progressive metal

→ April 4, 2024
→ By keith
→ 5 Comments

Music update, March 2024.

March had a slew of big album releases, even just limiting them to artists whose work I’ve liked at some point in the past: Ride, Everything Everything, Liam Gallagher/John Squire, Waxahatchee, Elbow, Kacey Musgraves, Judas Priest, Sheer Mag, Yard Act, and more. There are a few I liked, but several were just okay – not bad, but nothing that special. There were a lot of songs from upcoming albums that I’m excited for, and this playlist has tracks from four different albums due out on May 3^rd, so I guess that’ll be a busy listening weekend for me. As always, you can access the playlist here if you can’t see the Spotify widget below.

Mdou Moctar – Funeral for Justice. Moctar became a global phenomenon with 2021’s Afrique Victime, bringing his blend of Touareg music and Western guitar to a much broader audience as the English-language music press began to sing his praises. (It was #5 on my top albums of 2021.) This is the title track from his follow-up album, due out May 3^rd, and it’s very heavy on Moctar’s mesmerizing guitar work.

Elbow – Good Blood Mexico City. This banger from Elbow’s latest album, AUDIO VERTIGO, feels like the best song Doves never recorded. It’s fast and loud and intense, with a great hook at its heart. The album is solid and I think it’s the best new album from last month, at least of the ones I’ve listened to all the way through.

The Libertines – Oh Shit. The lads’ fourth album, All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade, is due out on Friday, a week later than originally scheduled, and the singles so far have still been rough-and-ready but definitely show a mellower side of Barât and Doherty.

Kaiser Chiefs – Reasons to Stay Alive.The Kaisers may be approaching 30 years together as a band, and their most popular record, Employment, may turn 20 next year, but their new album has two absolute bangers in this and “Beautiful Girl.” I doubt it’ll get much play outside of the U.K., given the way we dispose of bands in the U.S. music scene, but they’ve had more than a few winners even post-“Ruby.”

Kid Kapichi – Can EU Hear Me? Angry Kid Kapichi is the best Kid Kapichi, and I wish the whole album – There Goes the Neighborhood – maintained this level of righteous rage throughout. This is obviously an anti-Brexit track (“I don’t wanna live alone on this island/But they put it to a vote, and they just kept lyin’”) but like all of the best Kapichi tracks it has some incredible hooks and the indignation shows up in the furious rhythm guitar.

Liam Gallagher/John Squire – You’re Not the Only One. Yeah, well, the anticipation was fun, but the album is kind of a snoozer. I think everyone – myself included – was so excited at the potential for some real John Squire material on par with his Stone Roses output that perhaps we ignored two key facts: Squire is a terrible lyricist, and Liam hasn’t seemed engaged with any music he’s put out since Oasis’s 2005 album Don’t Believe the Truth. One track on the album is called “I’m So Bored,” and when Liam sings it, I believe him.

Mourn – Endless Looping. I thought Mourn had disbanded after 2021’s Self Worth, as they seemed to vanish from the internet, but they returned in March with The Avoider, which feels oddly muted for a trio whose songs usually burst with energy that helped power them through even when songs weren’t polished or their vocals were (deliberately) a little off key. This opening track is the best on the record, although “Could Be Friends” is solid too.

White Reaper – I Can’t Escape Myself. White Reaper released this one-off single, a cover of the opening track from UK post-punk icons The Sound’s debut album Jeopardy!, to tide fans over until there’s a new Reaper album on the way. It’s a faithful cover translated through the White Reaper sound, with more polished production than the original but still the same haunting quality.

Yard Act – A Vineyard for the North. Where’s My Utopia?, the second album from these UK post-punks, didn’t quite hit as hard as their debut album did, although I applaud the band for experimenting further with their sound rather than just resting on the plaudits from the first record. This is maybe the fifth-best song on the record, but I’ve already included “We Make Hits,” “Dream Job,” “Petroleum,” and “When the Laughter Stops” on previous playlists.

Sheer Mag – Golden Hour. Sheer Mag were lo-fi critical darlings in their early EP stages, when they were harder-edged and leaned more into garage rock and punk, even flirting with metal at times, but their new album Playing Favorites – which started out as a disco EP during the pandemic that grew into a full-length album seems to dispense with punk influences entirely. There’s a lot of 12-bar blues here and some rockabilly sounds (“Golden Hour”), with some great melodies (“Moonstruck”) but not a ton of experimentation – except on this track, which features a killer guitar solo from none other than Mdou Moctar.

Lauren Mayberry – Change Shapes. I’ve been surprised by Mayberry’s solo output so far, including this sugar-sweet pop track about how to survive in a relationship with a manipulative partner; if the lyrics didn’t have a dark edge I’d call it twee and leave it off the playlist entirely.

Richard Hawley – Two For His Heels. Hawley, formerly of the shortlived Britpop band Longpigs and then briefly of Pulp, hasn’t released anything since his 2019 album Further, but he’s back with this single (taking its title from a cribbage rule, so, hey, boardgames!) ahead of the May release of his latest album In This City They Call You Love. This track is very noirish, suiting its lyrics about a deal gone wrong.

La Luz – Strange World. Speaking of noir, La Luz doesn’t do anything other than that, and that’s fine with me. The quartet has changed by 50% since their last album in 2021, but leader Shana Cleveland is still on board. They’ll release News of the Universe on May 24^th, featuring this track and the lugubrious “Poppies.”

Khruangbin – Pon Pón. A LA SALA, their first album of new material since 2020’s Mordechai, arrives this Friday; I loved Mordechai but it didn’t land with critics the way their earlier work had. This and “A Love International” are both standouts already, ahead of the slower (and non-instrumental) “May Ninth” of the three singles they’ve released from the album.

Kamasi Washington – Prologue. The acclaimed jazz saxophonist will release his latest album, Fearless Movement, on May 3^rd, and this track is actually the last one on the record, despite the title. Nobody is the new John Coltrane, but Washington’s work does remind me a bit of the GOAT.

Kacey Musgraves – Cardinal. I guess I’m a Kacey Musgraves fan now.

Waxahatchee – 3 Sisters. I still haven’t listened all the way through Tigers Blood, and I think part of it is that I thought Saint Cloud (her last album, released almost exactly four years before this one) was so good that I can’t imagine this will live up to it. I don’t think there’s a “Lilacs” or an “Under the Rock” here, at least not yet, but this song is quite lovely, especially the harmonies in the chorus.

Parsnip – Turn to Love. I wouldn’t rate this above the Aussie’ quartet’s previous single, the incredible power-pop gem “The Light,” but if you hang on here until the chorus you’ll hear what they’re capable of. Their sophomore album Behold drops on April 26^th.

Love Fame Tragedy – My Head’s in a Hurricane. LFT is Matthew Murphy, lead singer-songwriter for the Wombats, and his second solo album under that moniker, Life is a Killer, actually feels like a really good Wombats album – more than his solo debut did, certainly.

Courting – Battle. Courting’s New Last Name might be my top album of 2024 so far, and this extra track from those recording sessions has the same jangly, alt-poppy vibe as much of the LP did.

Blushing – Tamagotchi. The second song with this title to appear on one of my playlists this year, oddly enough, this “Tamagotchi” comes from a shoegaze band from Austin who’ve released two albums already, one co-produced by Mark Gardener of Ride. Their sound is very similar to early Lush, and indeed they covered “Out of Control” on an early release. Blushing’s third full-length album Sugarcoat comes out May 3^rd.

Ride – Portland Rocks. Speaking of Ride, their latest album Interplay came out last month, and it’s a solid grade-B record: exactly what you would want and expect from Ride, nothing more, nothing too novel, but nothing amiss, either. They came back from hiatus at the same time as slowdive, so the comparisons are a little too easy, but where slowdive has leaned more into their shoegaze roots and are riding the wave of the genre’s revival, Ride have reemerged in a softer form, closer to dream-pop than shoegaze, with Interplay harkening back more to British new wave than the original shoegaze movement that Ride helped pioneer.

The Jesus and Mary Chain – Venal Eyes. The Guardian called the Reid brothers’ second comeback album “three-quarters of a good record” by way of praise; I might put the ratio closer to half. (Their real comeback album was 2017’s Damage and Joy, coming after a 19-year layoff; the wait this time was just seven years.) TJ&MC were always more shoegaze-adjacent to me, with more noise-rock elements and I think a pretty clear intent to create some chaos on record. This song does all of that, and does it well.

Drop Nineteens – Nest. Concluding the shoegaze portion of the playlist we have perhaps the only American band associated with the genre’s original heyday. Drop Nineteens put out a new album, Hard Light, in November of 2023, their first album in 30 years; this song didn’t make the album but came out of the same sessions.

Wheel – Empire. One of my favorite progressive metal bands going, Wheel has put out two singles from their forthcoming album Charismatic Leaders, this and the seven-minute “Porcelain.” The new album drops May 3^rd and will be their first as a trio after bassist Aki Virta left the band amicably last July.

Ministry – New Religion. Al Jourgensen is 65 years old now and as pissed-off as ever, with Ministry’s new album HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES, which he’s hinted might be their last, a furious tirade against incels, white nationalists, right-wing grifters, and Trump himself.

Judas Priest – Invincible Shield. Then we have Judas Priest, with three members in their 1970s, still shredding like in their peak, but definitely with a way more uplifting message than I’d expect from the folks behind “Breaking the Law” and “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming.”

Pallbearer – Where the Light Fades. The kings of American doom metal will release their fifth album Mind Burns Alive on May 17^th, their first new music since 2020’s Forgotten Days.

Ufomammut – Leeched. An Italian doom metal band who’ve been around for almost a quarter-century now, Ufomammut just crossed my radar for the first time about a week ago; this is some seriously heavy stuff, with menacing vocals to go along with it.

Messiah – Sikhote Alin. Messiah were part of the Swiss metal vanguard in the 1980s along with Celtic Frost and Coroner, then broke up in the mid-1990s and, as far as I knew, were done for good. They actually returned in 2020 with their first new album in 26 years, and just released their second post-reunion album, Christus Hypercubus, last month. Their music is still heavily rooted in thrash, with shouted vocals that are a little less abrasive than the typical death-metal style. This isn’t totally my cup of tea, but old-school thrash riffing will always appeal to me on some level.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2024 in music, alternative, doom metal, folk music, indie, jazz, metal, Music, progressive metal, shoegaze, thrash

→ July 2, 2023
→ By keith

Music update, June 2023.

These lists just keep getting longer, and still I feel like I’m probably missing a lot of great tracks. June saw some outstanding new albums – Queens of the Stone Age, Godflesh, Django Django, Protomartyr, Portugal. the Man to name a few – but my favorite was Geese’s 3D Country, the sophomore record from the Brooklyn post-punk band whose Projector was such a surprise back in 2021. So this month’s playlist has 32 songs and runs over two hours, helped by two tracks that run over seven minutes each, but I just couldn’t bear to cut anything else. As always, here’s the link to the playlist.

Pip Blom & Alex Kapranos – Is This Love? I wasn’t familiar with Pip Blom, a Dutch indie-pop band named for its lead singer, before this track; Kapranos is, of course, Franz Ferdinand’s lead singer/guitarist. This collaboration might be the best pure pop song I’ve heard all year, and the chorus is very early FF.

Beck w/Phoenix – Odyssey. A one-off single ahead of the two artists’ joint tour this summer, representing Beck at his most pop and Phoenix continuing the same vibe as last year’s Alpha Zulu. It should be the feel-good hit of the summer.

Speedy Ortiz – You S02. Man I am glad to have Speedy Ortiz back. This is the second straight single that’s peak Speedy, and “Plus One,” which they just released on Friday, is too. Rabbit Rabbit, their first full-length LP in five years, is due out in September.

The Mysterines – Begin Again. I loved most of the Mysterines’ singles and EPs prior to the release of their debut album Reeling in March of 2022, but that record didn’t include any of their best songs to that point; the sound was there, but the hooks were a little lacking. This is the first single from their as-yet untitled and undated second LP, and I like the melody and the sultry vocals, even if it doesn’t quite rock out the way the band can.

Louise Post – What About. Sound familiar? I’ll give you a hint – the seether’s Louise. (One, two, three, four!) That is indeed Veruca Salt lead singer Louise Post, who just released her debut solo album, Sleepwalker, on June 2^nd.

Queens of the Stone Age – Paper Machete. I’ll say two things about the new QotSA album, In Times New Roman: I hate all the punny song titles (“Carnavoyeur,” “Obscenery”), and I think it’s a good record that reflects Josh Homme’s age and increasing interest in melding more pop songs with the traditional QotSA crunch and even his stoner-metal roots.

Weird Nightmare – She’s the One. Alex Edkins (METZ) records as Weird Nightmare, and this latest track is more jangle-pop than his last album was, leaning even into late 60’s pop music.

Sprints – Adore Adore Adore. I love how the chorus here channels rage into a great earworm. No word on a new album from these Irish punks, although they’re touring with Suede later this year.

BLOXX – Runaway. The second single this year from this London punk-pop quartet, a step up from “Television Promises,” as we await word on a new album.

Tame Impala – Retina Show. The better of the two unreleased demo tracks from the Lonerism sessions, released now on that album’s tenth anniversary. The breakbeat here behind the music pairs so well with the psycheledia in the guitar and the overall production.

STONE – I Gotta Feeling. STONE put out their first EP Punkadonk in November and keep churning out high-energy singles, this time with spoken-word lyrics – not exactly rapped, thank goodness – in advance of their performance at Glastonbury last weekend.

Ghost of Vroom – Still Getting It Done. Mike Doughty’s new Soul Coughing-ish act has put out two new songs in 2023, this and “Pay the Man,” with this song better both musically and lyrically, with more of that drum-and-bass vibe from his original band.

Jungle feat. Channel Tres – I’ve Been in Love. The London-based neo-soul duo Jungle will release their fourth album, Volcano, on August 11^th, with this the third single off the record, featuring guest vocals from American rapper Channel Tres.

Satin Jackets feat. Panama – Alive. I’m a Panama fan going way back to 2013’s “Always,” although now the Australian trio mostly collaborates with other artists, including several tracks with German producer Satin Jackets. This one sounds quite a bit like those early Panama tracks, all electronic pop with a great hook.

Cory Wong feat. Ben Rector – Ready. The ubertalented multi-instrumentalist Wong has lined up a huge collection of collaborators for his upcoming album The Lucky One, due out August 18^th, including this soulful track with singer/songwriter Rector, with whom Wong has worked and toured before, as well as another track “Hiding on the Moon” with O.A.R.

Grian Chatten – The Score. Chatten is the lead singer/guitarist for the British punk act Fontaines D.C., but his solo debut Chaos For the Fly is a shocker, a lush, soft, acoustic-driven collection of subtle ballads and folk songs, led by this track, along with the previous singles “Fairlies” and “Last Time Every Time Forever.”

Slowdive – kisses. Slowdive returned in 2017 to release their first new music in 22 years, then went dark again, but they’re back with this new track and another album, Everything Is Alive, due out on September 1^st. Slowdive have always found themselves lumped in the shoegaze movement, but at least since their return, they’ve been firmly planted in dream-pop, and this shimmering song is another example of how they create lush textures combining music and voice.

Geese – 3D Country. The title track from what might be my favorite album of the first half of 2023 comes from this group of NYC kids barely out of their teens, whose Projector was my #4 album of 2021. They’ve expanded their sound in myriad ways, maintaining their experimental leanings but incorporating classic rock, country, and jazz with their previous take on post-punk. I see a lot of comparisons to Squid, but Geese’s songs are tighter, still ambitious and even meandering (fitting with the album’s concept) but always with purpose.

Public Image Ltd. – Car Chase. Fresh off their fourth-place finish in Eurovision with their song “Hawaii,” a tribute to John Lydon’s wife, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease at the time and died in April, PiL have this new track that’s much more in line with their traditional sound. Their first new album in eight years, End of World, comes out on August 11^th.

Protomartyr – For Tomorrow. I haven’t gotten through all of their newest album Formal Growth in the Desert, but I’ve liked several of the songs I’ve heard already, and the song “3800 Tigers” includes a reference to Lou Whitaker, so how can I not love it?

Portugal. the Man – Plastic Island. Chris Black Changed My Mind is a huge departure from Woodstock, way less poppy and less rock-oriented, this time with a wide array of guest musicians from different genres and even eras (Edgar Winter!). I think it’s going to disappoint a lot of people who only jumped on the band because of “Feel It Still” but it’s thematically in line with their two albums before that one – and I’d guess a little bit of a rejection of mainstream success and airplay too. There’s a lot to like but it’s just a less accessible album.

Christine and the Queens – Big Eye. Chris’s new album Paranoïa, Angels, True Love is a sprawling 20-track record loosely built around the story of the play Angels in America with guest appearances from Madonna on three of the songs, and it can’t help but be uneven in parts. It’s also a broad departure from his prior mature-pop style, meaning there aren’t the immediate ‘hits’ like “Tilted” or “5 dollars,” but the record has some huge, soaring moments where his music matches his ambitions, like this seven-minute track.

Romy – Loveher. Romy (of the xx) sounds incredible here on the latest single ahead of her long-delayed debut solo album, Mid Air, due out in September, although the music below the vocals is a little simple. Her voice just carries the day.

Django Django – Gazelle. The Djangos released an album in four “parts,” effectively EPs, called Off Planet in mid-June, to generally strong reviews that all seem to agree that it’s too long (by length, it’s a double album, although conceptually it’s not). I’ve stuck with the Djangos for a decade even though nothing they’ve done has had the commercial or critical success of “Default” and their Mercury-nominated eponymous debut album in 2012. I just like their general sound of psycheledic-tinged dance-pop, of which this is an especially good example.

D.A. Stern feat. Sarah Chernoff – Lovebird. Chernoff was the singer for the short-lived group Superhumanoids and I’ve followed her solo career since they disbanded because I think she’s one of the best vocalists I’ve ever heard. Here she provides guest vocals for the LA-based songwriter/producer Stern, finding her in more of a rock vein than anything I think she’s done before.

Kyo feat. Coeur de Pirate – Dernière danse. Béatrice provides guest vocals on one verse of this track by French rock band Kyo, who’ve been around for a quarter century but of whom I hadn’t heard before this, probably because they sing in French, and we just don’t cotton to that sort of thing around here.

The Hives – Countdown to Shutdown. These Swedish rockers will release their first album in 11 years, The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons, on August 11^th, and just like the first single from the record (“Bogus Operandi”) this one has a very simple, loud, catchy guitar riff powering the track forward.

Rival Sons – Mirrors. I admit that Rival Sons’ sound isn’t the most original, but they do come up with some great riffs that bridge the gap between 1970s rock like Led Zeppelin (their most obvious influence, I think) and the early 1980s metal bands that at least started out as Zep clones, even if they later asphyxiated on their own hairspray.

Post Animal – Aging Forest. Well this certainly isn’t going to slow the comparisons of Post Animal to Tame Impala. You can hear the Kevin Parker influence in the chorus, while the verses are more doom than psychedelica. As an aside, Stranger Things’ Joe Keery was in Post Animal when they recorded their first album, but left the band as the show took off.

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Dragon. Yes, it’s nearly ten minutes long, although most of the songs on the new album, ridiculously titled PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation, are on the longer side, as the band goes back to the heavier metal sounds of Infest the Rats’ Nest with a more open, jamband approach to the music.

Horrendous – Cult of Shaad’oah. Horrendous’ highly progessive death metal sound is still here, but the vocals are actually more shouted than growled for large parts of this track, off their upcoming album Ontological Mysterium (August 18^th).

Godflesh – LAND LORD. I include Godflesh here as much for their massive importance in the history of metal; they all but created the industrial metal subgenre, merging their now signature non-musical sounds with the detuned guitars and extreme riffing of the grindcore genre that was ascendant at the same time in the U.K. Streetcleaner was such a shock to the metal system, especially given the dominance of hair metal in 1989, and tracks like “Christbait Rising” and “Like Rats” still stand up exceptionally well. Their latest record, PURGE, is less overwhelming than their last two albums – both of which came after their breakup and re-formation – with a more open and, odd as it is to say, brighter sound, with the guitars up front and the bass & drum machine produced a little towards the rear. Highlights include this, “NERO,” and “ARMY OF NON,” which has a sample of a rapper saying “Check it out, y’all” that I think might be Slick Rick.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2023 in music, alternative, indie, Music, progressive metal

→ June 2, 2023
→ By keith

Music update, May 2023.

This might be my longest monthly playlist ever, at 31 songs and and 110 minutes; it was at two hours before a few late cuts as I put this post together. As always, you can access the playlist here if you can’t see the Spotify widget below.

The Hives – Bogus Operandi. Yep, early aughts faves the Hives are back, with their first new album in eleven years, The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons, due out on August 11^th. The Hives have been good for one kickass single per LP, so here we are, with a killer guitar riff and earworm shout-along chorus.

Royal Blood – Mountains at Midnight. This got in just under the wire, coming out last Friday as the lead single from the British duo’s upcoming fourth album Back to the Water Below, coming out on September 8^th. They produced the LP themselves, after sharing those duties with Josh Homme on the previous record, so it’ll be interesting to see if they maintain the slightly funkier sound from Typhoons or go back to more straightforward rock as they do on this single.

Island of Love – I’ve Got the Secret. This London garage-rock band just released their self-titled debut album on Jack White’s Third Man Records label, and the LP is all over the place, drawing from a ton of genres – like the rockabilly sound merged with punk on this track – but with a maddening lack of consistency. They’re still a prospect, I guess.

The Coral – Wild Bird. The Coral have been around for nearly 30 years, but I associate them more with psychedelic rock and as the darlings of the post-Britpop rock scene, but this song sounds like they’re doing their best Lord Huron impression, and it’s great.

Grian Chatten – Fairlies. Chatten is the lead singer of Irish punk band Fontaines D.C., but his debut solo album, Chaos on the Fly, is going to be an entirely different affair based on the two singles he’s released so far. This jangly acoustic number sounds like it should be consumed along with a not-too-cold Guinness in a smoky bar.

Blur – The Narcissist. Another surprising return in a month full of them, Blur gifted us their first new song in eight years this month, and their album The Ballad of Darren, due out in July, will be just their second new LP in the last two decades. It’s not quite peak Britpop Blur, but it ranks among their best tracks post-Blur, which gave us the very un-Blur-like “Song 2.”

BLOXX – Happy Anniversary (To Being Lonely). This is more like it, the sort of straightforward punk-pop that made BLOXX’s debut album Lie Out Loud such a joy. We’re still waiting for news on a sophomore LP.

Queens of the Stone Age – Emotion Sickness. Speaking of Homme, it looks like he produced QotSA’s upcoming album In Times New Roman… rather than Mark Ronson, who was responsible for the tonal shift on 2017’s Villains, with its more uptempo sound and its very funk-influenced hit “The Way You Used to Do.” This sounds much more like the Era Vulgaris QotSA sound, just slightly modernized, which I imagine will please a lot of longtime fans. I’ve liked just about everything they’ve put out, so I’m here for it all.

The Damned – You’re Gonna Realize. I had no idea these guys were still recording, but they put out an album, Darkadelic, at the end of April, their first since 2018’s Evil Spirits (which I missed completely). The Damned were a seminal punk band that eventually morphed into one of the earliest gothic rock acts; this track fits more with the latter tradition, and any trace of their punk origins is absent here, but succeeds on its own merits.

Wombo – Slab. I wasn’t familiar with Wombo, an art-rock trio from Louisville, before hearing this track, which melds some experimental guitarwork with a traditional foundation of bass and drums.

Nation of Language – Stumbling Still. One project I would love to do someday when I have infinite time is to catalog all of the tracks I’ve put on these playlists to see how often certain bands have appeared. I feel like Nation of Language have popped up repeatedly over the years even though I have probably never listened to a full album by the Brooklyn post-punk band. They put out a lot of songs I like, including this one, with its driving bass line and big synth line in the chorus.

Jungle – Dominoes. The British funk/soul duo’s fourth album Volcano is due out August 11^th. They really don’t miss – if anything, they keep improving, although I do miss the horns that were more prevalent on their first album.

Simply Red – Let Your Hair Down. I was unaware Mick Hucknall & company had re-formed and put out an album in 2019, but they did and then released another album, Time, just last Friday. The Mancunians had two #1 hits in the U.S. with “Holding Back the Years” and their cover of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes’ “If You Don’t Know Me By Now,” although they were far more commercially successful in the U.K. with songs beyond those two ballads. This is a better indicator of their blue-eyed soul sound, with some great bass and lead guitar work beyond Hucknall’s vocals.

Jorja Smith – Little Things. Smith’s voice is lovely, and here she almost sounds like she’s scatting over the piano-and-drum jazz lines behind her voice. She finally announced that her sophomore LP, Falling or Flying, will be out in September.

Arlo Parks – Devotion. Parks’s first album Collapsed in Sunbeams was my #2 album of 2021 and won the Mercury Prize that fall; the album I had at #1, Little Simz’s Sometimes I Might be Introvert, won the Mercury Prize in 2022. Anyway, Parks’s second album My Soft Machine came out last Friday and it’s tremendous, with her signature vocals and poetic lyrics, but now with a broader range of music behind her, such as the rock guitar backing on this track or electronic elements interspersed throughout the album. I almost included “Pegasus,” which features vocals from Phoebe Bridgers as well.

Rahill – Futbol. Rahill Jamalifard is, according to her own website, “a multidisciplinary artist working within numerous overlapping musico-poetic traditions.” Those are some words. Anyway, I love this song and its late ‘90s trip-hop feel.

Portugal. the Man featuring Black Thought & Natalia Lafourcade – Thunderdome (W.T.A.) Portugal. the Man’s followup to their breakout album Woodstock, titled Chris Black Changed My Life, will be out on June 23^rd, and it seems like it’s going to be a stylistic free-for-all for the Portland band.

Killer Mike featuring Eryn Allen Kane – MOTHERLESS. I’ve never been a huge Killer Mike fan, but this tribute to his late mother is the best thing he’s ever done. It’s from Michael, his first solo album in eleven years, due out on June 16^th.

James BKS – Celebrate Blessings. Another banger from James BKS, incorporating gospel traditions from several sub-Saharan cultures along with hip-hop and some Bantu rhythms. His album Wolves of Africa Part 2 is due out in September, the follow-up to last year’s Part 1, and will feature a contribution from the legendary Afropop singer Angelique Kidjo.

Sparks – Nothing is as Good as They Say It Is. How the hell are these guys my parents’ age and still churning out pop gems like this one, which comes 51 years after their first-ever hit, “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us.” They’ve changed sounds so many times over the years, but if you listen to that track and this one, it’s clear they’re both from the same songwriters.

Geese – Mysterious Love. From a pair of septugenarians to a group of kids barely out of their teens. Geese’s debut album Projector was like a teenaged love letter to Gang of Four and early Wire. Their second album is going to be an entirely different affair, but no less weird, just more ambitious and bonkers. This is my favorite of the three singles released so far, with the full album, 3D Country, out on June 23^rd.

Brad – In the Moment That You’re Born. Brad’s lead singer Shawn Smith, who also sang vocals on Pigeonhed’s “Battle Flag,” died in 2019 of a torn aorta. The remaining members, including Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard, announced that they will release their final album, including the songs they were recording with Smith when he died, on July 28^th, with this epic, sludgy song the title track.

bdrmm – Pulling Stitches. These shoegaze revivalists from Hull will release their second album, I Don’t Know, on June 30^th. They do the My Bloody Valentine wall of distorted guitars exceptionally well here, but the production is so much better and you can distinguish various elements, including the vocals, like you never could with MBV.

Spiritual Cramp – Phone Lines Down. Named for a song by the highly influential goth-rock band Christian Death, this San Francisco sextet delivers pop-edged punk that also shows some of the members’ roots in that city’s hardcore scene.

Girls in Synthesis – I Know No Other Way. This London trio has punk, noise rock, and art-rock influences, and released their second album last October, with this a one-off single ahead of a summer tour in the UK.

Protomartyr – Elimination Dances. This post-punk band from Detroit released its sixth album, Formal Growth in the Desert, today, with this slow-burning track actually released at the end of April.

Squid – The Blades. Squid’s highly experimental, genre-defying sound has earned them substantial critical acclaim over the last three years, with everything from art rock to jazz to punk to new wave and more thrown into the mix. This track, off their second album O Monolith (out June 9^th), even brings in some shoegaze guitar sounds towards the end below vocalist Ollie Judge’s acrobatic vocals.

Lambrini Girls – Lads Lads Lads. Iggy Pop called this Brighton punk duo his “favourite new band” and has played them extensively on his BBC 6 show this spring. This track is the highlight of their debut EP You’re Welcome, released on May 18^th.

Enforcer – Metal Supremacia. Old-school speed metal from Sweden. These throwbacks are part of the “new wave of traditional heavy metal” movement, the name a nod to the new wave of British Heavy Metal that brought us Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, and more (including the Tygers of Pan Tang, who have a new and not that great album out). I have my doubts that this style of music can ever catch on again, but as someone who came of age as a music listener in the ‘80s I’ll always have a soft spot for classic thrash and speed metal.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Gila Monster. This Australian rock band will release their 24^th album in just thirteen years, PetroDragonic Apocalypse, on June 16^th, and their shapeshifting has them returning to the thrash-influenced sound of 2019’s Infest the Rats’ Nest, at least on this stuttering, pounding guitar track.

Horrendous – Ontological Mysterium. Horrendous’s second and third albums were some of the best progressive death metal records I’d ever heard, showcasing incredible guitar work and musical experimentation, but their most recent album, Idol, seemed to lose steam, with the same intricate fretwork but less sense of melody or songcraft. This title track off their upcoming fifth album sounds more like the style they captured so well on Ecdysis and Anareta, with a great central guitar riff, experimenting with time signatures, and a clear, powerful drum line behind it. The vocals will turn off a lot of listeners – and I completely understand this – but Horrendous tends to mix them further back into the music so it’s easier for me to focus on the music.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2023 in music, alternative, death metal, indie, metal, Music, post-punk, progressive metal, rap

→ December 21, 2022
→ By keith

Top 22 albums of 2022.

I don’t think 2022 was as strong for albums as 2021 was, where I could have run 30 deep on the rankings, but I had enough that I could keep up this gimmick of ranking a number of LPs equal to the last two digits of the year, and even made a few cuts in the final go. I know streaming has sort of killed the album in a sense, and I’m partly to blame as someone who generally prefers listening to specific songs over full records, but I also appreciate the artist’s vision for an album and am happy to support that in a tiny way here, even if it’s just “I like this collection of songs.” Honorable mentions include Everything Everything’s Raw Data Feel, Foals’ Life is Yours, and the Mysterines’ Reeling (which would have made the cut if they’d included more of their early singles), MUNA’s MUNA, Little Simz’s NO THANK YOU (released just five days ago, and very good, but I need to listen to it more), and beabadoobee’s beatopia.

You can see my previous year-end album rankings here: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and my top albums of the 2010s. My top 100 songs of 2022 will go up in the next day or two.

22. Elder – Innate Passage. A very last-minute addition to the list, as Ian Miller of Kowloon Walled City recommended this LP to me over the weekend, and, since he knows my tastes pretty well, it hit its mark. Elder is a progressive metal band with heavy stoner/doom elements to their music, and this album, their sixth, is their first with vocalist/guitarist Nick DiSalvo as the only remaining founding member. It’s just five tracks and runs 53 minutes, with a solid mix of proggy metal riffing, tempo and tone changes, and even some harmonies in the vocals.

21. Sunflower Bean – Headful of Sugar. I feel like Sunflower Bean are a post-hype prospect at this point; the music press seem to have moved on, or decided the band isn’t going to hit its ceiling, rather than appreciating them for what they are and for the potential they still have. Their brand of sunny jangle-pop with a little bit of garage to it might be a little familiar, but they offer a perfect slice of it on this album. Highlights include “Baby Don’t Cry,” “Who Put You Up to This?,” “I Don’t Have Control Sometimes,” and the bonus track “Moment in the Sun,” a one-off single they added to the album after it was used in Heartstopper.

20. Porcupine Tree – CLOSURE/CONTINUATION. Porcupine Tree returned after a 12-year hiatus as if they’d never left, still proggy after all these years, but without becoming overindulgent as the genre often sees. Founder Steven Wilson has produced three Opeth albums in the interim, and Porcupine Tree previously toured with the prog-metal giants, so it’s hard not to hear the latter’s influence here in some of the strongest guitar riffing. Highlights include “Harridan,” “Chimera’s Wreck,” and “Rats Return.”

19. Danger Mouse and Black Thought – Cheat Codes. Hard to believe, but this was Danger Mouse’s first hip-hop album in 17 years, since the last Danger Doom collaboration with the late MF Doom, whose vocals appear on the track “Belize.” This is peak Black Thought, with solid contributions from Danger Mouse, although the producer gets first billing here. Highlights include “Belize,” of course, as well as “The Darkest Part” and “Aquamarine.”

18. The Wombats – Fix Yourself, Not the World. A return to form for the Wombats after the uneven Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, the band’s fifth album veers more into an overt pop direction than their best LP to date, Glitterbug, but doesn’t skimp on the witty lyrics or shifts in tone and tempo. The EP they released in November of tracks that didn’t make the album, Is This What It Feels Like to Feel Like This?, has six more songs in a similar vein, several of which probably should have made the cut. Highlights from the LP include “If You Ever Leave, I’m Coming With You,” “Everything I Love Is Going to Die,” and “Method to the Madness,” the last one of the most ornate songs the group has ever released.

17. Belle & Sebastian – A Bit of Previous. The Scottish indie stalwarts’ first new album in seven years, although they’ve released three EPs in the interim, A Bit of Previous doesn’t abandon the sunnier pop melodies and sounds of their last record, the effusive Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance, although it’s a bit darker in tone and lyrics. Highlights include “Young and Stupid,” “Talk to Me Talk to Me,” and “Unnecessary Drama.”

16. Lizzo – Special. No record surprised me more than Lizzo’s Special, since I was certainly familiar with her work and her impressive voice, but never connected with her music at all. On her fourth album, Lizzo produced an ebullient record full of musical callbacks to pop, disco, and funk from the 1970s and 1980s, along with more than a little nod to Prince here and there. I guess we’ll always have to wonder what that never-made Lizzo EP that Prince was slated to produce would sound like, but I’d like to think we got some of that sound on Special. Highlights include “2 Be Loved (Am I Ready),” the #1 single “About Damn Time,” “The Sign,” and “Everybody’s Gay.”

15. Anxious – Little Green House. The debut full-length from this Connecticut quintet, which draws on emo and punk with a real dose of pop hooks and harmonies, was one of the best straight-out rock records of the year, and would have fit in quite well on a best-of list from 20 years ago at the height of emo and the absurdly titled “screamo” subgenre. There is a decent bit of screaming here, some of which I could have done without, as there’s plenty of dissonance coming from the guitarwork. The album is a raucous joy straight on through until the shocking closer “You When You’re Gone,” a slow song (!) with vocals from Stella Branstool of Hello Mary. Highlights include that track, “In April,” “Call from You,” and “Afternoon.”

14. Freddie Gibbs – $oul $old $eparately. Gibbs might be the best technical rapper going now, and he is certainly the most interesting, doing far more with the music over which he rhymes than anyone else I can think of. He has a host of guests on this sprawling, hour-long record, including Anderson .Paak, Raekwon, Pusha T, Musiq Soulchild, and Scarface. Highlights include “Too Much,” “Feel No Pain,” and “Dark Hearted,” as well as “Big Boss Rabbit” from the bonus edition.

13. Bartees Strange – Farm to Table. Strange’s sophomore album finds him leaning even more into his trad-rock side, and away from the comparisons to one of his inspirations, The National. The glimpses we had of the real Bartees on his debut are the dominant theme here, with great hooks and wistful lyrics about small things like the meaning of life and the prevalence of death. Highlights include “Heavy Heart,” “Wretched,” and “Black Gold.”

12. White Lies – As I Try Not to Fall Apart. Wikipedia calls White Lies a “post-punk revival” band, but this is new wave, and I will not stand for any erasure of that genre. (Get it? Erasure? Never mind.) Their sixth album feels like a culmination, as if they’ve truly identified their sound and have been working towards this for several records now, with previous albums having similar highlights (“There Goes Our Love Again” from Big TV, “Tokyo” from Five) but lacking this one’s depth and consistent quality. The contrast of melancholic lyrics and darkly joyous music is the strongest callback to 1980s new wave, and it’s practically pandering to an audience of me. The bonus edition includes four more tracks, including the outstanding “Trouble in America.” Highlights include the title track, “Am I Really Going to Die,” “I Don’t Want to Go to Mars,” and “Step Outside.”

11. Crows – Beware Believers. I was surprised how little press this sophomore album from Crows received, given the positive reception for their 2019 debut record Silver Tongues. Crows get billed as a punk band, but that sells them short – they’re a hard rock band in the old style, writing heavy, grinding tracks with distorted guitars, big riffs, and no pretense. Highlights include the title track, “Garden of England,” “Healing,” and “Closer Still.”

10. Christine and the Queens – Redcar les adorables étoiles (prologue). Redcar is Christine & the Queens’ latest nom de plume, after he used Chris on his last album and briefly used the name Rahim last year. It’s a breakup album, at least off the lyrics, but the music is anything but depressing. He backs up these tracks about a lost love (or loves?) with soulful music that draws on pop, soul, even elements of jazz. Highlights include “rien dire,” “Ma bien aimée bye bye,” and “Je te vois enfin.”

9. Just Mustard – Heart Under. This Irish shoegaze band showed promise on their 2018 debut album Wednesday, but this album carves out its own post-shoegaze sound, with the same droning guitars but without the inscrutable walls of sound that made My Bloody Valentine critical darlings whose music I couldn’t abide. Highlights here include “Still,” “23,” “Mirrors,” and “I Am You.”

8. Sports Team – Gulp! Coming in at a scant 33:41, this barely full-length record from Sports Team, the band’s second, is ten tracks of raucous, fun, art-punk-inspired rock-and-roll. It gets off to a strong start with “The Game” and never lets up, with hooks and big energy all the way through. Highlights include “Dig!,” “The Drop,” “The Game,” and “R Entertainment.”

7. White Lung – Premonition. The newest album on the list, released just two weeks ago, is also the swan song for this Vancouver punk-metal band, as lead singer Mish Barber-Way decided to call it quits after having her second kid last year. (She’s also apparently still executive editor of Penthouse.) Premonition has apparently been in the works since 2019, but baby #1 and the pandemic pushed the record back, so while they’re going out with a bang, it appears this is the end for this underappreciated act. Highlights include “Tomorrow,” “Date Night,” and “Bird.”

6. Kid Kapichi – Here’s What You Could Have Won. In a year when the Arctic Monkeys confirmed for us all that they’re no longer a rock band – and some critics seemed unwilling to point out that Alex Turner has no clothes – Kid Kapichi are here to take up the mantle of guitar-driven rock with intelligent, sardonic lyrics, here taking aim at the popular targets of those disaffected with late-stage capitalist Britain. Kid Kapichi start off making it very clear where they stand on the snarling opener “New England” – which is not about the changing of the leaves in Vermont – featuring Bob Vylan, and the rage never really slows from there, not even for the acoustic “Party at No. 10.” Highlights include “New England,” “Rob the Supermarket,” “Super Soaker,” and “Cops and Robbers.”

5. SAULT – Today & Tomorrow. SAULT released six albums in 2022, five of them on one day in November. Each of the five explored a different genre or style, with Today & Tomorrow, my favorite of the set, finding the secretive London-based group delving into rock and punk sounds for the first time. Highlights include “The Plan,” “Lion,” “Money,” and “Above the Sky.” If you’re curious about the others, I’d rank the five albums Today & Tomorrow, Earth, 11, Aiir, and God, in order from best to worst.

4. FKA Twigs – CAPRISONGS. She calls this a mixtape, but it’s 17 songs and 48 minutes long. It’s an album. It’s uneven, both in quality and theme, less cohesive than her album Magdalene, but the highs are very high here, and FKA Twigs (Tahliah Barnett) experiments more with tones and styles than on her formal LP. Highlights include “honda,” “darjeeling,” and “jealousy.”

3. Yard Act – The Overload. Thedebutrecord from these likely lads from Leeds might as well be a spiritual sequel to the earliest work of Gang of Four or maybe a lost album from The Fall, but updated with occasional flourishes of hip-hop (which, I concede, don’t always work) and a more modern take on the working class progressivism of their forebears. Highlights include the title track, “Payday,” “Pour Another,” and “The Incident.”

2. Sudan Archives – Natural Brown Prom Queen. Sudan Archives is violinist/singer Brittney Denise Parks, who released her second LP this year to massive and well-deserved acclaim. It’s a genre-bending, world-spanning record that features abrupt tonal shifts within and between songs, lyrics that are by turns smart and frivolous, and a whole bunch of songs that just plain groove. Highlights include “NBPQ (Topless),” “Yellow Brick Road,” the sinister-sounding “Homemaker,” and “Freakalizer.”

1. The Beths – Expert in a Dying Field. This is the album I’ve been waiting for the Beths to make since I first heard “You Wouldn’t Like Me” back in 2018. Expert in a Dying Field is a perfect exemplar of this New Zealand band’s sunny take on power-pop, with perfect harmonies and an endless supply of melodies. They call back to ‘80s power-pop standouts like Jellyfish and Apples in Stereo while adding their own stamp, not least from lead singer/guitarist Elizabeth Stokes’ delightful accent. There’s enough diversity in the tracks here to make it worth listening all the way through, but it’s also the best collection of singles I heard in 2022. Highlights include the title track, “When You Know You Know,” “Knees Deep,” and “Silence is Golden.”

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2022 in music, alternative, hip-hop, indie, metal, Music, progressive metal, rankings

→ December 2, 2022
→ By keith

Music update, November 2022.

A shorter playlist this month, although that doesn’t quite reflect the month in music, since a number of artists on this list released new albums in November. The next music posts from me will be my year-end albums and songs rankings, which I’ll probably run the week of December 19^th. As always, if you can’t see the widget below you can access the playlist here.

SAULT – God in Disguise. SAULT released five new albums on November 1^st, offering them as a free download for five days through their site, but they’re also now all on streaming platforms. I haven’t even gotten through two of them, but there’s far more of the soul, funk, and R&B influences that were all over their first four albums and absent from this spring’s Air.

Metronomy – It’s Good to Be Back. So this song came out earlier in the year, and I missed it, only hearing it because the cover of the song done by the punk band Panic Shack showed up on my Spotify Release Radar. The cover borrows the basic chord pattern and vocals, but it’s nothing like this shimmering, sunny pop track. When Metronomy stays on the right side of the line, they put out some great pop melodies.

White Reaper – Pages. Just about anything new from White Reaper is an auto-include for me. These Kentucky garage-pop stalwarts will release their fourth album, Asking for a Ride, on January 27^th, but it sounds like their core sound hasn’t changed one bit.

Black Honey – Heavy. The third single ahead of their upcoming third album, A Fistful of Peaches, due out in March, this is less abrasive and more melodic than “Charlie Bronson” but still harder-edged than most of their first two albums.

Jamie xx – KILL DEM. Still no official word on a follow-up to 2016’s In Colour, which included two of the best songs of the decade in “Loud Places” and “SeeSaw,” although this is Jamie xx’s second new single of 2022. It’s more EDM than either of those tracks from In Colour, both of which slowed the tempo down for more melody and vocal elements.

Phoenix – All Eyes on Me. Also on my to-do list is Phoenix’s new album, Alpha Zulu, which came out in early November, although every song I’ve heard has brought their Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix heyday of effusive indie-pop to mind, and it feels like a step forward after 2017’s Ti Amo.

Crawlers – Too Soon. Another heavy, grimy track from this Liverpool quartet, who just released their first EP, Loud Without Noise, at the start of November, featuring this track and “I Don’t Want It.”

The Wombats – Good Idea at the Time. Yet another solid track from the leftovers EP Is This What It Feels Like to Feel Like This?, which has songs that didn’t make the cut for February’s Fix Yourself, Not the World.

shame – Fingers of Steel. A post-punk band from south London, shame (stylized in all-lowercase) will release their third album, Food for Worms, in February. The track has clear roots in early post-punk but with more elements of post-hardcore music like that of Quicksand or Thrice.

Weird Nightmare – So Far Gone. The debut album from METZ guitarist Alex Elkins, also called Weird Nightmare, dropped back in June, and he’s already back with another new track, which continues in the same vein of garage-pop that’s more melodic than METZ’s stuff.

Panic Shack – Meal Deal. Remember when I mentioned Panic Shack up top? Here’s their latest single, a raw, wryly comic punk song with some de rigueur commentary on consumerism.

STONE – Money (Hope Ain’t Gone). I exclude EPs from my year-end album lists now, but I will say STONE’s debut EP punkadonk is one of my favorite records of the year. It’s just five tracks, but this one and “Waste” are both excellent, and the Liverpudlians show some range here beyond just pure punk.

Venomous Concept – Voices. I’m not usually into super hardcore punk, but this song is on the accessible side of that genre, and the band is interesting, as it was founded in 2004 by former members of Brutal Truth and Napalm Death and once included Buzz Osborne of the Melvins.

Wheel – Impervious. This Finnish prog-rock act released a three-song EP in November called Rumination, although there’s no word yet on a new album.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2022 in music, alternative, indie, Music, post-punk, progressive metal

→ November 2, 2022
→ By keith

Music update, October 2022.

October was a big month for new releases, but the one I was probably most excited to hear, Arctic Monkeys’ The Car, was a huge, boring disappointment. I wasn’t that enamored of the new albums from Dry Cleaning or Alvvays, to say nothing of larger acts like Taylor Swift or Tegan & Sara. But for lesser-known acts it was a great month, including a bunch of artists I heard for the first time. As always, if you can’t see the widget below, you can access the playlist here.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6K4bRVCxkcTXo4TrMkqT2q?si=72309fd0f0b54e64

Anxious – Where You Been. This Connecticut punk quintet just dropped their first full-length, Little Green House, and it’s one of the year’s best records, including the 2022 single “In April” (#76 on my top songs of 2021 ranking), “Sunsign,” “Call from You,” and “Let Me.” It’s hard-edged but with a strong melodic sense, too heavy to be punk-pop but too rough-and-ready to be post-punk.

The Lathums – Say My Name. Anthemic indie rock from Wigan, reminiscent of the Amazons but maybe a bit less slick? Their debut album came out last September, but this is the first track from them I’ve heard, from their upcoming LP From Nothing to a Little Bit More, due out February 24^th.

The Reytons – Avalanche. That opening riff … it’s Royal Blood, Turbowolf, the Amazons, Death from Above 1979. I can see why this south Yorkshire band are rising stars in the UK. As with the Lathums, they’re new to me, but had an album out last year called The Kids Off the Estate; this is from their upcoming album What’s Rock and Roll?

The Rills – Landslide. Merseyside lads who nod to the Arctic Monkeys and the Libertines as their primary influences. The B-Side, “Spit Me Out,” is almost as good, and maybe the title is a nod to the refrain of the Monkeys’ “Fake Tales of San Francisco?”

Crawlers – I Don’t Want It. This Liverpool band reminds me quite a bit of their neighbors The Mysterines, both led by women singers with powerful voices and crunchy guitar rock behind the vocals.

Black Honey – Out of My Mind. I’ve been on Black Honey’s wavelength since day one, with “Hello Today,” and this track reminds me of a few of their earliest tracks, with a crisper melody and less of the harder edges (which also work) from their second album or this year’s “Charlie Bronson.”

CVC – Good Morning Vietnam. That opening melody line sounds familiar to me, like it might be almost borrowed from something else, but I’m still in on this new Welsh band’s updated psychedelic rock sound.

Inhaler – Love Will Get You There. I feel like Inhaler has produced enough good new music that we can stop talking about who anyone’s father is, although if you listen to any of their tracks you’ll probably realize how much the lead singer sounds like his dad. I love how their sound feels like an evolution of you-know-who without sounding derivative; here it sounds like they’ve been listening to a bit of Lord Huron, incorporating that kind of folk-rock shuffle into their normal style.

Autre ne Veut – Okay. Arthur Ashin’s first new music in seven years, “Okay” is a lovely track that somehow manages to sound lush without coming off as overwritten or overproduced. Critics tend to describe their music as some form of R&B, but I think that sells it a bit short, with jazzier elements and more electronic work in the backdrop.

Cumulus – Teenage Plans. “Can you please slow it down?/It’s too much change to take.” There are so damn many songs about being a teenager and trying to slow down time to appreciate the moment – or being older and wishing you’d thought more like that when you were that age – that it’s rare for something else to break through the monotony, but this new track from Alexandra Lockhart does so, notably with the melody in the chorus.

John-Allison Weiss – Feels Like Hell. I think I liked Weiss’ previous single, “Different Now,” better, but this is also some great indie-pop ahead his 2023 album The Long Way.

The Wombats – I Think My Mind Has Made Its Mind Up. The second track from the Wombats’ forthcoming EP Is This What It Feels Like to Feel Like This?, which will be their second release this year after the full-length LP Fix Yourself, Not the World, which all puts them on track to put out the most good new music of any band this year.

Sports Team – Fingers (Taken Off). Gulp! is one of my favorite albums of the year so far, the second full-length album from this London band who just sound so very English between the vocals and the offbeat lyrics.

The Cool Greenhouse – Get Unjaded. Singer/lyricist Tom Greenhouse has a way with words and packs them into this tight post-punk track, talk-singing his way through a track that slithers like a tritone in search of its resolution.

The Go! Team – Divebomb. The Go! Team have been around for 22 years, so I’m rather remiss in that this was the first song of theirs I’ve heard. Their mix of samples and various pop styles reminds me a bit of the Space Monkeys’ “Sugar Cane” and the more contemporary Bad Sounds.

Young Fathers – I Saw. Heavy Heavy is due out on February 3^rd, with this the second very promising single from the Mercury Prize-winning trio, who’ve moved away from their original alternative-rap style to a more experimental lo-fi electronic sound instead.

Archers of Loaf – Screaming Undercover. Reason in Decline is the first new album in 24 years from this Chapel Hill band, who had a brief run of critical success and built a cult following in the mid-90s with their hard-edged indie rock sound.

Crystal Axis – Black AF. This is the third single from Crystal Axis, a Nairobi Afro-punk band whose lyrics are a mix of Swahili and English. I found them via this BBC profile.

Pinkshift – nothing (in my head). One of two tracks from this Baltimore trio’s new EP i’m not crying you’re crying. If you wondered what Paramore would sound like if they didn’t suck, this is a pretty good approximation. The title track from the EP is solid too.

Quicksand – Felíz. Another remnant from the Distant Populations sessions, but man, if this is what you leave on the cutting room floor, you are doing something very right. This thing rocks with this giant muscular riff that frames the sludgy chorus, where they sound most like the post-hardcore icons they are. They’re on tour right now with Clutch and Helmet, in case you wanted to wonder what year it was.

Blessed – Anything. This Canadian art-rock band announced their second full-length album, Circuitous, and released this lead single, which has a very doom- or sludge-metal feel without the big crunch.

Gojira – Our Time Is Now. I’ve been listening to less metal overall this year, but I will stop traffic for a new Gojira song, and this track has a glorious opening followed by some intense riffing in the verse before the bottom-heavy chorus.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2022 in music, alternative, hard rock, Music, post-punk, progressive metal

→ October 2, 2022
→ By keith

Music update, September 2022.

Lots of new music in September … but not a lot of great music, I think, even with two extremely strong new albums and a couple of others of note. As always, you can see the Spotify playlist here if you can’t see the widget below.

Kid Kapichi – Super Soaker. Two of my favorite albums of 2022 so far came out in September, including Kid Kapichi’s second album in the last 18 months, Here’s What You Could Have Won, which carries forward the harder-edged rock with Alex Turner-like lyrics but expands their musical palate somewhat, such as adding a guest appearance from Bob Vylan.

The Beths – When You Know You Know. And then there’s The Beths’ third album, Expert in a Dying Field, their best one yet, with more uptempo songs and a more consistent musical throughline over the entire album.

White Lies – Trouble in America. A tremendous track from the bonus edition of As I Try Not to Fall Apart, frankly a better song than several that did make the original LP.

Sports Team – Dig! Another banger from Sports Team, but unusual for them in that the vocals are far more conventional, and clearly play second fiddle to the driving guitar work.

Sprints – Literary Mind. These Dublin punks go a little more pop here, without losing any of their usual intensity, in what I think is their longest song yet.

Courtney Barnett – Words and Guitar. A cover of the Sleater-Kinney song from an upcoming album of covers of the band’s 1997 album Dig Me Out.

John-Allison Weiss – Different Now. This is the first new music from Weiss, who has previously recorded as A.W., since 2017’s “Runaway,” although their indie-pop sound is quite similar even after the five-year hiatus.

Editors – Vibe. Editors just released their seventh album, EBM, their first with Blanck Mass (Benjamin John Power) as a full-time member. The sound across the album is similar to what they’ve shown since their big stylistic shift around 2009-10 to something more electro-noir, with a heavy New Order influence. I also really liked “Karma Climb,” the first single from the record; and “Kiss,” which is great in the sub-4 minute single version but wears out its welcome at 8 minutes on the album.

The Fashion Weak feat. Gruff Rhys – Welsh Words. The debut single from a new Welsh band, with help from Super Furry Animals lead singer Rhys, with hilarious lyrics about songwriting advice from Joan Didion.

Freddie Gibbs feat. Moneybagg Yo – Too Much. Gibbs might be the best active rapper going, certainly in terms of flow and delivery, and just dropped his fifth album, the expansive $oul $old $eparately, on Friday. “Dark Hearted” and “Space Rabbit” are also highlights.

Phoenix feat. Ezra Koenig – Tonight. I like this song despite the intrusion of Vampire Weekend (via Koenig, their twee-voiced lead singer and songwriter).

Jamie xx – KILL DEM. The second new single this year from Jamie xx, whose In Colour was one of the best albums of 2015 and provided two standout tracks of the entire decade in “Loud Places” and “See Saw,” but who hasn’t put out another LP since. His solo work is electronica, but he’s also one of three members of the indie band the xx.

Quicksand – Giving the Past Away. A muscular new track from these post-hardcore icons, left over from the sessions for last year’s album Distant Populations.

Palm – On the Sly. A Philly art-rock outfit that’s been around for a decade, Palm just crossed my radar this month with this new track reminiscent of some of Battles’ better work.

WITCH – Waile. WITCH are legends of Zamrock, a musical style from the sub-Saharan country of Zambia that emerged in the 1970s, and were active from 1972-1984, by the end of which they’d moved away from rock and towards disco. This is a new recording of a song they played live in their heyday but never committed to wax. With the crossover success of Mdou Moctar, I could see WITCH (which stands for We Intend to Cause Havoc!) finding a new audience as they continue to tour.

Wheel – Blood Drinker. I’m a big fan of this Finnish prog-metal outfit, whether it’s their ten-minute, multi-section tracks or tighter radio-friendly ones like this one, primarily because of their guitarwork, both the sound itself and the intricacy of some of their guitar lines. This is the advance single from their upcoming EP Rumination, which follows last year’s full-length album Resident Human.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2022 in music, alternative, hip-hop, Music, progressive metal, rap

→ July 4, 2022
→ By keith

Music update, June 2022.

We have a bunch of comebacks this month, with bands I liked once upon a time returning either in reality or just to my radar because they put out something great in June. You can access the playlist here if you can’t see the Spotify widget below.

Editors – Karma Climb. This is the best New Order song in 21 years. (Editors are not New Order, and this is the second single ahead of their seventh album, EBM, due out in September.)

The Beths – Silence is Golden. The Beths have had some great tracks over their four years of releasing music, with a lot of punk influences in their power-pop formula, but the music here is as close to straight metal as they’ve ever veered – and it works.

Talk Show – Cold House. Talk Show gets labeled as post-punk, or new wave punk, but their music is more darkwave with far less of a punk influence than any of the reviews.

Jungle – GOOD TIMES. Jungle’s already back with a two-track single less than a year after Loving in Stereo dropped, with this the better (and more uptempo) of the two songs.

Automatic – Skyscraper. Now this is post-punk new wave.Automatic was new to me before this track, although their newest album, Excess, was their sophomore release.

Queen Colobus – Think Fast. Welsh vocalist/saxophonist Beth Hopkins leads Queen Colobus, mixing jazz with indie/alternative rock, as if Dry Cleaning or Yard Act merged with Sons of Kemet.

CVC – Docking the Pay. Another Welsh band – I swear this is a coincidence – CVC might be most notable for wiping all their old music from streaming platforms, so right now all there is from them are two songs, this and “Winston.” This new single combines an electronic beat that reminds me of a HAERTS track with vocals that might be from a drinking song.

Inhaler – These Are the Days. Bono’s son – I guess at some point I should stop calling him that – and his band keep churning out solid alt-rock singles.

The Aces – Girls Make Me Wanna Die. I’d lost track of Aces after their first single, “Stuck,” made my top songs of 2016 playlist, because I didn’t find the debut album as catchy, but this has that same pop energy with better production values.

Sløtface – Come hell or whatever. Sløtface has gone from a band to a one-woman operation, with singer/songwriter Haley Shea the only remaining member, and this the first new single from her as the new Sløtface.

Bartees Strange – Wretched. Strange’s second album, Farm to Table, is a big step forward, expanding his repertoire of genres and reducing the influence of the National on his overall sound.

Preoccupations – Ricochet. A welcome return for these Canadian post-punks, whose fourth album, Arrangements, is due out in September.

Kid Kapichi – Rob the Supermarket. Kid Kapichi had two singles this month, this rocker, which could fit very well on their debut album This Time Next Year, and the extra-biting acoustic track “Party at Number 10,” the subject of which should be quite evident.

beabadoobee – 10:36. Beabadoobee does Sunflower Bean? This is a delightfully sunny pop track, leading into her second album, Beatopia, due out on July 15^th.

FKA twigs – killer. Yet another new track from FKA twigs, separate from her Caprisongs mixtape, and I think more in line with the music from magdalena. “It’s dangerous to be a woman in love” can have so many meanings here.

Dry Cleaning – Don’t Press Me. I don’t love Dry Cleaning’s flat and very forward-produced vocals, but they get this great Wire/Magazine vibe when they let it rip, as they do on this lead single from their sophomore album, Stumpwork, due out in October.

Christine and the Queens – Je te vois enfin. This is the first new track from Christine and the Queens since last fall, and introduces the “Redcar” persona, although whether that means anything for the music remains to be seen. It’s in a similar musical vein to “I disappear in your arms,” one of my favorite tracks of 2020.

Kiwi jr. – Unspeakable Things. Man that organ riff with its one chromatic tone is pretty great, harkening back to the brief moment in the mid-aughts when emo was listenable.

La Luz – San Fernando Shadow Blues. I assume this is the theme to the next James Bond movie, which will star the as-yet unnamed actor skeet-surfing in the opening scenes to save the planet.

Porcupine Tree – Rats Return. Closure/Continuation marks Porcupine Tree’s return after a 13-year absence from recording, including this heavy, Rush-like rocker and last year’s single “Harridan.”

Soilwork – Nous Sommes la Guerre. New prog metal from a Swedish band I typically associate with more extreme sounds, but here we get only clean vocals and a very melodic synth line driving the track.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2022 in music, alternative, indie, Music, progressive metal

→ April 4, 2022
→ By keith

Music update, March 2022.

Another strong month for new music, enough that I ended up cutting a few tracks – any time I do that I feel like it means the standard to make the playlist is getting higher. You can access it here if you can’t see the widget below.

Blossoms – Ode to NYC. I’d heard Blossoms before, but not much of their music, and nothing grabbed me like the two singles they released in March from their upcoming album, Ribbon Around the Bomb, have. “Ode to NYC” is like a mad scientist selected the best genes from Lord Huron and The Head and the Heart and made a new creature into this song. It’s also kind of amazing to me that a British band can so effortlessly co-opt the American indie-folk sound.

Riverby – Chapel. The vocals here from August Greenberg are stunning, on what is by far the best track on this emo-punk band’s latest album, Absolution. Just make the whole record out of this.

Hatchie – Lights On. This Australiandream-pop singer/songwriter is about to release her second full-length album, Giving the World Away, on April 22^nd, featuring this track, “Quicksand,” and the solid title track.

HAIM – Lost Track. I have never cared for HAIM’s sort of inoffensive soft-pop, despite their acclaim from other musicians, many of whose music I liked. This is the first song by theirs I’ve really liked, as it doesn’t try to do much at all – there’s a good hook in the chorus, some nice counterpoint in the vocals, and it’s over in under two and a half minutes.

Soccer Mommy – Shotgun. Another artist I’ve never been able to get into, Soccer Mommy announced her third album, Sometimes, Forever, will drop on June 24^th, with this lead single boasting a great hook in the pre-chorus line “Whenever you want me…”

Greentea Peng – Your Mind. Peng has shown an experimental bent since the start of her career, but she’s widening her musical template even further with this single, which leans further into jazz and if anything de-emphasizes her vocals in favor of more interesting music.

Elzhi feat. Georgia-Anne Muldrow – Already Gone. Elzhi is a Detroit rapper loosely associated with Danny Brown and the late J Dilla, with a discography that goes back to an EP he released in 1998. I’d never heard anything by him, but he has a strong old-school delivery that reflects those late ’90s roots.

Jack White feat. Q-Tip – Hi-De-Ho. White and Tip worked together on the final ATCQ album in 2016, so the pairing here isn’t surprising, but the song itself is. It’s not just Q-Tip making one of his hundred or so guest appearances, where he never mails it in but also never seems to exert himself that much, and it’s not just White playing a riff or two over and over again. It sounds like an experiment, like two people got in the studio and started messing with several ideas, but decided to release four minutes of that musical exploration even though it doesn’t confirm to expectations of what a single from two experienced, fairly mainstream artists should sound like.

Bartees Strange – Heavy Heart. Strange is a huge fan of the National but his music always sounds to me like a better twist on The Hold Steady.

Band of Horses – Warning Signs. I’d say Things Are Great is much better than Why Are You OK and somewhat better than Mirage Rock but not as good as Cease to Begin. So, if you already like Band of Horses, you should like this album, which for me was a mixed bag but more good than not.

Spiritualized – The Mainline Song. I’ve known about Spiritualized for probably 25 years, at least since Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space, which was widely praised by critics at the time and has only grown in stature since then. Also, it’s hard to believe that that album, OK Computer, and Urban Hymns are all a quarter century old. Anyway, this is a joyous track from Spiritualized that seems to catch them at the top of their game.

Weird Nightmare – Searching for You. Weird Nightmare is Alex Edkins of METZ, and this sounds a lot like METZ, unsurprisingly, although if anything it’s a bit tighter and more accessible.

Blossoms – The Sulking Poet. I haven’t put two songs from one artist on the same playlist in probably five or more years, so it’s a big fucking deal (to me, at least), when I do do it. Like, big enough that I was looking at Blossoms tour dates and debating whether it made sense to go to Lisbon for two days to see them in a music festival.

alt-J – Happier When You’re Gone. I’vegone from the world’s biggest alt-J fan to someone who’d be fine if they never released another album. The ambitious, experimental, meticulous songwriting from their first album, An Awesome Wave, is long gone in favor of more easily digestible and, consequently, more boring alt-pop songs. This track is probably the closest they’ve come at least to the sensibility of the first album since anything on their second record.

Everything Everything – Teletype. Contrast that with Everything Everything, who probably peaked for me with the two tremendous singles off Arc, “Cough Cough” and “Kemosabe,” yet who haven’t stopped trying to innovate, or given up their weirdness to pander to a larger audience. This draws more on electronic music styles than what we’ve heard from them previously, although the next track, “I Want a Love Like This,” goes in a different direction.

Sprints – Delia Smith. Sprints’ new EP, A Modern Job, features a couple of very strong punk-pop tracks that are more punk than pop, including this one, which names one of Britain’s most notable celebrity chefs.

Pillow Queens – Hearts & Minds. This Irish quartet released its new album, Leave the Lights On, on Friday, to positive reviews. There’s definitely an American alt-rock vibe to their music; I saw a comparison to the Killers, which holds if you consider the half of the Killers’ catalogue where they lean into roots and country-rock, like “Dying Breed” or “Lightning Fields” from Imploding the Mirage.

Melody’s Echo Chamber – Personal Message. A new artist to me, Melody Prochet released her first album a decade ago, and continues to make ethereal chamber-pop with a similar vocal style to Hatchie’s.

Arcade Fire – The Lightning II. Arcade Fire released two albums in March, right before Will Butler announced he was leaving the band. “The Lightning I” is a pretentious slog, while this track has more of the big energy that recalls their first two albums.

The Smile – Skrting on the Surface. I assume this supergroup’s album is coming very soon, with three singles released so far; it’s hard not to think of this as pre-Kid A Radiohead given the prominence of Thom Yorke’s voice and Jonny Greenwood’s musical direction, although nothing they’ve put out so far has the same rock vibe as Radiohead’s peak albums Pablo Honey and OK Computer.

Bloc Party – Sex Magik. I will probably forever want Kele & Company to make the next “Banquet,” but I’ll settle for something as frenetic and loud in that post-punk vein. Last year’s “Traps” had it, this mostly has it, while the newest single “If We Get Caught” doesn’t.

beabadoobee – Talk. Beatrice Laus’s second album Beatopia is due out on July 15^th, and if this sunny fuzzed-out lead single is an indicator of what’s coming, I’m in.

The Mysterines – Means to Bleed. Lia Metcalfe and company finally released their first full-length album, but it didn’t include some of their best singles to date. Where’s “I Win Every Time?” Or “Gasoline?” Or “Bet Your Pretty Face?” There’s good material here, and Metcalfe’s deep, smoky voice pairs so well with the band’s crunching guitars, but they’ve toned some of the energy down a notch, and I miss their earliest work. I still think they’ve got a chance to be huge.

Drug Church – Fun’s Over. Musicians I know love Drug Church, and this marks the post-hardcore group’s second appearance on one of my playlists; their new album Hygiene is quick and punchy, with short bursts of mid-tempo punk with heavy bottoms and garage-rock production.

Crows – Garden of England. Crows’ debut album Silver Tongues was one of my favorites of 2019, and they just returned with their second LP, Beware Believers, on Friday. Their music is just as loud and angry, blending punk, garage, and thrash on this furious track released just a few weeks before the full record.

Opeth – Width of a Circle. Don’t get too excited – it’s a bonus track on the extended edition of Opeth’s 2019 album In Cauda Venenum. But it’s still new Opeth, and that’s good.

Vio-Lence – Upon their Cross. The lyrics don’t make a ton of sense, but the riffing from these Bay Area thrash pioneers is still good.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2022 in music, alternative, indie, Music, progressive metal, rap, thrash

→ December 2, 2021
→ By keith

Music update, November 2021.

I lowered the bar a little bit this month to make the playlist a more suitable length, as it seemed like the tide of new releases finally slowed up a bit as we approach the end of the year. I’ll post best of 2021 album and song lists later this month, probably the week of the 13^th but possibly the week after that, depending on how busy I am with prospect calls. As always, you can find the playlist here if you can’t see the Spotify widget below.

Charli XCX featuring Christine and the Queens & Caroline Polachek – New Shapes. This is hands-down one of the best pop songs I’ve heard this year. I’m not a big Charli XCX fan, but she chose the right collaborators on this track, and each of them gets a distinctive verse to show off their vocal skills.

Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak – Fly As Me. I didn’t love the Silk Sonic album as much as I expected to, but this song is a perfect mix of ’70s funk and ’80s R&B. Paak sure sounds a lot like Skee-Lo on that second verse, though.

Foals – Wake Me Up. These guys are good for one solid banger every album, but singer/guitarist Yannis Philippakis has promised that the next LP will be more rave-influenced like this track is, so gird your loins.

CHVRCHES – Screaming. The “director’s cut” of Screen Violence adds three more tracks and runs nearly an hour; this is the best of the additional songs.

The War on Drugs – Harmonia’s Dream. I Don’t Live Here Anymore is my favorite TWoD album, and it seems like the critical consensus is that it’s their best. I still think the songs are too long, but that’s just who they are. There’s just more here this time around: stronger melodies, more energy, more prominent drum and bass lines, even some better lead guitar work.

Chime School – Radical Leisure. Chime School is San Francisco musician Andy Pastalaniec, mixing jangle-pop sounds of the 1980s and some elements of Britpop. It’s sunny and bright and takes me back a few decades every time he opens a verse with “Tell me what it’s like…”

Potty Mouth – Not Going Anywhere. An ironic song title for a band that just announced they’re breaking up. At least they’re going out with a few bangers on this final EP.

Gang of Youths – tend the garden. I’ve never heard a band remind me so much of U2 without explicitly sounding like U2. There’s a little something in the singer’s laconic delivery that reminds me of Bono’s quieter moments, but otherwise I can’t pinpoint a specific connection. I’m a fan based on their last few singles.

English Teacher – Good Grief. This Leeds quartet is rather unapologetically English, with that certain style of sing-talked vocals and witty lyrics by lead singer Lily Fontaine. I’m kind of a sucker for bands like this when the lyrics are strong.

The Wombats – Everything I Love Is Going to Die. A bit morbid, I suppose, but this is how Matthew Murphy rolls.

Bob Vylan – GDP. I am not a fan of this kind of artist name, riffing on a more famous musician but changing one letter or sound, but this rap song with metal riffs behind the rhyming is actually pretty strong, and I can’t argue with the sentiment.

Frank Turner – Miranda. This song is based on the true story of Turner’s parent Miranda, who came out as transgender at the age of 72.

Bloc Party – Traps. They’re back – the band’s sixth album, Alpha Games, their first since 2016, is due out in April. “Banquet” is a forever track for me, so anything they do in that vein is right up my alley.

Yard Act – Payday. Yard Act are another of those post-punk sing-talk British bands I just can’t seem to get enough of. It doesn’t hurt when the song beneath the lyrics has a solid groove to it, and the chorus has me shouting along. “We all make the same sound when we’re mowed down” is grim, but rather well sums up our dystopian experience.

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – It Don’t Bother Me. Plant and Krauss’s second album together, Raise the Roof, came out this month … and it’s kind of tame. I was hoping for more of Krauss’s bluegrass roots to show through, but it’s a muted affair throughout.

Cate Le Bon – Moderation. I’m contractually obligated to put a Welsh artist on the playlist whenever possible. Le Bon’s sixth album, Pompeii, comes out on February 4^th. Wikipedia calls her music “baroque pop;” I hear a lot of Roxy Music here.

Aeon Station – Fade. Aeon Station is three-fourths of the indie band the Wrens,butall I hear here is Arcade Fire, in a positive way.

IDLES – The Wheel. Critics love IDLES; I don’t entirely get it. I don’t hear the hooks or the energy I want from a punk band. This song, however, has all of that. I’m in by the end of the first measure.

Tony Iommi – Scent of Dark. The iconic metal guitarist returns with this menacing, instrumental doom track that always sounds like it’s about to turn into a vocal track, like there’s a verse just around the next beat, but instead it sludges forward with Iommi’s trademark detuned riffing. Not bad for a 73-year-old who’s been playing with prosthetic fingertips for a half-century. Iommi’s former band, Jethro Tull, also released a new song this past week, and Ian Anderson’s voice hasn’t held up as well as Iommi’s fret hand.

Porcupine Tree – Harridan. I assumed Porcupine Tree was done, at least as a recording act, but their eleventh album Closure/Continuation comes on next June. It’ll be the prog-rock band’s first record in 12 years. I mostly know of them through their association with Opeth; he co-produced Blackwater Park, which I would probably rank as the best metal album of all time, certainly the best extreme metal album, as well as Deliverance and Damnation, all of which showed Opeth moving in a more progressive musical direction.

Animals as Leaders – The Problem of Other Minds. This instrumental trio’s album The Joy of Motion made my top albums of 2014 list, but they’ve only released one album in the intervening seven years. This track and its B-side Monomyth (are B-sides even really a thing any more? The term seems like an anachronism) are the first from the band’s Parrhesia, due out on March 25^th.

Cynic – In a Multiverse Where Atoms Sing. Another band I assumed was through, with co-founder Sean Reinert and longtime bassist Sean Malone dying in 2020, although Reinert had left Cynic in 2015. Anyway, Cynic just released Ascension Codes, its first album in seven years, last week. It’s just their fourth album in over 30 years under the name, with singer-guitarist Paul Masvidal the only remaining founding member.

Mastodon – Sickle and Peace. Hushed and Grim cameout early in November and it’s a mammoth record, running almost an hour and a half, with some incredible guitar work and huge changes in style and tone. I almost went with “Gobblers of Dregs,” but that track is eight and a half minutes long, and I prefer the guitar riff in this song anyway.

Toundra – El Odio, Parte II. One more instrumental metal track to wrap things up this month, this one another monster track from this Spanish metal act, whose sixth album Hex comes out on January 14^th.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2021 in music, alternative, indie, metal, Music, progressive metal

Tags

Archives