{"id":10193,"date":"2024-03-01T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=10193"},"modified":"2024-02-29T22:11:45","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T03:11:45","slug":"music-update-february-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2024\/03\/01\/music-update-february-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Music update, February 2024."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Hey, not too bad for a month of just 29 days, although I think the quantity of songs on a playlist has more to do with how many Fridays a month has than how many days. I\u2019m posting this on March 1<sup>st<\/sup>, which is a strong album release day (Liam Gallagher &amp; John Squire, Everything Everything, Kaiser Chiefs, Ministry, Sheer Mag, Yard Act), leading into what looks like a very promising spring of new LPs from some great artists. As always, if you can\u2019t see the Spotify widget below, you can <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/playlist\/0bpOM8z9ZM2GYWkuzynISY?si=cb74a251690f49c1\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Klaw&amp;apos;s February 2024 music update\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/playlist\/0bpOM8z9ZM2GYWkuzynISY?si=61894d67e4124f72&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Kacey Musgraves \u2013 Deeper Well. <\/strong>I\u2019m pretty sure this is the first song by Musgraves I\u2019ve ever put on a playlist. It\u2019s just gorgeous, with a hint of darkness in the lyrics to contrast to the lovely guitarwork and harmonies in the chorus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Khruangbin \u2013 May Ninth. <\/strong><em>A La Sala<\/em>, their first proper LP since 2020\u2019s <em>Mordechai<\/em>, comes out on April 5<sup>th<\/sup>, and it seems like it may be a return to their all-instrumental style from their prior work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Parsnip \u2013 The Light.<\/strong> Parsnip is an Australian quartet who released an album in 2019 called <em>When the Tree Bears Fruit<\/em>, but this was the first track I\u2019d heard by them. It\u2019s jangly, catchy indie-pop with some smart-ass lyrics, loosely descended from a lot of the Britpop stuff I was all about in my 20s. It\u2019s from their upcoming album <em>Behold<\/em>, due out April 26<sup>th<\/sup>, their first new music of any sort since 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Kaiser Chiefs \u2013 Beautiful Girl.<\/strong> <em>Kaiser Chiefs\u2019 Easy Eighth Album<\/em> comes out on March 1<sup>st<\/sup>, their first LP since 2019, but even with production from Nike Rodgers, this is the only single I\u2019ve heard of five worth listening to. It\u2019s fantastic, though. Lead singer Ricky Wilson wrote a short, interesting retrospective <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/lifeandstyle\/2024\/feb\/24\/ricky-wilson-looks-back-kaiser-chiefs\">on their sudden rise to fame and the vicissitudes of their career<\/a> for <em>The Guardian<\/em> this past week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Pond \u2013 Neon River.<\/strong> More weird psychedelic rock from down under. Stay with it through the lugubrious intro for the muscular, acid-tinged riffs in the chorus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Elbow \u2013 Lovers\u2019 Leap. <\/strong>Elbow came along at the wrong time for me, after Madchester and Britpop, two genres I still come back to all the time, but before I got back into current music again around 2007, thanks in no small part to the Arctic Monkeys\u2019 debut album. I\u2019ve checked in on them here and there, such as when they won the Mercury Prize for <em>The Seldom Seen Kid<\/em>, but their music has just drifted right on by me. That\u2019s by way of explanation of why this is the first Elbow track to ever appear on one of my playlists: it\u2019s not just that I think it\u2019s good, but I think it\u2019s very different. Frontman Guy Garvey promised the upcoming LP, <em>Audio Vertigo<\/em>, will be \u201cgroove-based,\u201d and this song definitely qualifies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Yard Act feat. Katy Pearson and David Thewlis \u2013 When the Laughter Stops. <\/strong>More post-punk goodness from Yard Act, with an appearance from Thewlis reading the \u201csound and fury\u201d monologue from <em>Hamlet<\/em>. Their second album, <em>Where\u2019s My Utopia?<\/em>, is out today, March 1<sup>st<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>English Teacher \u2013 R&amp;B. <\/strong>There\u2019s a slow start here but it picks up the pace partway through to sound more like other English Teacher tracks, with their modern take on post-punk; their debut full-length <em>This Could Be Texas<\/em> comes out on April 12<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Omni \u2013 Compliment. <\/strong>I seem to be very late to the Omni party, as the Atlanta post-punks have received critical acclaim for at least their last three albums now, including the just-released <em>Souvenir<\/em>, which has this track as the closer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Squid \u2013 Fugue (Bin Song). <\/strong>I\u2019m not always on Squid\u2019s wavelength, but they\u2019re one of the most innovative bands out there right now, especially in their punk-adjacent space, playing with time signatures and working outside of traditional keys. It\u2019s a bit like black midi with less pretense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Les Savy Fav \u2013 Legendary Tippers.<\/strong> I didn\u2019t think LSF were still a going concern, but they\u2019re about to release their first new album in 14 years, <em>Oui<\/em>, in May. They\u2019ve dropped two singles so far; this one sounds similar to the sound they<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Kid Kapichi \u2013 Get Down. <\/strong>Kid Kapichi have always reminded me of a harder-edged version of Arctic Monkeys, leaning more into punk than Alex Turner &amp; company do, but here they go back a few decades with talk-sung lyrics telling a story before the hook in the chorus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Cast \u2013 The Rain That Falls. <\/strong>So I sort of knew Cast were still around, but maybe I\u2019d forgotten? I loved Cast in the 1990s \u2013 \u201cSandstorm,\u201d \u201cAlright,\u201d \u201cBeat Mama,\u201d \u201cFinetime\u201d \u2013 as they emerged from the ashes of The La\u2019s, whose Brian Wilson-esque frontman Lee Mavers refused to release any new music after their debut album. Cast\u2019s latest LP <em>Love Is the Call<\/em> is a mixed bag, at best, but this is the best track on the album and you can hear their earlier Britpoppy sound poking through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Everything Everything \u2013 The End of the Contender. <\/strong>These British art-rockers\u2019 latest album, <em>Mountainhead<\/em>, drops on March 1<sup>st<\/sup>, featuring this song, \u201cCold Reactor,\u201d and \u201cThe Mad Stone.\u201d Those three singles all have the EE sound, but they\u2019ve also felt more restrained, without the sort of controlled chaos of <em>Arc<\/em> or <em>A Fever Dream<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Love Fame Tragedy \u2013 It\u2019s Ok To Be Shallow. <\/strong>The second single this winter from Matthew Murphy\u2019s side project, after December\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t You Want To Sleep With Someone Normal,\u201d with both sounding \u2026 a lot like the Wombats. I don\u2019t think Murphy can write any other way, but fortunately I love most of what he writes, so we\u2019re all good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ride \u2013 Last Frontier. <\/strong>Ride &amp; Slowdive both making comebacks in the late teens ahead of, or perhaps encouraging, the new peak of shoegaze is a welcome development, given that I liked both bands in their original heydays but definitely did not fully appreciate either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Brittany Howard \u2013 Prove It To You. <\/strong><em>What Now<\/em> turned out to be a bit of a disappointment after the title track, the lead single from the record, was so good I named it my #1 track of 2023. I was hoping for more funk, but instead the album bounces all over the place, with a lot of house\/electronica and a number of almost dirge-like tracks. Nothing lived up to the first single but this is the second-best song on the LP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Little Simz \u2013 Mood Swings. <\/strong>Little Simz released a surprise EP, <em>Drop 7<\/em>, with seven tracks and a total run time of just 14:49; it is, as you\u2019d expect, the seventh in a series of EPs that exist in parallel to her more traditional tracks on her albums. It\u2019s weird, in a good way, although it reminds me I need to listen to <em>No Thank You<\/em>, her December 2022 album, again, as it came out in a dead time for new albums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Paul Weller \u2013 Soul Wandering. <\/strong>Sixty-five and still rocking, Weller, the former leader of The Jam and The Style Council, is back with this soul-influenced track that has some powerful guitar work (I get a little early Tom Cochrane from it) before the Motown-esque backing vocalists come in for the chorus. His latest solo album, <em>66<\/em>, will come out on May 24<sup>th<\/sup>, one day before his 66<sup>th<\/sup> birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Waxahatchee \u2013 Bored. <\/strong>I can\u2019t believe it\u2019s been four years since <em>Saint Cloud<\/em>, Waxahatchee\u2019s breakout album, came out, but I guess a fair amount has happened since then. This track is the second from her upcoming album <em>Tiger Blood<\/em>, due out March 24<sup>th<\/sup>, and both songs seem to lean more into her alt.country side than the roots rock style of the last album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Mysterines \u2013 Stray. <\/strong>Lia Metcalfe and company will release their second album, <em>Afraid of Tomorrows<\/em>, on June 7<sup>th<\/sup>. This lead single is more snarling than most of the tracks on their 2022 debut, <em>Reeling<\/em>, but not quite as fast-paced as their earliest singles, which remains my favorite version of the band. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4NquU--FL9Y\">The song\u2019s video<\/a> definitely leans into Metcalfe\u2019s looks and star power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Slow Fiction \u2013 Apollo. <\/strong>An indie-rock group from Brooklyn \u2013 bet you haven\u2019t heard of that before! \u2013 Slow Fiction put out an EP last year, followed by this one-off single, which does a tremendous job of building up energy and tension through the bridge and chorus, only releasing it in the final ten seconds or so of the track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Screaming Females \u2013 Swallow the World. <\/strong>The Females announced their breakup in December, but they\u2019ve now released their 2022 EP <em>Clover<\/em>, previously only available to buy at shows, on streaming sites and on bandcamp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MAQUINA. \u2013 denial. <\/strong>I know very little about this band other than that they\u2019re Portuguese, but this is very Ministry, with a little Death in Vegas thrown in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Alcest \u2013 L\u2019Envol.<\/strong> This French metal band pioneered the awkwardly-named subgenre of \u201cblackgaze,\u201d melding black metal elements with shoegaze, which was later taken over by the American band Deafheaven on their far less interesting album <em>Sunbather<\/em>. Anyway, Alcest has been putting out some of the best metal albums in the world in the last decade, and their first new LP in five years, <em>Les Chants de l\u2019aurore<\/em>, will be out in June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hey, not too bad for a month of just 29 days, although I think the quantity of songs on a playlist has more to do with how many Fridays a month has than how many days. I\u2019m posting this on March 1st, which is a strong album release day (Liam Gallagher &amp; John Squire, Everything [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[359,609,167,757,852,747,919],"class_list":["post-10193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alternative","tag-hip-hop","tag-indie","tag-metal","tag-music","tag-post-punk","tag-shoegaze","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10194,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10193\/revisions\/10194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}