My daughter has a boyfriend – Mr. Cats & Guitars. He’s a parent’s worst nightmare – he’s a dreamy long-haired musician. He’s funny and polite. It just reminds me how much harder I have to work to keep him from making out with my daughter. I mean look at him dammit. Just look.

photo by Jen Gore. I think

It’s best to keep dreamy musician boyfriends occupied so I gave Mr. Cats & Guitars an assignment. (Cue evil laughter here.)

Two weeks ago, I asked Mr. C & G,  to listen to this album and to tell me his opinion. So in the answer section, he is C & G and I’m H.

Who:  Aviator

What: Loneliness Leaves the Light on For Me.

Where:

Loneliness Leaves the Light on For Me

Was it good?

H: It’s full of enough angst to get through a five mile bicycle ride. I have trouble running or cycling to happy songs. Happy pop songs make me want to sit by the lake and meditate or take a nap. This album is definitely not for meditating. It’s more for angry running or using a punching bag.

C&G: Yes.

Can you understand the words?

H: I cannot understand 90 % of the words but I understand the feeling of the songs. That’s what matters, right? How many bands have lyrics that anyone understands?

I liked the song, “I Wouldn’t Leave Here if You Paid Me.” People can probably relate to not wanting to leave the house.

C&G: Yeah for the most part

What is not so good?

H: There’s one song, “End Scene,” that I didn’t really care for too much. The vocals were too screechy. (We’re very technical with our musical definitions around here.)

C&G: The quality could be better, some parts play too long taking the viewer away from the music kinda like a run on sentence

Would you recommend it?

H: Yeah, I would. It’s a pretty good album. If I had to rate it, maybe a 7 out of 10.

C&G: Yes I would. It has trippy atmospheric parts and heavy parts almost like Deafheaven meets Underoath. Catchy choruses. The instruments sound good. Good vocals.

Thanks for visiting –  but dammit, now I have to go think of more time-consuming activities for Mr. C&G to do this summer

The Crane Wives, a quartet from Grand Rapids, Michigan, remind me that there is still really great acoustic rock bands out there. In the past, I listened to a lot of acoustic music. (Hellooooo Lilith Fair, I miss you so much.)

The Crane Wives are close enough to where I live that it’s possible to catch a live show.

The album, Foxlore, was released in 2016. They write their own music. It comes from an honest place. In fact, their bio on Facebook says that their interests are, “Creating honest music and sharing it as much as possible.” I believe them.

Their music is like Indie- Pop-Rock, sort of like Jewel but more upbeat. They use three part harmony and acoustic instruments in most of their songs.  I love all of their songs, but “Curses” and “The Ghost”  are my personal favorite.

Kate Pillsbury and Emilee Petersmark are the lead singers. They both play the guitar too. Bassist Ben Zito and percussionist / vocalist Dan Rickabus round out the band line up.

Foxlore on Spotify