One Track

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  • A figure in a black robe sits in the corner, wearing white gloves, on the cover of Bakar's Nobody's Home
    in One Track

    Bakar’s “Free” Is the Uptempo Track We All Need Right Now

    The greatest songs trick us into believing we have caught the singer off-guard; that they have revealed more about themselves then they intended. The bracing candidness of the opening 20 seconds of “Free” show that Bakar clearly knows how to cast this spell. Taken from Camden-born Bakar’s first studio album Nobody’s Home, the sound of […] More

  • A Shot From The Saudade Video
    in One Track

    Saudade Find Fun in Joy Division

    I’ve always wanted to cover ‘Day Of The Lords.’ In my opinion it is the heaviest of Joy Division’s songs. – Randy Blythe, Lamb Of God. What’s The Deal? Saudade are an odd supergroup. Are they a supergroup? Gill Sharone from Dillinger Escape Plan, Randy, Dr Know from Bad Brains, Mickie Jayson of Cro-Mags fame, […] More

  • Lead vocalist of Judas Priest Rob Halford singing in leather and studs
    in The Sound of Our Lives

    “Night Crawler” is a Thrilling Terror by Judas Priest

    Few sonic nightmares come to life as vividly as the Judas Priest epic “Night Crawler.” Though some may point to the Grand Guignol in death metal extremes, they fail to appreciate the refined fright fuel seeping out of speakers thanks to this track. In the hellish gallery of horror portraits, “Night Crawler” deserves a place […] More

  • A woman wearing a suit, striped shirt, and shoulder-length brown hair stands in front of a microphone, dimly lit by a reddish light (The woman is singer-songwriter Vonnie Kyle)
    in Music Reviews, One Track

    Vonnie Kyle: A Tale of “Imperfect Parts”

    A friend recently introduced me to Vonnie Kyle, a Portland-based indie singer-songwriter who just released a new music video for her single, “Imperfect Parts.” As of late, I’ve been a pretty hard sell when it comes to new media. The surplus of available content has left me feeling fairly jaded, so I initially resisted sitting […] More

  • Imogen Heap sings and performs with her Mi.Mu gloves.
    in One Track

    Imogen Heap’s “Last Night Of An Empire”

    Imogen Heap released “Last Night Of An Empire” in 2020, and I assume she initially imagined it would encapsulate the global chaos of that pivotal year. But from the perspective of the present, its story is starting to sound timeless, as if it will come to define an era, rather than a single year. The […] More

  • Taylor Swift stands in a yard with a wooden fence in the background, her hands on her hips as she wears shorts and a hat, looking back toward the camera
    in One Track

    Taylor Swift’s ‘All Too Well’: The Imagery of Heartbreak

    I originally planned to write about Taylor Swift’s 2012 album RED—looking back at why I love it, and looking forward to the rerecording due in November. But then I started writing, and writing, and writing about one specific song from that album instead—‘All Too Well’. So this is a slight deviation from the original plan. […] More

  • A sepia-tone album cover of the album Gone Again. Patti Smith stands in front of a blank wall with her hand down and her hand to her face.

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    in The Sound of Our Lives

    The “Summer Cannibals” of Patti Smith

    In this article, I tell the story of how I came to love Patti Smith’s song, “Summer Cannibals,” which became an ongoing presence during a particularly challenging period of my life. In writing this piece, I realized that even though the song is filled with foreboding imagery, it is ultimately a song about rediscovering your […] More