Wonderlick Recording Co. / Sony Music Ent. Australia 

 needed to be bold and encapsulate many themes, including love, heartbreak, and different stages of life. This album is a very vulnerable display of Shark’s emotions and goes through the different stages of love, from the feelings associated with a crush to hard breakups to moving on. Shark does a great job moving through the different themes and balancing the energies associated with each.

Shark does a great job lyrically on this album, as each song deals with a relatable unique experience. While many songs on the album can be seen as love songs, it’s the other songs that really sell this album. The track ‘I Said Hi’ comes from Shark’s experience of let downs by executives and negative opinions from those who told her to give up, making for a perfect example of giving the finger to those who didn’t believe in you. “I said hi” was a phrase she began using as a passive aggressive way to address people who didn’t give her the respect she deserved. This song is descriptive enough for everyone to understand the message, but also lets the listener fill in with their own struggles and relate to the song. I can almost feel the anxiety swelling when Shark says ‘And I lay half awake, thinking what’s it’s gonna take/ For my moment to arrive, so sick and paralyzed’ and ‘Lying on my side, watching time fly by/ And I bet the whole world thought that I would give up today’.

While very lyrically different, the electronic sampling and pop formula Shark uses causes the songs to blend together and leaves few examples of instrumental or melodic diversity. One would expect to hear a wide range of differences between each song on a fourteen-track album, but with the same canned synth rhythms over and over again, listening to it in full from start to finish became boring. The one song that breaks away from this cycle is the Jack Antonoff-produced ‘All Loved Up,’ but even that has its own issues. Shark commented in an 

 that Antonoff pushed her to sing in a falsetto during the chorus, but the problem with that ended up being that there wasn’t enough of a blend between the chorus and the verses. While Shark might fall into an alto singing range, she most certainly should not be coming across one-note for a majority of this song. The chorus sounds hollow, and her voice is too breathy with nothing to support it. It would have been more effective in showing this change if it had been mixed with a lower harmony or Shark had showed more musicality throughout the rest of the song.

Another problematic song is ‘Psycho,’ featuring Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus. I find this song confusing because I see these two artists trying to merge together, but not quite hitting the mark. Their voices don’t blend together well, as Hoppus is overpowering and Shark just fades whenever they come together. His voice is arguably too distinct for a song like this, and I don’t think it accurately portrays his ability.

Overall, I like certain songs on the album, but not the album as a whole. The singles were great representations of Shark’s musical abilities; ‘Adore,’ for instance, is the song that started it all for her and still carries itself well despite being four years old. But for this album, it’s not necessary to listen to the whole thing. Pick out a few of the enjoyable songs and forget about the rest. I would recommend ‘All Loved Up,’ ‘I Said Hi,’ ‘The Idiot,’ and ‘The Slow Song.’ These songs show Shark’s powerful talent and are the strongest on the album.

Amy Shark releases debut full-length ‘Love Monster’

I don’t know what possessed me to stand outside the House of Blues for four hours in freezing temperatures last Sunday. Maybe it was the fact that I was seeing one of my favorite bands live for the first time in almost four years. Maybe I just love torture. Maybe I’m insane. But all my dreams were crushed when I finally got into the music hall and saw the VIP ticket holder crowd in front of the stage. My extreme efforts were crushed by a few dozen people that just paid a few extra bucks for tickets.

Walk the Moon’s opening act was Company of Thieves. The Chicago band, after a three year break up, have reunited in the last year. The set was interesting to say the least. Their act didn’t feel like it was cohesive and while the rest of the crowd was responsive and excited, I was left confused as to what exactly was going on. Lead singer Genevieve Schatz sounded like a mixture of Hayley Williams and Halsey with the theatricality of my high school choir director. On stage was a phone receiver hooked up to the speaker system. While it was great in theory it wasn’t functional in practice.While I wasn’t that far from the stage, each time Schatz would reach for it you could only hear the faintest output and desired effect. After waiting so long for this show, their 45 minute set left me wanting something else.

Walk the Moon came out to a crowd so eager for their set to begin. The band opened with ‘Press Restart’ the first song off their newest album. After such a lackluster opener, Walk the Moon exuberated excitement and energy. Joining the band onstage for this tour was Lucky West of The Griswolds. He added very little to the stage presence which was surprising because the main members were conversational throughout the set, with the exception of drummer Sean Waugaman. Both guitarist Eli Maiman and bassist Kevin Ray joined Nicholas Petricca in engaging with the crowd and getting everyone excited. He was not mentioned by anyone in the band and I would have had no idea who he was if I hadn’t have seen The Griswolds open for another band a few years ago.

, should have been the focus of the night the majority of their set consisted of older music. I’m on the fence about this choice. On one hand I liked hearing the older songs, but I was excited to hear the new album live and would have sacrificed an older song for a newer one. Especially since one song from 

To calm down the crowd, only Petricca and Maiman remained onstage to perform ‘Aquaman’ acoustically. While it was not a song I particularly understood during my first listen of their sophomore album, it grew on me and this rendition has given me a greater appreciation of the song. Walk the Moon gained most of their popularity from the hit ‘Shut up and Dance.’ While many are sick of hearing the campy tune at every wedding and function they go to now until the end of time, something about this song just gets me pumped. Having it as part of the main set made it seem less like a one hit wonder and more like a part of the band’s positive and sunny disposition.

The band ended their main set with ‘Headphones.’ While the night had been building up to it I could feel the bass throughout my whole body almost as if it had enough force to push me backwards. The band really put on a show with this song as the stage lights went wild and the band danced around stage. After a few moments the band came back for an encore of ‘Up 2 U’ and ‘Anna Sun.’ While ‘Anna Sun’ was an obvious choice, ‘Up 2 U’ was interesting for an encore. ‘Shut up and Dance’ and ‘One Foot’ were used in the main set (which is fine) but what made ‘Up 2 U’ so special? I almost expected ‘Work this Body’ as it was albeit the less popular second single from 

but also the name of their cancelled 2016 summer tour.

I’m pretty biased when it comes to this band but expectations were met and exceeded when it comes to this long awaited show. There was still so much energy in the room as the house lights came up and the stage was teared down. This was one show out of a handful I’ve been to where the audience was feeling the after effects of the show while leaving the venue.

Walk the Moon @ House of Blues

November 17, 2017 @ House of Blues Boston

I arrived at the House of Blues around 3:30pm, only to find a handful of people waiting. The cold was deterring people from lining up early for the sold out show. To my benefit, when the doors did open, I was able to make it very close to the stage.

Bleacher’s first opener was Amy Shark, an Australian singer who is just emerging in the States. You might recognize her song ‘Adore’ from the new Apple Music commercials. Her down-to-earth, indie vibe was a perfect way to get the show started, as the crowd was engaged, and her small band delivered a powerful sound. Something I noticed between all three bands was that they were all very engaged with the crowd, stopping to get the crowd excited and share anecdotes about the songs they were going to perform. It wasn’t overkill, and was nice to see, especially when so many bands will play through a set without acknowledging who they are playing to.

Next up was Bishop Briggs, whose performance raised the level of excitement and energy of the crowd. She spent her set dancing and bouncing around the stage, all whilst delivering a mind blowing vocal performance. At one point, she started running back and forth across the stage like she was participating in one of those beep pacer tests from middle school gym class. Her music was more electronic and hip-hop inspired in comparison to Amy Shark.

Bleachers’ set began at 10:00pm with ‘Dream of Mickey Mantle,’ and the excited crowd was met by an even more excited band. Jack Antonoff came out dressed in the costume seen on the cover of 

. He promptly left the stage after the song, coming back after changing into a black muscle tank, black jeans, Doc Martens, and a yellow baseball cap for his set. The stage’s backdrop featured a red moon and stars, and the amount of equipment and instruments present seemed to overcrowd the limited space on stage, yet Jack still had plenty of room to move around. The set was so powerful that the venue as a whole seemed like it was bursting at the seams trying to contain Bleachers and the energetic crowd. Drummer Mikey Riddleberger celebrated a birthday during this tour, and so the crew brought out a cake, and Jack prompted the crowd to sing ‘Happy Birthday.’ After blowing out the candles, the cake was passed into the crowd at the front of the stage.

While the set featured the best of Bleachers, a throwback to one of Jack’s older projects 

. was included into the set as he played a stripped down version of ‘Carry On.’ Jack interrupted his set multiple times to engage with the audience, mostly to talk about how great the crowd was. He talked about his connections with Boston and how it was the best show so far on this tour. Jack introduced the band with extensive solos from each member before the encore, and they closed the show with hits ‘I Wanna Get Better’ and ‘Don’t Take the Money.’

Bleachers @ House of Blues

[three_fourth]After two years, New Politics are back with their fourth studio album 

Following the early releases of five of the ten songs on the album, I was skeptical as to what New Politics was trying to accomplish. The songs seemed dissonant in regards to one another, and it was hard to figure out what the intended message was. However, after hearing the album in its entirety, the message of unity and self-acceptance was clear.

The album begins with ‘CIA’, an upbeat number that is a strong example of the music New Politics is known for. This song was made for live performances and felt incomplete without front man David Boyd bouncing around on stage.

The band wastes no time getting to their single ‘One of Us’. The song is the anchor of the album through its discussion of identity and self-acceptance. Their message is delivered throughout the album with ‘Madeleine’ and ‘Istanbul’. ‘Madeleine’ focuses on self-love and acceptance with lyrics like “You gotta love yourself before you love somebody”. All three of these songs feature the vocals of guitarist Søren Hansen, along with ‘Lifeboat’ and ‘Clouds’. This shows how the band has changed, since up until now Hansen was only used as a supporting vocalist.

Another first on this album is the use of a featured artist on a song. Rivers Cuomo of Weezer collaborated on the third song ‘Tell Your Dad’, and as exciting as it was to see Cuomo and New Politics work together, it was an underwhelming addition. If Cuomo’s name wasn’t listed in the title, I wouldn’t have noticed there was a new voice in the song.

Many of these songs were clearly written for live performances. ‘Color Green’ and ‘Lifted’ are prime examples of this. They are powerful emotionally in terms of the lyrics, and they exude confidence through the upbeat energy.

brings in new elements to New Politics’ body of work, while still maintaining the essence of who they are as artists. For example, the song ‘Lifeboat’ is more grungy and hardcore in its instrumentation, which is reminiscent of their self-titled debut album. ‘Lifeboat’ also references the idea of self-reflection. If this song were to be on an earlier album it may have had a darker tone. Instead, New Politics use of this song, which is about feeling trapped in a relationship, shines a light on recognizing the situation instead of wallowing in the experience.

To complement the high energy beginning of the album, New Politics ends with ‘Clouds’. Another Søren solo, the song ties the album together beautifully. There are soft elements in the use of the piano, but the energy is maintained by Louis Vecchio’s drum skills.

Overall, I think this album represents a solid return for New Politics. My favorite song on the album is ‘East Coast Thrilla’. The song has a laid-back vibe with the instrumentals but still holds a lot of weight. In this song and all of the others, New Politics’ message, inspirations, and dedication to the album are clear. Too often musicians create music they think people want to hear instead of the music they’re inspired to create, but New Politics managed to do both by taking risks without straying too far from their musical identity.

New Politics release full-length ‘Lost in Translation’

Walk the Moon release “One Foot” and tease a new direction in sound.

Nearly three years since releasing their sophomore album, Walk the Moon is back with their new single “One Foot.” The band gained widespread fame after the success of “Shut Up and Dance,” which earned them two Billboard Music Awards. In early 2016, the band had to cancel their upcoming Work This Body Tour “due to serious illness in Nick’s Family” and have since been under the radar.

“One Foot” offers a new sound for fans; the band has approached a more EDM, DJ-esque sound. It’s very similar to something you would see come from Calvin Harris or other like-minded DJs in today’s music scene. It’s refreshing to hear this new tone from Walk the Moon. While I loved the ’80s inspired synth-pop sound of 

, it’s good to see musicians take time for themselves and come back trying something new. Something the band hasn’t changed is its positive message through lyrics like “Taking this one step at a time/ I got your back and you got mine/…One foot in front of the other/ Ooh, all we have is each other”

Along with the single, Walk the Moon has released a music video, filmed in Joshua Tree National Park in California. It wouldn’t be Walk the Moon without face paint, but this video uses only simple, geometric white paint to go along with the structures used in the video, a noticeable change from the usual brightness in years past. The video also uses beautiful visuals of the sky with Petricca and an unknown woman in the desert.

With Walk the Moon being back in the music world, me and the rest of the fanbase will be patiently waiting to hear more about the upcoming album and future tour dates.

Marisa Kenny