0

New Music Critique: Music These Days

Production8
Music7
Music7
Vocals7
Musicianship8
7.4

Contact: [email protected]

Web: musicthesedays.com

Seeking: Label, Booking, Distribution
Style: Country/Rock/Southwestern

Tucson-based Ben Wilkinson and his project, Music These Days, has been likened to “country meets Radiohead,” making music that could be a good fit for an alt-western movie soundtrack. First off, for example, on “View from the Badlands,” you know you’re in alternative territory at the sound of Wilkinson’s lo-fi voice as he sings “The highway is the only place for me,” which has some Neil Young and Sufjan Stevens in its DNA. Both the waltzing “The Bottle Just Scared Me” and “Alan Reyes,” which recounts the memories of a sweet, satisfying roadtrip (though it’s possible there is a sad unsung revelation lurking). Best move of all is that the latter two arrangements feature the spellbinding whine of a pedal-steel guitar.