I get a lot of incoming email that sometimes we don’t have the time to parse due to…life, the universe, and everything. In spite of the .com in the URL here, PPM is not a business. It’s a passion project and I work full time and sometimes things start to fall into the cracks. But there’s always the chance to correct trajectory if given just a little free time, and I’m so glad I did as I had gotten notice in early June about the new single from Minneapolis based trio Autumn, and I finally investigated this week. Better late than never, right?

I get a lot of promo sent in my direction. That’s good because if I only reviewed things I bought there would be maybe just 100 bands covered on this site in almost 3000 posts! Even so there’s a lot of some artists getting the nod here. Maybe too many, but like I said, it’s a passion project. Sometimes, I get actual CDs and LPs for review. Mostly, there are promo downloads sent to me for review. Sometimes a band just mentions their Bandcamp page to me and I sample there. And if I think it’s really good, I buy it immediately. Often, for more than the too modest asking price. Then, there are bands like Autumn.

I received an electronic press kit from Autumn that contained their latest single in lossless format. Along with their music video, press photos and bios. A complete professional package. I played about a minute of this new song, “Catacombs,” and then immediately went to Bandcamp and paid several times the asking price for a single that, technically, I already had on my computer in lossless format! So you might say I really, really enjoyed “Catacombs” by Autumn!

Autumn: Catacombs – US – DL [2024]

1. Catacombs 5:16

It had me from the first guitar chord. You know me. If I hear the Post-Punk architects of guitar like John McGeoch and Robins Simon or Guthrie in the foundations of the guitar playing, I pay attention. Quite frankly these days, I’m hearing more and more of this sound as artists are diving deeper into it now than back in the day. But it all could have gone so wrong once the vocal happened. Fortunately, this was definitely not the case. Singer Julie Plante was more than a cut above the norm with some serious vocal capabilities at her disposal. Her creamy vibrato put to the task on what was a yearningly earnest vocal was a textbook example of how not to lose me when singing vibrato! Normally a technique that rubs me the wrong way, but not here!

And then she very capably doubled at key points in the mix on backing vocals that were letter perfect examples of reinforcing the glorious sound she was adding to the mix. Not that she was alone. McKay on the guitars, had them drenched in reverb so that the fattened sound, along with his drum programming and the tarpit bass lines of Mr. Leyda made for a dynamic and full soundstage with no need for keyboards.

The lyric was a philosophical musing on the eternal cycles of life and death inspired by both the mortality of her elderly father as well as the lockdown isolating us. Her lyric had a poetic air throughout, but that didn’t begin to cover the emotional headrush glory of the song’s climactic cathartic tumble of at least two more songs worth of lyrics painting a vivid impression of an entire life’s experiences at the song’s end. Rendering the experience of a life rushing past one’s eyes in song. Magnificent! Listen below.

This is the first song from the band’s upcoming album “Songs About Dying” as produced by their longterm collaborator William Faith. Who also directed the wintry music video for “Catacombs” and even mastered the music. Not too badly either. There was more compression than I prefer, but it certainly stopped short of brickwalling. Don’t let my pickiness stop you from experiencing the glory of “Catacombs” in the comfort and safety of your own personal Record Cell to better tide you over until the album drops later this year. Until then, DJ hit that button!

-30-