Music update, September 2023.

Months with five Fridays always take me a bit longer to write up, since they have more new releases to work through, and I was away for the weekend as well so I finally caught up after writing this in bits and pieces over several days. Anyway, we got some big new album releases in September from Speedy Ortiz, Jorja Smith, Corinne Bailey Rae, The National, Romy, Olivia Rodrigo, Slowdive, Royal Blood, The Coral, and more, and I’m still working through many of them. Here are some of the best new tracks I found this past month. I’ll also note that the 2023 Mercury Prize went to jazz artists Ezra Collective for their November 2022 album Where I’m Meant to Be, which I hadn’t heard before; it’s cross-over jazz with lots of great guest appearances, but I don’t think it would have made my best albums of the year list. As always, if you can’t see the Spotify widget, you can access the playlist here.

Speedy Ortiz – Ranch vs. Ranch. Rabbit Rabbit, the band’s fourth proper LP, came out appropriately on the first of the month, and finds the band in peak form. The album itself is a little uneven, but has several standout tracks where Sadie Dupuis’ off-kilter vocals and the band’s key changes meld with some heavier riffing to provide what makes them unique, songs where the sense of melody is always teetering on the edge of musical disaster.

Kid Kapichi – Let’s Get to Work. I thought about seeing Kid Kapichi in Philly last month, but I had no interest in the main act (Nothing But Thieves) and couldn’t see spending the coin for an opening act after I’d shelled out for Arctic Monkeys a week earlier. Anyway, this track sounds more like the band’s debut album This Time Next Year than their still strong but slightly lesser second record.

Jorja Smith – Falling or Flying. This is the title track from Smith’s sophomore album, which comes five years after her Mercury Prize-nominated debut Lost and Found, and the fourteen tracks (plus two skits) show tremendous growth in her musical style while her voice remains the greatest attraction. I love this song, “She Feels,” “GO GO GO,” “Try Me,” and “Little Things.”

Slowdive – alife. Slowdive’s second post-hiatus album everything is alive seems destined for a slew of best-of-2023 lists, as the eight-track LP has the band performing at the level of their album Souvlaki, a classic of the original shoegaze movement. Apparently they played here in Philly a few days ago while I was out of town. Alas.

Griff – Vertigo. Griff has released three major singles since her debut album came out, including the collaboration with Sigrid on “Head on Fire,” so I presume we’re getting another album from her at some point. She’s one of the most exciting pop artists recording today and if this isn’t quite up to “Black Hole” and “One Night” it’s still one of the best pure pop tracks of the year.

Susanna Hoffs – I Don’t Know Why. Hoffs, who has been a guest on the Keith Law Show, follows up her latest album of covers The Deep End with this ‘lost’ cover of a 1999 Shawn Colvin track, and it probably belonged on the record because it’s an excellent showcase for her voice.

Lauren Mayberry – Are You Awake? Another Keith Law Show guest, Mayberry released her first solo single early last month and then embarked on a small tour (no Philly show, alas). This is a mournful piano ballad, which is fine but I don’t think is the best vehicle for her voice. I’m hoping we get some more diverse tracks as she releases more material.

Sampha – Only. It’s funny; when Sampha won the 2017 Mercury Prize for Process, I listened to the album and thought it was just okay, with some interesting vocals but nothing all that award-worthy. Since then, the album has grown on me and I’ve loved the two singles so far ahead of his sophomore album Lahai, due out on October 20^th.

Romy – She’s on My Mind. Romy Madley Croft of the xx just released her debut solo album Mid Air in September to wide critical acclaim, although I think it’s just a good dance-pop record. “She’s on my mind but I wish she was under me” is one of the lines of the year, though.

flowerovlove – Next Best Exit. flowerovlove is an 18-year-old musician/singer and model from London who produces bedroom pop, here with a great hook and a sound that feels full despite fairly sparse arrangements. She’s released an EP and a few singles so far but this was my first encounter with her music.

Baby Queen – Quarter Life Crisis. This South African singer announced last month that the release of her debut album, also called Quarter Life Crisis, will be pushed back to November 10^th. It’s indie-pop with a snarky edge to the lyrics, although I think the words to this particular track are more hackneyed than some of her previous songs – it’s not that novel to hit age 25 and wonder about the direction of your life.

Corinne Bailey Rae – Erasure. I loved Bailey Rae’s first big single, “Put Your Records On,” but lost track of her music after her second album, The Sea, which came after the accidental death of her husband from an overdose of methadone and alcohol in 2008. She recorded just one more album, in 2016, and didn’t release any more music until this year, with the September release of her fourth album, Black Rainbows, a massive departure from her previous work. It’s a loose concept album inspired in large part by artifacts she saw at the Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago, which holds a large collection of “African and African-diaspora materials,” and sees Bailey Rae working through genres she’s never touched before, even flirting with punk-tinged metal, and blending them into a weirdly cohesive whole. I think it’s going to be one of the most acclaimed albums of the year and it’s certainly one of the most interesting and ambitious, which makes it hard to pick any one song to represent it on a playlist.

James BKS feat. Angélique Kidjo & Nomcebo Zikode – Best We Can. James BKS released his second album, Wolves of Africa Part 2, in September, and the top track is this collaboration with legendary Beninese singer Angélique Kidjo, winner of five Grammy Awards, and South African singer Zikode, who also won a Grammy in 2020. James BKS was briefly signed to Idris Elba’s record label but went on his own after a few singles, and both of his albums blend the music of his native Cameroon with broader Afrobeat sounds and some elements of African hip-hop.

The Kills – God Games. This noise/indie-pop duo is set to release their first album since 2016 on October 27^th with God Games, which is their first new material of any sort since the 2018 single “List of Demands (Reparations).” I’ll always be partial to “Sour Cherry” from 2008’s Midnight Boom but the first three singles from this album are all pretty solid.

The Drums – Isolette. The chorus to this song has to be the earworm of the month, for better or worse. Good luck getting it out of your head. The sixth album from this solo project of Jonathan Pierce, Jonny, drops on October 13^th.

Soft Science – Stuck. The fourth album from this California post-shoegaze band, titled Lines, came out last month, and there’s a lot of early Lush or Slowdive to their sound. Their debut album Maps made my top ten of 2018. I wasn’t a shoegaze fan when the genre first emerged in the early 1990s, but got more into it when file-sharing opened a whole world of new tracks to me at the end of that decade, and it’s only grown on me since.

Pastel – Your Day. Credit to MLB.com’s Matthew Leach for posting about Pastel on social media, which is how I found them. This is the sound I loved from the DMA’s on their first two albums or even on some early Arctic Monkeys tracks – big, anthemic rock that isn’t afraid to be a little bombastic.

SPRINTS – Up and Comer. This Irish punk act announced that their second album, Letter to Self, will arrive on January 5^th, with this (I presume) third single off the record my favorite so far.

Van William – Getaway Car. Another former podcast guest of mine, this one going back to my ESPN days, William is also the lead singer/guitarist for the band Waters, although he’s only released music as a solo artist since 2015. This is his first new track of any sort since 2018 and definitely more in line with his EP The Revolution than his work with Waters or Port O’Brien.

Del Water Gap – Quilt of Steam. Del Water Gap is Holden Jaffe, and I have to credit my daughter here, as she introduced me to his music. This catchy indie/dream-pop single comes off his second album, I Miss You Already + I Haven’t Left Yet, which came out on September 29^th.

Cory Wong feat. Brasstracks – Flamingo. Wong’s latest album The Lucky One is just a blast, a fun ride through various funk, jazz, and pop styles with a great roster of guest artists. “Call Me Wild” is still my favorite track from the LP but this instrumental might be the runner-up.

Kojaque feat. Biig Piig – WOOF. Kojaque is an Irish rapper who teams up with the Irish singer Jessica Smyth, aka Biig Piig, which is how I ended up finding this track; her vocals and the ‘80s R&B music are the highlights here, more so than his rhymes.

Sundara Karma – Wishing Well. Very glad to have this British band, who are very much descendants of U2 and similar to Australia’s Gang of Youths, back on the scene, even with a song as melancholy as this one. Their newest album Better Luck Next Time drops on October 27^th.

milk. – I Think I Lost My Number Can I Have Yours? This Dublin band delivers despite the ridiculous pickup line in the song’s title, with great harmonies in the chorus and a lush pop sound. They’ve released about a dozen singles over the last four-plus years, but there appears to be an album called London in the offing.

Roosevelt – Fall Right In. I was fairly sure I’d had a Roosevelt track on a previous playlist, but I appear to have misremembered, or just confused him with another artist. He’s a German synth-pop artist with some strong new wave influences, and this track especially reminds me of one of my favorite albums of this century, St. Lucia’s When the Night.

Bombino – Alwane. Omara Moctar, who records as Bombino, is a Tuareg singer/guitarist from Niger and a political activist, no relation to the great Tuareg guitarist Mdou Moctar but working in a similar genre with less Western influence to his music. Bombino’s latest album Sahel came out last month, shortly after his family was evacuated from Niger’s capital Niamey during the military coup there.

Geese – Jesse. The Brooklyn indie quintet followed up their sophomore album 3D Country with an EP called 4D Country that includes tracks from the same sessions, including this single, which very much fits with the same faux-country post-punk vibe of the album.

Anxious – Down, Down. The first new single from this Connecticut emo band since last year’s Little Green House, which was one of my top 22 albums of 2022, finds the quintet mining similar musical territory, with the same contrast between sung and screamed lyrics, with highly melodic guitarwork behind the vocals.

Royal Blood – Shiner in the Dark. This duo’s fourth album, Stuck in the Water Below, finds them … stuck in neutral, really. The album has garnered mostly positive reviews, but I think it’s their least inventive and least compelling record to date, with nothing like “Out of the Black” or “Lights Out” anywhere on the album. This track is probably the best one, but it’s weirdly poppy for a band whose best moments were grounded in hard rock – as bassist/vocalist Mike Kerr will gladly tell you.

Ratboys – Making Noise for the Ones You Love. Singer Julia Steiner sounds a lot like Waxahatchee, which I mean as a compliment, while this thumping track harkens back to some early Arcade Fire and has less of the alt-country trappings of a lot of Ratboys’ other songs.

Rival Sons – Sweet Life. If you like Greta Van Fleet, and I don’t really know why you would, Rival Sons does it better, without trying so hard to sound like Led Zeppelin.

Wheel – Blood Drinker (Instrumental). This Anglo-Finnish progressive metal group put out a three-track EP called Rumination last November, and just released instrumental versions of the same three songs last month. I prefer this with the vocals, but I also find Wheel to be one of the most interesting metal acts recording right now so I appreciate the instrumental versions.

Frankie and the Witch Fingers – Empire. This group is new to me but they’ve been around for ten years, with their seventh album, Data Doom, dropping on September 1^st. This track has a heavy King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard vibe, from the psychedelic rock aspects to the massive tonal and stylistic shifts through the song’s seven minutes.