Music reviews: Three new local releases

Embark
Listen, Earth

A young instrumental quartet, Listen, Earth has filled the city’s post-rock void with monumental odes to foreign lands. For a little more than 28 minutes, the band settles comfortably into a sound similar to Mogwai’s loud-quiet-loud dynamics on its latest EP released at the beginning of the year. Don’t get too attached to any guitar lines, as the band shoves numerous ideas into each song like an eager kid going to his first sleepover. “Melbourne” has a brief guitar math breakdown before propelling into a distorted mountain of whirrs and pitch-shifted howls. “Moscow” stretches into 10-minute territory, with the first three minutes being allotted to shivering guitar lines before releasing its Kraken-like roar. Embark evokes the type of soundtrack music Explosions in the Sky is known for. However, Listen, Earth challenges listeners as much as it envelops them in a wall of sound. The results are never boring, and you’ll be surprised at how much sticks to your brain. listenearth.bandcamp.com

Things I Leave Behind
Jodi James

For her first proper full-length and third overall release, singer-songwriter Jodi James focuses her pent-up energy on old lovers and honky-tonk blues. You can almost taste the whiskey that soaked lyric pages in songs such as “The Other Side” and “My Suitcase.” In both of those, James sings like a lover looking back at what could have been with equal parts remorse and regret. This is the type of record where the steel guitar sounds like it’s weeping. Released in April, Things I Leave Behind sounds best when James breaks out of the barroom. “You and Me and Ray” is an absolute stunner that’s a bit louder than the rest of the songs, showing off James’ rock ‘n’ roll background and giving a nod to Drive-By Truckers’ ballads. More impressive is the one-take closer, “Float,” that starts with just James and her guitar. “I have never been afraid of sinking like a stone,” she sings, her voice cracking just a bit. Heartbreak suits her well. jodijamesmusic.com

Two Universes
Feufollet

It’s been five long years since we’ve gotten new music from one of the region’s finest Cajun bands. Feufollet returned in March with Two Universes, an 11-track album that features the band’s new singer Kelli Jones-Savoy, who wouldn’t sound out of place next to those one-name female icons Dolly, Loretta and June. Straying farther away from classic Cajun sounds, Feufollet is growing into an interesting beast. Sure, the band can still glide through accordion-tinged tunes, as “Hole in My Heart” shows. But it’s tracks like the Chris Stafford-penned “Know What’s Next” and Savoy’s “When You Said Goodbye” that take the band into another, altogether better universe. There, the band forges the strengths of its Cajun background with the sounds of its non-Cajun influences like The Beach Boys and Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk. And it’s done with a lot of taste. feufollet.net