A Song For Friday: The Beverage Station
A smart synthpop masterpiece. Also: Matt Berninger, Hudson Freeman, Caroline, Pry, Hollie Cook, Glen Washington, yeule, claire rousay/Gretchen Korsmo, Dickson & Familiar, and Ying Wang.
Synthpop is a genre both benighted and beloved. Benighted perhaps because it combines two signifiers of the artificial, and beloved because it is so often, well, delightful. Of course, when you get deeply musical, talented, and witty people like Lainie Fefferman and Jascha Narveson to take on the genre, a good time is guaranteed. Both of these composers and performers have been featured here many times. Fefferman, for example, has been deeply involved in exploring Jewish texts and setting them to music, as in 2024’s Here I Am, which I said was “…a tapestry of song that reveals more with every listen.” Narveson, whom I first met playing a Nintendo Golf controller as an electronic instrument, graced my Top 25 in 2022 with Flash Crash + Remixes, about which I remarked, “It’s a rich, deeply involving piece on its own, then all hell breaks loose…” when the remixers take control.
Fefferman and Narveson are experts at making everything they do ultra-smart and full of joy, and The Beverage Station is no different. The project’s debut album, Little Grey Cells, is out today, and every track finds the couple firing on all cylinders. The third track, Landing, is a perfect example. Kicking off with those distinctive Roland 808 hi-hat and snare sounds, the sound soon fills out with a bass drone and a bright synth pattern over which Fefferman begins singing in a treated voice. Then, Narveson takes control with a deranged synth solo that Albert Ayler would tip his hat to. Fefferman starts layering her vocals, the disco ball lowers from the ceiling, and she goes into full diva mode, intertwining vocals launching ever further into the stratosphere. Until she reaches her limit, burning up in the sun with an exasperated shriek. “I can’t get that part,” she says, laughing, “let it go, let it go.” I’m so glad they kept that in - you will be too.
Little Grey Cells is just a fantastic album that satisfies on so many levels, I lost count. They’re taking it on the road, too, and have already sold out most of their hometown shows. If they’re coming to your town, do not hesitate to get tickets!
Listen to most of the songs for Friday here or below.
Also Out This Week
Matt Berninger - Get Sunk As a committed naysayer of The National, I became a Berninger fan when he worked with Booker T. Jones on his solo debut, Serpentine Prison, in 2020. I wondered if this one would work for me with Jones out of the picture, and I’m happy to report that it does. While it might be closer to the sound of his day-job band, I feel a difference in how he pushes air across his vocal cords here. The songs feel more personal, too. Working with Sean O’Brien, a producer, engineer, and songwriter who engineered Serpentine Prison and worked on the last two albums by The National, bridges the gap between solo and band personas nicely. O’Brien has also worked with Walter Martin of The Walkmen, who appears here alongside his bandmate Paul Maroon. Together, all the players create a richly atmospheric backdrop for Berninger’s gravelly reflections. Get Sunk is an involving listen from start to finish, but highlights include Inland Ocean, co-written with Martin, Breaking Into Acting, a lovely duet with Hand Habits, and Times Of Difficulty, the sort of title track that closes the album. “In times of heartache, get drunk,” Berninger sings, “In times of tears, get sunk/In times of shame, forget/In times of weather, get wet/I’ll think of you if you think of me/In times of difficulty.” I’ll drink to that.
Caroline - 2 On their second album, this London-based art-folk collective have pushed even further past any conventions, exploring dense textures, distorted vocals, and episodic song structures. Rather than creating a distancing effect, however, their fearlessness churns up deep emotions and draws us closer to the white heat of inspiration. While making deeply structured music, the eight members of Caroline have figured out a way to maintain spontaneity and interaction, which is quite an accomplishment.
Hudson Freeman - Is A Folk Singer There’s both gauziness and grit to this debut from Freeman, a singer and songwriter who was born in Texas but came of age in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). Now based in Brooklyn and with a decade of singles and EPs under his belt, Freeman has honed his approach, which centers on the intimate burr of his voice, which holds its own in settings both quiet and loud. The centerpiece of the album is a re-recording of I’m Most Me, which he first released in 2023. “I'm most me when I give up, when I’m already losing, when I’m already stuck,” Freeman sings, “I'm most me when I’m discovering I’m wrong - When I’m singing all my songs, I’m most me when I am wrong.” It’s humbling to be present in what feels like a moment of genuine self-discovery. The mostly mid-tempo groove of the album seems to drag you through the songs in a narrative that describes Freeman’s search for connection, with himself and others. The chatter of friends surrounds his finger-picked guitar and low-key vocals on the album’s longest track, from now on, making him a stand-in for the listener as observer. It’s a pleasure to be invited into Freeman’s world.
Pry - Wrapped In Plastic This debut album from Amara Bush and Simeon Beardsley’s project is sleek and celebratory, with soaring guitars, shiny keyboards, pushy bass, powerful drums, and dreamy melodies. With both Bush and Beardsley on vocals, Pry reminds me a little of UV-TV, and they share their absorption in post-punk and shoegaze, but they put it forth with a little less self-consciousness. That’s not a criticism of either band, just one way they’re both distinctive artists on the Brooklyn scene. I wouldn’t complain about that double bill either!
Hollie Cook - Night Night If you’re a Hollie Cook devotee - and if not, why not? - you hang on every note. So, having her first new song since 2022 is cause for celebration. Night Night finds Hollie reunited with Horseman, who lent his classic toasting skills to her debut, and is characteristically dreamy with a touch of toughness. Just what you’d expect from the queen of “tropical pop.”
Glen Washington - Just Giving Thanks The “Glen-aissance” continues with this relaxed follow-up to last year’s Feeling Irie. Along with Washington’s soulful voice, strong players, especially Flabba Holt on bass, lift the songs. Standouts include Square One, which makes fine use of the classic Real Rock riddim, and Dreadlocks Conqueror, which pays subtle homage to Bob Marley.
yeule - Evangelic Girl Is A Gun Born in Singapore as Natasha Yelin Chang, this singer-songwriter soon morphed into Nat Cmiel. Then they were downloaded into yeule, the “glitch princess,” as their marvelous second album was called. At least that’s my version of the backstory - create your own if it will get you to enter their world more fully. On album four, they lean further into the pleasure principle, opening the album with the slinky Tequila Coma, which is spiked with just the right amount of nasty guitar. It’s a perfect introduction to the luxurious world that awaits, which even includes an earnestly pretty ballad or two. I’ll happily evangelize for yeule anytime.
claire rousay & Gretchen Korsmo - quilted lament This collaboration between two “former Texas dwellers” who also consider themselves “emo” has yielded up sublime clouds of sound, threaded through with field recordings drawn “from a wealth of Zoom and Tascam recordings made in the last half-decade in Santa Fe, San Antonio, Los Angeles, Kamakura, Japan and elsewhere – from a baseball game announcer in Santa Fe, to the sound of a friend eating a juicy peach.” Juicy is a good word for this delicious concoction.
Dickson & Familiar - All The Light Of Our Sphere That’s Glenn Dickson, a renowned clarinetist from the worlds of klezmer and jazz, and Bob Familiar, known for his synth work in Boston bands like The Dark, November Group, and Death in Venice - if you know those bands, that is. Both Dickson and Familiar were unfamiliar to me, but I quickly found myself captivated by the plush, starlit keyboards (Rhodes MK8-FX, Expressive-E Osmose, Singular Sound Aeros Loop Studio, Soma Laboratories Cosmos Drifting Memory Station, Chase Bliss CXM 1978) and questing clarinet, the combination of which reminded me a little of Golden Retriever’s monumental 2014 album, Seer. Dickson & Familiar trod somewhat lighter ground, however, sometimes grazing the leafy environs of New Age. It’s meditative, immersive, and gorgeously produced. Sink in.
Ying Wang - RE:Wilding That the clash between the individual and the collective - and the potential for harmony between the two - is a central theme of this extraordinary portrait album is no surprise when you know a little of Ying Wang’s background. She was born in 1976, just at the end of the Cultural Revolution, which spared her from going through what her father, composer Wang Xilin, who was imprisoned for years, had suffered. But the ripple effects of that nationwide upheaval certainly left an impression. Her startling music is a very original response to all those influences, however, as shown in the opening track, 528Hz 8va (2021/22) for symphony orchestra, Minimoog, and live electronics. A 20-minute epic of great drama, Ying Wang scores a true coup by devoting the cadenza to a Minimoog solo, played by Sebastian Berweck, that suggests new possibilities for this well-traveled early synthesizer. The whole collection, which features top-flight performers like the SWR Symphonieorchester, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Reflektor, and Quatuor Diotima, along with a host of virtuosic soloists, is full of such surprises.