New music part 3/Music roundup.

Lots to cover!

Joseph. Discovered via Pandora. This trio of sisters from Joseph, Oregon is rooted in folk sensibility but also manages to defy description over the course of three albums; if I were to try I'd call it neo-alt-folk. Their first album, Native Dreamer Kin, is firmly three-part harmony swelling over acoustic accompaniment, with gorgeous standout "Tell Me There's a Garden"; the second, I'm Alone No You're Not, was produced by Mike Mogis and joins the strengths of their harmonies and songwriting with modern accoutrements. Tracks like "Planets" and "Sweet Dreams" bring the neo-folk; "S.O.S." and "Blood and Tears" sound like chart-toppers from the early 90s; and "More Alive Than Dead" is just insanely beautiful, evoking the quiet, mystical forests of the northwest with just a muted piano, that harmony, and a soft river of synths.

Their most recent album, Stay Awake, is a short seven tracks which sounds frankly like the sisters singing whatever the hell they please. There's a cover of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," a stripped down, folksier cover of their own song "Planets," and a synthesized, beat-heavy version of, again, their own track "Lifted Away" from Native Dreamer Kin. It also features one of my newest favorite jams, "Moonlight Mile." These sisters are mega-talented and their music is endlessly listenable; check 'em out!

Haim. Yes, I know I'm late to the Haim party, and here's why: back in 2014 when their debut album came out, I swear they were described as a folk trio. I swear. But they're not, they just are again a trio of sisters who sing in perfect harmony - over perfectly produced pop. That wasn't my bag at the time so I let it go, and gave them another chance this summer with their newest, Something to Tell You. It's still perfectly produced pop, but so dang catchy.

I don't require that singers also be songwriters and instrumentalists, but I love when young talented women go all in, as Haim does (and Joseph, and First Aid Kit, and...). They have an inherent sense of rhythm which they display in an impressive use of percussion, and they also know their influences inside and out - you can attach almost every song to not just a genre or era but a specific act. Throughout the album you'll hear Prince, George Michael, TLC, MJ, Florence + the Machine, Phil Collins, etc. Something to Tell You is impeccably produced and a ton of fun; go listen!

American Horror Story: Roanoke

The scariest part of all of this is that it's been a year and a half since I blogged about Freak Show.

I also will confess now that I only watched three episodes of Hotel. In the span of those three episodes my soul died. I cannot think of another TV series with a season as unwatchable as AHS: Hotel. It was like watching an obscene, badly acted kaleidoscope that never stopped turning. The best thing I could possibly say about it is that when I'm 90, and have legit run out of things to do in life, then I might finish watching it.

So it is with immense relief and satisfaction that I now review season six, Roanoke. Some spoilers ahead.

The true conceit behind American Horror Story is that the show's creators must work with uniquely American tropes, and naturally a country as young, in the global landscape, as this one has much less history to work with. We have one ghost story - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. So I commend Murphy & Falchuk for tuning in to the institutions that have been uniquely horrific - or just chill-inducing - in the last four hundred or so years. The haunted house; the insane asylum; witch hunts; freak shows; fucked up hotels; cults. The legendary lost colony of Roanoke, while kind of easily explainable when you think about it, still has plenty of potential because there's no definitive answer as to what happened. Season six uses this as an intensely engaging backdrop.

The remarkably different tone of the show compared to all other seasons is immediately noticeable, for two reasons. First, it is presented as a television show about a haunting in North Carolina, so we cut back and forth between the 'real' people relaying their story (including mainstay Lily Rabe as yoga instructor Shelby) and the actors portraying them (Cuba Gooding, Jr. as her traveling salesman husband). Second, after a brief backstory set in L.A., we follow Shelby and Matt Miller to eastern North Carolina where they buy a two-hundred-year-old farmhouse in the middle of absolute nowhere. The burnished golden hues of the southern countryside and the clean yet vintage interior of the stunning farmhouse are unlike anything AHS has presented us with before. It is perfectly Gothic and dare I say beautiful.