A Few Words from Golden Apples about Shadowland
“Sometimes I feel an inherent and unavoidable joy when I think of music and sound and songs,” Russell Edling of Philadelphia, PA psych pop rippers Golden Apples told Wormbrain, “just a natural, unavoidable attraction.” This magnetic pull that music can bring about in our emotions is strong throughout the cheerful buoyancy and gloomy nonchalance of their new record Shadowland, a front-to-back listen that feels timelessly familiar and immediately warm.
You’ve been to Shadowland before. You’ve felt the way these songs make you feel before, even if you don’t exactly remember it right now.
Golden Apples is the present evolution of the formerly-known-as Cherry, itself a project that’d originally formed many moons ago in the wake of early 2010s alt. group Kite Party disbanding. The official lineup is Russell Edling “and whoever else,” according to the album credits on their Bandcamp, but on their latest album and the first under this new moniker, he is accompanied by friends Pat Conaboy, Mimi Gallagher, Matt Scheuermann, and Tim Jordan across its fourteen tracks of “golden era” indie rock.
Wormbrain World had the chance to ask Russell Edling to say a few words about the record, each of the songs on it, and the record label that helped them to share it with the world. Here is what he said:
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W.W: Shadowland
RE: An internal occupiable hell.
W.W: 1. Theme from Shadowland
RE: Written on a dining room chair.
W.W: 2. Garbage
RE: Pat C on the drums.
W.W: 3. Tangerine II
RE: Did you see the video?
W.W: 4. Jock
RE: Based on true events.
W.W: 5. Forever Hollow
RE: Seagrams Seven Gin (and Tim)
W.W: 6. Reggie
RE: Finally cried for u.
W.W: 7. Banana
RE: Watching Dune right now.
W.W: 8. Return to Shadowland.
RE: Written on a basement stair.
W.W: 9. Futureperfect
RE: Twiddling my thumbs.
W.W: 10. Tamara Lee
RE: I wonder, did he know?
W.W: 11. Valor Glass
RE: a.k.a. carrion placebo
W.W: 12. Fun II
RE: Grandmother’s table shim.
W.W: 13. Wildflowers
RE: Lyrics appeared en route to ICU.
W.W: 14. I Don’t Want the Shadow
RE: Breeze-borne ash or maybe snowflake.
W.W: Lame-O Records
RE: Jesus take the wheel.
———
Photo by Augusta Koch.
“Sometimes I feel an inherent and unavoidable joy when I think of music and sound and songs, just a natural unavoidable attraction.”
W.W: What is Wormbrain?
RE: Inherent and unavoidable joy.
W.W: Thank you for sharing with Wormbrain.
Golden Apples’ Shadowland is available now everywhere through Philadelphia, PA label Lame-O Records.
