"To warmly droning organ that hangs like the last streak of sunlight above a darkening horizon, Milovic assures someone that they haven't offended her but her steady Teutonic tenderness, reminiscent of Molly Nilsson or Sophia Kennedy, suggests that their actions weren't provocative so much as evasive. Strings flutter tentatively as she addresses this person who can't look life in the eye right now."
"The first lines of Al Olender's delightfully specific Cyclone, draw on a memory of driving to Queens to try to get laid, and from there the song takes our unwinding narrator to a Baltimore freeway, Planet Fitness bathroom, and, yes, the titular Coney Island attraction. It's a well-trodden theme, though usually sung by classic dude troubadours such as Townes Van Zandt or Merle Haggard: no matter where she runs, she's herself, and it's a problem."
Milovic's "Not Offended" pairs warmly droning organ, tentative strings, and steady Teutonic tenderness to convey calm and clear-eyed recognition of someone dodging life. The vocal reassurance shifts into full-blooded strings and drums to suggest the ease of letting go. Al Olender's "Cyclone" uses vividly specific scenes—Queens, a Baltimore freeway, a Planet Fitness bathroom, Coney Island—to craft a messy, human narrative that resists AI homogeneity. The song traces running from selfhood and culminates in a beautiful crescendo and a vowed replacement of breakable glass with paper plates. A centuries-old folk ballad, "Long Lankin," remains a transfixing, violent traditional murder song.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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