STAGE DIVE TO THIS

Painted a hallway listening to this record. Then, later, did a bit of gardening. In one moment, you’re sanding a wall, ridding the surface of any old texture, getting ready to prime, “dragging your knuckles on the floor of hell,” as Edmonton, Alberta’s Home Front might put it. Soon, in the evening, you’re watering the succulents, trimming away extant yellow leaves, and you “feel the heat from a solar flare.” The music is a sunny winter.

Oil, a response to art types and intellect in ’70s U.K., made mostly by the working class and futbol fandom, remains a music genre that reflects both the hammer and the kick. But when the working class have nowhere to work, what do they do? Several thousand musical projects have sprung from or were conceived during the pandemic, Home Front being one of them.