Best of South Carolina Music 2020

Excerpt:

1. Stagbriar, “Suppose You Grow” (Comfort Monk)

Find It: stagbriar.com

Stagbriar’s “Suppose You Grow” isn’t just 2020’s best album from South Carolina — winning Free Times’ poll by an impressive margin. It’s the best indie rock record I heard this year.

It’s easy enough to explain the strides the Columbia band makes on its first album in seven years. The thundering crescendos and gorgeously swerving guitars point to Alex McCollum’s time spent filling out various shades of adventurous rock with ET Anderson and Dear Blanca. The fixation on life’s transitions and shifting relationships is typical for songwriters turning the page from 20s to 30s.

But while “Suppose You Grow” is a natural evolution that finds Stagbriar playing in a familiar sandbox, it far surpasses the status quo for artists exploring such sounds and themes. Jazzy instrumental flourishes and other idiosyncratic choices present the band as a rootsier reflection of the endlessly ingenuitive Ohmme. And the songs are masterfully poetic, blessed with beautiful pathos by the sibling harmonies of Alex and Emily McCollum.

“Suppose You Grow” expresses the exasperation of millennials confronted with a confusing world, stepping into the first truly adult phase of adulthood at a time when nothing seems certain.

“I solemnly swear / That I’m up to no good,” begins the closing “Last Minute Friends,” invoking Harry Potter.

“It’ll suck, packing up / In the back of some truck I borrowed from work,” they sing near the song’s end. “Good god, help me unpack it elsewhere / Dear lord, I’m a little unsure how to get there.”

Me too, y’all. Thanks for making me feel less alone. 

Jordan Lawrence, Free Times

Full article here.