This month’s playlist is a little shorter than the last few because I’ve been traveling so much the last few weeks, but that should slow down now as we approach the draft, so I’ll get to spend more time hunting down new tracks. I’ve also broken with tradition and opened this month’s playlist with a metal track, although after that it’s back to normal, with two more metal tracks at the end. As always, you can access the Spotify playlist directly here if you can’t see the widget below.
Ghost — Rats. Ghost’s marketing shtick is that they’re a black metal band from Norway (of course) and no one knows the band members’ identities. The black metal stuff is stupid, the identity thing is tired, but they have turned out to be a rather adept creator of new heavy metal tracks that sound very much like peak New Wave of British Heavy Metal artists like Iron Maiden or Judas Priest. Some of their songs have gone too far with the Satanic theme – which feels to me like patronizing the audience – but this one is just a straight-up rocker.
DMA’s — Break Me. The Aussie band’s early Britpop vibe, still more Oasis than Blur, continues throughout their new album For Now.
Hatchie — Sugar & Spice. The first of two songs from this Australian singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist on this playlist, although both of them have the same early Cranberries-meet-shoegaze vibe. Harriette Pilbeam doesn’t have Dolores O’Riordan’s pipes but she has the late Irish band’s sense of melody.
Ring the Bells — Johnnyswim with Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors. Johnnyswim is a folk duo from Nashville comprising Donna Summer’s daughter Amanda Sudano and Sudano’s husband Abner Ramirez. I freely admit I’d never heard them before this song, which is a sort of folk-rock banger, if there is such a thing.
Cœur de Pirate — Somnambule. I just adore Béatrice Martin’s voice, so I’m going to tell people she’s my girlfriend, and when they ask why she isn’t here with me, I can truthfully tell them, “She lives in Canada.”
Janelle Monáe featuring Grimes — Pynk. I’m still unpacking Dirty Computer, Monáe’s new album; so much of her music seems to demand repeated listens to pick up all her ideas. This isn’t as good as “Venus Fly,” the collaboration between these two women on Grimes’ Art Angels, but it’s a totally different kind of song, and there’s a lot of very suggestive wordplay here that wasn’t there on the Grimes-led track.
Hundred Waters — Mushroom Cloud. This spare, devastating new single from the Gainesville, Florida trio comes amidst rumors that the band might be breaking up, but it finds singer Nicole Miglis at her soaring, commanding best.
Snail Mail — Heat Wave. The second solid single from the Baltimore singer/guitarist starts slow, literally and figuratively, but wait for the guitar to come in before you pass judgment.
Wooden Shjips — Red Line. This San Francisco band, who always sound like they’re midway through a set at Altamont, just released this lead single from their forthcoming album V, their first new music in five years. All hail the Hammond organ.
Courtney Barnett — City Looks Pretty. I’m on record as preferring Barnett’s material when she picks up the tempo; her lyrics are always strong, but because her vocal style is kind of flat and talky by design, it doesn’t meld well with slower tracks. This one moves at a quick enough pace to work with her laconic singing.
Gang of Four — Ivanka (Things You Can’t Have). Gang of Four have always been political, but this has to be their most direct attack on a target in … ever? Of course, Go4 aren’t what they used to be, in a literal sense: guitarist and primary songwriter Andy Gill is the only one of the original Gang still in the band, and their sound is a lot more modern and less post-punk than it once was. It does still work, though, and Gill’s righteous anger is well-placed on this EP, titled Complicit.
Soft Science — Undone. This Sacramento outfit calls itself a dream-pop/shoegaze act, so it’s not surprising that this song’s main riff is at least similar to My Bloody Valentine’s “I Only Said,” from Loveless, long considered one of the seminal records of the shoegaze movement. At least here I can understand what the singer is saying, though.
Hatchie — Sleep. Pilbeam’s accent comes through a bit more here, but what really draws me to this track is the staccato, off-beat percussion.
Kid Astray — Are You Here? I wonder if this Norwegian outfit is just too weird to get much airplay here, but it’s a shame – they continue to churn out great hooks and there really isn’t anyone else who sounds like them at all. This five-minute track seems to keep folding in on itself and back out again into new shapes, like a musical hexaflexagon.
Speedy Ortiz — Buck Me Off. The lead track from the group’s third album, Twerp Verse, which I can say off one listen so far is really damn good.
Lord Huron — Never Ever. Huron’s new album, Vide Noir, feels like a big step forward, as they were caught in purgatory between folk-lite bands like Mumford & Sons and the rock mainstream, where bands like the Avett Brothers draw on folk but aren’t afraid to air it out a little. This record definitely airs it out, as on this track and on the two-part “Ancient Names.”
Johnny Marr — The Tracers. While Moz continues to milkshake duck himself with racist and bigoted commentary, Johnny Marr keeps making guitar-driven alternative rock, less charming than Smiths material but still bringing the hooks.
Lizzy Borden — My Midnight Things. File this one under “I had no idea this band was still recording and has been for the last thirty years.” I know Lizzy Borden (the band) from its occasional appearances on MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball, which was always a little light on the head banging and heavy on the hair metal. The original singer, who has always gone by the name Lizzy Borden, and drummer are still in the band, and I don’t think their sound has changed that much from what I remember of their 1980s output. This wouldn’t be out of place on a reboot of the aforementioned TV show.
Khemmis — Isolation. Desolation, the third album from this Colorado heavy metal outfit, arrives June 22nd; they have elements of doom, but this track is positively uptempo for that genre, and I appreciate the totally clean vocals in a space that generally looks down on guys who can actually sing.
League of Starz ft. Freddy Gibbs, G Perico, & Mozzy — Colors. A collaborative rap track dominated by Gibbs’ verse, as he’s one of the few MCs today whose style and technical skill rival the stars of the Golden Age of Hip-Hop.