺🇸
Life of Leisure (2009) - Washed Out 🇺🇸 | Sandhills (2023) - Toro y Moi 🇺🇸 | Causers Of This (2010) - Toro y Moi 🇺🇸
Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space (1997) - Spiritualized 🇬🇧 | Superbloom (2026) - Jessie Ware 🇬🇧 | LCD Soundsystem (2005) - LCD Soundsystem 🇺🇸
I found myself in this fourth log shifting further toward pop-oriented projects, often with clearer song structures than the ambient or more experimental albums of earlier cycles. This raised an interesting question: what even is “pop music?” Does it come down to structure, or is it more about vocal and production style? I’d argue it’s primarily the former, as good songwriting can withstand a wide range of production approaches.
I may delve deeper into this idea later, but for now, time for the albums!
As the weather in Vienna is slowly but surely improving, I went for another long walk on a warm Sunday afternoon. I took to a few Reddit threads for some recommendations related to the previous psychedelic rock-heavy log. Someone suggested Brightblack Morning Light (2006) by the band of the same name as a chill listen that would fit the bill. And at first, I was confident it would. But then it kept going. And going.
The short grooves that repeat throughout each track were satisfying for the first ten minutes of the album; each song felt like its own misty forest hideaway. The band is from NorCal, so I’d imagine redwoods and the like. The auxiliary percussion used (shakers, tambourine, rattles…) adds a whimsical layer to the otherwise straightforward chord progressions. The vocals, however, are SO drowned in reverb and haze that they’re essentially unintelligible, which becomes a bit frustrating. And it only gets more hazy and repetitive as the album goes on, which outweighs any charm the project has.
Think “faded granola music.” You’re taking a hike in the Pacific Northwest but you view everything through a lens that obscures most of the detail of your surroundings. And maybe you took an edible.
Looking for something more engaging, I returned to The Flaming Lips with At War with the Mystics (2006). Despite the fantastical title, Mystics is a bit more restrained sonically, especially early on. The opening tracks feel quite “sunny” and more what you’d expect from a psychedelic album. Lots of the tropes I mentioned in the last post can be found here, including a Mellotron using what I’d guess is the infamous “3 Flutes” setting. Enjoyable, but somewhat forgettable.
Things take a turn with “The Wizard Turns On…” and the writing style gets much more frenetic and expansive. I even got some Close to the Edge (1972) vibes, which for me is always a good thing. The album generally broadens in scope after this track, which retroactively makes the first chunk of the project seem a bit more purposeful.
Switching gears, I checked out two EPs, which are often sleeper-hits for me. Being able to say something musically interesting in a short amount of time is a very useful skill. I was expecting some stylistic overlap, considering both artists are known for helping create the various “wave”-genres that permeated throughout the 2010s, though that was not the case.
Up first was Life of Leisure (2009) by Washed Out, known for the track “Feel It All Around,” considered the “definitive ‘chillwave’ track” by Pitchfork. Fans of the series Portlandia would also know this as the show’s theme song. Life of Leisure is yet another hazy, side-chain-heavy album with a very addictive sound world, especially for those who like 80s synth-pop. That said, some awkward pacing within certain tracks held it back for me. You may find yourself able to understand more lyrics here than in Brightblack Morning Light, but it’s a close call. Similar to Brightblack, this is a more “vibes” project than anything else.
Next came Sandhills (2023) by Toro y Moi, which was a total shocker. Instead of a synth-forward and LinnDrum-backed sound, Sandhills is… pretty much folk music. There’s a nostalgic Americana tone I don’t usually gravitate toward, but the writing and pacing are solid. There were some truly beautiful moments as well, only made more profound with the restrained instrumentation.
Sandhills is, up until this point, the clearest example of “pop” structure: accessible, melody-driven writing, just filtered through folk. There’s a few alterations to the typical verse-chorus layout, but generally speaking it’s the sleekest project sonically in this log so far. There’s some high descant-like vocal material in a few of the songs which feel Bon Iver-coded, so if that’s up your alley this is worth a listen.
Because Sandhills is more an outlier in Toro y Moi’s sound, I wanted to check out a full-length album and see if I could get to the core of his musical identity. With that in mind, I listened to his debut album Causers of This (2010), easily the highlight of this cycle. What stands out is how many eras and genres it references; it doesn’t stick to 80s synth-doused music like a lot of chillwave or vaporwave does. There’s flashes of early ‘90s pop (specifically George Michael’s “Freedom ‘90”), Daft Punk textures, and even some Janet Jackson rhythmic elements (Rhythm Nation (1989) and The Velvet Rope (1997) in particular). Fans of The 1975 might also get a kick out of this, as a lot of the guitar effects sound reminiscent of their album Being Funny In A Foreign Language (2022). It’s that very shiny, Phil Collins sound that is so satisfying to listen to.
Next was Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space (1997) by Spiritualized, which I really struggled with despite its glowing reputation in the critical/commercial sphere. It’s an ambitious, often brash project that can be a bit taxing to get through. The coolest part was hearing the clear influence of previous British rock on the album (Oasis and Pink Floyd in particular). Just be warned, it feels long; the last track is also basically a 17 minute blues song with a six minute instrumental freakout in the middle.
This is one of those gambles I took that wasn’t really worth it, that’s bound to happen.
This is shocking… but this next album is the first 2026 release I’ve checked out. That should frankly be illegal… so I’m going to make a point to check out at least one recent project per album cycle.
This time around was Jessie Ware’s Superbloom(2026), an album very much aligned with her previous disco-forward releases with glimmers of the late ‘60s carried by Ware’s sultry, stunning voice. Similar to Tame Impala’s blend of psychedelia and mainstream pop in Lonerism (2012), Superbloom is a mix of current musical trends with disco and soul. I’m not sure, though, if this album is quite as successful, maybe due to the fact that the genres Ware is playing with are often even more instantly recognizable. Think booming, reverb-heavy choruses, prominent bass lines and LOTS of minor seventh chords.
Superbloom really begins to show its personality with the track “Sauna,” a song that channels another nu-disco artist, Agnes (initially famous for the Europop hit “Release Me”). Every following track also creates distinct but still connected musical worlds, though some get overly sentimental to my ears (“16 Summers” for example is borderline musical theatre). The highlight for me is “Ride,” a fun, bitchy play on Western film tropes that sends us out of the ‘70s and onto the dancefloor of the late ‘80s and early '90s.
Last on the list was LCD Soundsystem (2005), the debut album by the band of the same name. Having previously heard Sound of Silver (2007), I was interested in checking out their initial release. This one, though, was even less of a connection for me than Sound of Silver. My main gripe is with the production, which feels quite sterile and dry. This is of course a valid artistic choice and in certain contexts can really work, but here it just made the often engaging hooks feel underdeveloped. If anyone is familiar with the early Calvin Harris records (especially I Created Disco (2007) and Ready for the Weekend (2009)), LCD Soundsystem feels very much like a sonic predecessor. Some of the musical ideas are interesting and could’ve blossomed into something more, though they never seem to get there.
Moving forward I’m anticipating a continued journey into multihyphenate-pop music, but who knows where the wind will blow.
As always, thanks so much for reading. Reach out with any recommendations, questions, comments… I’m all ears!
Ben :)
