Myele Manzanza - "Family Dynamics" / "Itaru's Phone Booth"

I don't think I've ever done this before, but I'm going to include two tracks from the same record on this post instead of singling one out.

While I enjoyed 2016's OnePointOne release from Kiwi drummer/composer Myele Manzanza, I never posted about it. But because he's on the ever-reliable (and award-winning) First Word Records, I've kept an ear open for what he's up to. A Love Requited drops today and was one of the first things I listened to this morning. The album starts strong, but it's in the beginning of the second-quarter that things REALLY start to cook. "Family Dynamics" is the cleanup hitter and deserving of that spot in the batting order because it swings for the fences. Pianist Matthew Sheens - who has worked with First Word's Ross McHenry, has some lovely, deft runs on this track and Jake Baxendale's alto-sax just comes alive after minute two.



That's immediately followed up by "Itaru's Phone Booth," which is a lovely, restrained number that pulls the pace back a touch without losing any of the album's momentum.



Do yourself a favor and give A Love Requited a full listen over this long weekend.

alae - "Stone Cold"

I've been listening to the new Josh Rouse record a lot this week (he's one of my all-timers) so it likely put me in the perfect place for this new single from New Zealand trio alae to show up in my inbox this morning, but I'd have probably loved it without having the pump primed by Love in the Modern Age already.

Ringing guitars are one of my weaknesses and "Stone Cold" has a doozy that has echoes of The Sea & Cake (another all-timer) and then Alex Farrell-Davey's vocals come in and have the same timbre as Rouse. Both possess gentle voices that still have weight behind them and are perfect for pop love songs ("Stone Cold" is about love as an addiction).

The architecture of this song is great too in the way that the guitar line and a very subtle drum track get a full 20 seconds to establish the song before the vocals come in and then a tom and snare beat accompanies Farrell-Davey's first words. The bass line drops in around the 45 second mark and then all of this drops away for a moment around 1:06 at which point we reach the chorus AND THEN OHMYGOD THERE ARE HORNS. 1:19 is when my crush on this song becomes full-blown swooning. The trumpet line brings with it a more bouncing beat and the irrepressible sunshine at the heart of this song bursts out.

This is the best Josh Rouse song Josh Rouse hasn't written and it leaves me eager to hear more from Auckland's alae.