Last we heard from Young Heart Sparks Fire was in 2017 with the full-length release of Manifesto! – a blistering dose of rock and roll with big riffs and anthemic choruses. That’s worth noting because the newest single – “I’m Dumb (But I’m Not as Young as I Used to Be)” – takes things in a much different direction.

Awash in reverb-y guitars and shoegaze style vocals, this is a much more subdued Young Heart Sparks Fire (aka Tim Thompson). Unsurprisingly, it’s also a bit of a melancholy love song with lyrics bemoaning “love or control, you can’t have both.” A song about losing a love that also provides a reinvention of sound for the artist could be a very telling experience; even if that is reading far too into it.

The b-side, “Love is Suicide,” continues the re-invention of the outfits sound by providing clearly programmed drums, borderline 80’s goth vocal delivery and a mesmerizing dose of keyboards. It’s unclear if this overhaul in sound is a natural progression of experimentation and growth or a knowing redefinition of self but, whatever it is, it’s working.

Safari Room has been steadily releasing new music since June of 2018. They put out the “Antelope” single, followed by the Actual Feelings EP in July, which was followed by “Around the Bend” in November and, now, “One Day Here” has been released into the world. It’s unclear if the band is leading up to unleashing a full-length album or if they’re just doing a great job of reminding you that you should be keeping them on your radar.

The trick with Safari Room is that if you’re one of those listeners that gives a song 30-seconds, and only 30-seconds, you’re going to miss out. “One Day Here” starts softly with a head bobbing beat and reverb-y guitar lick but continuously adds layered elements throughout that prevent the song from registering as just a gentle ebb. Harmony highlights with soaring guitar beneath them give way to an unfurling of layers of round-robin vocals.

There’s a deceptiveness to the Safari Room catalog of goods that should be approached with care. Judge too quickly and you’ll miss out on the best parts.

Love You Later, aka LYL aka Lexi Aviles, is an emerging pop artist that claims residency between both Nashville and LA. While this may roll some eyes for the hardened Nashville old-timer, it makes a great deal of sense for the kind of music she’s creating. Her most recent single, “Harder on Myself“, contains the kind of slick production you’d hope for on a pop song but not without some legitimate emotional heft, both lyrically and musically.

The single is catchy – repeating the familiar refrain “Maybe it’s not my fault this time” – but legitimately melancholy. Aviles delivery is fragile, introspective and believable. What’s most interesting is that the relentless repetition allows the song to transition from a remorseful feeling of regret to a self-confidence mantra. It’s a song to listen to when pining for someone or struggling with a break-up but leaves you with a feeling of positivity, not loss.

On a previous episode of the WOTT Music podcast we played a track from the new Anchor Thieves release, Havoc Siren, but the entirety of the EP is a noteworthy experience that should be indulged in full.

Anchor Thieves has been releasing records at a consistent pace since 2011, with this latest being their sixth overall. As one would expect, the first few releases refined a particular sound; in this case, a bit of anthemic rock cut with melancholy. There’s always been an early Sunny Day Real Estate vibe to the band, largely due to the vocal qualities of Cayce Keller. It’s rock and roll but it’s also never been afraid to be sensitive. That is not a derogatory observation, it is a compliment.

With the release of The Havoc Siren, the band has made a tectonic shift in their approach. It’s certainly the same band with the same refined skills of memorable songwriting but the pieces have shifted. Where the 2017 release, An Echo Thrives, has plenty of big, crunchy, guitars and fist-in-the-air moments, The Havoc Siren has saxophone and flute flourishes led by a haunting piano line. “Ipso Facto” is the most different of the tracks – in comparison to their entire catalog – but tracks like “Siren” and “Trapezoid” are both more subdued, more nuanced and more cathartic when they do lean back into their familiarity territories of a soaring guitar solo.

This is only an EP but it shows a major change for the band, not only in their willingness to dabble in richer compositions but in their ability to execute on them. If this is all we hear from the band in 2019, I’ll be satisfied to know that the seeds have been sown for something equally as entrancing for the future.