Sometimes I write for Swim Into The Sound. Usually those pieces are more formalized and have a talented editor’s eyes on them. What goes here is transcribed from my mind to the proverbial paper with no interference in between. It is on you to decide whether that is a net positive.
I listen to so much music that I mostly stopped watching television. Granted, streaming services are leaning more towards gluttonous content than thoughtful art nowadays, but I find music (along with movies, comics, and books—more on the latter two soon) more compelling for my attention. Because of that, every Friday is a feast day due to all this, er, cooking. Album, EP, or single, I always find something to enjoy.
Last Friday Go Home released their hotly anticipated Bug. Having followed the rollout of this album single by single, and having seen and heard these songs performed in various manners, I was the one doing the hot anticipating.1
Self-described as an art rock band that likes “the pleasure of the pattern, and the delight of the pattern-breaking,” Go Home are sonic naturalists. Every instrument, beat, and note feel “real” and a part of the tapestry of life. The harmonies between Marlena Mack and Zak Houston leave me longing for an idealized version of the past that I was not alive for (looking at you, ending of “Useless Pretty Things”). While Mack and Houston attract listeners with their haunting earworms, Travis Emery Hackett steadies their ship with tasteful drumming that simultaneously grounds and unbalances. Ghost notes have never sounded better.
Listening to Bug is like reading a story that I don’t want to end. The album feels lived in, warm, and inviting. All the same, Go Home’s musicianship and songwriting challenge me to pay attention and grow as an artist. Theirs is an album that rewards with repeated listens—both with eyes-closed, headphones-on attention, as well as in the halo glows hugging one’s daily life.
Although I write for myself, the process, and plainly just for fun, getting paid to do so would make this enterprise even more rewarding. Thank you for reading.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I have shared a stage with these lovely humans. Therefore I am inherently and proudly biased in their favor. You should be, too.