Finding My Religion #2: 10 New Songs Curated by the Pickled Priest - "Harry Styles Edition"

Welcome to the Harry Styles edition of Finding My Religion! This week it's all about Harry Styles and his new album! The Styles Council has convened at the offices of Pickled Priest to celebrate the music of our hero, Harry Styles! We're even thinking of changing our blog motto to Kiss All the Time. Harry Styles, occasionally. Hats off to Harry!

SIDE A

01 "Concrete Trees" | Annabelle Chairlegs

Annabelle Chairlegs*, the vehicle for singer/songwriter Lindsey Mackin, started her musical journey in Santa Fe and now calls Austin home. She may be too late to experience it in its full glory, pre-gentrification and festival corporatization, but she's doing her part to keep it fresh and weird. Her new record is titled Waking Up and it proves her to be a canny songwriter, as demonstrated by single "Concrete Trees," a sad yet upbeat song about living in the aftermath of a friend's passing. I like a song that reveals itself the more you listen to it, and here we find Lindsey blending elements of classic rock (the drum intro/revving guitar riff that opens the song and runs underneath it), Courtney Barnett-esque conversational lyrics (she's basically talking to herself throughout), a little B-52's whimsy, and even a few spontaneous rock star yelps when the moment calls for them. If she can cohesively include all these elements in one song, who know what's coming next?

*The rare quirky band name that actually works. Apparently, a pseudonym Lindsey settled on when her first Santa Fe band was joking around with alternative names for each other.

02 "Scott Pilgrim" | The Boojums

This Nova Scotia power trio, creators of our #1 Record of 2025, return early in 2026 with a new single that pays homage to a couple of their fellow Canadian influences. A class move on their part that I'd love to see become a regular series in the future. On this one-off single (only 300 copies pressed), the Boojums offer up a double-dose of inspired covers. Side A (in the link above, you'll have to backspace once to get to it) features a spunky garage-rock cover of Plumtree's "Scott Pilgrim," a song with a massively catchy, and oft-repeated hook, "I've liked you for a thousand years, a thousand years" that I could sing until my voice blows out. Considering Plumtree was an all-girl band, it makes sense that vocal duties on this one fell to bassist Sara Johnston, who inexplicably only sang one track from the band's self-titled debut (album highlight "Dan's Transmission"). Based on that song and this single, she deserves more time at the microphone. Let's implement that change, shall we?

The B-side, a cover of the Super Friendz "Karate Man" is somewhat less successful by comparison, but still worthy. How about one single a month from now on? Is that too much to ask?

03 "Is It Real?" b/w "Not Real" | Twisted Teens

These songs kinda go together thematically, so let's sneak in a twofer. I doubt you'll be disappointed. In a savvy move, New Orleans band Twisted Teens open their second record with a song titled "Is It Real?" perhaps to proactively address skeptics, like me, who raise an eyebrow when a band brings a retro-influenced sound to the table. I'm open-minded, but I also require a certain level of authenticity and originality when going down this road. My scrutiny gets turned up even higher when an artist or band dabbles in the sounds of classic country, folk, garage-rock, or blues. If you want to build on that foundation, your shit had better be up to code. And we're gonna inspect your credentials is one brick at a time. The White Stripes had to prove it. The Oblivians had to prove it. So did Reigning Sound and Uncle Tupelo and countless others. That's just how it works. Throughout the band's second record, Blame the Clown, they deliver a hoarse, punkish version of those classic American styles with songs that are deceptively well-written beneath their gruff exterior. I'm not going to call them the saviors of the genre just yet, but they're definitely on to something and I bet this stuff kills in a small venue. Oh, and if you thought I added "Not Real" to answer the first song's question, I didn't. That wouldn't be my answer in this case. I added it because it shows another side of the band, here using their gritty perch to lament the modern realities of social media and AI, where nothing seems completely real anymore. Except these guys. These guys are for real.

04 "Scene Stealing" | Heavenly

Here we go again. Another unlikely reunion of a long dormant classic indie-pop band from the 1990s, this time checking in a full three full decades after splitting up. They had good reason for calling it quits, of course, after the suicide of drummer (and brother of lead singer Amelia) Matthew Fletcher devastated the band. That tragedy happened 30 years ago and it's hard to believe it has been that long. It doesn't sound like it. Amazingly, the new record feels totally fresh and vital, easily holding its own with their best records. It's like no time has passed at all, in some ways, and "Scene Stealing" had me swooning from its very first moments. (Talulah) Gosh, this feels good.

05 "Scales Will Fall" | Hen Ogledd

If you're interested in something completely different, we end Side A with a protest song clocking in at half-past eight-minutes. Hen Ogledd is an eccentric English group based out of Newcastle built around critically beloved British musician Richard Dawson (the guy standing in the background above, not the Family Feud host, who has been dead for over a decade now). The title of their new record is Discombobulated and that pretty much sums up the state of the world right now in a nutshell. This band, however, is not content to be oddballs tripping on LSD in the forest (my interpretation of the above photo); they are more than willing to get their hands dirty in real-life regional politics. "Scales Will Fall" is at once a hard-hitting takedown of corporate greed and a triumphant old-school English battle cry. The former delivered as a spoken-word rant (a la Kae Tempest), the latter as a stirring calls to arms that would sound fabulous echoing off the walls of Westminster Abbey. I haven't even mentioned the extended mid-song sax excursion yet, but I'll let you navigate that on your own time. You'll have to trust me, it all comes together with aplomb.

SIDE B

06 "OG Players" | DJ Harrison

Nothing about the cover of this record does anything for me. Mr. Harrison (as the New York Times would say) is posed like a cranky schoolteacher monitoring an afternoon study hall. He looks bored, a bit perturbed maybe. The title of the record advertises the worst kind of soul (in my opinion)...electrosoul. No thanks, pass the sweet potatoes. It doesn't help that he looks a little like Kenan Thompson from SNL dressed for yet another unfunny skit (he's the longest running cast member and also one of the worst). His latest album doesn't do much for me either. But "OG Players"? Where did this come from and where can I get more? I guess the answer is on any Butcher Brown album, his main gig (or it was). That band has a way with a groove I can get behind. That I found a little of that phat stuff here is some consolation, but not enough.

07 "Shake This Feeling" | The Legal Matters

My love of power-pop is well documented throughout the pages of Pickled Priest as is my adoration of the Who, so a power-pop band named after a Who song ("A Legal Matter" from My Generation) is about as irresistible as it gets for me. Thankfully, the Michigan band delivers everything you'd want from a classic power-pop record. Melodies, crisp musicianship, amazing harmonies, and a chorus with a big soaring hook. I like their restraint on the record, drawing the song out past the normal comfort level all the way to the five-minute mark. Unheard of! Blasphemy! That means all the sweet goodies are in plentiful supply here and all over their new album, Lost at Sea, the band's fourth. "Shake This Feeling" immediately put my head in the clouds when it came on and that's a good place to be these days. Any place but here, any time but now.

08 "Crows" | Langkamer

Have you ever been or are you currently spread too thin? Have I got a song for you. Heavy circular riffs usher in a repetitive mantra, "Suffer, struggle, picking up the pieces of the puzzle" and there's an almost cathartic release to be experienced from the collective pummel generated for its all-too-short three-minute run time. It should really oscillate like a fan only to be turned off at the discretion of the listener when done. On first listen, I was expecting my research to reveal a Germanic origin, perhaps inspired by an after-hours whiz down the Autobahn or something, but instead I got a quartet from Bristol with no major highways in sight. Maybe we can sub out a 2AM speedboat ride down the River Avon then? I guess it really doesn't matter. As long as they come to pick you up, you're in for an intoxicating ride.

09 "Suffer" | Boy Golden

Good goddamn what a masterpiece

Laid out on the street in front of me

Good goddamn another tragedy

Laid out on the street in front of me

Speaking of suffering, let's look at it from another perspective. Boy Golden, aka Liam Duncan, is a guy who still sees the world as a masterpiece despite its many obvious flaws (affordability, politics, opioids, division, ennui). From his perch in Winnipeg, he can even commiserate with his neighbors to the South, I wanna know where my money went / I want a new fucking president and deliver it with all the empathetic angst the situation requires. He's not without a diagnosis for our dilemma, either. We sit in our living rooms and become what we consume / There’s nothing old and nothing new, just whatever’s in front of you. This Canuck has a way with words all over his new record, Best of Our Possible Lives, and he's a thoughtful little Northern redneck, too. On the album cover he comes off as a country hick (cowboy hat, jean shirt, mullet, bolo tie, 70's porn 'stache) but he's much smarter than that. You can pin him to any number of genres (Canadiana, indie-rock, country, rock, etc.), but he knows it should all be one unified stew anyway and he's not one to rule anything out in this life of wonder and possibilities.

10 "Mattress" | Chicago Farmer

Chicago Farmer, aka Cody Diekhoff, grew up in a tiny downstate Illinois town called Delavan. I've been there numerous times during my life, I even had some drinks and played some euchre at one of the two bars "downtown" (while there, a guy was loudly snoring with his head down on the bar), and I got know some of the locals, courtesy of a friend of mine who was born and raised there. Tragically, I even went to his funeral there a couple years ago. Every time I was there I felt like a fish out of water. For a Chicago native, a small town is another planet, albeit a charming one. Well, Cody eventually got out and moved to Chicago where he began releasing records under the name Chicago Farmer and he's been doing that for twenty years now. The band's latest album is easily one of my sleeper favorites from 2026 already because it has plenty of small town heart and wry humor, two things we covet at Pickled Priest. I really wanted to trot out the rollicking opener "Tina Hart's Mustang" but then I heard "Mattress" and it just demanded my attention. It's a metaphor for our lost hopes and dreams centered around a mattress inexplicably seen on the side of a rural highway. Cody surmises the root cause, "Somebody was holding on, somebody let go." It's a simple as that. You do all you can, you hold on for dear life, and hope for the best. That's all you can do in this life. In a small town or a big town. Doesn't matter.

______________________________

Well, that's it for Styles Week here at Pickled Priest. Until his next record, that is (cross your fingers)...

Cheers,

The Priest