{"id":10234,"date":"2024-04-04T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=10234"},"modified":"2024-04-03T22:04:42","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T02:04:42","slug":"music-update-march-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2024\/04\/04\/music-update-march-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Music update, March 2024."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

March had a slew of big album releases, even just limiting them to artists whose work I\u2019ve 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 \u2013 not bad, but nothing that special. There were a lot of songs from upcoming albums that I\u2019m excited for, and this playlist has tracks from four different albums due out on May 3rd<\/sup>, so I guess that\u2019ll be a busy listening weekend for me. As always, you can access the playlist here<\/a> if you can\u2019t see the Spotify widget below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mdou Moctar \u2013 Funeral for Justice.<\/strong> Moctar became a global phenomenon with 2021\u2019s Afrique Victime<\/em>, 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<\/a>.) This is the title track from his follow-up album, due out May 3rd<\/sup>, and it\u2019s very heavy on Moctar\u2019s mesmerizing guitar work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elbow \u2013 Good Blood Mexico City.<\/strong> This banger from Elbow\u2019s latest album, AUDIO VERTIGO<\/em>, feels like the best song Doves never recorded. It\u2019s fast and loud and intense, with a great hook at its heart. The album is solid and I think it\u2019s the best new album from last month, at least of the ones I\u2019ve listened to all the way through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Libertines \u2013 Oh Shit. <\/strong>The lads\u2019 fourth album, All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade<\/em>, 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 Bar\u00e2t and Doherty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaiser Chiefs \u2013 Reasons to Stay Alive.<\/strong>The Kaisers may be approaching 30 years together as a band, and their most popular record, Employment<\/em>, may turn 20 next year, but their new album has two absolute bangers in this and \u201cBeautiful Girl.\u201d I doubt it\u2019ll get much play outside of the U.K., given the way we dispose of bands in the U.S. music scene, but they\u2019ve had more than a few winners even post-\u201cRuby.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kid Kapichi \u2013 Can EU Hear Me?<\/strong> Angry Kid Kapichi is the best Kid Kapichi, and I wish the whole album \u2013 There Goes the Neighborhood<\/em> \u2013 maintained this level of righteous rage throughout. This is obviously an anti-Brexit track (\u201cI don\u2019t wanna live alone on this island\/But they put it to a vote, and they just kept lyin\u2019\u201d) but like all of the best Kapichi tracks it has some incredible hooks and the indignation shows up in the furious rhythm guitar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liam Gallagher\/John Squire \u2013 You\u2019re Not the Only One. <\/strong>Yeah, well, the anticipation was fun, but the album is kind of a snoozer. I think everyone \u2013 myself included \u2013 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\u2019t seemed engaged with any music he\u2019s put out since Oasis\u2019s 2005 album Don\u2019t Believe the Truth<\/em>. One track on the album is called \u201cI\u2019m So Bored,\u201d and when Liam sings it, I believe him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mourn \u2013 Endless Looping.<\/strong> I thought Mourn had disbanded after 2021\u2019s Self Worth<\/em>, as they seemed to vanish from the internet, but they returned in March with The Avoider<\/em>, which feels oddly muted for a trio whose songs usually burst with energy that helped power them through even when songs weren\u2019t polished or their vocals were (deliberately) a little off key. This opening track is the best on the record, although \u201cCould Be Friends\u201d is solid too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White Reaper \u2013 I Can\u2019t Escape Myself. <\/strong>White Reaper released this one-off single, a cover of the opening track from UK post-punk icons The Sound\u2019s debut album Jeopardy!<\/em>, to tide fans over until there\u2019s a new Reaper album on the way. It\u2019s a faithful cover translated through the White Reaper sound, with more polished production than the original but still the same haunting quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yard Act \u2013 A Vineyard for the North.<\/strong> Where\u2019s My Utopia?<\/em>, the second album from these UK post-punks, didn\u2019t 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\u2019ve already included \u201cWe Make Hits,\u201d \u201cDream Job,\u201d \u201cPetroleum,\u201d and \u201cWhen the Laughter Stops\u201d on previous playlists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sheer Mag \u2013 Golden Hour. <\/strong>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<\/em> \u2013 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\u2019s a lot of 12-bar blues here and some rockabilly sounds (\u201cGolden Hour\u201d), with some great melodies (\u201cMoonstruck\u201d) but not a ton of experimentation \u2013 except on this track, which features a killer guitar solo from none other than Mdou Moctar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lauren Mayberry \u2013 Change Shapes.<\/strong> I\u2019ve been surprised by Mayberry\u2019s 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\u2019t have a dark edge I\u2019d call it twee and leave it off the playlist entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard Hawley \u2013 Two For His Heels.<\/strong> Hawley, formerly of the shortlived Britpop band Longpigs and then briefly of Pulp, hasn\u2019t released anything since his 2019 album Further<\/em>, but he\u2019s 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<\/em>. This track is very noirish, suiting its lyrics about a deal gone wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

La Luz \u2013 Strange World.<\/strong> Speaking of noir, La Luz doesn\u2019t do anything other than that, and that\u2019s fine with me. The quartet has changed by 50% since their last album in 2021, but leader Shana Cleveland is still on board. They\u2019ll release News of the Universe<\/em> on May 24th<\/sup>, featuring this track and the lugubrious \u201cPoppies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khruangbin \u2013 Pon P\u00f3n. <\/strong>A LA SALA<\/em>, their first album of new material since 2020\u2019s Mordechai<\/em>, arrives this Friday; I loved Mordechai <\/em>but it didn\u2019t land with critics the way their earlier work had. This and \u201cA Love International\u201d are both standouts already, ahead of the slower (and non-instrumental) \u201cMay Ninth\u201d of the three singles they\u2019ve released from the album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kamasi Washington \u2013 Prologue. <\/strong>The acclaimed jazz saxophonist will release his latest album, Fearless Movement<\/em>, on May 3rd<\/sup>, and this track is actually the last one on the record, despite the title. Nobody is the new John Coltrane, but Washington\u2019s work does remind me a bit of the GOAT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kacey Musgraves \u2013 Cardinal.<\/strong> I guess I\u2019m a Kacey Musgraves fan now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waxahatchee \u2013 3 Sisters.<\/strong> I still haven\u2019t listened all the way through Tigers Blood<\/em>, and I think part of it is that I thought Saint Cloud <\/em>(her last album, released almost exactly four years before this one) was so good that I can\u2019t imagine this will live up to it. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a \u201cLilacs\u201d or an \u201cUnder the Rock\u201d here, at least not yet, but this song is quite lovely, especially the harmonies in the chorus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parsnip \u2013 Turn to Love.<\/strong> I wouldn\u2019t rate this above the Aussie\u2019 quartet\u2019s previous single, the incredible power-pop gem \u201cThe Light,\u201d but if you hang on here until the chorus you\u2019ll hear what they\u2019re capable of. Their sophomore album Behold<\/em> drops on April 26th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love Fame Tragedy \u2013 My Head\u2019s in a Hurricane.<\/strong> LFT is Matthew Murphy, lead singer-songwriter for the Wombats, and his second solo album under that moniker, Life is a Killer<\/em>, actually feels like a really good Wombats album \u2013 more than his solo debut did, certainly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Courting \u2013 Battle.<\/strong> Courting\u2019s New Last Name<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blushing \u2013 Tamagotchi.<\/strong> The second song with this title to appear on one of my playlists this year, oddly enough, this \u201cTamagotchi\u201d comes from a shoegaze band from Austin who\u2019ve released two albums already, one co-produced by Mark Gardener of Ride. Their sound is very similar to early Lush, and indeed they covered \u201cOut of Control\u201d on an early release. Blushing\u2019s third full-length album Sugarcoat<\/em> comes out May 3rd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ride \u2013 Portland Rocks.<\/strong> Speaking of Ride, their latest album Interplay <\/em>came out last month, and it\u2019s 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\u2019s revival, Ride have reemerged in a softer form, closer to dream-pop than shoegaze, with Interplay<\/em> harkening back more to British new wave than the original shoegaze movement that Ride helped pioneer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jesus and Mary Chain \u2013 Venal Eyes. <\/strong>The Guardian<\/em> called the Reid brothers\u2019 second comeback album \u201cthree-quarters of a good record<\/a>\u201d by way of praise; I might put the ratio closer to half. (Their real comeback album was 2017\u2019s Damage and Joy<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drop Nineteens \u2013 Nest.<\/strong> Concluding the shoegaze portion of the playlist we have perhaps the only American band associated with the genre\u2019s original heyday. Drop Nineteens put out a new album, Hard Light<\/em>, in November of 2023, their first album in 30 years; this song didn\u2019t make the album but came out of the same sessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wheel \u2013 Empire.<\/strong> One of my favorite progressive metal bands going, Wheel has put out two singles from their forthcoming album Charismatic Leaders<\/em>, this and the seven-minute \u201cPorcelain.\u201d The new album drops May 3rd<\/sup> and will be their first as a trio after bassist Aki Virta left the band amicably last July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ministry \u2013 New Religion. <\/strong>Al Jourgensen is 65 years old now and as pissed-off as ever, with Ministry\u2019s new album HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES<\/em>, which he\u2019s hinted might be their last, a furious tirade against incels, white nationalists, right-wing grifters, and Trump himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judas Priest \u2013 Invincible Shield.<\/strong> 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\u2019d expect from the folks behind \u201cBreaking the Law\u201d and \u201cYou\u2019ve Got Another Thing Coming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pallbearer \u2013 Where the Light Fades. <\/strong>The kings of American doom metal will release their fifth album Mind Burns Alive<\/em> on May 17th<\/sup>, their first new music since 2020\u2019s Forgotten Days<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ufomammut \u2013 Leeched.<\/strong> An Italian doom metal band who\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Messiah \u2013 Sikhote Alin.<\/strong> 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<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March had a slew of big album releases, even just limiting them to artists whose work I\u2019ve 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 \u2013 not […]<\/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":[1374,359,1096,498,167,1127,757,852,787,919,1114],"class_list":["post-10234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2024-in-music","tag-alternative","tag-doom-metal","tag-folk-music","tag-indie","tag-jazz","tag-metal","tag-music","tag-progressive-metal","tag-shoegaze","tag-thrash","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10234","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=10234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10235,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10234\/revisions\/10235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}