The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
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.
Just Like You Wanted It always has something extra up its sleeve.
The latest album from the Casey Smith Project, a loose Alaska-based collective helmed by its namesake singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist with contributors from Anchorage and Fairbanks, is an 11-song serving of soulful indie rock that blends a laidback vibe with unexpected flourishes.1 Whether it’s an extra-gritty falsetto wail or super crunchy guitar, there’s always an interesting texture that helps make Smith’s songs pop.
Frequently, that X-factor is some heavier-than-expected guitar that adds a pinch of smoldering intensity to tracks like “What Do You Say,” and “Useless.” On “In and Out of View,” it’s the Mellotron-approximated swirl of Philly Soul strings. That something extra on album-opener and de facto title track, “Hold On,” is twangy slide guitar courtesy of Ryan Bateman that emphasizes the plaintive atmosphere of the song. Listeners drawn toward hookier, brasher songs may get a little lost in the album’s deliberate pace, but the variety of sounds Just Like You Wanted It tosses out means that it’s never boring. While the old adage about judging a book by its cover is generally true, Just Like You Wanted It‘s Maisie Kane-made album art depicting a retro gas pump and psychedelically proportioned mushrooms will put your head in the right space.
Smith’s songs have a lot going on, but the album, which was recorded in bursts across 2023 and 2024, doesn’t sound cluttered. Smith said, in an interview following the release of the album, that care was taken to keep Just Like You Wanted It from getting too busy. Since 2021, the Casey Smith Project has released four albums, including this most recent release. Smith said Just Like You Wanted It was initially meant to be a more collaborative album than past efforts, featuring in-studio input from other musicians. The album is a mixed success in that regard.
Smith said Just Like You Wanted It did wind up being more of a group project, and input from drummer Derek Haukaas and bassist Scott Joyce helped shape it within a pair of Anchorage studios. However, assembling and layering instrumental tracks in a home studio was still a big part of getting the album over the finish line. That’s where deciding against an extra guitar line or more Mellotron ear candy helped to keep things from getting chaotic or mushy.
Just Like You Wanted It was released on Valentine’s Day, and it includes a couple of lovelorn tunes, but matters of the heart aren’t all that are on its mind. “Stop and Get Some Gas” addresses the past retreating in the rearview mirror and the value of forgiveness.2 Multiple songs grapple with choosing a direction, finding purpose and/or the disconnect that sometimes exists between intrinsic values and what others see.3 Heartbreak and ponderous trains of thought can make for some necessarily listless lyrics. The album avoids sulking, though, and room is made for wry jokes and references. Just like on the music that Smith’s lyrics accompany, there’s often a twist — a turn of phrase or allusion — that requests attention. On “Useless,” that takes the form of some unlikely old-school rock echoes from both the Rolling Stones — “When we don’t get what we want / If we try real hard then maybe / I guess we just get what we need” — and Journey — “Even when the lights go out in the city / We can stay at home all day”— factoring into a track with new wave feel.
These pop-ups don’t drastically inform how the song comes across, but they’re fun, welcome surprises. And that’s ultimately the album’s MO.
About the writer
Ben Hohenstatt
Ben Hohenstatt is an Alaska-based dog owner who moonlights as a music writer and photographer.
For more information, consult your local library or with parental permission visit his website.
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The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
Department of
Conversation
What Did We Watch?
Kojak, “A Question of Answers,” part one – The third season starts like the second with a two-hour episode, and with George Savalas now listed under his own name since apparently no one will confuse him with his brother anymore. A businessman in debt to a loan shark kills himself, and Kojak teams with a federal agent to entrap the loan shark using an old friend of Kojak’s recently arrested for selling stolen fur coats. The patsy is played by the great Eli Wallach, and he adds a soulful desperation to the role. The fed is played by a young Jerry Orbach, not at all craggy and sporting a very 70’s ‘stache. Other guests include a young and not-even-a-little-bald F. Murray Abraham as the loan shark’s goon, and Christopher Guest briefly surfacing in a non-speaking role. What makes this one is the choice of filming locations, including a scene at Coney Island that basks in the summer sun, and a fair number of now-melancholy shots of the Twin Towers.
Frasier, “Roz in the Doghouse” – Bulldog steals Roz to be his producer, and Frasier refuses to believe he isn’t just after Roz’s body. It’s kind of disappointing that in the end, Frasier is right. Not a great episode, but a good spotlight on Roz and on Bulldog, played by with the usual obnoxious delight by Dan Butler.
The Great North, “The Prince of Hides Adventure”
Some local access survival-reality show (I think it’s called “Dropped Off to Die”) that the Tobins are fans of has another casting call, and Wolf gets selected. Now, Wolf seems to me like the Tobin least suited to this– I mean, Ham and Judy probably wouldn’t be great, either– but he’s the only one in the right age range: Moon is far too young, and Beef probably isn’t too old to pull it off but has too many responsibilities to be gone for that long.
Of course, Wolf has a “Mountain of Madness”-style meltdown and bails out after ten hours or so. He has six days until the first episode airs, and he can’t come home and has to find a way to cover his embarrassment. So for the rest of the week, he pretends to be “Rick Drygoods,” recently widowed frontier man, and crashes in Cheesecake’s trailer (apparently it’s very easy to convince Cheesecake he agreed to let you live with him last night) while he plots to prevent the episode from being seen.
Pretty fun. I liked it. Preposterous disguises and fake characters are a pretty easy sell for me.
Credits gags: Megan Thee Sailin’, Dearly Defarted
Grimsburg, “Mo11y”
Is this a M3GAN parody? Sure seems like it to me, even though I’ve never seen the movie! Anyway, cold open, a scientist invents a M3GAN-like doll that, since it’s vowed to protect its pairing no matter what, murders her partner after some light physical play. The inventor tries to turn off the doll, so it murders her too. The precinct investigates the crime scene, and while they take the doll in, Marvin sneaks it out to give to Stan, in an attempt to prove he’s a better parent than Harmony.
I’d say “guess what happens” but it’s actually a bit surprising, as Mo11y doesn’t immediately kill Marvin and Harmony, since that would traumatize Stan too much. What happens instead is weird enough that you’ll enjoy it more if you find out for yourself. Pretty good episode. And February has been a real month for the FOX network making “Drake is a pedophile” jokes.
Architecton – an arty documentary about rocks? Sure, why not. There’s some striking imagery in here but it didn’t quite come together for me – at times it feels like it wants to be a Koyaanisqatsi successor, other times it’s going for slow cinema, and then finally it announces an “epilogue” and spells everything out in a tedious interview with an architect that left a bad taste in my mouth. There’s plenty to enjoy here otherwise, the cinematography is consistently gorgeous (give or take some shifts into B&W that didn’t really work for me) and the score is excellent, but if you’re going to switch from almost dialogue-free footage to an interview in your closing minutes then you’d better make sure the interview actually has something to say.
Kids In The Hall, Season Two, Episode Thirteen
– “Good work. Looks like you’re finally getting the hang of this ‘good cop, bad cop’ thing.”
– “I got big arms, coz I drum, right?”
– “If you’re paying with returnable beer bottles, press three.”
– “No problem, Nick, I… did it for the kids.”
– “Excuse me, do you work here?” / “My answer is yes, I doubt I’d be fixing this display in my spare time.”
– “I am quite well-stocked in the colour of cowards.”
– “Kind of a drastic way to get out of paying your rent, eh, buddy?”
The Beast – At times I admired this movie’s easy-route sci-fi – slap a face shield on characters when they walk outside and boom, environmental dystopia – but next to the much more elaborately costumed and staged period elements, it feels half-hearted. And while the movie contains some truly terrifying sequences, including an ending that stabs straight to the heart of a future to fear, it’s a long, meandering route to get there. Seydoux is enough reason to enjoy the journey most of the time, but the movie often feels like it has a stronger grasp of the past than either the future or the present. Still, that final moment is hard to shake – may be worth the digressions to get there.
Trying and failing to avoid just outright saying that the parts of this movie I don’t like is when it’s really French. And a bit afraid of looking genre in front of its cool art house friends.
Haha, exactly my thinking when I sided with the “documentary about rocks” faction rather than the “killer monkey” faction of my cinema friends.
(the killer monkey movie is available on other dates and at other cinemas, to be fair. I still plan to get killed by that particular monkey)
Debating on whether to get killed by that particular monkey this week, I was in the minority on Longlegs, although this looks like it’s having a lot more fun than that movie.
I was pretty mixed on Longlegs but yeah, this one looks like a nicely dark horror-comedy and I suspect it’ll be a good time.
I suspect the people like us who didn’t love Longlegs are gonna really like The Monkey.
The reactions to the killer monkey are fascinating to me — some people, Perkins skeptics included, really like it while others haaaaaaaaate it, the tone seems to be hugely divisive.
What Did We Listen To?
Can – Future Days – still mostly have the 1001 Albums listen-through on hold until February songwriting is over, but since I got the tram to the cinema yesterday I grabbed the next one on the list for Transit Listening. Really enjoyed this, it’s the second Can album on the list and while it feels like less of an ahead-of-its-time artistic statement than Tago Mago, it has a great, playful vibe that I really enjoyed. Krautrock is one of the older genres I *had* spent substantial time with but Can were not one of the bands that had clicked with me before, this album definitely helped me understand them a little better.
Screen Drafts – finished up the Francis Ford Coppola draft and while it was interesting hearing the shift into Acclaimed Masterpiece territory, the real fun came in the films just before that where things got a little more heated. The Cotton Club is my favourite FFC movie outside of the big ones and that got to a respectful #8 despite some fairly major criticisms, I still need to check out the recut version. I wouldn’t say Coppola is one of “my guys” particularly but I could definitely stand to rewatch some of the big ones and fill in some gaps.
Oh! Also there’s a new Baths album, “Gut”. His previous album, “Romaplasm”, is in contention for my favourite album of all time and – quite impressively – this new one has lived up to the high bar that I set for it, so far. Highly recommended for fans of… emotional electronic art-pop? With extremely queer lyrics? I think he’s a genius.
Growing Up In Public, Lou Reed
Very much calls forward ot ther est of the Eighties, and this synth-heavy rock really meshes well with Reed’s songwriting, bringing out a whole new angle to it. I love how tasteful and kind and sweet it is. Less sure about this sneering sarcastic voice he’s started putting on, but sometimes it works.
Check out New York afterward if you want the more guitar-heavy Lou – terrific album.
I’m going through in chronological order so I should hit that in… I can’t be bothered looking it up.
Catching up on Blank Check’s early Spielberg series, and here in the tenth anniversary year, going back to some old favorite movies has seemed to given them a spark of the old energy particularly in the E.T. episode. Also giving me an excuse to fill in my few Spielberg gaps, revisiting Duel for the first time in 30 years and checking 1941 out of the library. Probably should do Empire of the Sun again since I remember almost nothing about it, and I haven’t seen Always or The Color Purple.
I’ve just started the ET episode and they do seem to be in good form. Empire, Always and Color Purple are blind spots for me too and I was planning to fill them, although I’m not sure I’ll manage it in time for the episodes (and I haven’t listened to the Jaws episode yet so I’m not even managing to stay caught up with the ones I have seen!)
I am halfway through Bendis and Indy. Like his comics, this is terribly decompressed. But Bendis and I are more or less peers culturally and age-wise so it’s fun to hear just how much experiences with Lucas and Spielberg and Indy match mine.
Year of the Month update!
And March is going to be Silent Era Month, where you can join these writers in examining your favorite silent movies and anything else from the 1910s and ’20s!
Mar. 4th: Lauren James: The Most Dangerous Game
Mar. 10th: Sam Scott: The Passion of Joan of Arc
Mar. 20th: Cori Domschot: Steamboat Bill, Jr.
Mar. 24th: Tristan J. Nankervis – Birth of a Nation
Mar. 26th: Sam Scott: Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie
Mar. 27th: Lauren James: The Well of Loneliness
Mar. 31st: John Anderson: The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog
Here’s how we’re wrapping up February:
Feb. 25th: Bridgett Taylor: Rogue One
Feb. 27th: Cori Domschot: Hidden Figures
Feb. 27th: John Bruni: Jet Plane and Oxbow
And in April, we’ll be movin’ on up to 1999, so you can write about any of these movies, albums, books, et al!
Apr. 14: Sam Scott: Childhood favorites: Wakko’s Wish, Spongebob Squarepants, Bartok the Magnificent and/or Elmo in Grouchland