Wednesday, April 22, 2026
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ALBUM REVIEWS

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Jason Shrum

Meg Elsier Raises the Roof 

I brought my niece, Becca, as my plus one guest and didn’t know what to expect when encountering this rising star.  Meg Elsier is just 30 years old- as is my niece- and she is quickly rising up the ladder of stardom in the industry.  Nashville Scene magazine just awarded her the Best Indie/Rock Debut Album by its writers a few days ago.  Meg debuted her record, Spittake, in June. The album deserves any accolades that it gets.  I had been listening to it on my playlist for about a month before I got the news that I would have a face to face with this Berklee School of Music prodigy. 

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Jason Shrum

Songs of a Lost World

The album is titled Songs of a Lost World and the group had already dropped two tracks from the LP on streaming services. So why did it take so long for this record to be produced?  The project has been long discussed by Robert Smith throughout several interviews. When talking to the LA Times in 2019, he put the onus on himself for the delays. “I keep going back over and redoing them, which is silly. At some point, I have to say that’s it. It’s very much on the darker side of the spectrum,” Smith added. “I lost my mother and my father and my brother recently, and obviously it had an effect on me. It’s not relentlessly doom and gloom. It has soundscapes on it, like Disintegration, I suppose. I was trying to create a big palette, a big wash of sound.” From what I have heard on the pair of songs released, he and his mates have done just that.  Meaning, they have captured that classic Cure sound that I was first mesmerized by in high school.   

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Jason Shrum

Catchfire takes you to the ‘Wild Side’

The rattling echo from the burning words and instrumentals stays with the listener even when the song is silenced.  It is now out there in the ethos for others to discover- for that is all that we can do.  We create and place our art in the world for the scavengers to find.  This track is certainly art and I am happy that I got to hear it before most.  This is a band to be on the lookout for. 

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ALBUM REVIEWSB SidesFEATURED
Jason Shrum

BEAR SOUNDS 

This piece is about the television show “The Bear” on Hulu, but right up front I want to say there are no spoiler alerts in here.  I am only going to explore the musical score of this brilliant series without giving away any pivotal moments within it.  First, if you are not watching “The Bear”, you should be.  I know that’s very cliche for fans of a show to say, but in this case its true.  Here is a quick synopsis of the show: “The Bear” is a dark comedy/drama series set in Chicago.  It’s about a world-renowned and well-traveled chef who returns home, to take control of his family’s sandwich shop, “The Beef”, after his brother’s death. The show was created by Christopher Storer, and stars Jeremy Allen White as Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto, who works to change the disheveled kitchen staff into Michelin Star-level chefs, all the while dealing with personal grief and the restaurant’s building debt.  It’s fast paced and exciting, but also very triggering to anyone who has worked in the industry as well, yours truly included. However, this is not an article about the show entirely, rather it is an exploration into the music choices that help paint an exemplary score to the series.   

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