Released on August 25, 2020, Haley Blais’ Below the Salt is an album I wish I had during my first year of college.
That unsure first-year is a senior now, but no less unsure, and I think that’s the point of Blais’ debut album: her label writes, “Below the Salt is a coming of age story that recognizes that there is no real ‘coming of age.’”
Mossy stones, wax-covered candlesticks, a harvest moon. These are but a few of the images the acoustic folk album Bad Debt conjures upon listening. When it reaches its final note, it is about God and love. In the artist’s own words, which are far superior to any rock criticism about the album, “the record is about my God: that is, whether I have one, and whether there is a place for me in this world. I don’t go to church, and I am not saved. I can party too.”
Abodes of Owls — Self-Released by Garrett Linck ’17
Drawing on influences such as Stephen Malkmus, Isaac Brock, and Elliot Smith, it’s no wonder why freshman Garrett Linck decided to expand his musical endeavors here in Portland.
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Sun Structures — Temples
Released last week, Temples’ Sun Structures is a dreamily harmonized ode to the late 1960s.
