Press for "Curious Tourist"

"Moody guitar jangles and twinkling keys assemble a nostalgic rock appeal on “Ordinary Face,” a riveting new single from Leah Callahan."

“You’re just an ordinary girl, the kind that’s overlooked,” the vocals let out amidst thumping bass, flashes of guitars, and frolicking keys, launching into a compelling viola infusion alongside the bouncy rock demeanor. “Ordinary Face” thoroughly compels in its dynamics between pulsing rock intrigue and chamber-pop flourishes."
Obscure Sound
www.obscuresound.com/2024/03/leah-callahan-ordinary-face/


"Boston-based new wave songsmith Leah Callahan makes offbeat alt pop recalling the likes of Bronski Beat and at times Blur. It’s a sneakily catchy and danceable number that buries into your head. Disconcerting, shifty, addictive."
Start-Track
start-track.com/single-leah-callahan-ordinary-face/

"Still channeling The Glass Set’s The Sundays and My Bloody Valentine vibes, Bostonian singer-songwriter Leah Callahan continues the musical journey under her own name. The fourth album since leaving behind the group she once fronted in the mid 2000s, Callahan works hand-in-hand with foil Chris Stern of The Sterns fame. A fan of Callahan’s former band, Stern’s congruous contributions including co-writing, arranging, producing and playing a number of instruments on Curious Tourist: a title that more or less sums up both partners on this songbook’s exploration and revival of various music scenes and sounds; like a re-energized flick back through the record collection, picking out and giving a contemporary take on the new wave, power pop, C86, alt-synth-pop, shoegaze and Britpop genres.

Callahan’s voice has already been compared to a female Morrissey, whilst the flange reverberations and chimes of Johnny Marr’s guitar riffs can be heard ringing out across a number of the tracks on the newest album. But I also detect more modern echoes of the Sparrow & The Workshop’s Jill O’ Sullivan and a touch of LoveLikeFire. However, every track seems to take a different turn from the one before; from the cathedral organ intro that soon turns into an indie anthem of languid yearned vocals and strings – evoking both Lush and Echobelly – ‘Nowhere Girl’, to the indie-country espionage merger of Howling Bells, Interpol and Blondie ‘No One’. Those Western twangs are made even more obvious and atmospheric on the next song and title track, with rattle snake tambourine shakes, cinematic vistas and melting heat mirage guitar bends and tremolo – imagine a more subtle Heartless Bastards. Taking yet another turn on the highroad, ‘Ordinary Face’ was written as an answer to the Bronski Beat’s ‘Smalltown Boy’, but I’m picking up Beatles and early Floyd, mixed with 90s Dubstar, light psych-pop vibes.

Often such pick ‘n’ mix attempts can sound incoherent and incongruous, but Callahan and Stern make each excursion their own; keeping a momentum and signature that is all theirs. I hope Callahan stays “curious”.
monolithcocktail.com/2024/04/17/the-digest-for-april-2024-new-music-in-brief-the-social-playlist-archives/


"Boston indie singer Leah Callahan inserts a bit of baroque pop into her new single Ordinary Face, making a case for a girl who tends to be overlooked."
Here Comes the Flood
www.herecomestheflood.com/2024/03/leah-callahan-ordinary-face.html

" 'Ordinary Face' is a bold exploration of retro sounds, wrapped in a vintage rock atmosphere ... Callahan's voice, evocative of bygone eras, adds a layer of nostalgia...With her new album on the horizon for April 2024 ... 'Ordinary Face' is just a preview of what is to come from this artist who continues to challenge conventions and explore new musical territories."
Oleada Indie
oleadaindie.com/explorando-los-sonidos-retro-de-leah-callahan-ordinary-face/#google_vignette

"Avec quelques effets sur un grain de voix tout particulier, Leah Callahan m’a enchantée à travers Curious Tourist ... Ordinary Face dans une sombre fraicheur aux élans dance-pop. Pour moi un immanquable, il est suivi de mon autre coup de cœur, Social Climber.... La narrative de Leah Callahan sur Curious Tourist est porté non seulement par son écriture poétique et proche du cœur, mais aussi par son association avec Chris Stern, qui a notamment coécrit Ordinary Face et ses accents disco. Un shoegaze riche et divers qui respire de part en part. Magnifique."
Unis-Son
unis-son.com/2024/03/28/flash-curious-tourist-leah-callahan-fr/

"There’s a groovy blend of 80s pop and rock blended with a tight 90s rock style of production and glam style and lush strings, all that ruminates together creating a sonic template that is completely charming."
We all want someone to shout for
weallwantsomeone.org/2024/04/16/leah-callahan-ordinary-face

"the title-track from Curious Tourist, and in addition to having a 90s Brit Pop feel, it’s also reminiscent of 60s pop as well. I can definitely imagine it on the soundtrack of a film set in, say, Monte Carlo in 1968"
Abominations
marcschuster.wordpress.com/2024/04/15/people-brought-me-back-to-music-an-interview-with-leah-callahan/

White Light//White Heat "Picks of the week" for both "Super" and "Ordinary Face"
www.whitelight-whiteheat.com/wl-wh-weekly-shoegaze-dreampop-psychedelic-indie-tips-06-24/
www.whitelight-whiteheat.com/wl-wh-weekly-shoegaze-dreampop-psychedelic-indie-tips-12-24/

About Curious Tourist:

Singer-songwriter Leah Callahan’s new album, Curious Tourist, marks her fourth solo album in as many years, a product of a relentless drive to endure and create in spite of seemingly insurmountable odds. It’s an indie-pop triumph from an artist who forged her craft in the Boston indie rock scene so aptly portrayed by writer Erin Margaret Day (daily.bandcamp.com/scene-report/nineties-indie-rock-boston-list), and is now fully coming into her own as a solo artist.

Mike Mineo of Obscure Sound had this to say of the lead single “Ordinary Face” (it) “thoroughly compels in its dynamics between pulsing rock intrigue and chamber-pop flourishes." And “Super” boldly tells the world Callahan is not going anywhere anytime soon, no matter what it throws at her: “Here I’ll stay, and here I’ll be, And I’ll be just fine.”

Arranger, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and co-songwriter Chris Stern brings impeccable musicianship and range to this, his first effort with Callahan, providing Johnny Marr meets Kevin Shields guitars for “Nowhere Girl”, “No One”, “Super”, “Social Climber” and “Wish”, and intoxicatingly grand aural soundscapes for “Curious Tourist” and “Duras”. Stern has brought along another first for Callahan’s solo albums - a sumptuous string section - masterfully provided by Providence based Jeremy Fortier on viola.

Callahan enlists, once again, both good friend and veteran producer/engineer Richard Marr, and percussionist Alex Brander (Big D and the Kids Table). With this ambitious team, Curious Tourist builds on the legacy of Britpop’s past, and kicks things into overdrive with brand new takes on dance-pop, post-punk, and shoegaze, for what just might be the next wave.