Three Records

There was this basement, or maybe someone’s bedroom, I can’t remember. Someone had thrown on Wavves—King of the Beach, their third album, the one that sounds like it was recorded through a wall at a party and came out sounding right. You know that feeling when a song doesn’t announce itself, just exists in the room like it was always there? That was this. Post Acid too. Just there, casual, not trying.

Amy Millan from Stars has a voice that does something when you’re not expecting it. The Five Ghosts is their fifth album, not as sprawling as In Our Bedroom after the War—most things aren’t—but Wasted Daylight hits different. I Died So I Could Hunt You is darkness done right, the kind of heartbreak that feels earned rather than performed. You listen and you understand something about how people break.

We Are Scientists made Barbara, which is just solid rock. Nice Guys, Rules Don’t Stop. The songs do what they’re supposed to do. They don’t pretend to be anything bigger than what they are, and there’s something right about that. Loud enough to feel real, catchy enough to stick with you. For that basement, at that time, it was enough.