Kate Lang

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Record Routine: Speedy Ortiz blasts off in fantastic Foil Deer

By Kate Lang | Apr. 23, 2015

It’s easy to see where Speedy Ortiz’s clever, biting lyrics come from. Sadie Dupuis, the band’s frontwoman, recently received her Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and her way with words is clearly depicted in their newest album, Foil Deer. Since the band’s first release, Major Arcana in 2013 and 2014’s EP, “Real Hair,” Speedy Ortiz’s songwriting style has transformed. They have undergone a metamorphosis that took them from a talented garage band to a lyrical force with which to be reckoned.

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Record Routine: Death Cab for Cutie tackles personal, professional break-ups on tepid Kintsugi

By Kate Lang | Apr. 12, 2015

Much of Death Cab for Cutie’s music thus far has centered around the idea of growing up. Transatlanticism, arguably their best record to date, was a phenomenal coming of age story and each of their albums since then has depicted the ups and downs that come with the passage of time. Kintsugi, the band’s eighth studio album, however, has much more nuanced and mature themes. Since the 2011 release of Codes and Keys, some major changes have happened in the lives of members of the band, and these milestones are the center of Kintsugi.

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Record Routine: Baylin uses '60 pop to craft ode to her daughter

By Kate Lang | Apr. 6, 2015

The last few years have been quite busy for Jessie Baylin. Raising her 2-year-old daughter Violet with her husband, Kings of Leon drummer Nathan Followill, is in itself a tough task, but she also spent that time creating Dark Place, her fourth album. It’s an album she wasn’t even sure she wanted to make. After the birth of her daughter, she felt that her time to create music might be over, and that’s partially what Dark Place is about. “You have a child and you sort of have this funeral for yourself in a way, because you assume that you can’t be the person that you once were. It doesn’t take away from the joy at all, but for me exorcising that out with this album was very healing,” Baylin said to The New York Times Magazine. The entire album is dedicated to her daughter, with lyrics that convey the complicated emotions that might come with starting a family, but the title track, a lullaby for the toddler, is especially touching.

Record Routine: Speedy Ortiz blasts off in fantastic Foil Deer

Record Routine: Death Cab for Cutie tackles personal, professional break-ups on tepid Kintsugi

Record Routine: Baylin uses '60 pop to craft ode to her daughter

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