This week's recommendations are gonna break slightly from my intended format, but you have to do something for the maiden voyage! Boats get champagne, I get to be a little silly with it.
First thing's first, in order to recommend anything, it's important to know where I'm coming from. My three favorite bands, in order, are Bent Knee, Eidola, and The Crane Wives, primarily art/prog rock, and then Crane Wives are 80% folk 20% rock, depending. The format this week will have an album recommendation for these three bands, and then we'll have a more typical song recommendation for my pick of last week the week.
This album is incredibly important to me for a few reasons, but the most important one is it getting me through a weeklong reckoning of my gender identity. It was a dreary, cold, overcast week in winter of my freshman year of college, before covid changed the definition of that. I spent all my time listening to this album, talking on the phone with a now-transitioned then-ex of mine (we're still exes, but we were then, too), and dissociating at my dorm room desk. This album was my light in those dark days, despite the album cover reflecting the sky that week. The Well in particular helped me with my gender identity, with the line "Hey, he's a lady, she's a man, just like anyone."
Content-wise, the album fucks. There's not too much more I can really say about it, I'm very bad at analyzing why I like an album, and something about Bent Knee makes them even more indiscipherable to me, but this shit goes hard. This band, at this point in time, was a sextet, and they use this entirely to their advantage. They have your typical rock lineup of guitars, both bass and otherwise, drums, and vocals, but they also have the lead vocalist, Courtney Swain, on keyboard. They also have Chris Baum on violin, which I think helps give Bent Knee a sound of its own.
Highlighted Track: Land Animal
My favorite track from this album shifts from month to month, but currently Land Animal is a bop. Previously I could've said Terror Bird or Time Deer, but this is what I'm on right now.
This album is largely what got me into Swancore as a genre, mostly because it's what got me over my distain for unclean vocals. Andrew Wells is also one of my favorite male vocalists (Courtney Swain being my favorite female vocalist).
Degeneraterra is the second in Eidola's repertoire of albums, of which there are now six. Each one is a new chapter in their overarching story, but it's hardly required to understand the story to enjoy and relate to the music, which is intentional on their part. Eidola in particular scratches my personal itch of playing with religion and using their aesthetics for something new. They primarily use Catholicism and Hinduism, while also dipping their toes into Buddhism, and probably a few other things I've missed.
Degeneraterra has some fuckin bops, and I think the fanbase agrees with me that it's the favorite album. It's not half as polished as even their third album, To Speak, To Listen, but it's extremely polished compared to their first, The Great Glass Elephant. In spite of this, there's some goddamn talent on display. The album art also has moths, hell yeah, love moths.
Highlighted Track: Humble Ledger (Gnostic States)
Humble Ledger is the song that got me into Eidola, and it will forever hold a place in my heart for that. It also just fuckin bops, although expect to hear Zombie by The Cranberries on a first listen.
The Crane Wives are an incredibly feminine band, despite only being 2 of the 4 members being women. This band's bread and butter are the lead vocalists' harmonies, expect to hear two incredibly talented women at the same time. Sometimes their drummer, Dan Rickabus, also joins in. He gets a whole song to lead in their latest album, but this ain't about that one. If you've ever experienced femininity or just general ill mental health, TCW has a song for you!
Foxlore in particular is the second of a two album project, Coyote Stories being the earlier sister album. If there are overarching themes between these two, I am not perceptive enough to distinguish them from the band's overall themes in this era. Their latest album, after an 8 year hiatus, is largely more positive, but this is a depressing band that has a lot of justified anger, which can be heard in songs like The Hand that Feeds, Pretty Little Things, and Strangler Fig. They also have songs that feature incredible sadness, like Foxlore's opening piece, Nothing at All, as well as Empty Page, Never Love an Anchor, and Safe Ship, Harbored (I also appreciate the thalassic themes).
Highlight Track: The Garden
I'm a lesbian, picking a highlight track was an incredibly cruel thing to do to myself, but holy shit I don't think I could find a better closing song in any album that exists. Please listen to this song.