→ July 3, 2019
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Music update, June 2019.

Solid month in June for new music from some old favorites, plus three singles here from albums released before June that I’ve especially enjoyed (whenyoung, YONAKA, the Amazons). The first song here gets the closest thing I’ve done to a full album review in many years, but it deserved the time. As always, if you can’t see the Spotify widget below you can access the playlist here.

black midi – Reggae. black midi are the critical flavor of the month after their debut album, Schlagenheim, appeared in June, to effusive acclaim … and it’s true, the album is unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. It is dense, intellectual, and challenging, often asking you to rethink the basic tenets of melody and rhythm that have been part of rock music since its inception. It’s also pretentious and at multiple points seems to dare you to skip to the next song, especially with Geordie Greep’s weird intonations and sudden dives into extreme-metal screaming. The album doesn’t include their strong lead-up singles “Talking Heads” or “Crow’s Perch,” which would actually be its most accessible songs if they’d made the record. “Reggae” was my compromise choice for the playlist, because it shows off their tonal oddities and still adheres a little to some rock conventions. The closer “Ducter” has some of the album’s highest points, as does the eight-minute “Western,” but they are endurance tests as well. “Near DT, MI” is a two-minute burst of ideas, but you have to get past Greep screaming at you – and his lyrics typically make little sense. “Speedway” could be a better introduction to what black midi, named after an obscure form of music that can only be played by computers because there are so many notes that sheet music for the songs would appear smudged with black ink, are trying to express through dissonant chords and polyrhythmic drumming. I don’t think it’s my favorite album of 2019, but it is the most interesting by far.

Sløtface – Telepathetic. These Norwegian punk-popsters are back with yet another frenetic, extremely catchy song with quirky lyrics.

YONAKA – Rockstar. YONAKA’s debut full-length Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow is full of catchy songs with smart lyrics about toxic masculinity and modern culture, but this is a diversion, a lighter song with great hooks.

whenyoung – A Labour of Love. The Irish trio whenyoung’s debut album Reasons to Dream is probably my favorite album of the year. I can’t escape the automatic comparison in my head to the first Cranberries album – Aoife Power’s accent evokes Dolores O’Riordan – but there’s more depth here, including tempo shifts and rapid jumps from low to high as you’ll find in this song.

Phantogram – Into Happiness. This is the first Phantogram song I’ve liked where Josh Carter sings; any other song by them that I’ve ever included on a playlist had Sarah Barthel singing alone. I assume this is a precursor to a new album, which would be their first since 2016.

The Regrettes – I Dare You. Critics seem to tag The Regrettes, led by 18-year-old singer/guitarist Lydia Night, as a punk band, but this song could just as easily have come from The Strokes’ catalog.

Metronomy – Salted Caramel Ice Cream. So I thought this was a different band, then pulled up the song on Spotify and realized I had the wrong group but really liked the track. It’s kind of wonderfully silly, and the electronic trappings mask the fact that it’s a basic 12-bar blues pattern.

Temples – Hot Motion. Temples has made my year-end top 100s twice before, with 2013’s “Colours to Life” and 2017’s “Certainty,” although if you know anything by them it’s probably their first hit, “Shelter Song.” The sound here is similarly retro, with a strong dose of psychedelia, with a jangly guitar riff driving the song.

Belle & Sebastian – Sister Buddha. This is the first single from B&S’s upcoming soundtrack to the film Days of the Bagnold Summer, a comedy due out in September from actor Simon Bird.

Floating Points – LesAlpx. Floating Points is neuroscientist and electronic musician Sam Shepherd, whose 2015 album Elaenia was a masterful work of experimental, sparse electronica. This new single seems more accessible and more in line with current trends in EDM, but it’s no less compelling.

Goodie Mob feat. Organized Noise – No Rain No Rainbow. Goodie Mob aren’t just founders of the Dirty South scene, they made the term mainstream in their 1995 song of that name. They’ve only released one album in the 15 years since Cee-Lo first departed the group (he returned in 2011), and this single appeared without any announcement of a forthcoming record. It’s pretty strong for a group that’s barely put out any music in two decades, although I can’t include them without at least acknowledging Cee-Lo’s problematic history: a woman accused him of slipping a drug into her drink and raping her, which led to him pleading no contest to charges of supplying her with ecstasy (but no charges for rape).

Spoon – No Bullets Spent. A solid album track from Spoon from their upcoming Everything Hits at Once: The Best of Spoon.

The Wants – Clearly a Crisis. A new Brooklyn alternative-rock trio, the Wants deliver a funk-tinged slice of post-punk on their newest single, like something captured in the fleeting moments before post-punk decayed fully into new wave.

LIFE – Hollow Thing. We’re really just calling everyone a punk band now, aren’t we? There’s a punk influence here, but this Hull-based quartet, who toured with actual punk band IDLES, are definitely more in the “snotty English rock band” vein – and I mean that in the nicest possible way.

Thrice – A Better Bridge. Thrice’s A Deeper Wells EP includes cuts from the Palms sessions that didn’t make the album, but if anything I think I like several tracks from the EP more than the songs that likely took their place.

The Amazons – Dark Visions. Future Dust, the Amazons’ second full-length album, dropped in May, and it’s a big move forward from their debut, as the great guitar work from their 2017 single “Black Magic” is all over this new record.

Lightning Born – Renegade. Lightning Born features Corrosion of Conformity bassist Mike Dean, but this is more vocalist Brenna Leath and guitarist Erik Sugg’s show, with a clear ’70s classic metal influence all over this two-and-a-half minute track.

Pallbearer – Atlantis. American doom stalwarts Pallbearer haven’t announced plans for a new album yet, but they released this one-off track as part of the Sub Pop Singles series.

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→ May 6, 2019
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Music update, April 2019.

I’m not sure why April was so light on new music, especially since I’ve already started a new playlist for May and have a half-dozen songs on it (including “Alligator,” the new single from Of Monsters & Men). April did bring the debut album from Jade Bird, whom I’ve featured on many past playlists. I figured it was better to just wrap this one up now and let the May playlist be longer. You can access the Spotify playlist here if you can’t see the widget below.

Hatchie – Stay With Me. The Australian singer-songwriter Hatchie, whose dreamy indie-pop songs have been all over my playlists for a year and a half now, will release her debut album Keepsake on June 21st.

Ten Fé – Waterfalls. Yep, it’s a cover of the TLC song, which I don’t even particularly like, but this version is another creature entirely.

Hot Chip – Hungry Child. The English electronic/indie stalwarts will put out their seventh album, A Bath Full of Ecstasy, on June 21st. It’s their first album produced entirely by people outside of the band members themselves.

Working Men’s Club – Bad Blood. If I played this for you and told you it was a lost British New Wave track from 1983, would you have any reason to doubt me?

Tame Impala – Borderline. This might be my favorite song by Kevin Parker since “Solitude is Bliss,” in part because it’s so different from the band’s signature sound, with a heavy ’70s soul vibe.

Broken Social Scene – Can’t Find My Heart. This song rocks much harder than most of the Broken Social Scene songs I’ve heard before – at least, it’s not the sound I expect from this eclectic Canadian outfit.

Pharlee – Darkest Hour. I’ve criticized the derivative sound of Greta van Fleet a few times here and on Twitter, but if you like their extremely Led Zeppelin thing, I have a few new songs to recommend, starting with this bluesy psychedelic rocker from a new San Diego group helmed by Macarena Rivera.

Feeder – Fear of Flying. Yes, the same Feeder who had a modest (and slightly annoying) hit in 1997 with “High,” now a duo who announced that their tenth album, Tallulah, will drop in August. There’s no resemblance to their big hit on this driving, melodic rocker.

Ride – Future Love. Shoegaze icons Ride, now fully embracing their comeback two decades after their brief heyday, have recorded … a Britpop song? This has to be the most upbeat track the Oxonians have ever released, the first single from their upcoming album This Is Not a Safe Place, which is due out on August 16th.

Port Noir – Champagne. Port Noir’s label calls them “post-metal” but I just think of them as melodic hard rock, not really metal, with some progressive elements as well.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – The Cruel Millennial. Another recommendation if you like Led Zeppelin or other blues-heavy classic rock acts; the prolific Australian band just released their fourteenth album in eight years (!), Fishing for Fishes, which is a little inconsistent but has a few real uptempo, blues/jam tracks like this one and “Boogieman Sam.”

Band Of Skulls – Gold. I was hoping for more rock sounds on Band of Skulls’ new album, Love Is All You Love, but it’s a generally downtempo, mellower album than my favorite of their records, 2014’s Himalayan, with the closer “Gold” one of the heavier tracks on the record.

Helms Alee – Spider Jar. The intro to this song reminds me so much of the start of “Prime Cut” from Prong’s 1990 record Beg to Differ, although this song veers in a more progressive direction rather than the lean post-hardcore style of that earlier song. The Seattle band’s latest album, released two weeks ago, is called Noctiluca, which also happens to be the name of the board game I’m reviewing this week for Paste.

Diamond Head – Death by Design. These NWOBHM icons will release their eighth studio album, their second with new lead singer Rasmus Bom Anderson, on May 24th, and their sound really doesn’t seem to have changed that substantially from their influential if still obscure debut album Lightning to the Nations.

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→ April 2, 2019
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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.

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→ March 4, 2019
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Music update, February 2019.

February is short enough as it is, and I delivered my last music update a bit late due to the prospect rankings, so I held off on this one until we got one more spate of new releases on March 1st, so the post would at least get to an hour’s worth of new music (without counting the ten-minute track near the end, because that’s cheating). As always, you can access the Spotify playlist here if you can’t see the widget below.

The Amazons – Mother. The Amazons’ self-titled debut album hit the British top ten in 2017; I thought “Black Magic” was outstanding, powered by a huge, muscular guitar riff, but the rest of the album was tepid by comparison and didn’t carry that sound forward. This new single is also driven by a rich, heavy guitar riff.

Foals – On the Luna. Foals put out two singles from their upcoming album, Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 1, in the last month; this one is tremendous, peak Foals, heavy and dark and still catchy and danceable, like the lead single “Exits,” although the third single “Sunday” is gloomier and slower, so not quite my cup of tea.

Ten Fé – Here Again. More melodic, ’70s-influenced, slightly soft rock from the London-based quintet, who’ll drop their second album, Future Perfect, Present Tense, this Friday.

Sundara Karma – Little Smart Houses. That little record-skip stop in the verses is … an acquired taste? Affected? The chorus is great, though, a great harbinger for the English art-rockers’ second album, Ulfilas’ Alphabet, which just came out on Friday.

Metric – Risk. I love Emily Haines’ voice, but Metric’s music as a whole has been a mixed bag for me, and some of their strongest melodies have paired with their weakest lyrics – and it seems like Haines’ voice is more natural when the vocals are more like another instrument as opposed to a way to tell a story or recite a poem to music. Perhaps that’s just me, but I’ll put “Risk” in the yes column.

Little Simz – Offence. Little Simz, a British rapper of Nigerian descent, just released her third album, GREY Area, her first new music since she toured with Gorillaz after their Humans album came out. “Offence” was the lead single and first appeared back in September, with “Boss” (not quite as good) and “Selfish” (good, but with some problematic lyrics) following as singles before the album dropped.

Hatchie – Without a Blush. Hatchie has barely missed since she started putting out singles late in 2017, and she just announced her debut album, Keepsake, will come out on June 21st. I keep seeing references to her as “dream pop” and to her speaking of Mazzy Star, the Cocteau Twins, and My Bloody Valentine as major influences, but she crafts stronger melodies than any of those three and I still hear reminders everywhere in her music of the earliest stuff from the Cranberries.

The Mowgli’s – Talk About It. This is the fourth song by this six-piece American alternative act that I’ve included on a monthly playlist, and definitely the best since the first single I heard by the group, 2013’s “San Francisco” – similarly upbeat and catchy and cute without being cloying.

Sunflower Bean – Fear City. I think I’ve now included all four songs from Sunflower Bean’s new EP King of the Dudes, since they’re all great. They’ve become one of my favorite bands going between this and last year’s album Twentytwo in Blue.

Man of Moon – Skin. Scottish duo who appear to have listened to every New Order song ever recorded have put out a song that sounds a lot like vintage New Order.

Reignwolf – Black and Red. I felt like Reignwolf was a ‘buzz’ band a few years ago, but had never panned out; they were indeed hyped by the music press around 2013-14, and are just now getting around to releasing an actual album, Hear Me Out, which came out on March 1st, six years after their first single appeared. Fronted by Canadian guitarist Jordan Cook, Reignwolf does blues-heavy rock, with dramatic tonal shifts throughout this slithering lead single.

Ex Hex – Rainbow Shiner. Ex Hex, led by former Helium founder Mary Timony, released their debut album Rips in 2014 but then largely vanished until they put out a few singles last fall and this winter, all ahead of their upcoming second album It’s Real, due out March 22nd.

Tim Bowness and Pete Hammill – It’s the World. That’s Pete Hammill of Van der Graaf Generator, a band formed six years before I was born, joining Bowness, an English experimental musician who has been part of the rather obscure, long-running duo No-Man. (They had a top 40 dance track in the U.S. in 1994, “Taking It Like a Man,” of which I have zero memory.) I’m mostly drawn to that doom-metal guitar riff that seems stylistically out of place but that perfectly fits the song’s atmosphere.

Wheel – Tyrant. Yes, the song is ten minutes long; the Finnish progressive quartet’s debut album, Moving Backwards, just dropped, and has seven songs running a total of 48 minutes, with three tracks clocking in at nine-plus.

Saint Vitus – 12 Years in the Tomb. Saint Vitus is one of the most influential bands in both American metal and within the doom metal subgenre, forming in 1979 and taking their name from a Black Sabbath song, but they were never terribly popular and haven’t released anything new since 2012, so this song’s appearance was a surprise. Even more surprising is the return of original lead singer Scott Reagers, whose last appearance on wax with Saint Vitus came in 1995.

Alexisonfire – Familiar Drugs. Presented more out of newsworthiness than any endorsement of the song, which I think is just fair. This is the Canadian post-hardcore/extreme metal band’s first release of any new material since 2010.

Children of Bodom – Platitudes and Barren Words. These Finnish melodic death metal stalwarts release their latest album, Hexed, this upcoming Friday, and continue to show they can still dance on the edge of mainstream rock without falling into the abyss (as with In Flames, whose latest album has a bunch of great riffs and embarrassing vocals and choruses).

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→ February 7, 2019
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Music update, January 2019.

Sorry this is a bit late, but I had to write a thing about some prospects. If you can’t see the Spotify widget you can access the playlist here.

White Lies – Tokyo. If this song doesn’t put you back in 1985, I’m guessing you weren’t old enough to listen to the radio back then.

Spielbergs – Distant Star. This Norwegian trio reminds me a lot of the Wombats, if the Wombats were more punk and skipped most production values on their records, and sure enough the Spielbergs recorded their debut album, This is Not the End, at the Oslo studio of the Wombats’ bassist. It’s pop-tinged punk with just the right hardness to its edge.

Potty Mouth – 22. Potty Mouth’s 2015 single, “Cherry Picking,” was followed by a five-song EP, one more single, and then three years of silence before this track appeared a few weeks ago. It’s very much in the same vein as “Cherry Picking,” power pop with heavier distortion on the rhythm guitar, and it comes with the delightful news that the band’s sophomore album, Snafu, will arrive on March 1st.

Thrice – Hold Up A Light (Edit). The album version of this track appeared on last year’s Palms, but I’m including it here since drummer Riley is a friend of the dish and I didn’t feature this song anywhere last year.

Satin Jackets with Panama – Automatic. Panama is Australian songwriter/producer Jarrah McCleary, who’s appeared on my lists a few times in the past, primarily with his 2013 standout track “Always.” This is his collaboration with German house/disco producer Tim Bernhardt, a.k.a. Satin Jackets, although if the vocals were McCleary’s I’d believe this was a Panama solo track.

Sunflower Bean – King Of The Dudes. The title track from Sunflower Bean’s four-song EP showcases Julia Cumming’s strutting, cocky vocals, just as its lead single “Come for Me” did last fall. There’s a moment in the second verse where she sounds like she’s channeling Haley Shea of Sløtface.

Jade Bird – I Get No Joy. Bird had my #3 song of 2018 with “Love Has All Been Done Before” and is back with this track, which isn’t quite as immediately catchy but still showcases her lyric writing and her Joplinesque vocals.

Swervedriver – Good Times Are So Hard To Follow. Swervedriver’s second album into their comeback, Future Ruins, dropped last month, with three or four solid singles and then a number of longer tracks, two clocking in over six minutes, that are solid but lack hooks – good songs in between the singles. This is one of the better singles on the record albeit not up to “Mary Winter” or “The Lonely Crowd Fades in the Air.”

Teeth Of The Sea – I’d Rather, Jack (Radio Edit). Teeth of the Sea’s Master was one of my top albums of 2013, but then they put out a short album in 2015 (Highly Deadly Black Tarantula, six songs, 37 minutes) that I completely missed. They returned with a seven-minute single last year, and now have put out this more easily digested four-minute track of experimental, instrumental music, which veers from movement to movement over a dark, brooding backdrop.

Big Boi – Doin’ It (feat. Sleepy Brown). I was pleasantly surprised by this Big Boi track, maybe my favorite thing he’s done in ten years, mostly because he sounds so good here.

Foals – Exits. Foals will release two albums this year, parts 1 and 2 of a record called Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, led off by this single, which is nearly six minutes on the album but 3:50 here. This is more “Inhaler” than “Mountain at My Gates.”

Voodoos – Natalie. These Glaswegian punk-popsters first debuted this track in 2017, but have since signed a record deal and re-recorded it; as much as I see Voodoos tabbed a punk band, this feels like it could have come from the mind of Alex Turner.

Beck – Tarantula. Beck reworked a forgettable 1982 electronica track by Colourbox (later covered and improved by This Mortal Coil) for a new album of songs “inspired” by the new film Roma, with vocal help here from Feist and Natasha Khan (a.k.a. Bat for Lashes).

Crows – Chain of Being. Signed to the new label helmed by IDLES lead singer Joe Talbot, Crows released this single of post-rock with a hint of shoegaze head of their debut album, Silver Tongues, due out later this year.

Wheel – Where the Pieces Lie. Wheel, a four-piece band based in Finland with an English lead singer, might hit the sweet spot for my taste in heavier music – the music is heavy, hard-edged, and challenging, all with clean vocals. I do have a soft spot for old-school thrash but the way Wheel’s tracks meander without abandoning their core heaviness, here most present in the chorus, is just spot on.

Astronoid – A New Color. The list gets a bit heavier the further I go; Astronoid’s music is spacier (appropriate), more psychedelic, but also bumps up against the edges of thrash or speed metal in the chorus.

Týr – Fire and Flame. Viking metal can be hit or miss, but Týr seem to get it just right – there’s something playful about their music that prevents me from feeling like we’re all taking this Viking shit a little too seriously.

Children Of Bodom – This Road. CoB might be my favorite melodic death metal band going right now; it’s difficult to create metal riffs that are catchy without sacrificing the sort of (drops voice two octaves) heaviness extreme metal fans want. There’s some pedal-point riffing in the chorus here too, punctuated by an arpeggio (maybe of artificial harmonics? I never could make those work on my guitar), that I’d like to bottle.

Dream Theater – Fall into the Light. Dream Theater are about to release their fourteenth studio album, Distance over Time, which will drop just 12 days before the thirtieth anniversary of the release of their debut record When Dream and Day Unite. This seven-minute opus, complete with acoustic interlude around the 3:20 mark, has a solid hook in the standard Dream Theater vein of progressive metal, but also reminded me of that brief halcyon moment when Metallica blew the doors off the confines of thrash and would put out songs like this, sometimes running nine minutes, with different movements and massive tempo shifts. And then they released the black album and were never heard from again. Anyway, this is a good track. Love the keyboard solo, too.

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→ January 6, 2019
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Music update, December 2018.

I posted my rankings of my top 100 songs of 2018 and my top 18 albums of the year in mid-December, so this monthly playlist is a little shorter than normal – plus artists tend to release less new material during the holidays. I still found fifteen songs worth sharing, though, a few of which were out in time for my year-end list. As always, you can access the Spotify playlist here if you can’t see the widget below.

Are We Static – Weight of Water. A new single from these British alt-rockers who draw on equal parts Britpop, new wave, and classic British psychedelia, this time featuring guest vocals by Sussex-based folk singer Talitha Rise.

White Lies – Finish Line. A middling follow-up to the strong lead singles ahead of the group’s forthcoming record Five, due out February 1st.

Blac Rabbit – Seize the Day. I was sure this was a new Tame Impala track the first time I heard it, but I suppose that’s a compliment, especially since I love that group’s ventures into psychedelic rock. Anyway, Blac Rabbit is a Brooklyn quartet whom Wikipedia tells me often draws comparisons to … Tame Impala.

Sleeper – Look At You Now. All the Britpop icons are getting back together; Sleeper reunited in 2017, and their first album in 22 years, Modern Age, will drop in March. I didn’t realize that in the interim lead singer/songwriter/seductress Louise Wener had written four novels. She still sounds the same, and this track has that same sort of slightly off-kilter riff that Sleeper’s best hits (“Delicious,” “Inbetweener,” “Nice Guy Eddie”) had.

Swervedriver – The Lonely Crowd Fades In The Air. Speaking of ’90s British bands making comebacks, this makes two good songs in three singles ahead of Swervedriver’s upcoming album, Future Ruins, their second since they reunited.

Lauren Ruth Ward – White Rabbit. Ward has put out two covers of classic rock tracks in the last month, this one, which I think is pretty strong and plays well to her vocal strengths, and a cover of the Doors’ “Break On Through (To the Other Side),” where she’s oddly restrained on a song that calls for a bit of bombast.

whenyoung – Given Up. Singer/bassist Aiofe Power looks like Riley Keough and sounds a lot like Dolores O’Riordan, which makes the band’s cover of the Cranberries’ “Dreams,” found on the same EP as this indie-pop track, eerily authentic to the original.

Anteros – Fool Moon. I think this is the most danceable song so far from this London quartet, who seem to dabble in all corners of indie rock.

Hinds – British Mind. A new single just a few months after this Spanish band released their second album, I Don’t Run, which featured one of my top 100 songs of the year in “Tester.”

Ten Fé – Echo Park. A bit of a change of pace from these guys, who specialize in ’70s-tinged soft rock that still manages to feel modern.

Lady Bird – Reprisal. These British punks made my top 100 this year with “Spoons,” and capped off their year with this single, more of the same with spoken lyrics and a catchy guitar riff beneath it.

The Raconteurs – Now That You’re Gone. A new song from the Jack White-led supergroup that accompanied a reissue of Consolers of the Lonely and will also appear on a (surprise!) new Raconteurs album in 2019.

Wheel – Vultures. Another one from my top 100, one of only two metal songs on the list (along with Ghost’s “Rats”), from a new Finnish prog-metal act who have promised a debut album in February.

Teeth Of The Sea – Hiraeth. Teeth of the Sea’s 2013 Master made my list of the best albums of that year, but they’d been quiet since 2015’s Highly Deadly Black Tarantula before this new seven-minute opus appeared last month, with more of the same experimental post-rock stylings, showing their ability to create eerie soundscapes is completely intact.

Children Of Bodom – Under Grass and Clover. I liked 2013’s Halo of Blood, especially for the track “Transference,” which is one of the best melodic death metal songs I’ve ever heard, but the 2015 follow-up I Worship Chaos went too far in the commercial direction (and then the silly death growls sounded even more ridiculous than ever). This track is the first single from their forthcoming album Hexed, due out in March, and I’m cautiously optimistic that they’re not going full In Flames on us.

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→ December 4, 2018
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Music update, November 2018.

My last monthly playlist before I write up my annual top 100 list – some time after next week’s winter meetings – has twenty-two new tracks, including a handful of brand-new (to me) artists likely to appear on that year-end ranking, plus three metal acts who were big when I was still in high school. You can access the Spotify playlist here if you can’t see the widget below.

Jade Bird – Love Has All Been Done Before. This 21-year-old English singer-songwriter has a powerful voice in both meanings of the term, reminding me quite a bit of the similarly-named Jake Bugg. (If they collaborated, would they go by Bird & Bugg?) It’s folk-rock with a dash of Janis Joplin in her all-out singing style. I haven’t been able to stop listening to this song since I first heard it.

Sunflower Bean – Come For Me. This New York trio released second album, Twentytwo in Blue, in March, but they’re already back with a new EP due out in late January, headlined by this rocker that I think makes better use of singer Julia Cumming’s voice.

Piroshka – Everlastingly Yours. Lush broke up for good two years ago, but singer/guitarist Miki Berenyi is back with this supergroup of ’90s alternative figures, with members of Modern English, Moose, and Elastica along for the ride. This first single is wonderfully anachronistic, like we’re back in 1995 and Britpop is still a thing.

The Wombats – Oceans. The second bonus track on the deluxe edition of the Wombats’ album Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, along with “Bee-Sting,” is among the best tracks from the record; I was lukewarm on the album as a whole before these two new songs came out, but now there are at least a half-dozen great tracks to recommend from the LP.

Sundara Karma – One Last Night On This Earth. This English indie-pop band, which gets a lot of U2 comparisons (I don’t hear it myself), is set to release its sophomore album, Ulfilas’ Alphabet, in March, with this the lead single, boasting a strong melodic hook and their now-familiar, slightly rough around the edges sort of sound.

YONAKA – Creature. The title track from this British act’s latest EP is a little slower and sultrier than some of their harder and more obnoxious (in a good way) songs like “Wouldn’t Wanna Be Ya,” but the driving guitars, which are all over this four-track EP, still really work even shifted down a gear.

Darlingside – Singularity. Darlingside has been around for a few years but are new to me, at least, with their new album Extralife. There’s an Americana element here like we get from the Avett Brothers, the soft harmonies of Fleet Foxes, and a bit of the sampling of multiple genres from the first Mumford & Sons album.

Acid Dad – Living with a Creature. Psychedelic dance-rock that’s heavier on the guitars, boosted by the effects on the vocals that give the whole track a trippy vibe. Their self-titled debut album dropped in March.

Drenge – Bonfire of the City Boys. I keep hoping these singles are pointing towards a new album from the brothers Loveless, with this the third solid one this year, seeing Eoin speaking rather than singing over a droning, heavy bass line.

Preoccupations – Pontiac 87. Preoccupations are touring with Protomartyr, so they released a cover of Protomartyr’s 2015 track “Pontiac 87,” from the latter’s album The Agent Intellect, giving it more stuttering, frenetic percussion, and a spacier vocal line.

Radkey – Junes. Radkey seem to have hit a stride with their last few singles after their 2016 album lost a little momentum from their debut; these tracks have all been a little harder and more uptempo. I feel like they would have been huge in the late 1990s.

Bob Mould – What Do You Want Me To Do. Shouldn’t this be called “What Dü You Want Me to Dü?”

Anteros – Call Your Mother. I loved Anteros’ “Cherry Drop” from last year, but since then they’ve released just two singles, with this the catcher of the two but definitely downshifted from that favorite of mine from 2017.

Swervedriver – Drone Lover. If Pavement released a shoegaze track in 1993, this would be it.

Black Honey – Teenager. A great new track from the deluxe edition of their self-titled debut album, which now includes “Somebody Better,” my favorite of their pre-album singles that didn’t appear on the initial release, and “All My Pride” too.

Body Type – Palms. This is my favorite single so far from this Australian quartet (all women), with the quick pace and the interlaced vocals contributing to the sense of unease permeating the entire track.

Ten Fé – No Night Lasts Forever. I am running out of things to say about Ten Fé, who have figured out what sort of song they write well and then keep churning out catchy songs in that vein.

The Twilight Sad – VTr. The Scottish indie-rockers, who bear an undeniable similarity to other bands that revel in depression like Joy Division and Interpol, will drop their fifth album, It Won/t Be Like This All the Time, on January 19th.

Myrkur – Juniper. Danish chanteuse Amalie Bruun is back with her symphonic/folk/black metal project Myrkur, with this track focusing more on the former elements as well as her ethereal voice, with less of the pure metal elements that sometimes appear in her music.

Flotsam & Jetsam – Recover. The last three tracks on my playlist this month are all from thrash bands whose commercial peaks came in the 1980s and are still producing the same kind of music they did 30 years ago, with this F&J track my favorite of the three. Their 13th studio album, The End of Chaos, will drop in January, but it sounds like they haven’t lost a step or bowed at all to the commercial shift towards the genres that descended from thrash.

Metal Church – Out of Balance. There’s a great riff and generally strong guitarwork here, with really dopey lyrics that lead to an annoyingly catchy chorus.

Sodom – Partisan. Sodom is one of the ‘big four’ of German thrash, along with Kreator and Destruction, both of whom have appeared on my lists before, as well as Tankard. Only one original member of Sodom, bassist and lead screamer Thomas “Angelripper” Such, remains, but this track is still a throwback to the sort of early, heavier thrash that put Sodom at the vanguard of the genre and influenced the first wave of Nordic black metal bands as well. That said, this track itself isn’t that great, more of a curiosity from a band of historical importance whose sound hasn’t aged that well.

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→ October 31, 2018
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Music update, October 2018.

Huge month for new tracks – thirty strong this time around, ranging from indie rock to dance to metal to two tracks that are somewhere in the country/folk range. As always, if you can’t see the playlist below you can access the Spotify playlist here.

Joy Williams – Canary. The former member of the Civil Wars has a new album, Front Porch, due out early next year, with this the A-side of a new single (with “The Trouble With Wanting” the B-side), featuring a strong melody and her always amazing voice.

HAERTS – Fighter. Now a duo, HAERTS released their long-awaited second album, New Compassion, on October 5th to very little fanfare or attention, but it’s almost as good as their debut – the sound is similar but it doesn’t quite have the standout tracks of their self-titled first album.

Hatchie – Adored. One of two songs on this playlist from Adult Swim’s series of singles is the latest from Aussie singer-songwriter Hatchie, who continues to occupy this ethereal space that recalls early Lush and the Cranberries.

Radkey – Rock & Roll Homeschool. I’ve been waiting for this trio to put out another rocker like this since 2013’s “Cat and Mouse.” More of this, please.

Drenge – Autonomy. The title track from this duo’s new four-song EP that also features the song “Outside,” which appeared on my September playlist. I assume there’s another album coming soon, since their last came out in 2015.

The Struts – Fire (Part 1). A guilty pleasure of mine, although I recently told a friend I thought the Struts were just the Discount Arctic Monkeys. This is the best song on their latest album, which tends too much to the bombastic side of alternative pop for me.

Khruangbin – Maria También. If this sounds familiar, it’s the opening music to the Crimetown podcast series. Khruangbin avoid labels for their music but it’s definitely some sort of indie rock/funk with influences from various world music genres.

Port Noir – Old Fashioned. I don’t know what to make of this song, which veers a little close to rap-metal for me, but the chorus is tremendous and I love the dark tone of the music throughout the track.

Speedy Ortiz – DTMFA. The other Adult Swim single on this list is probably 95% of typical Speedy Ortiz but that’s still good enough for me.

Django Django – Sand Dunes. Django Django put out an album, Marble Skies, back in January, but they’ve since released a six-track EP of songs recorded before (or maybe during?) those sessions, including this mid-tempo track that really would have fit quite well on the longer album.

Ian Brown – First World Problems. New single from the Stone Roses’ lead singer, not his best but definitely featuring his typically snarky lyrics.

Ten Fé – Won’t Happen. The lead single from the soft-rock band’s upcoming sophomore album, Future Perfect, Present Tense (due out in March), is more of the same as their first album provided – and that’s good.

Swervedriver – Mary Winter. Swervedriver returned in 2015 with their first album in 17 years – the same hiatus that Ride and Slowdive took, in fact – but it was unremarkable without any strong hooks or remotely memorable songs. This new single has that certain something, and I think it’s their best song since the title track from their last pre-breakup album 99th Dream.

The London Suede – As One. I didn’t love The Blue Hour, their latest album, because it was overrun with dirge-like tracks, but this wildly dramatic song is one of the few standouts for me.

Maisie Peters – Details. I have no idea why this 18-year-old British singer/songwriter hasn’t become a global star. Her voice is adorable, her lyrics clever, her melodies catchy.

Keuning – Restless Legs. That’s Dave Keuning, founding guitarist of the Killers, with his first solo track. He’s announced his first solo album, Prismism, will come out next year.

Arkells – Hand Me Downs. Arkells, like the Struts, are a bit too pop-oriented for me overall but occasionally hit enough of a melodic high point for me to overlook the commercial production. “Relentless” is the best track on the new album; this would be my second-favorite.

The Beths – You Wouldn’t Like Me. New Zealand quartet The Beths dropped their first full-length album, Future Me Hates Me, in August, featuring this very ’90s punk-inflected power pop single.

Christine and the Queens – 5 dollars. The French singer/songwriter Héloïse Letissier has received universal praise for her latest album, Chris, which is certainly one of the smartest and most inventive pop records of the year. If there’s a US hit single to be had here, this is it.

White Lies – Believe It. Much better than anything off White Lies’ last album, comparable to my favorite track from them, 2013’s “There Goes Our Love Again.”

Hinds – British Mind. I’ll include anything this Spanish quartet releases, obviously. I don’t think any band sounds like they’re having as much fun as these four women do.

Allie X – Little Things. Allie X had posted an older song called “Sculpture,” which was on this playlist earlier in the month but has since disappeared from Spotify and isn’t on the EP she just released last week, Super Sunset. That does include this track; “Science,” one of my favorite songs from the summer, and the solid “Girl of the Year,” which I just find a little hard to listen to because of the chorus.

Longwave – Stay With Me. I was totally unfamiliar with Longwave, who put out four albums between 1999 and 2008, until hearing this song, which appears to be their first new single since they reunited, but this song has a great ’80s new wave vibe at its core, like the best work of White Lies.

TVAM – Porsche Majeure. TVAM’s album Psychic Data is probably going to end up on my top albums of the year list, featuring multiple strong mostly-instrumental tracks like this one, with Joe Oxley creating swirling electronic hooks that evoke all manner of emotions – this track feels especially menacing to me.

Greta Van Fleet – Lover, Leaver. Everyone compares Greta Van Fleet to Led Zeppelin, but I think the better comp is Kingdom Come – it’s derivative rather than paying homage, still occasionally catchy or interesting enough to merit further listens (as on this song or “When the Curtain Falls”), but on the whole it’s nothing we haven’t heard a hundred times before.

Cloud Nothings – Another Way Of Life. I’d grown a bit tired of Cloud Nothings’ sound, which never seemed to evolve, but this closer to the band’s short new album (35 minutes, with one track accounting for almost a third of that) seems to point to at least some small change in their style.

Toundra – Cobra. Instrumental, progressive metal from Madrid, musically similar to early Opeth but without vocals.

Haken – Puzzle Box. I’ve known of Haken for years but never put them on a playlist before this track, which I think gives us the prog metal band’s strongest melody to date.

High On Fire – Spewn From The Earth. You kind of know what to expect from High on Fire at this point, I think.

Behemoth – Bartzabel. I’ve always thought of Behemoth as a bit of a joke – the music was fine, but they so thoroughly covered themselves in the juvenile trappings of black metal that they verged on self-parody … but I have to admit this song is quite good if you can get past the death growls.

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→ October 3, 2018
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Music update, September 2018.

September wasn’t a great month overall for new singles, perhaps because it was so loaded with albums that had already spent their best tracks in teaser releases, so I have a first for these playlists – three of the tracks are covers, which I believe is the most I’ve ever included. You can access the playlist here if you can’t see the Spotify widget below.

Black Honey – Crowded City. I’ve featured Black Honey tracks on playlists here for two years now, and their self-titled debut album finally came out last week, debuting at #33 on the UK albums chart. The record includes five songs I’ve included in past posts, but omits “Somebody Better” (#32 on my 2017 top 100) and “All My Pride” (#81 on my 2016 top 100) while including my favorite track from them so far, “Hello Today” (#21 in 2016) as well as this new uptempo banger. UPDATE: The whole damn album is good.

San Cisco – When I Dream. This Australian quartet has a knack for incredibly catchy melodies, hitting my year-end top 20 twice with “Awkward” and “Too Much Time Together,” but their 2017 album The Water fell short of previous efforts because it didn’t have the same hooks. This new single has one.

Jungle – Smile. Jungle’s second album, For Ever, dropped in September, and this track’s pseudo-African percussion line opens up the record, which has a better balance of dance tracks and slow jams than their debut did.

Gunship – When You Grow up, Your Heart Dies. I get a sort of White Lies vibe out of this track, which clearly descends from the same new wave evolutionary branch.

Metric – Now or Never Now. I’ve liked the occasional Metric song but wouldn’t call myself a fan of their catalog as a whole; this has the right sound and a decent hook, although I fear it doesn’t have the staying power of some of their previous hits.

Alain Johannes Trio – Luna a Sol (featuring Mike Patton). Yep, that’s Faith No More & Mr. Bungle frontman Mike Patton singing in Johannes’ native Spanish. Johannes’ name isn’t familiar, but he’s worked with a slew of bands you know in the hard/alternative rock space, including QotSA & affiliated acts, Arctic Monkeys, Mark Lanegan, Jimmy Eat World, and recently PJ Harvey, as a musician, engineer, and producer. This hypnotic, psychedelic hard rock track might be held back from airplay because it’s in Spanish but the sound is very post-grunge.

Speedy Ortiz – Blood Keeper. Speedy Ortiz is touring with Liz Phair, so the talented Sadie Dupuis and company covered this track, an outtake from Phair’s Whitechocolatespaceegg record that was never officially released.

Radkey – St. Elwood. It looks like this trio of brothers are gearing up to finally release their sophomore album, four years after their debut Dark Black Makeup appeared, with this single out now and another, “Rock and Roll Homeschool,” out this Friday.

Van William – Pictures Of Me. Friend of the dish Van Pierszalowski released this one-off single, a cover of an Elliott Smith track from the late singer/songwriter’s 1997 album Either/Or.

Sarah Chernoff – Crime. The B-side to the single “You’re Free” that Chernoff, ex-Superhumanoids chanteuse, released at the end of August is just as strong as the lead single. Her voice is among my favorites in music today and I think it marries especially well with this kind of ethereal electronic backing.

Death Cab for Cutie – Summer Years. DCFC’s Thank You for Today came out in late August and reminds me quite a bit of their preceding album in tone, theme, and production style, with “Gold Rush” still my favorite single from the album (and one of my favorite songs of the year so far) and this one somewhere in the mix for #2.

BROCKHAMPTON – HONEY. This Texas music collective calls itself a “boy band,” although I think that’s a too-cute way of avoiding trying to categorize their music, which incorporates many different styles including hip-hop, alternative rock, and electronica. What they really aren’t is pop, which is what marks boy bands (and makes them rather disposable), but they appear to be popular, as their new album Iridescence debuted at #1 this week and sold over 100,000 units.

Purple Heart Parade – Lonestar. Shoegaze dream-pop from Manchester, as if it’s still 1995 and we’re all still tripping balls.

The Magic Gang – Getting Along. “The Magic Gang” sounds like the name of a fictional kid’s show from the late 1970s that would get worked into an SNL sketch, much like the fake sitcom “Switcheroo.” This very real band, from southern England, has that classic indie blend of hooks, harmonies, and something that’s just a little too rough around the edges for the mainstream. Their self-titled debut album is out now, with this my favorite song.

YONAKA – Wish You Were Somebody. YONAKA’s songs all have an early Joan Jett sort of sneer that contrasts nicely with the hooks that show up on all of their tracks. “You can kiss my ass goodbye/I’m with some other guy” seems like it should the angry breakup anthem of the season.

FIDLAR – Too Real. This song, FIDLAR’s first in over two years, starts out as a weird trance-like “is this really a FIDLAR song” thing that eventually transforms into a profanity-filled rage track with a lot of screaming. I like it but you’ve been warned.

Drug Church – Strong References. Punk that might stop just short of hardcore to stay just accessible enough for a broader audience – including me. It’s heavy and a little grating at times, but Patrick Kindlon (of Self Defense Family) and company mix in some alternative elements and hints of a melody to keep this from becoming just another forgettable hardcore track.

Pallbearer – Run Like Hell. Yep, that’s a cover of the Pink Floyd classic. I’ll be honest – I go back and forth on whether I like this reimagining of a fairly iconic song from The Wall.

Riverside – Acid Rain. Progressive metal from Poland, with Wasteland, their latest album, dropping a week or so ago, featuring clean vocals and a mixture of metal sounds that wouldn’t be out of place in Gothenburg with latter-day Opeth-style prog passages. If you like this kind of sophisticated metal, I also recommend “Wasteland” and the nine-minute instrumental “Struggle for Survival,” which avoids some of the tweet vocals that pop up elsewhere on the album.

Horrendous – Devotion (Blood for Ink). Horrendous is the best extreme metal band going right now, producing highly technical, progressive, challenging metal, with growled vocals (meh) and occasional blast beats (bleh) but brilliant, intricate fretwork. Their fourth album, Idol, just came out a week ago, and continues the trend that started with 2014’s Ecdysis and continued with 2015’s Anareta, as they moved from straight-up melodic death metal to this frankly exciting blend of OSDM, classic thrash, and thoroughly modern, progressive metal.

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→ September 2, 2018
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Music update, August 2018.

I believe this is the longest monthly playlist of new music I’ve ever posted, running 30 songs and just shy of two hours, thanks in large part to a huge spate of new album releases in the last four weeks. Even at that I could have included more tracks and have more songs and albums I still want to check out, but the calendar had other ideas so I decided to call it a day and post this before October loomed. You can access the playlist directly here if you can’t see the widget below.

The Wombats — Bee-Sting. The Wombats put out a new album in February, a solid record but a little bit of a letdown after the amazing Glitterburg, so the appearance of this new single last week was both a big surprise and a huge boost to a month already replete with great new songs.

Thrice — Only Us. Thrice, featuring friend of the dish Riley Breckenridge on drums, will release its new album Palms on the 14th, with this the second very strong single already to appear from the record.

Art Brut — Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out!. I remember a reader (Bill S., I believe) recommending Art Brut to me about a decade ago, but at the time I found their sound a little too out there, almost deliberately non-musical in certain ways, including the vocals. This song seems written to address everything I didn’t like about their earlier stuff, and has a sort of Wombats/Arctic Monkeys vibe to the lyrics and music.

Nation of Language — Reality. This Brooklyn-based quartet appear to have fallen asleep in 1982 and just woken up without recognizing anything has changed in the world of music – and, as someone who came of age during that synth-heavy era of New Wave, I love it.

Broods — Peach. I adore Georgia Nott’s voice, so hearing her get autotuned up in the pre-chorus here is a bummer, but the hook in the chorus itself is tremendous and we do get to hear her sultry voice in its natural environment during the verses.

Ten Fé — Not Tonight. Ten Fé’s album Hit the Light was my #10 record of 2017, and they’re back now with more of the same ‘70s soft-rock sound just slightly updated with the technology of contemporary music.

Black Honey — Midnight. I might be the biggest Black Honey fan going; I think I’ve liked every single they’ve released so far over the last three years, and now we get their first full-length album, called Black Honey, on the 21st. This is on the poppier end for the group, but I’ve liked their stuff more when they keep this upbeat tempo.

Eric B. & Rakim — I Know You Got Soul ( The Double Trouble Remix ). I waffled a little on including this track; it’s a circa 1988 remix of the song I’ve named the greatest rap song of all time, and it’s not as if you could improve on perfection. But the remix is by Norman Cook, better known as Fatboy Slim, and Danny Poku, better known as D-Mob (“We Call It Acieed”), and backs up Rakim’s vocals with the music of the Jackson Five’s “ABC,” with Kool & the Gang’s “Funky Stuff” in the interludes. It works shockingly well.

Wild Nothing — Shallow Water. If you wanted Wild Nothing to revisit the sound of Nocturne, this track is for you.

Spirit Animal — World War IV. Spirit Animal’s album Born Yesterday is a strange mix of bold, almost bombastic rockers like this one and “The Truth,” and songs that seem like Twenty-One Pilots impressions. (I was going to say “bad Twenty-One Pilots impressions, but that seemed redundant.) If these guys stick to big, macho riffs in traditional rock sounds, they could be huge.

Foxing — Nearer My God. These St. Louis indie-rockers released their latest album, with this the title track and the best song I’ve heard from the record, on August 10th. Conor Murphy’s vocals really shine here as he hits notes I couldn’t hit if I took a football to the groin.

Drenge — Outside. I loved this British duo’s debut album, which took forever to show up in tHe U.S. even though they’d found some success in England, but thought they changed their sound too much for their follow-up record. This sounds more like their first LP – straight-up guitar and drum heavy rock with a little British snarl to it.

Alkaline Trio — Demon and Division. Alkaline Trio’s album Is This Thing Cursed? just dropped on Friday, the 31st, so I haven’t gotten into it yet, but this song, released a few weeks earlier as a single, is another strong power-pop (don’t call it “emo!”) single from Skiba & co.

Death Cab for Cutie — Northern Lights. Thank You for Today dropped on August 17th, with “Gold Rush” still my favorite off the record but this upbeat “Soul Meets Body”-ish track among my favorites from the rest.

Allie X — Science. Alexandra Hughes, who records as Allie X, covers a wide range within electronic indie-pop, but she has a knack for sweetly dark melodies, like this one on the third single from her upcoming album Super Sunset. If you like Sia’s music and vocal style, Allie X is the better version, without the commercial trappings or the wig.

St. Lucia — Bigger. I’m optimistic about St. Lucia’s upcoming third album, Hyperion, which is due out on the 21st, given how bouncy and fun the three singles have been – maybe not as impactful as the singles from his debut, but I think stronger than most of the material on 2016’s Matter other than “Dancing on Glass.”

YONAKA — Teach Me To Fight. I loved this British quartet with a feisty-voiced female lead singer’s track “Wouldn’t Wanna Be Ya” when it came out last year, and they’ve had a few singles in a similar post-punk, snarling vein, including this one, where Theresa Jarvis drops what should be an anthem for young feminists.

CLOVES — Hit Me Hard. CLOVES’s voice stunned me when I first heard her on “Frail Love,” a top ten song for me in 2015, but she was never going to find an audience just doing vocals and piano ballads, so a move into more pop territory was probably inevitable. I’m just glad she’s doing so with solid hooks and without surrendering any of her vocal power or the endearing way she articulates certain sounds.

Sarah Chernoff — You’re Free. Chernoff was the lead singer for the Superhumanoids, a sadly underappreciated dream-pop/electronica band that crafted gorgeous, textured music behind Chernoff’s soaring vocals. Her debut solo album was much more mellow, more in the style of torch songs than pop, but this new track splits the difference and I think provides the perfect platform for her vocal operatics. (I saw Superhumanoids live on their last tour, and met the band after the show. I can vouch for her singing prowess – this is exactly how she sounds in concert.)

Arkells — Relentless. These Canadian indie-rockers will drop their new album on October 19th, and this feels like it should be their breakout single here in the U.S., a danceable rock tune that’s easier than the preceding single “People’s Champ.” I just don’t understand why they used the keyboards from “La Macarena” in the background (sorry, you’ll never unhear this).

The Kooks — Kids. We got two new singles from the Kooks this month, this and “Chicken Bone,” with their new album, Let’s Go Sunshine, appearing on the 31st. I don’t think their sound has changed much at all, but I’m fine with that — Britpop itself may be dead but it’s not necessarily out of it as long as the Kooks are around.

Interpol — If You Really Love Nothing. Yet another album that appeared at the end of August (the 24th) that I still need to listen to, Marauder is Interpol’s sixth and so far has at least given us more hooks on its singles than El Pintor had on the final record.

Cullen Omori — Happiness Reigns. Omori, formerly of the Smith Westerns, just released his second solo album, The Diet, which I have seen compared to early Oasis but to me sounds a lot more like the aforementioned Kooks with a little Wild Nothing thrown in. This was my favorite track off the album.

Ovlov — The Best of You. Stoner rock with a Pinback vibe, most notable on this two-minute track off their latest album, TRU.

The Skull — Ravenswood. More doom metal from three former members of Trouble, still rocking the same Sabbath-ish vibe but with a crunchier, less metal guitar sound.

High On Fire — Electric Messiah. Sleep returned from a 19-year hiatus this spring with a new record, The Sciences, but front man Matt Pike didn’t ditch his primary band, High on Fire, whose music is hard and fast like ‘80s thrash or speed metal but with some stoner or sludge metal elements. This is the title track from their upcoming eighth album, due out October 5th.

Riverside — Vale of Tears. Polish progressive rock with a lot of Opeth to their sound with some shredding in the instrumental sections. Their new album Wasteland, their first since the death of founding guitarist Piotr Grudzi?ski, will drop on September 28th.

Voivod — Obsolete Beings. I’ve spelled out my concerns about Voivod’s new output before — it’s hard to accept anything without the late Denis D’Amour’s songwriting or guitar work as ‘real’ Voivod, and their forthcoming album The Wake (September 21st) will be their first record since 2006’s Katorz to exclude founding bassist Jean-Yves Thériault. But damn does this sound like peak Voivod circa Dimension Hatröss.

Omnium Gatherum — Refining Fire. Add one more album to the list of those that came out on August 31st that I need to listen to, Burning Cold, the latest record from this Finnish melodic death metal act. I did also like “Rest in Your Heart” from the same album, the music of which wouldn’t have been out of place on a pop-metal album in the late 80s with its huge synth lines and downtempo power-chord riffing.

Horrendous — The Idolater. I’ve been a big proponent of Horrendous, a Philly-based technical/progressive death metal band, even with their guttural, indecipherable vocals, because their music is intricate, experimental, and utterly fascinating. Their second album, 2014’s Ecdysis, was like nothing I’d ever heard before, and their follow-up, Anareta, wasn’t far behind. The first two tracks from their fourth album, Idol, which drops September 28th, are both absolute beasts of technical work, but this song feels like their songwriting has become more sophisticated since their last album. I could do without the blast beat, though.

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