Every Tuesday, the Sounding Board is a space for a short-ish review of a recent-ish release and conversations about new-to-you music. We’ll get things started with a write-up about a newer, likely under-heard album, and invite you to share your music musings in the comments.
It was immediately clear that I needed to either turn Some Fear up, or turn Word Eater off.
That’s no knock on the Oklahoma City four-piece’s second album, which is both a step up from the band’s self-titled debut and an exceptionally solid collection of slow-developing, textured rock songs.1 This was mostly a self-inflicted dilemma.
It arose because I decided to celebrate the end of a brutal Southeast Alaska winter2 by getting up at 5 a.m., going on a four-hour photo walk,3 returning home, having breakfast, and setting out with my dog for a 35-minute drive to his favorite place to play fetch. I figured Some Fear could soundtrack that drive. A weekend listen would provide time for an inchoate first-listen opinion to develop into something more solid, and a new rock album might give me the jolt needed to stay moving and alert, in case freshly active deer and bear planned to use the same roadway as me.4
Word Eater is simply not that kind of album. Its eight songs can all be found somewhere in the vast, foggy quagmire between slowcore and shoegaze. Some Fear imbues the tracks with a sense of dogged determination and weary resolve in the face of heavy headwinds, but a certain sluggishness and gloom is inherent to the chosen sound.
Deliberate, dreamy noise, coupled with a slow, steady drive, had an analgesic charm, but I could hear the music starting to fade, the way a TV show becomes muffled as sleep approaches. Looking for a spark before turning to my trusty running playlist, I cranked the volume on Word Eater up, and I found enough intriguing detail to keep my mind busy. The occasional bracing guitar noise and a few relatively upbeat moments helped, too.
The abrasive, clamorous outbursts that make “Harmony” an ironic title are a potent antidote to drowsiness. Ditto the opening of “Rot,” which features a combination of wailing guitar and thundering drums that brings classic Smashing Pumpkins albums to mind before the song breaks into a less-urgent, still-purposeful lope. Surprisingly immediate vocals, and exceptionally pretty harmonies on a few songs weren’t invigorating, but they were engaging.
Many bands with an appreciation for patient melodies and bleary guitar bury vocals deep in the mix or under heaps of effects, which can make lyrical content feel besides the point. Some Fear play it much more straight. Branden “Bran” Palesano, who began Some Fear as a solo project before linking up with drummer Ray Morgan, then adding bassist Lennon Bramlett and guitarist James Tunell to the mix, sometimes favors the breathy, ethereal delivery that’s so associated with shoegaze, but Palesano usually sings clearly and without warbling effects. That makes parsing out the album’s core themes and point of view relatively easy.5
A perceptible perspective is easily Word Eater‘s biggest strength, giving the album an obvious, beating heart. Word Eater is concerned with maintaining hope despite a series of crushing disappointments, forging meaningful human connections and embracing something like ascetism to inflict duress on those who most benefit from compulsive consumerism. It’s heady, big-picture stuff.
Sometimes, that’s expressed in a pointed, heavy way, but there are moments of levity, too. The album’s title track opens with the line “I ate it up, all the words I said / They don’t taste right, so I’ll go to bed,” which is a profoundly amusing way to describe depression-napping off the sting of being wrong about something.
It’s enough to overcome the somnolence inherent to the sentiment — and temporary bouts of highway hypnosis.
- Released April 24 via Rite Field Records. The label is also home to Pope, whose impending album BfM might show up in this space in the next couple of weeks. ↩︎
- Normally, they’re better than the Northern Illinois winters I knew for most of my life, but this one featured record-breaking snow and cold that combined to force me away from the outdoor spaces I love for roughly four months. During that same time, I also had to say goodbye to a beloved dog and cracked a rib while walking a less-beloved dog. Cornwallis probably had it worse, but truly it was my winter of discontent. ↩︎
- I got this eagle photo for my efforts, so it was ultimately a sound choice. ↩︎
- Last year, I gave a deer a “love tap” with my car after it bolted out of some brush and into the road. Both my car and the deer were OK, but I felt terrible about it for weeks. ↩︎
- These are unpacked in greater detail in this Tape Wounds Q&A with Some Fear founder Branden “Bran” Palesano. ↩︎
What did we watch
The Kids In The Hall, Season Five, Episode Sixteen
“And Nichols, may I congratulate you on the thickness of this report.”
“I have reason to believe Nichols wrote this report while naked.”
“Nichols, are you getting an erection?”
“Aw, you made the coffee naked!”
“All the labours of some Columbian boy tainted by your perversion!”
“Did you bring your cable bill with you?”
“No, no, no, I burned it, it depressed me!”
“If you shut off my cable, she might get up!”
“Yeah, it’s because we’re not captains of industry.”
“Yes. Yes, I did sell these gentlemen a gazebo.”
“But Lorne argued that was too many words for a t-shirt, and argued the catchphrase should be ‘gotta get laid’.”
“And then I would do another line.”
“I realised it was all a drug-induced dream, and I felt sad. So I did another line. And then I felt sad. So I did another line.”
“My friend Carlo is a brilliant scientist, and it is a social tragedy that he has never been employed as such.”
“Something wrong with me? Because I still see puke. Now that’s definitely a terrier.”
Happy Endings, Season One, Episode Three, “Barefoot Pedaler”
I knew I was forgetting something all weekend. I was having a nice weekend with my partner.
“You realise a meal that size is meant for someone about to work in a field for twelve hours.”
“He was the only black guy there.”
“I was like Rosa Parks. Except for something that didn’t matter at all.”
“We made love like warrior poets.”
“How do you even do that?”
One thing I can see – admittedly because Nath literally said that in his article – is how they’ll improve things by making the incidents funny, as opposed to filtering normal things through the one-liner generating machine they have going already. I’m already on the show’s side because of that machine, and admittedly I don’t give the slightest fuck about the action, so I’m looking forward to that.
“I’m actually allergic to nuts…”
“When Jane gets drunk, she turns into a Creole fishing boat captain.”
“Guarantee!”
“It’s gonna be totes normal. Except that I just said totes.”
“Hey guys. I just got your texts.”
“Neither is bagina. Not a real world.”
“I still look twenty, right?”
“We have a history. And it’s a sex history.”
One thing I like about this show is that it doesn’t really exist to Make A Point. Like, they’re still trying to take the characters seriously, but you can compare it with How I Met Your Mother where they’re trying to impart a lesson, or the really shitty sitcoms where it feels like the writer is trying to get back at someone.
“You guys are back together. Makes the video less funny, but congrats.”
Okay, I admit, I care at least a bit about Alex pretending to get back together with Dave to help him save face in front of a jerk.
It was amusing to see Alex get tazed – especially because you don’t expect a hot female character to get that kind of slapstick – but it was also a relief to avoid a Michael Scott situation.
“And because there are no gay hippies? It’s true, it’s embarrassing.”
“You’re one of the only ones I remember at all. And I’ve slept with thousands and thousands of women. Sometimes two or three at a time.”
“And only two of those things are turn-ons.”
Hacks, Season Five, Episode Three, “No New Tricks”
Most of my observations were scooped by Lauren yesterday. That’s what I get for getting distracted by a trip away. This episode feels very old fashioned, in that it doesn’t feel like a normal final-season episode – there’s no Final Commentary or anything here, just a straightforward episode.
You know, it’s kind of funny that residency was not seen as cool for the longest time, which I assume was largely from people who don’t make art for a living and are not drawn to, like, a regular income.
Biggest Laugh: “Marty! Can I bring a sex worker?” / “… Yeah, sure, fine.”
“Do I have an issue with your magic? Interesting question.” = the worst possible thing you could say in that moment.
Imagine if you had the Mayor there for every argument you had with your partner. Whether or not the Mayor has had violent sex with them is optional.
I also love that Marty has a sense of humour about his fiancee getting arrested. “They’re calling it elder fraud. It’s peer-to-peer fraud!” There’s a dignity to him, which comes largely from Christopher Macdonald.
There’s a dignity to him, which comes largely from Christopher Macdonald.
Macdonald’s very good at giving him a kind of amusedly weary (relative) unflappability, which is a rare(-ish) quality in the world of Hacks: he can roll with absurdity (“On stolen land?”) and also sometimes decide to simply take a hit because he knows he can outlast it, like with Deb’s attempted S1 blackmail.
I didn’t want to say he’s one of the few adults in the series, but there’s really no other way to say it.
Elementary, “Details” – Someone is out to frame Detective Bell. The solution to who isn’t particularly interesting outside of, it was another cop. This show will never be The Shield, but it also doesn’t insist that every cop and Fed is a saint. Malcolm Goodwin (iZombie) guest stars as Bell’s estranged ex-con brother. More important is that Holmes make a formal offer to hire Watson as his apprentice, admitting that her presence helps him work better. It took sixteen weeks to get to this, and feels utterly organic.
Batman: The Animated Series, “Appointment in Crime Alley” – At 9 pm, Roland Daggett’s men will destroy Crime Alley unless Batman can save the day. Yesterday, Gerry Conway passed away. He wrote tons of stuff for both Marvel and DC, including a very good run on Batman no one talks much about now, and then left comics for TV, including two scripts for BTAS. This specific script is a very loose adaptation of “There’s No Hope in Crime Alley,” by an even bigger Batman legend, Denny O’Neil, and while the pieces don’t entirely hold together, Conway’s script keeps the emotional beats and humanism of the original. Beyond that, Kevin Conroy modulating his Batman voice between deep and angry and more measured and even friendly is about as good as the one true voice of the Bat gets. Plus the cast includes Ed Asner, David McKean, Jeffrey Tambor, and Diana Muldaur as Leslie Thompkins for the first time. All around, a memorable night in Crime Alley. RIP Gerry.
RIP, I didn’t know – should be better remembered.
Oops, not Michael McKean, but David Lander.
Rose of Nevada – the new film from Mark Jenkin, of Bait and Enys Men arthouse mini-fame. This combines the low-key fishing village drama of his first film with the mysterious / supernatural elements of his second to tell the story of a couple of young men who head out on a fishing boat and return to find themselves in a different time. I loved the aesthetics and general vibe, but – like Enys Men – I found it to be an interesting setup that never really goes anywhere. Fine as a mood piece but I wish there was just a little more to grab onto.
Slow Horses, “Missiles,” “Circus,” and “Scars”
Great shot of Lamb’s feet at the end of “Scars,” even if I suspect it would have a tiny bit more impact if they hadn’t specifically included Catherin quizzing him about his “made-up” story earlier this season.
Gimball’s Final Destination/Rube Goldberg death is beautiful, especially with it ending up with a baffled, aghast, quickly spiraling River spattered with pink paint and an unflappable Coe calmly feasting on some cherries afterwards. Coe also gets a great moment when he immediately stands up and zooms out of the room the moment Lamb notes that only a “total psychopath” would identify the target for the attack.
River’s been stuck acting out-of-character a lot this season–which is specifically lampshaded–but a good use of his actual, established flaws is Lamb hilariously working out some part of the Gimball fuck-up because River doesn’t immediately manifest a PowerPoint presentation on how it was Totally Understandable and Anyone Would Have Done the Same Thing.
Insufficient Nick Mohammed, and the plotline with Jaffrey’s son is mostly dropped. This is maybe the weakest season on a plotting level–the dynamics with the Libyans get overturned too many times, and Whelan’s motivation is so minimally established that it mostly feels like he makes Molly redundant and threatens Slough House just to set up Lamb’s reversal at the end. Still very much looking forward to S6 this fall, but I can understand why departing showrunner Will Smith (not that one) felt that he was fraying a little under the production schedule.
Roddy and Judd are both characters who are technically awful in a lot of ways–the ongoing joke about everyone knowing Tara’s a honeypot because they’ve met Roddy does amuse me–but who also juice everything up by being persistently themselves and having a pretty good time doing it.
Best bit of ownage: Catherine using a water bottle to prevent an assassination.
Funniest quote:
“Who’s got a grudge against penguins?”
“…Batman?”
or Judd’s–from memory–“In that case–shit, bugger, fuck–itis them.” It’s the way the slightly breathless dialogue delivery elides the punctuation completely.
What did we listen to?
Juniverbrecher, The Indelicates
This album fucking slaps. It’s got substance, and that substance is venomous, especially when it comes to its two biggest 2017 targets, Brexit and Jimmy Savile (the “comfortable monster” who embedded himself and his sins in the establishment, and whom The Indelicates tie to the specter of violent funnyman puppet Mr. Punch), and it simply rocks, with great, boisterous, and sometimes unsettling instrumentation and a ton of energy and creativity. The exuberant horrorshow of predatory British music scene icons + exorcism overtones of “Top of the Pops” is probably my favorite, and that’s the song I’d love everyone to go out and listen to, but “Cold Reading” takes the number two spot for inexplicably feeling like a funny, bitter excerpt from the middle of a Nightmare Alley musical. More non-musical albums should turn into musicals for a track or two.
Blood on Satan’s Claw
Full-cast audio dramatization of a classic folk horror movie. I find the cinematic version intriguing but not entirely successful: while this loses some of more striking visuals, like Angel’s crown and the patches of satanic fur growing on everyone’s skin, it gains a lot of creepiness from the unseen and from some well-crafted haunting dialogue. Very strong voice acting–undoubtedly more professional, on the whole, than the acting in the original work, though obviously this wouldn’t exist if there hadn’t been a weird vitality to the original–and effective horror, at least until the slightly disappointing climax. (Good stinger, though.) I could see myself listening to this again. (Does have a fake rape accusation as part of the plot, in case anyone is curious about this but would find that a dealbreaker.)
Guys and Dolls and The Pajama Game for a one-two punch of classic musical comedies; I think I wanna revisit the latter, as I liked it but didn’t love it. “Hey There” is undoubtedly the highlight of the score, a song I adored as a kid. The former is amusing given my own knowledge of Arnold Rothstein – who Nathan Detroit is VERY loosely based on, to the extent that he’s lost any Judaism or cold sense of his own genius – and the extent to which this exemplifies the critique of older musicals sanitizing complicated, messed up situations for a bigger audience. It regardless has one of the best collections of songs ever. There’s a reason “Luck Be A Lady” became a hit, and there’s also the way “Adelaide’s Lament” refrain scans while being ridiculously wordy. Where both lose me a bit, and this isn’t really their fault, is the compulsory heterosexuality; I dunno if anything ages these more than the “women are like this, men are like this” attitudes all over the lyrics and character dynamics.
Podcasts, mainly The Worst of All Possible Worlds which is doing some very good analysis of musicals and movies, though a ton of episodes cover video games, a subject I don’t have much interest in.
Which recording of Guys and Dolls?
The original Broadway recording – if you have any other recordings you prefer, let me know!
My wife much prefers the recording from the Nathan Lane run to the original, but I default to the latter. I love Nathan Lane and Faith Prince, but something is missing.
1001 Albums, etc. catchup for a couple of weeks.
The Smiths – Meat is Murder: not the strongest Smiths album for me, odd that the book skips the debut but includes this one. A few great songs but at this point I need the band to be fully at the top of their game to balance out the general bad taste of Morrissey’s existence and I don’t think they get there on this album.
Tom Waits – Rain Dogs: this feels like the point Waits fully clicks into his mad ramshackle experimental-blues-folk incarnation and it’s pretty glorious. Not sure I’d actually heard this album in full before but I really enjoyed it.
The Jesus & Mary Chain – Psychocandy: heard this one many times and some of the guitar tones still make me wince in appreciation, gloriously abrasive in places and that works so well married to these classic pop-influenced songs.
New Order – Low-Life: I absolutely love New Order but I’ve largely been content to stick to singles collections for whatever reason. Bernard Sumner’s voice is clearly the weak point on a lot of these tracks (a couple of which have punchier single versions that help a little) and I can’t work out if that’s their one weakness as a band or if I kind of like them more because of it. But yeah this rules.
Simply Red – Picture Book: I’ve disliked Mick Hucknall ever since I first got into music, and the best thing I can say about this album is that it wasn’t QUITE as bad as I thought it might be. But it’s still quite shit.
Dexys Midnight Runners – Don’t Stand Me Down: very odd, the book makes a case for this as a critically-dismissed flop that gained attention over time but I think I’m more inclined to agree with the initial assessment. A lot of the vocals / lyrics feel very aimless and the sprawling song structures are kinda interesting but it feels like they hadn’t quite figured out what their next step was.
Scritti Pollitti – Cupid & Psyche 85: ahead-of-its-time pop music with crazy production, I feel like some of this is right on the edge of being a little annoying but never quite gets there, I thought it was excellent.
Elvis Costello and the Attractions – Blood & Chocolate: found the last couple of Elvis albums on the list pretty boring as he matured into a “classic songwriter” type, but this album has a little more edge again and some strong pop-rock tunes, maybe the best I’ve heard from him.
Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force – Planet Rock: The Album: punchy old-school hip-hop, I was familiar with the Kraftwerk-sampling title track but the whole album is up to a similar standard, really fun.
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Screen Drafts, 2025 Mega Draft – a truly epic episode, really enjoyed the discussion and Daniel Waters was a fun new voice for the show. Some nice deeper cuts to investigate in the lower half of the list, but I was disappointed they were so dismissive of my personal favourite film of the year, Marty Supreme. Bah!
That was a fun Screen Drafts episode, and I’m glad it pointed me towards The Ballad of Wallis Island, which I hadn’t even heard of before.
That was my second favourite film of 2025! And also a very personally significant one because I asked my now-girlfriend out after we saw it together!
What a perfect (almost) first date movie!
Psychocandy rocks! Literally. I feel like Sumner’s voice/sincere and silly lyrics were the weak point for me when I was younger and I’ve gained affection for them with age. He means every often questionable word.
The piano on Tango Till They’re Sore sounds like it did some hard drinking in New Orleans the night before. If you can get it there is a great performance of it on yt from when Waits was on Letterman.
Well, his music’s rubbish and he’s a ginger.