Music update, March 2019.

March was a big month for new albums, but I’d say just average for new singles. I had included a bunch of other tracks by groups like Hotel Lux and FEET and Sad Planets and Blood Cultures but decided to move the bar up a little bit and keep this playlist tighter. As always, if you can’t see the widget below you can access the Spotify playlist directly here.

Dinosaur Pile-Up – Thrash Metal Cassette. Dinosaur Pile-Up made has one appearance on my monthly playlists, landing at #28 on my top 100 songs of 2016 with “Nothing Personal,” a hard-rocker that reminded me of peak Nirvana. This song is catcher and much snottier, and I love it, even the screaming in the chorus, because it seems to perfectly capture a mood and a moment that I remember but I can’t believe these English lads – all a good bit younger than I am – actually do.

Crows – Wednesday’s Child. I’ve gotten halfway through Crows’ new album, Silver Tongues, and so far it’s really strong, best categorized as post-hardcore but with some wiggle room in that label. The title track is also strong.

Foals – In Degrees. Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost is shaping up to be my favorite Foals album ever

Talk Show – Fast and Loud. This is not the Stone Temple Pilots side project of the same name, but a new quartet from London’s Peckham district with members who seem too young to be producing music that would fit alongside early post-punk icons like Gang of Four (who appear below) and Wire.

Big Thief – UFOF. These folk-rockers were critical darlings in 2016 around the release of their debut album Masterpiece, but I found the songs off that album and its followup Capacity too tame and uninspiring. This title track from their forthcoming third album is my favorite song by the group so far.

Anteros – Let It Out. Anteros’ singles so far have mostly been power-pop gems, but this is a slow burn of a track with backing strings, a huge crescendo, and a showcase for singer Laura Hayden.

The Faint – Source of the Sun. I’ve heard a lot of songs over the last fifteen years from The Faint, but I’ve found their music more interesting than memorable; other than “Southern Belles in London Sing” I don’t think I would recognize any song you played for me from the band. They’ve also turned to a completely different sound with this new album, Egowork, or at least I never thought of them as this sort of indie-electronic outfit. The droning hook in the chorus puts this one over the line for me, and I appreciate the dark, almost gothic feel to the sparse backing music.

Two Door Cinema Club – Talk. 2DCC can be too poppy for me, but this is just the right amount of poppy.

Ten Fé – Coasting. Ten Fé’s second album in two years, Future Perfect, Present Tense, is full of more soft-rock gold, including this song, “Won’t Happen,” “Echo Park,” “Here Again,” “Not Tonight,” and the ballad “To Lie Here is Enough.”

Modest Mouse – Poison the Well. I have a very clear line when it comes to Modest Mouse songs – I like them or I can’t stand them. I like this one.

Honeyblood – Glimmer. I didn’t realize until I wrote up this post that Honeyblood is a solo project – it’s guitarist/singer Stina Tweeddale, who parted ways with her drummer Cat Myers in February and decided to continue on her own. The indie-rocker, who writes with a strong sense of melody, will release her third album under the Honeyblood name, In Plain Sight, in May.

Gang Of Four – Change The Locks. If you’d told me after 2011’s Content that Gang of Four would continue without singer Jon King, I would probably have said thanks, I’m good, but new singer John Sterry has filled in admirably and guitarist Andy Gill has managed to keep enough of the band’s signature song while also evolving so they don’t sound dated. None of this will make you forget Entertainment! but this is another very credible, catchy single from the band, this one ahead of their crowdfunded album Happy for Now.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Boogieman Sam. If you’re one of those people who told me I was wrong to denigrate Greta Van Fleet as a Kingdom Come cover band, well, I was right, but also, here’s proof I don’t mind bands that quaffed deeply of the blues-rock icons of the 1960s and 1970s – but King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard do so without sounding so derivative.

Freddie Gibbs with Madlib & Agent Sasco – Bandana. Gibbs is one of the best MCs I’ve heard in contemporary American rap, both for flow and lyrical content (warning, this ain’t for the kids), although some of his more adventurous projects since Pinata haven’t hit my ears the same way. “Bandana,” however, is scorching. Agent Sasco is the Jamaican DJ formerly known as Assassin. Yes, I had to look that up.

Jafaris – Stride. Ever heard an Irish rapper before? Jafaris is indeed from Dublin, a person of color from a country with a population that’s just 1% black, although I’d never guess his Irish roots from his flow. His debut album, also called Stride, just dropped last week.

Skryptor – Raga. Progressive, instrumental metal from three industry veterans, whose debut album Luminous Volumes has seven songs ranging in length from 58 seconds to over 9 minutes.

Diamond Head – Belly of the Beast. I had no idea these NWOBHM stalwarts had a new lead singer and released an album in 2016, but they did, and now they’re back with this lead single from what will be their eighth studio album in forty years, going back to 1980’s seminal Lightning to the Nations, which gave us “Am I Evil?” and “The Prince.”

Fury – Angels Over Berlin. This relatively new hardcore act from Orange County just put out this two-sided single, with this the B side but more accessible than the more grating A-side “Vacation.”

Amon Amarth – Raven’s Flight. Amon Amarth do very competent, safe – I know it’s odd to use that term in this context – melodic death metal with Viking lyrical themes. I tend to like just about all of their riffing, but would probably put them in the second tier, not up with groups like Tribulation, Children of Bodom, and At the Gates.