{"id":19502,"date":"2020-09-30T05:30:48","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T09:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=19502"},"modified":"2020-09-30T10:40:53","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T14:40:53","slug":"album-review-the-black-watch-fromthing-somethat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/09\/30\/album-review-the-black-watch-fromthing-somethat\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: The Black Watch \u2013 Fromthing Somethat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-19503\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/black_watch_fromthing.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/black_watch_fromthing.jpg 350w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/black_watch_fromthing-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/black_watch_fromthing-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>It\u2019s difficult to keep up with the steady stream of output from The Black Watch. Just last year the group led by John Andrew Fredrick released a pair of albums \u2013 the <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2019\/08\/14\/hundred-word-reviews-for-august-part-three-archival\/\"><i>31 Years of Obscurity<\/i><\/a> compilation and the all new <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2019\/08\/12\/hundred-word-reviews-for-august-2019-part-one\/\"><i>Magic Johnson<\/i><\/a>. Those were followed in short order by <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/04\/19\/album-review-the-black-watch-brilliant-failures\/\"><i>Brilliant Failures<\/i><\/a>, reviewed in April. It\u2019s only September now, and here we are with another set, the ten-song <i>Fromthing Somethat<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, It\u2019s difficult, but it\u2019s also well worth the effort. <i>Fromthing Somethat<\/i> is merely the latest in a succession of superb albums. The shoegaze-meets janglepop aesthetic that defines The Black Watch sound is in full flower here; tracks like \u201cSaint Fair Isle Weather\u201d have the vibe of less-mopey Cure or an antipodean version of The Church. Fredrick knows his way around a catchy melody, and exhibits a seemingly effortless ability to craft tune after memorable tune. And while there\u2019s a kind of signature sound for the group, The Black Watch\u2019s music never feels samey. One element that sets this latest release slightly apart from its predecessors is the haunting vocal work of Julie Schulte; it adds another intriguing ingredient to the already heady mix. Listen to \u201cThe Lonesome Death of Many Hansen\u201d \u2013 a typically literary song title, by the way \u2013 for proof.<\/p>\n<p>By my count, <i>Fromthing Somethat<\/i> is the band\u2019s 18<sup>th<\/sup> or 19<sup>th<\/sup> album of new material; that doesn\u2019t include compilations or the several EPs released since the band\u2019s start in the late 1980s. (And it doesn\u2019t include another EP, <i>The Nothing That Is<\/i>, scheduled for release in two months.) I remain astounded that the band hasn\u2019t scored even a modest commercial hit; all of the elements are there, and none of the negatives. I highly recommend most any record in the band\u2019s recent catalog (I am not yet familiar with the earlier material) and this latest is as good as an an entry point into the world of The Black Watch.<\/p>\n<p>Nota Bene: You can stream a dozen releases from The Black Watch at <a href=\"https:\/\/theblackwatch.bandcamp.com\/\">the band\u2019s bandcamp page<\/a>. But support them by buying some while you\u2019re there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s difficult to keep up with the steady stream of output from The Black Watch. Just last year the group led by John Andrew Fredrick released a pair of albums [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19503,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,49,62,65,67],"tags":[3921],"class_list":["post-19502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indie","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","category-shoegaze","tag-the-black-watch","cat-39-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","cat-67-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19502"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19811,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19502\/revisions\/19811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}