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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 3rd, 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 3rd, 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 24th, 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 3rd, 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 26th.

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 3rd.

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 3rd 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 17th, 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.

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→ December 5, 2023
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Music update, November 2023.

November is usually the last big month for new music, and this year’s didn’t disappoint, between some of the year’s best albums and a lot of songs teasing 2024 releases. This month’s playlist probably has the most genres of any I’ve posted, which I think speaks to how strong the month was for new tracks. As always, if you can’t see the Spotify widget below you can access the playlist here.

Billy Porter – Children. Billy Porter’s a Broadway superstar and an Emmy winner for his portrayal of Pray Tell on the groundbreaking show Pose, but his fifth album, Black Mona Lisa, is his first full-length foray into any part of popular music – and it’s a blast. This track is my favorite so far for the incredible earworm in the chorus, “Gotta let these children know what time it is,” but so much of the album is so ebullient that even when Porter’s lyrics turn serious you’re still glued to the music. The LP closes with another version of this song that also features Lady Blackbird.

Megan Thee Stallion – Cobra. The lead single from her upcoming third album has MTS rapping about depression, betrayal, and the hangers-on who didn’t seem to care or notice when she was struggling. It also concludes with a brief guitar solo that’s one of the best of the year. Just listen for that one half-note change in the riff and hear how it changes the entire tenor of the solo.

Consensus feat. Moses Boyd – Out of this World. Consensus is a British rapper who’s obsessed with physics, especially particle physics; his 2017 debut album, ConCERNED, was inspired by a trip to the CERN laboratory on the Swiss-French border, with songs like “Antimatter,” “Higgs,” and “Standard Model.” His second album, Original Conscience, is more inspired by the origins of the universe and its lyrics are a little more metaphorical, although he does have a track about the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment just called “D.U.N.E. (Deep Underground).” This track includes the incredible jazz drummer Moses Boyd, giving it the best beat on the record.

BEAM – FU. A cover, sort of, of “True Fu-Schnick” – BEAM, a Jamaican-American rapper, loved the fast-rap style of The Fu-Schnickens, and here drops new verses over the same beat along with the original chorus. It’s part of an upcoming EP to celebrate hip-hop’s 50th anniversary where artists will reimagine tracks from rap’s golden era.

Brittany Howard – Red Flags. Two singles in and I can’t wait for Howard’s sophomore album, What Now, due out on February 2nd. This track is all over the place, from psychedelic rock to gospel to electronica, all anchored by Howard’s powerful vocals.

CVC – The Remortgage Anthem. This Welsh band reworked their own track “The Mortgage Anthem” with a disco influence and a hint of ‘70s funk, and it works extremely well for an upbeat working-class anthem that gets you moving while the anticapitalist lyrics seep into your head.

Egyptian Blue – A Living Commodity. The title track from this English post-punk band’s debut album is both one of the LP’s best and also shows that they’re a good bit more than the post-punk label might apply, combining some of the abrasiveness of early Gang of Four or Television with very early new wave sounds like U2 circa Boy or October. They’re definitely a band to watch.

Weakened Friends – Awkward. I absolutely thought this was Sleater-Kinney or at least Corin Tucker when I first heard it, but it’s this Maine trio, with their first new single since 2021’s Quitter. It’s probably more like Sleater-Kinney meets jangle-pop, now that I know who’s actually behind the track.

Cloud Nothings – Final Summer. This was Cloud Nothings’ first new track since their EP titled July 2021, the release date of which I’ll let you work out, and their first for Pure Noise Records, so I presume it’s a harbinger of a new album at some point next year. Their production values have improved over time but their sound really hasn’t changed and I for one am very happy with that.

Peace – Happy Cars. Peace have been around for over a decade, so I’m a bit ashamed to admit this was the first track I’d ever heard from the band, who are now a duo after releasing three albums as a quartet. Their fourth record, Utopia, got a full release in November and features this shimmering Britpop-like track that reminded me a ton of the ‘90s act Geneva.

Heartworms – May I Comply. Heartworms is Jojo Orme, although it’s more than just a one-woman show here – it’s a whole character, named for The Shins’ 2017 album, replete with military imagery and gothic styling, melding post-punk, hard rock, and darkwave.

Pip Blom – Not Tonight. A Dutch pop band who first came to my attention with their collaboration with Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos, “Is This Love,” Pip Blom have another banger here with this bouncy pop-rock track with what seem to be nonsense lyrics. (At least, I hope they are.)

Kid Kapichi – Tamagotchi. I’m not a big fan of rock singers trying to rap, and I don’t think it goes especially well here, but there’s a great guitar riff here and both the bridge and chorus – which have actual singing – are up to the high Kid Kapichi standard, so I’ll tolerate a little cringe to get to it.

Courting – Throw. Courting’s second album, New Last Name, comes out January 26th, and based on the first two singles (this and “Flex”) it’ll be more guitar-focused but every bit as raucous.

Momma – Sunday. Momma and Narrow Head, a post-hardcore band from Texas, trade covers on this split single, with Momma covering Narrow Head’s “Sunday” while Narrow Head took on Momma’s “Medicine.” I’m not wild about Narrow Head’s vocals, so I prefer Momma’s versions of both songs.

Suede – The Sadness in You, the Sadness in Me. Suede (yes, the London Suede, sue me) are planning a massive deluxe edition of last year’s LP Autofiction, including this track, which really should have been on the record because it’s pretty much peak Suede for me. The song also previously appeared on the 2022 EP She Still Leads Me On, which was only available for a week, so don’t feel bad if you missed it.

flowerovlove – a girl like me. flowerovlove might be the next Griff, who first burst on the scene as a teenager with a sophisticated take on modern pop music. flowerovlove’s sound is different, a little more light with vocals that recall beabadoobee (and who also eschews capitalization), but with the same sense of “how does someone so young have such a strong grasp on pop history?”

Sampha – Suspended. Lahai, Sampha’s sophomore album, is one of the best new records of the year and I think a step forward from his Mercury Prize-winning debut, with lusher arrangements and better use of his unique higher-register voice.

NIJI – Somewhere in the Middle. The title track from Niji Adeleye’s new EP, his first under the NIJI moniker, is a piano-and-horns jazz piece with a strong hook from the brass section, while the EP as a whole has more influence from the music of Nigeria, where his parents were born.

Arlo Parks – Jasmine. The deluxe edition of Parks’ sophomore album My Soft Machine includes this cover of Jai Paul’s obscure but highly influential single “Jasmine,” starting out with a sparse arrangement of mostly synths and drum machine but building to a layered finish that brings in more guitar and bass while staying authentic to the original’s soft, reverbed vocals. Apparently Jai Paul even gave his approval to the cover.

Mary Timony – Dominoes. Timony, the lead singer and guitarist for Helium back in the 1990s and Ex Hex in the 2010s, returns with her first solo album in 15 years, Untame the Tiger, due out February 23rd. This lead single has none of the dissonance or harder edges from her prior work, but don’t we all mellow out as we get older?

Brigitte Calls Me Baby – Impressively Average. This Chicago band’s music would sound like a lot of other alternative acts if singer/songwriter Wes Leavins didn’t have such a distinctive vocal style, which I’ve seen compared to Morrissey, Roy Orbison, and Elvis by various critics. His voice has a real personality, and it’s definitely something you don’t hear much in any genre of music right now; in an earlier era he would have been a crooner, and maybe that’ll be his second act in twenty years. This is the best track from the band’s latest EP, This House Is Made of Corners.

Vince Clarke – White Rabbit. Yep, that Vince Clarke, of Erasure and previously of Depeche Mode and Yaz, releasing his first solo album at age 63. It’s not a synth-pop record, as you might expect, but an experimental electronic one, with each track focused around a single note, often held through the entire song. I would have expected such music to sound monotonous, but “White Rabbit” is anything but – it’s a whole soundscape, with shifting moods and tones that are only held together by that slender core of the original tone.

Floating Points – Birth4000. Dr. Samuel Shepherd returns to his EDM roots after the 2021 album Promises, recorded with saxophonist Pharaoh Sanders not long before the latter died at age 81. This track has a slow build before the main hook comes in around the one-minute mark, and Shepherd layers his sounds beautifully for an immersive track that’s as accessible as anything he’s done.

Sen Morimoto – If the Answer Isn’t Love. Morimoto’s some sort of musical genius, I think, with music that ignores all attempts to categorize it (you could call it jazz, but that’s neither fair to Morimoto or actual jazz) … but I also don’t hear a lot of hooks on his album Diagnosis. This was the most compelling track and I think shows off what he does well as a songwriter and guitarist in particular.

SPRINTS – Shadow of a Doubt. SPRINTS put out an EP in November that includes this track, “Up and Comer,” and “Adore Adore Adore,” the last two of which have appeared on my playlists already this year. “Shadow” actually starts out slow and quiet, but you can hear the tension in Karla Chubb’s vocals, and you know the explosion of punk guitars is just around the bend. When it arrives, it flips the whole track upside down.

Sheer Mag – Playing Favorites. I actually thought Sheer Mag might have called it quits, as they hadn’t released any new music since 2019’s A Distant Call, but they put out a new track in August and then this one, the title track from their upcoming album due out March 1st, which sounds like this punk revival band never left us at all.

Wayfarer – Reaper on the Oilfields. Wayfarer combines death-doom with traditional country music sounds – not modern country, but country music from 70+ years ago – in a sound I have never heard anywhere before. Encyclopedia Metallum calls it “atmospheric black/folk metal,” and, sure, that works too. Their latest album, American Gothic, would easily be my metal album of the year if they didn’t resort so often to deep, guttural death growls that too often overshadow the fascinating musical blend that makes them unique. This track has very little of that, so perhaps you can better appreciate what they’re doing without that distraction.

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→ October 31, 2023
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Music update, October 2023.

It’s weird – ten days ago this list was horribly short, maybe nine songs, and not for a lack of effort, but the last Friday of the month brought a torrent of new stuff, and suddenly the list was approaching 35 tracks. I settled on 31, which you can see below or find here if the Spotify widget doesn’t work for you.

Brittany Howard – What Now. Howard was the lead singer/guitarist for the Alabama Shakes, then released a solo album when they broke up, winning a Grammy for the track “Stay High” and taking six other nominations. I’ll take this over any song from her debut album Jaime, though. This thing fucking rocks, and also it funking rocks, like she slipped her hand through a wormhole and pulled this out of 1978.

The Libertines – Run Run Run. Apparently Pete Doherty has been clean for nearly four years now, which has the side benefit of giving us new Libertines music, with this song teasing the March release of their fourth album and first in nine years, All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade. It’s a touch melodic for the louche lads, but hey, we all get a little softer in our old age, innit?

Creeper – Sacred Blasphemy. Creeper had my #2 album of 2020 with Sex, Death, and the Infinite Void, anover-the-top mélange of glam rock, post-punk, new wave, and even some metal, and their follow-up, Sanguivore, is even more ambitious and experimental, the sort of album I’m going to have sit with and listen to several times to fully digest. I don’t know if it’ll match the prior one for me, but I always respect artists trying to push out of their comfort zones, even if it doesn’t work (with at least one track here where it definitely doesn’t).

The Joy Formidable – Share My Heat. The full-length version of this song is 15 minutes, so I give you the radio edit instead, which has the pounding guitar riff that makes this my favorite song yet from this Welsh rock trio. It’s the third new song this year from them, so I imagine a follow-up to 2021’s Into the Blue is in the offing.

Yard Act – Dream Job. Yard Act’s debut album was one of my favorites of 2022, coming in at #3 on the year, and they’re back with the first single from their next album, Where’s My Utopia?, which is due out on March 1st. It’s got the same sly vocals, sardonic lyrics, and post-punk stylings, but this time with more of a late 70s disco feel.

Bob Vylan – He’s a Man. “Just another day in the life of a big dumb man.” This duo, who blend punk, grime, and hip-hop, among other genres, have such a great knack for satire, as on this send-up of toxic masculinity and the Tory-voting couch potato.

STONE – Am I Even a Man. Last year’s EP punkadonk didn’t slow down these British neo-punks, who’ve continued churning out singles that adhere to their core punk ethos while expanding their horizons just a little – enough to make them more than just punk revivalists, at least.

Egyptian Blue – To Be Felt. I’m a sucker for British post-punk bands, clearly, so here’s another one; Egyptian Blue have been around for almost a decade but just released their debut album, A Living Commodity, this past month, which is when they crossed my radar. They keep it to straightforward post-punk, rather than trying to do too uch to stand out, which I appreciate as someone who’s a fan of the original genre from the early 1980s (although, to be honest, I came to it later).

English Teacher – Nearly Daffodils. There’s a debut album coming … soon, it sounds like, from this Leeds quartet of post-punk upstarts, with this the second single teasing it after “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab.”

Folly Group – Big Ground. This London quartet sounds a lot like early Everything Everything to me in the best possible way, perhaps with less production but the same chaotic energy.

milk. – London. This is the title track from the Dublin indie-pop band’s latest EP, a four-track affair that also has the great “I Think I Lost My Number Can I Have Yours?” It’s pretty sleek and catchy, definitely not the sound I associate with Dublin or Ireland’s rock scenes.

Griff – Into the Walls. More sultry, sophisticated pop from the 22-year-old Sarah Griffiths, who just released a three-track EP called vert1go vol. 1. She toured with Dua Lipa in 2022, and Taylor Swift bumped Griff’s previous single “Vertigo,” so I’m expecting her to break out in a huge way very soon.

Girl Ray – Hurt So Bad. This song actually predates their 2023 album Prestige but ended up missing the cut for the album, so this British electro-pop trio released it as a one-off single this month. It’s a great example of their general sound and ability to craft a great synth hook.

Sampha – Suspended. Lahai, Sampha’s long-awaited follow-up to his Mercury Prize-winning debut from 2017 just dropped to very positive reviews, featuring this track, “Spirit 2.0,” and “Only.”

Black Pumas – More than a Love Song. Black Pumas earned a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist for their 2019 debut album Black Pumas; I enjoyed their psychedelic soul sound but thought the album lacked strong hooks. This song, from their just-released second album Chronicles of a Diamond, has two giant hooks, the vocals in the chorus and the fuzzed-out guitar riff that follows it, and has me far more interested in their new album than I was two weeks ago.

NIJI & Moses Boyd – Sounds of the City. This is the debut single from Niji Adeleye, a jazz pianist from London who has played in Harry Styles’s backing band, with help from the superstar jazz drummer Moses Boyd. This track has no lyrics but his second single, “Love Will Find It’s [sic] Way,” does have vocals from Adeleye.

Uriel Herman – MJ. Herman is an Israeli jazz pianist who just released his fourth album, Different Eyes, which also includes a cover of Nirvana’s “Polly” that I found unrecognizable – not in a negative way, just in that it sounds nothing like the original. Neither did his earlier covers of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World,” though, so this is just how he rolls.

HEALTH – Ashamed. This LA-based noise-rock trio’s seventh album, Rat Wars, is due out on December 7th, and the video for this track – which has the subtitle “(Of Being Born)” there but not on streaming sites – was partially filmed at the DragonCon science fiction, fantasy, and gaming convention in Atlanta, which is awesome.

Black Honey – Lemonade. Black Honey skillfully melds power pop with the trashier sounds of bands that have tried to subvert indie’s pop leanings, like the Pixies and Modest Mouse, but somehow also sound like early Smashing Pumpkins. I’ve liked almost everything they’ve ever released, to varying degrees, and this stand-alone track is up there.

Charly Bliss – I Need a New Boyfriend. Not quite as good as “You Don’t Even Know Me Anymore,” but I’ll take this to mean that this power-pop band’s third album, and first since 2019, is coming soon. Their guitarist, Spencer Fox, voiced Dash in the original The Incredibles.

TORRES – Collect. Mackenzie Scott’s sixth album, What an Enormous Room, is due out in January; I admit I’ve been pretty lukewarm on their music to date, but this song has a different vibe for me, darker, grimier, almost a little angry.

Sundara Karma – Better Luck Next Time. This British band’s third album is barely long enough to qualify, just nine songs and 30 minutes, but they do deliver the goods again – to me they’ll probably always sound like descendants of U2. They’re certainly better than whatever that Irish band is producing right now.

A. Savage – David’s Dead. That’s Andrew Savage, lead singer/guitarist of Parquet Courts, in case the voice wasn’t a giveaway. His second solo album, Several Songs About Fire, features this track and “Elvis in the Army,” with his jangle-pop style and laconic vocals on full display.

Slow Pulp – MUD. Yard was a mixed bag for me, maybe more towards the side of ‘disappointing,’ although I suppose my complaint that the songs are kind of sluggish would be an example of me forgetting to read the label. Anyway, I do like the way the big guitars come in on the chorus here, very ‘90s alt-rock while giving some texture to a languorous track.

Everything Everything – Cold Reactor. EE announced their seventh album, Mountainhead, will arrive on March 1st; this lead single has a lot of Jonathan Higgs’s acrobatic vocals, but I was hoping for some more madness in the music.

Shed Seven feat. Rowetta – In Ecstasy. So I had no idea Shed Seven were still together, although the minor Britpop band re-formed in 2007 for live shows and eventually put out a proper album in 2017. Their sixth album, A Matter of Time, is due out some time next year. If you don’t remember them from their ‘90s heyday, check out “Dolphin” and “Getting Better.” Rowetta, by the way, was a member of the Happy Mondays for their peak years, and appeared as herself in 24 Hour Party People.

Wild Nothing – Dial Tone. This sounds like every other Wild Nothing song, which is to say it’s good, but Jack Tatum is kind of stuck in neutral here. At least he’s not ripping off Talk Talk songs any more.

Slate – St. Agatha. Another Welsh band, this Cardiff act sounds like Fontaines D.C. suddenly fell in love with classic shoegaze. This is just their second single so far, so I’m basing this on a pretty small sample.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Chang’e. Rocco Baldelli’s second-favorite band (after Phish, I hear) released a double album of sorts this month. The Silver Cord has seven tracks of restrained length, all between 3:24 and 4:40, and then “extended mixes” of those same songs, ranging from 10:18 to 20:41. I prefer the short versions myself.

Tortuga – Lilith. A stoner metal band from Poland? Sure. The band just released their third album, Iterations, on Friday, but this track is the first I’ve heard from them. There’s some definite influence from the New Orleans sludge-metal school as well as classic stoner metal sounds like Kyuss and Sleep.

Wayfarer – A High Plains Eulogy. The new Wayfarer album, American Gothic, is an incredible work of technical death metal, although I found the growled vocals too much to take. This track has clean vocals, so you can appreciate the intricate fretwork without the distraction of a Cookie Monster imitator.

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→ April 1, 2021
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Music update, March 2021.

What a loaded month for new tracks; maybe the possibility of tours later this year has encouraged artists to put out more new music, or maybe it’s a backlog of songs recorded during the long winter, but either way, this is one of my longest new music playlists ever, with 25 songs and over 100 minutes of music even after I made some cuts. You can access the Spotify playlist here if you can’t see the widget below.

The Lottery Winners featuring the Wonderstuff – Bang. The Wonderstuff’s “Circlesquare” is one of those songs I forget from time to time, only to have something bring it back the front of my memories and remind me of how much I like it. I wasn’t aware they were still active as a group, but they toured with then-rookies The Lottery Winners in 2016, which I assume led to this joint effort that I think is my favorite LW track so far. It’s indie-pop with a rough undertone in the lyrics, just like “Circlesquare.”

YONAKA – Ordinary. The Brighton quartet’s second new single of the year, “Ordinary” might be their best song so far, and I assume this self-produced track heralds a sophomore album at some point this year.

FKA twigs feat. Headie One – Don’t Judge Me. Headie One’s 2020 mixtape GANG had a two-minute song called “Judge Me (Interlude)” that featured FKA twigs on vocals, but it was truly an interlude, hardly a finished product. This, however, is a real song, with twigs elevated to lead status, or at least co-lead with Headie One, and how could you avoid interpreting the lyrics in an entirely new light after what she has gone through in the last six months? Her last album, MAGDALENE, was outstanding, one of my favorites of 2019, and I get the sense whatever she does next is going to top that.

Jungle – Keep Moving. Jungle put two songs on my ranking of the top 100 tracks of the 2010s, “Busy Earnin” (#64) and “Happy Man” (#11), one from each of their first two albums, both heavily influenced by 1970s soul, R&B, and funk. This lead single from their third album Loving in Stereo, due out August 13th, moves forward a few years in the past to the early years of disco, with a great hook but perhaps not the high ceiling of their best songs to date because it’s lost some of the harder edges.

Ghost of Vroom – I Hear the Axe Swinging. I was hopeful that Mike Doughty’s new project would bring back some of that long-lost Soul Coughing vibe after a promising EP last summer, and I think this new single, from the group’s full-length album Ghost of Vroom 1, delivers on that promise, from Doughty’s half-sung, half-spoken word vocals to a drum-and-bass backdrop. The whole album is made of the same stuff, although I think Doughty is more front-and-center than he was on Soul Coughing’s first two albums.

The Horrors – Lout. The Horrors came on the scene in 2006 with the arty, dissonant single “Sheena is a Parasite,” went more mainstream with their stellar album Skying in 2011, and continued evolving in an even tamer direction after that, so their new three-song EP, also called Lout, is a surprise and a callback to their mid-aughts sound, with this title track the most accessible on the record.

NewDad – Slowly. This new Irish quartet is the latest in a sudden surge of shoegaze bands from that country, a quarter-century after the original shoegaze movement peaked in England, although this new wave is often more pop-accessible, as on NewDad’s sixth single, off their new EP Waves.

Japanese Breakfast – Be Sweet. “Be Sweet” is one of the most-lauded tracks of the month as far as I can see, thanks to a big hook in the chorus and a sunny, poppy sounds that should really cross over to mainstream pop radio.

BLOXX – Everything I’ve Ever Learned. I enjoyed this West London group’s debut album Lie Out Loud, including the title track and “Coming Up Short,” comparing it to California indie pop, and that’s still here on this new single, which is a little more mature and layered without losing any of their knack for a strong melody.

Sprints – Ashley. Sprints, like BLOXX, appeared on my top 100 songs of 2021, and they’re back now with another punk-influenced banger, although here the Irish quartet bring more rock/pop elements to their formula for a song that’s less indignant but still rocks, building to a powerful chorus, with lyrics that might take a little from “Every Breath You Take.”

Everything Everything – SUPERNORMAL. These art-rockers released this leftover track from their RE-ANIMATOR recording sessions, and I kind of wish it had made the record – this is the kind of frenetic music at which they excel, and which first drew my attention nearly a decade ago with songs like “Cough Cough” and “Kemosabe.”

Jorja Smith – Addicted. Still waiting for word on a second album from Smith, who has still been busy, including this stunning single and, as I recently learned, a contribution to the soundtrack of Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon.

Sons of Kemet feat. Kojey Radical & Lianne La Havas – Hustle. This British jazz ensemble brings in elements of Afrobeat, Caribbean music, classical, and here rap courtesy of Kojey Radical. Sons of Kemet were shortlisted for the 2018 Mercury Prize for their last album, Your Queen is a Reptile, and their follow-up, Black to the Future, will be out on May 14th.

Daniel Casimir, Moses Boyd, et al – Safe (Part One). Because I’ve listened so much to Dark Matter, the 2020 debut album from jazz drummer Moses Boyd, I’ve discovered numerous other tracks on which he’s played, songs I would never have found otherwise because I don’t really know jazz well at all. Casimir is the lead artist here, a bassist and bandleader who put out his first full-length album (with Tess Hirst) in 2019 and has returned here with his longest song yet, this seven-minute opus that my limited jazz knowledge tells me bears a strong influence from John Coltrane.

DREAMERS, Big Boi, UPSAHL – Palm Reader. You might remember DREAMERS’ 2014 alternative radio hit “Wolves” or 2016’s “Sweet Disaster,” both perfectly cromulent songs, but this track expands their sound and is far more memorable for the contributions of Big Boi and the young singer UPSAHL. Just a reminder that palm reading is not a thing.

James – All the Colours of You. James’ peak output from 1989-1999, from “Sit Down” to Millionaires, should be up there in the pantheon of music in that era alongside the Oasises and the Blurs and other purveyors of smart rock/pop, but for whatever reason they’re just not remembered that way, and their music since the turn of the century has usually left me disappointed. This isn’t the next “I Know What I’m Here For,” but it’s good to hear James turn the tempo back up and bang the drums again.

TEKE::TEKE – Meikyu. Named for a Japanese urban legend about a vengeful spirit, this seven-piece, Montréal-based, Japanese band, incorporates traditional instruments into 1960s rock that sounds like the score to an early spy movie or a James Bond thriller. Their new EP Yoru Ni features two standout songs, this one and the title track.

Black Honey – Back of the Bar. This Brighton indie-pop band just released their second album, Written & Directed, which runs a scant 30 minutes but includes a bunch of catchy pop tracks, including this one, “Believer,” “Run for Cover,” and “Beaches.”

beabadoobee – Last Day on Earth. I do appreciate beabadoobee’s ’90s alternative radio sounds, but when she says “I’ve got something to say,” it just reminds me that she doesn’t seem to have anything to say. Her music isn’t catchy or compelling enough for me to overlook the lyrics yet, but she is a talented guitarist and songwriter, so she’s still a prospect with some upside.

Inhaler – Cheer Up Baby. Poor Elijah Hewson. The lead singer of Inhaler is never going to get away from comparisons to his father, Bono, because he sounds just like him whenever he extends his voice, as he does on the chorus here – but it’s a good song in its own right, and Inhaler doesn’t really sound like U2.

Royal Blood – Limbo. I’m not sure how I feel about this new single from Royal Blood, whose first single “Out of the Black” was my #1 song of 2014 and #13 of the decade, which is catchy and has that heavy bottom all their songs do (because Mike Kerr is playing a bass guitar with an octaver pedal, not a six-string), but it’s … dancy? Am I just thrown because this is a good song that is not what I think of a Royal Blood song? That bass riff at the end is pretty killer, though.

Death from Above 1979 – Modern Guy. “One + One” was the lead single from their new album, Is 4 Lovers, and I think my preferred single of these two, but I haven’t had a chance to dive into this album yet.

Wheel – Ascend. This Finnish prog-metal band has fast become one of my favorite artists in that niche, and their second album, Resident Human, has two standout shorter singles in this and “Fugue,” along with three songs that clock in beyond ten minutes, which I understand isn’t everyone’s taste.

Gojira – Amazonia. Is Gojira the best metal band in the world today? I’m inclined to say yes, especially since this is the third straight single they’ve released (“Born for One Thing” and “Another World”) that retains their trademark heaviness but strike a better balance between the not-quite-growled vocals and the showstopping music behind it.

Moonspell – The Hermit Saints. More gothic metal from these Portuguese stalwarts who seem like a throwback to heavy metal in the pre-death (pre-Death?) days.

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→ November 1, 2020
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Music update, October 2020.

October turned out to be a great month for new music, perhaps boosted by five Fridays (I feel like music analytics would have to adjust for that). I also think that the pandemic and inadequate responses by many developed nations have left musicians and labels at the point where they don’t feel like they can keep delaying releases – movie studios have a financial incentive to keep kicking the can down the road, but record labels don’t. So this month I have 24 songs on the playlist, with over 90 minutes of new music, running the full gamut of musical styles I like. You can access the playlist here if you can’t see the widget below.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Automation. Maybe the best guitar riff of the year. I don’t love everything King Gizzard does, but I’m always amazed by their musical shapeshifting. They can move from psychedelia to metal to blues rock and in between and still put out two albums a year.

Creeper – Annabelle. Creeper’s first album was a horror-themed punk record, but they’ve remade themselves on their sophomore album, Sex, Death & the Infinite Void, which is one of the best LPs of 2020, a mad, sprawling record that recalls Suede, the Killers, My Chemical Romance (in a good way), Americana, and elements of early 1980s post-punk/new wave. Some other standout tracks on the album include “Paradise,” “Cyanide,” and “Poisoned Heart,” but really the whole album is incredible.

HAERTS & Ed Droste – For the Sky. I don’t know if or when HAERTS will give us a new album – lead singer Nini Fabi just had a baby, which I’m sure impacts their timeline – but this one-off track with Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste is a lovely interlude to tide us over.

Peking Duk & the Wombats – Nothing to Love About Love. I wasn’t familiar with the Australian “mad rock” duo Peking Duk, but this came on my Release Radar because I’m a huge fan of the Wombats – and this sounds like a Wombats song remixed.

Battles, DJ Dairy, & DJ Orient – Stirling Bridge. Battles put out a call for artists interested in remixing tracks from their 2019 album Juice B Crypts, and the resulting EP will come out on November 20th. This track comes from two members of black midi, and it’s not a remix of any single song but a new creation from the raw tracks Battles recorded when making the original record.

Goodie Mob ft. Organized Noize – Frontline. Goodie Mob’s first album in seven years, Survival Kit, comes out on November 13th, with tracks featuring André 3000, Big Boi, and Chuck D. This single is an anthem for Black Lives Matter protesters, with prominent mention of the federal government’s use of tear gas on peaceful demonstrators. Cee-Lo also appeared on a new track from Big Boi and Killer Mike called “We the Ones,” which has great work from the two MCs but sluggish music and mailed-in vocals from Cee-Lo, who is a pretty terrible person anyway.

Tori Handsley ft. Ruth Goller and Moses Boyd – What’s in a Tune. Tori Handsley is a jazz harpist who’s been playing with other artists since at least 2010, but is just now releasing her first music under her own name, leading a trio that includes drummer/producer Moses Boyd (whose Dark Matter is one of my favorite albums of 2020). I heard this song before knowing anything about Handsley, and I assumed Handsley was playing a guitar via two-handed tapping, or maybe a Chapman stick, but she gets sounds and patterns from the harp that I don’t associate with that instrument.

Jorja Smith ft. Popcaan – Come Over. This new track from the Mercury-nominated English singer-songwriter Smith appears to be a prelude to a sophomore album, although it’s at least her third single since Lost & Found came out in 2018. It has a more obvious reggae influence than the last few tracks and includes a contribution from dancehall artist Popcaan, although I don’t think he brings much to the table.

Arlo Parks – Green Eyes. Parks’ debut album is finished, and due for a release early in 2021, but this is at least her fifteenth single to date, at least according to her artist page on Spotify. I’ve been late to this party but her voice is gorgeous and whatever you might call her style of music – it’s soulful but not really soul, folk-ish but definitely not folk – I’m here for it.

TRAAMS – Intercontinental Radio Waves. I hadn’t heard TRAAMS before this song, but they released two albums in 2013 and 2015, and a song in 2016, before going dark for the last four years. Wikipedia calls their early music “krautrock” and that’s certainly still evident here, with a flat vocal delivery over a pulsing electronic backdrop.

Slow Pulp – Track. Slow Pulp’s music is indeed slow, and atmospheric, although here they sound more like Slow Smashing Pumpkins (the intro is a lot like the chord pattern from “Today”) – with lyrics about the lead singer’s mother’s anxiety over getting Alzheimer’s disease, which runs in their family.

Artificial Pleasure – The Movement of Sound. Artificial Pleasure released their second album, A New Joy, on Friday, so I haven’t had a chance to crack it yet – we’re seeing a flood of new material this fall, which is great except that I’m never in the car to listen to music at long stretches like I used to do – but it includes this banging track as well as last year’s “Boys Grow Up,” this year’s “Lose Myself Again,” and both parts of “Into the Unknown” as a single song.

Hot Chip ft. Jarvis Cocker – Straight to the Morning. I think I take Hot Chip for granted, because their singles are consistently good, just rarely great on the level of “Over and Over” or “Huarache Lights.” This track includes former Pulp lead singer Jarvis Cocker, although he’s barely noticeable, and the melody is strong enough that the song doesn’t need any help.

Deep Sea Diver – Hurricane. Deep Sea Diver grew out of a solo project of that name by Jennifer Dobson, now the lead singer/guitarist/songwriter of a full four-piece band. Sharon Van Etten makes a cameo on the band’s new album, Impossible Weight, which gives you some idea of their sound, although Dobson’s vocals are far superior and give this song a hint of pop.

The Struts ft. Joe Elliott and Phil Collen – I Hate How Much I Want You. It is entirely appropriate for a band as bombastic as the Struts to call in two members of hair metal icons Def Leppard for a song this ridiculous. I love it.

Dinosaur Pile-Up – It’s Tricky. Another snotty rock band covers another seminal early hip-hop track. This shouldn’t work, but it does.

Are We Static – Wildfire. This new track from AWS starts out a little like that annoying 2014 song “Geronimo” by Sheppard, but instead of turning into a poppy sing-along it converts that nervous energy into a swirling guitar-driven chorus, a quantum improvement in my mind.

Black Honey – I Like the Way You Die. I love Black Honey but this title is on the bleak side for a band this poppy.

All Them Witches – Lights Out. ATW’s Nothing as the Ideal has some incredible psychedelic sludge rock riffs across its eight songs, highlighted by this one and “Enemy of my Enemy,” although the six-minute-plus tracks go too long for their content.

Rob Zombie – The Triumph of King Freak (A Crypt of Preservation and Superstition). I did not foresee Rob Zombie dropping one of the best hard-rock tracks of 2020, I have to admit, but this is peak RZ content, even hinting back at the last White Zombie album Astro-Creep: 2000 with samples and electronic elements.

Pallbearer – Vengeance & Ruination. The kings of American doom metal – or just modern doom metal, period – just released their 4th album, Forgotten Days, and I think it’s their most accessible work to date, although it still has some longer tracks to satisfy diehards (and perhaps scare off folks looking for more radio-friendly lengths).

Killer Be Killed – Dream Gone Bad. Mastodon vocalist Troy Sanders is involved in two side projects that released new tracks this month; this is the better of the two, as the latest Gone is Gone track didn’t do much for me. KBK includes Max Cavalera of Soulfly and formerly of Sepultura, but the sound is closer to Mastodon’s here, very bass-forward with thrash elements but mostly clean (and strong) vocals.

Dark Tranquility – Identical to None. DT’s newest album Moment will drop on November 20th; it seems like more classic Gothenburg melodic death metal, with some great thrash riffing below the growled vocals. I haven’t spent a ton of time on this but I think Gothenburg bands have a distinctive melodic sound that works more at the middle and higher ends of the guitar’s range in each song’s standout riffs, whereas comparable bands from other scenes just try to blow you away with speed or riffs at the bottom end of the range.

Carcass – Slaughtered in Soho. And this is the one exception to everything I just said – but Carcass is sort of an exception to a lot of generalizations about extreme metal, coming out of grindcore to create a ridiculous subgenre termed “goregrind” (which didn’t need its own name), only to abandon both the style and the lyrical content with Heartwork, among the greatest extreme metal albums in history and proof that you could craft compelling melodies without sacrificing speed, growled vocals, or other trappings of the death-metal genre. This track comes off their four-song EP Despicable, which just came out on Friday, with tracks that missed the cut for their next album. The riff on this one is great, and remarkably slow and grooved for Carcass.

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→ July 5, 2020
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Top albums of 2020 so far.

This year has sucked across multiple dimensions, but new music has been one of the few bright spots of the first half of 2020 – although I worry that there’s a time lag here, and we’re getting great singles and albums recorded before the world ended. Anyway, here are the best albums I have heard so far this year.

7. SAULT – Untitled (Black Is). SAULT released one of the best albums of 2019 but did so after my 2019 rankings came out – in fact, they released two albums (7 and 5) last year, and both were great, but I didn’t hear either until May of this year. The identities of the band members are still unknown, but they’ve gained some critical attention nonetheless for their soul/funk/spoken word sound, and with Untitled (Black Is) they’ve become overtly political with a series of anthems supporting Black Lives Matter and other causes of equality and justice. Standout tracks include “Bow,” featuring Michael Kiwanuka; “Monsters;” “Why We Cry Why We Die;” and “Black.”

6. Tame Impala – The Slow Rush. I’ve always been a few degrees short of the critical acclaim for Kevin Parker’s music; I’ve liked many of his tracks but he often needs an editor to rein him in, and his albums haven’t come together as well as they should. The Slow Rush still has too many tracks that go on too long – half of the twelve songs here run five minutes or more, up to 7:13 for the closer – but it’s the most coherent record he’s released to date. Standout singles include “Borderline,” “Lost in Yesterday,” and “Breathe Deeper.”

5. Bananagun – The True Story of Bananagun. I only heard about this Melbourne psychedelic rock/funk group a few weeks ago, but I’m all about this album and their strange mélange of late ’60s flower-child rock and funk guitar work from the decade afterwards. Standout tracks include “The Master,” “Freak Machine,” and “Bang Go the Bongos.”

4. Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud. Folk-rocker Katie Crutchfield bares her soul, recounting her struggles with alcoholism and decision to get sober after her previous album, the uneven Out in the Storm (which still gave us “Never Been Wrong”), and the result is her best and most complete album to date. Standout tracks include “Lilacs,” “Can’t Do Much,” and “Hell.”

3. Grimes – Miss Anthropocene. A good example of when to separate the art from the artist. Grimes’ last album, Art Angels, was my #1 album of 2015; this record is more experimental and expansive, but still has several tracks that stand well on their own thanks to strong melodies, including “Violence,” “4ÆM,” and “Delete Forever.”

2. Khruangbin – Mordechai. I was late to the Khruangbin party, only hearing their last album, Con Todo El Mundo, a year after it came out, helped by The RFK Tapes’ podcast’s use of “Maria También” as its theme song. I think I got here just in time, though, as Mordechai is going to be their big breakout, as it has the same kind of Thai jazz/funk/rock hybrid sound as their last album, but now with extensive vocals from all three members. Standout tracks include “Pelota,” “Time (You and I),” the funky “So We Won’t Forget,” and “Connaissais de Face.”

1. Moses Boyd – Dark Matter. I don’t have any comparison for this album by percussionist Moses Boyd, one half of Binker and Moses. It’s a dark, swirling journey of modern jazz and house that has the energy of improvisational music but the tighter focus and melodic sensibility of more mainstream genres. Standout tracks include the stellar “Shades of You” (feat. Poppy Ajudha), shimmering opener “Stranger than Fiction,” and the guitar-laden “Y.O.Y.O.”

Upcoming albums I’m at least excited to hear: The Beths – Jump Rope Gazers (7/10); Dirty Streets – Rough and Tumble (7/31); Everything Everything’s RE-ANIMATOR (8/21); Cut Copy – Freeze, Melt (8/21); Sad13 – Haunted Painting (9/25); Doves – untitled (TBD); Noname – untitled (TBD).

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→ May 6, 2020
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Music update, April 2020.

A shorter-than-normal playlist this month as I think the pandemic has played havoc with release schedules and has obviously kept many artists out of the studio, but there are still some strong singles in advance of albums already planned for releases this summer and fall. As always, you can access the playlist directly if you can’t see the widget below.

Iceage – Lockdown Blues. Yep, he’s saying “Covid 19 lockdown blues/the only way out is through.” There have been some regrettable songs written and released during the pandemic; this one is actually good.

Space Above, So Below – Golden. Space Above is former The Naked & Famous keyboardist Aaron Short’s new project, with So Below (singer Maddie North) contributing vocals on many of their songs so far, including this darkly ethereal track.

Khruangbin – Time (You and I). This new single from the Texas-based funk/jazz trio features extensive vocals from Laura Lee Ochoa, a departure from their primarily instrumental work to date, and is the lead single from their third album Mordechai, due out next month.

Village of the Sun – TED. VotS is a new collaboration between Binker and Moses – as in Moses Boyd, whose Dark Matter is my favorite album of the year so far – and Simon Ratcliffe of Basement Jaxx. This track takes its name and inspiration from a song called “Dreamship” by the Ted Moses Quintet, which I only know from googling.

Talk Show – Petrolhead. I’ve enjoyed Talk Show’s snarling mix of classic post-punk sounds, more contemporary rock rhythms, and just a hint of the energy of dance music without heavy electronic elements.

The Wants – Clearly a Crisis. The Wants are pure post-punk, influenced by Gang of Four and other icons of the earliest new wave bands, and it comes through most successfully on this track and “Motor” from their debut album Container.

bdrmm – Happy. A five-piece shoegaze band from Hull, bdrmm released their debut EP If Not, When? in October, and have returned now with this subdued, swirling track that has some early Lush to it with a more upbeat tempo.

Everything Everything – In Birdsong (Edit). Lead singer Jonathan Higgs has described this song’s lyrics as an attempt to capture what it might have been like to be the world’s first self-aware human, although I find it more interesting for the highly textured keyboard layers below Higgs’ falsetto, crescendoing into a sort of wall of sound that seems almost tactile by the end of the song.

Jake Bugg – Saviours of the City. Bugg seems to have come back around to the Dylanesque sounds of his Mercury Prize-nominated self-titled debut album, eight years later, with this second single ahead of his fourth album, which is due out later this year.

The Naked and Famous – Blinding Lights. TNAF’s cover of the Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights,” from his new album After Hours, beats the original for me – not least because of Alisa Xayalith’s voice.

Asylums – A Perfect Life in a Perfect World. The Southend rock quartet have produced a song that sounds like it could have been recorded and released in 1994, and I mean that as a high compliment.

Ministry – Alert Level (Quarantine). I’m not as big a Ministry fan as you might guess from my age and musical tastes, as I find a lot of Al Jourgensen’s work with the band after their shift from new wave to industrial designed more to shock than to entertain. “Alert Level (Quarantine)” is still harsh and abrasive, but also has one of the best guitar riffs of any song in Ministry’s catalog.

Pure Reason Revolution – Ghosts & Typhoons. I don’t know how to categorize PRR’s music, with its peculiar mixture of progressive rock, electronic, and extreme metal elements, often in songs that run six to ten minutes in length, but their new album Eupnea, their first LP in a decade, has really grown on me this year thanks to songs like this and “Silent Genesis.”

Katatonia – The Winter of Our Passion. These Swedish prog-metallers started out as a death metal act but have shifted to clean vocals and doom sounds that sometimes incorporate metal aspects, but often don’t – if you heard this without knowing who the artist was, I doubt you’d call it metal. It’s one of the most accessible things they’ve done but retains the sophistication of their most recent albums.

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→ August 17, 2019
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Stick to baseball, 8/17/19.

I was on vacation with my girlfriend last weekend, taking a few days to go offline while at a resort in Jamaica (my first trip there, so $countries_visited++;), and while I did go see a game right after I got back, I haven’t written this week. My parents also came to visit for a few days, so I had to skip the chat this week. I’ll do one either Tuesday or Wednesday of this upcoming week instead.

I did an interview a few weeks back with a site called the Good Men Project which ran while I was away. I don’t think that makes me a Good Man but I can hope.

Thank you to everyone who has signed up for my free email newsletter and sent kind, thoughtful replies to my last few editions. I’ll send another one later this week after I’ve written some more content around the interwebs.

And now, the links…

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