August rallied late to produce enough good new tracks that I ended up cutting a few from the final playlist. There were also some fairly high-profile and/or well-reviewed albums, including the Killers’ Imploding the Mirage, Samia’s The Baby, Bully’s SUGAREGG, Young Jesus’ experimental jazz/rock Welcome to Conceptual Beach, Angel Olsen’s Whole New Mess, Bright Eyes’ oh I don’t care what it’s called. I liked the Killers album, and sort of like the Young Jesus album even if I don’t fully appreciate what they’re doing, and could do without the others. Anyway, here’s my playlist for August; you can access it here if you can’t see the Spotify widget below.
Anderson .Paak – Lockdown. Therehave beenway too many songs about the lockdown, and most of them suck. This one doesn’t.
clipping. – Say the Name. That’s Daveed Diggs of Hamilton and Blindspotting, along with a pair of producers, and I’m a bit ashamed to admit that I didn’t know of this trio’s existence until a few months ago. Diggs is a clever wordsmith whose laconic style calls back to Guru and Kool G Rap. clipping.’s fourth full-length album, Visions of Bodies Being Burned, which takes its title from the sample that opens this song, is due out on October 23rd.
Lupin – May. Lupin is Jake Luppen of the inoffensive alternative band Hippo Campus, but apparently he’s been hiding his inner Neon Indian, at least based on this single from his forthcoming debut solo album, which has an incredibly funky drum machine loop and a bass line to match. No word on whether he’ll hold any concerts during a full moon.
The Naked & Famous – Monument. TNAF’s new album Recover dropped on August 8th and it’s their best and most complete LP yet, with several standout tracks including this one (which showcases Alisa Xayalith’s vocals particularly well), “Death,” “Recover,” “Easy,” and “Sunseeker.”
Space Above featuring Alisa Xayalith – Stolen Days. Xayalith also lends her vocals to her former bandmate Aaron Short, who records as Space Above and just put out a new 7-song EP Glow the same day TNAF released their own record. Maddie North, who records as So Below and has recorded with Space Above, even put out a new single, “Fear,” that same week.
Arlo Parks – Hurt. Parks just turned 20 last month but she’s the most interesting, dynamic new voice I’ve heard all year. This new single combines distinct soul and funk elements with her hypnotic vocals, the gentle nature of which belies the depth of emotion beneath them.
Killers – Dying Breed. Brandon Flowers and company returned with Imploding the Mirage, which took me by surprise as someone who was never a huge fan of their work. The record doesn’t take any huge risks, but also has quite a few strong pop melodies and immaculate production, led by this, the fourth single off the record, as well as “Caution” (with a guitar solo from Lindsey Buckingham!) and “Blowback.”
Doves – Cathedrals of the Mind. A new Doves song is pretty much an automatic inclusion on my playlists, but this isn’t quite what I was hoping to hear from the trio for a single from their comeback album The Universal Want, due out on September 20th, lacking the immediacy or the strong melodies that marked their peak output.
London Grammar – Baby It’s You. I was reasonably sure I’d listed another London Grammar song on a past playlist, but I seem to have made that up. They’re quite popular in the UK, with a #1 album in 2017’s Truth is a Beautiful Thing; I’m surprised how often commercial or critical success in other Anglophone countries can fail to translate into any notice here in the U.S. We can be xenophobic in music, too.
Lucius – Man in My Radio. This Brooklyn indie quartet can be strange, and pretentious, but Lucius seems good for one absolute banger a year, and this one-off single definitely qualifies.
BLOXX – Coming Up Short. This Uxbridge quartet have toured with the Wombats and just released their debut album Lie Out Loud, featuring this very hooky indie-pop track.
Yard Act – Fixer Upper. These guys are post-punk in the Gang of Four/Wire sense, and take it a step further with spoken-word lyrics about suburban real estate. I swear it’s not deliberate that this month’s playlist skews so heavily towards the UK.
Fontaines D.C. – I Was Not Born. These heralded Irish punks made my top 100 of last year with “Too Real,” but their singles prior to this one had missed that song’s hook, lacking something to counter the abrasiveness of their music. They’ve found the balance again here with a more melodic guitar line without sacrificing any of their signature sneering.
Ihsahn & Einar Solberg – Manhattan Skyline. So, this is the lead singer/guitarist of the infamous black metal band Emperor, perhaps better known for their support of arsons of old churches in Norway in the 1990s and their drummer’s conviction for murdering a gay man who he thought made a pass at him than for their actual music; and the lead singer and keyboardist for Norwegian prog metal band Leprous. And they’re covering a minor single from a-ha’s second album.
Gojira – Another World. This French heavy metal outfit’s 2016 release Magma was named the best metal album of the decade in a poll of musicians by MetalSucks.net and even earned two Grammy nominations. They’re often called “death metal” but they don’t have that genre’s blast beats, and the vocals here are more shouted than growled or screamed, although if you think this is a distinction without a difference I won’t press the point. Anyway, the guitar riff here is outstanding, rivaling the riff that opens “Stranded” from Magma.
Carcass – The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue. The greatest death-metal band in history will release an EP of new material, Despicable, on October 30th, featuring this brutal six-minute track that goes through what feels like a half-dozen different movements, some of which I could do without but others feature some of the incredible guitar work that has made me a fan of theirs since Heartwork.