SHARK-FIN AWARDS

In the original incarnation of AV Super Sunshine’s “Smile,” which was first released back in 2016 on the Bass Face EP, an acoustic guitar provides a near-perfect foundational melody for the acclaimed AV to weave together a soft but brooding lead vocal, and though its strings play a smaller role in “Smile …

American folk music has never been as diverse a genre as it is today, and that’s more than obvious even when engaging in a cursory listening session with Haley Johnsen’s London Sessions (Live From Abbey Road, 2020). Johnsen, a product of the Oregon underground, isn’t content to rehash the same rhythm …

Though nestled against a backdrop as vibrant and vivacious as the bright lights of Vegas amidst the arid desert night, the vocal harmony in “Point of View,” one of the new songs on Gordy Hunt’s Mood Swings LP, is as much of a sonic centerpiece as listeners could have hoped for in …

With a swift kick in the drums and a heartily swinging guitar riff to lead the way, Mike Dekleva’s Psychedelia opens up with a title cut that is as entrancing as its name would suggest it to be, and inside of the song’s three minutes and change, we’re introduced to a funkier …

Though as powerful as the riffs beside it in “Fuck Yeah” and yet approachably melodic in the title track from Kingdom Illusion, the lead vocal in Whiskerman’s all-new album is hardly the conventional linchpin some would expect it to be in a record as ambitious as this one is, but it’s …

In a powerful stomping beat as potent as any I’ve heard this year, Tonne’s new EP Bridey Murphy kicks into gear with its opening cut, “Jesus, Julie Christie!,” and instantly fills the air around us with a textured, riff-driven melody that could make anyone into an indie rock fan. The rolling …

True grit has always been an important element in the creation of a solid country album, but for that matter, so has pastoral melodicism, with the best kinds coming from a songwriter who can sing as well as they could compose – taking that into account, Carlos Washington’s Steel Horse …

A psychedelic-tinged melody fills the air around us as “Breathe In,” the first track in Gallery 47’s new LP East Street begins to play, a subdued but menacing guitar weaving together a harmony that will linger in our minds long after the music has ceased to play. This intriguing introduction to East Street indeed …

“Took a train to Brooklyn, but Harlem was on my mind,” David Yim croons in the opening lines of his solo endeavor Mount Hudson’s new single “Write a Book,” his words cascading across the gentle acoustic backdrop the music is generating. Yim’s confidence is contagious, so much so that the …

Creeping out of the silence with a hesitant sonic slither, “Circle of Sixes” is waiting for anyone brave enough to enter its groove-packed gateway into Darren Michael Boyd’s virgin instrumental LP Lifting the Curse, and in the next four minutes that follow, the track will set the stage for everything …