ADDED DIMENSIONS - Jane From Preoccupied America LP

As we finish entries for the day - and Richie begins his Euro jaunt (bugger going to Occupied America!) tomorrow - how fitting that we end on one of our Albums of the Year.

Snooze on this stunner at your peril. On the ever-reliable Domestic Departure. Billiam and I just had a discussion about the grandness of Jane From Occupied America.

“If John Hughes films weren't heteronormative cringefests (and he was still alive), here's your soundtrack.”

“What do I do? Is this living?”

In asking these questions, Richmond-based musician Sarah Everton underlines the absurdity of human existence. We reach out for meaning in an indifferent world. Jane from Preoccupied America, the debut LP from her project Added Dimensions, explores what we do in the face of this indifference: the bullsh!t we preoccupy ourselves with, the anxieties we develop as we suffer through the mundane, the coping mechanisms we adopt, the people we choose to be. What makes this record great is the extent to which this is communicated not just via lyrical content but by the music itself. Sarah’s loose overdubs and hauntingly beautiful multi-part harmonies are fastened to a backbone provided by Rob Garcia’s deceptively simple drumming - a bundle of insecurities standing upright, moving through the world one step at a time, perhaps a little unsure but steady.

Some tracks spread indie pop sweetness over primitive punk (imagine Tender Trap backed by Buck Biloxi), not unlike a facade you put up to avoid fully crumbling into despair after witnessing another day of atrocities.

Other tracks eschew melodicism in favour of something more akin to Wire’s brash matter of factness multi-tracked until reaching a Swell Maps-esque DIY wall of sound, reflecting a more measured approach you might need to adopt to navigate some acute crisis - focused and pragmatic, but ultimately a little surreal. It’s a record that celebrates living by virtue of existing, which, really, is all any of us can do. - Alex Howell / Garbage in My Heart