{"id":10708,"date":"2025-04-02T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=10708"},"modified":"2025-04-01T15:02:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T19:02:00","slug":"music-update-march-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/02\/music-update-march-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Music update, March 2025."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>That was one of the worst months for new music I can recall \u2013 I had to stretch a little just to get this playlist to a sufficient length to post it. I figured waiting until the end of April would produce something too long to deal with, though. As always, you can <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/playlist\/3pMYfPsYTl56t3bRFoK1zn?si=d9a7d57a17374392\">access the playlist here<\/a> if you can\u2019t see the widget below.<\/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 March 2025 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\/3pMYfPsYTl56t3bRFoK1zn?si=7d515f42a5e64e91&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Courting \u2013 Namcy.<\/strong> The new album is called <em>Lust for Life, Or: &#8216;How to Thread the Needle and Come Out the Other Side to Tell the Story&#8217;<\/em>. It\u2019s really good, though. Maybe not quite up to 2024\u2019s <em>New Last Name<\/em>, but still very strong, likely to be one of my favorite albums of 2025 when we get there, with this, \u201cPause at You,\u201d and \u201cAfter You\u201d all strong (they were the three singles, too). The whole album is only 25:40, though. At what point is it just an EP?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sunflower Bean \u2013 Nothing Romantic.<\/strong> Sunflower Bean started out as a post-punk\/new wave band, shifted into more college-radio rock on their last two albums, had a hit with \u201cMoment in the Sun,\u201d and their newest album appears to be almost hard rock, with distorted guitars and lots of minor chords. I\u2019ve liked all of the singles from their new album, <em>Mortal Primetime<\/em>, due out April 25<sup>th<\/sup>, and this might have the best hook of them all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Anxious \u2013 Audrey Go Again<\/strong>. Anxious\u2019 latest album, <em>Bambi<\/em>, holds serve rather than pushing forward, with the Connecticut emo rockers \u2013 I mean, at this point, is it post-emo? Second-wave emo? \u2013 trying some different modes, like on this largely acoustic ballad, although they haven\u2019t abandoned their typical sound with tracks like \u201cNever Said\u201d and \u201cCounting Sheep.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Swervedriver \u2013 The World\u2019s Fair. <\/strong>Swervedriver released an EP, also called <em>The World\u2019s Fair<\/em>, last month, their first new music since 2019\u2019s <em>Future Ruins <\/em>LP. It\u2019s a softer side of the band, whose 1990s heyday saw a heavier sounds full of swirling guitars, although the psychedelic elements are still evident here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Greentea Peng \u2013 Nowhere Man.<\/strong> Peng had been AWOL since the summer of 2022, but put out two singles at the end of last year and dropped her second full-length album, <em>Tell Dem It\u2019s Sunny<\/em>, on March 21<sup>st<\/sup>. It\u2019s a more mature sound, with stronger lyrics, along with vocals that lean more into the neo-soul part of her sound; on her first album, she often sounded like she was posturing, and I don\u2019t get that sense from this record. Some other standout tracks include \u201cOne Foot\u201d and \u201cStones Throw.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>clipping. \u2013 Dominator.<\/strong> <em>Dead Channel Sky<\/em>, clipping.\u2019s second album, is a whole project, twenty songs including various interludes, shifting sounds and styles, and it\u2019s one of the most interesting and challenging records I\u2019ve heard in the last few years. I think that\u2019s a good thing; Daveed Diggs\u2019 verbal gymnastics carry them through on several tracks where the industrial backing music doesn\u2019t land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><strong>Freddie Gibbs \u2013 Nobody. <\/strong>This is unusually accessible for Gibbs, but remains a superb showcase for his skill as a lyricist and rapper; he\u2019s one of the best on the mic right now for flow and style, and he can work over a piano track like this one and still sound hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tunde Adebimpe \u2013 God Knows. <\/strong>Adebimpe\u2019s solo debut, <em>Thee Black Boltz<\/em>, comes out on April 18<sup>th<\/sup>; the TV on the Radio singer has put out three singles so far, and this is the weakest one, unfortunately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Preoccupations \u2013 Bastards.<\/strong> These post-punk Canucks have been at it since 2012, and they\u2019ve always hewed pretty closely to the standard sound of that genre \u2013 some of their tracks could easily have been recorded in 1983, given their adherence to the production style and sound of that era. This track seems like a departure for them, as the production is more modern, and much softer, which gives a whole new aspect to their songwriting. Their fifth album <em>Ill At Ease<\/em> comes out on May 9<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Black Honey \u2013 Psycho.<\/strong> A little chill for Black Honey, who\u2019ve churned out scads of pop bangers over the last decade or so (\u201cHello Today,\u201d \u201cMidnight,\u201d \u201cSomebody Better,\u201d \u201cAll My Pride,\u201d \u201cI Like the Way You Die,\u201d \u201cRun for Cover,\u201d \u201cBack of the Bar,\u201d \u201cOut of My Mind\u201d), still catchy but not up to their usual standard. It looks like this is a one-off single ahead of a spring tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>OVERSIZE \u2013 Are You With Me?<\/strong> This English quintet delivers straight-up classic shoegaze circa 1993 on their debut album, <em>Vital Signs<\/em>, an album that I think works better as a full listen because, consistent with that subgenre, they\u2019re creating a whole wall of sound. This was the best track I could pull out to include on the playlist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hotwax \u2013 Strange to Be Here.<\/strong> This trio from Hastings, England, just released their debut album <em>Hot Shock<\/em>; I\u2019ve seen them labelled as \u201cgrunge\u201d in multiple reviews, but they\u2019re grunge like Hole was grunge, which is to say they might have shown up adjacent to grunge but that\u2019s not really their sound. It\u2019s messy, often loud, guitar-driven rock, reminiscent of Hole and Babes in Toyland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>YHWH Nailgun \u2013 Castrato Raw (Fullback).<\/strong> And you thought Courting\u2019s album was short: YHWH Nailgun\u2019s debut album, <em>45 Pounds<\/em>, runs just 21:04. I get that in the streaming era, album length doesn\u2019t carry the same weight as it did when we were talking physical media and labels were asking $15 for anything called a full-length album. This isn\u2019t an album, though. It\u2019s a chapbook. For Christ\u2019s sake, <em>this<\/em> is a mixtape, not the stuff marketed as such. But despite all of that, <em>45 Pounds<\/em> is a weird, compelling listen. It\u2019s driven by the percussion, including the use of rototoms, which allow drummer Sam Pickard to change the pitch of each drum by rotating it. It&#8217;s music, but it\u2019s not very musical \u2013 the drums take over the record, which isn\u2019t a bad thing by any means, meaning that there are just snippets of other instruments and singer Zack Borzone\u2019s quiet, guttural vocals. Whether you like it or not, <em>45 Pounds<\/em> will be one of the most unusual records you hear this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>feeble little horse \u2013 This Is Real.<\/strong> This Pittsburgh noise-rock band is new to me, although they\u2019ve been recording since 2021 and have released two albums. This song, which jams four distinct movements into a barely three-minute run time, is their first new track since their last album and a brief hiatus that saw them cancel their 2023 tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Greenleaf \u2013 Vat 69. <\/strong>I\u2019d never heard of Greenleaf until this week, as the band reissued their 2001 album <em>Revolution Rock<\/em> with six bonus tracks. I\u2019m annoyed that I wasn\u2019t familiar with them before, as this album hits my particular nostalgia for this sort of hard-rock vibe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Witchcraft \u2013 Dr\u00f6mmar av is.<\/strong> Witchcraft is a Swedish hard-rock band with doom elements to their music, although I wouldn\u2019t call them straight doom-metal; they\u2019ve been around since 2000 and their upcoming album <em>Idag<\/em> will be just their fifth. Their 2012 album <em>Legend<\/em> is their best to date, especially the first track, \u201cDeconstruction,\u201d which starts out a bit Sabbath-y before going full Iron Maiden after about a minute. This is the second track they\u2019ve released from the upcoming album, and it\u2019s better than the first, \u201cBurning Cross.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Planning for Burial \u2013 A Flowing Field of Green.<\/strong> Planning for Burial is one guy, Thom Wasluck, who not only plays all of the instruments on his records, he plays everything in live shows too. I don\u2019t know how that works and, you know, it\u2019s okay to work with other people. I thought Kevin Parker\u2019s schtick was bad enough. Anyway, I happen to love the way this post-metal track builds up a sense of impending doom, and then delivers it in the back half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hesse Kassel \u2013 Postparto.<\/strong> Hesse Kassel is a progressive shoegaze band from Chile that just self-released their first album, <em>La Brea<\/em>, with tracks running from 6 to 13 minutes. The whole affair is 78 minutes long, or more than three times the length of Courting\u2019s new album. Anyway, <em>La Brea<\/em> is fascinating, even if I can\u2019t tell you if I like it yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>That was one of the worst months for new music I can recall \u2013 I had to stretch a little just to get this playlist to a sufficient length to post it. I figured waiting until the end of April would produce something too long to deal with, though. As always, you can access the [&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":[1433,359,167,852],"class_list":["post-10708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2025-in-music","tag-alternative","tag-indie","tag-music","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10708","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=10708"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10713,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10708\/revisions\/10713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}