{"id":7971,"date":"2019-11-01T14:47:43","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T18:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=7971"},"modified":"2019-11-01T14:51:09","modified_gmt":"2019-11-01T18:51:09","slug":"music-update-october-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2019\/11\/01\/music-update-october-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Music update, October 2019."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>October may have been a weak month for new music, but it&#8217;s also quite possible I was too busy with finishing up the first draft of <em>The Inside Game<\/em>, going to the Arizona Fall League, and watching the playoffs to find new tracks as often as I usually do. I&#8217;m definitely behind on some promising albums that came out in the last few weeks, but here&#8217;s my list of the best new songs I heard this past month. If you can&#8217;t see the Spotify widget, you can access the <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/playlist\/2Q5ZoFUECclbSZAP1wCkAb?si=xz5I0LylQ4O9lDxEMEm60A\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">playlist here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/playlist\/2Q5ZoFUECclbSZAP1wCkAb\" width=\"300\" height=\"380\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sleater-Kinney \u2013 ANIMAL.<\/strong> A non-album track from the now-duo, who I saw this past week in Philadelphia. They were great live, and rocked a lot harder than I expected given their sound on records.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Michael Kiwanuka \u2013 Rolling.<\/strong> The <em>Guardian<\/em> named <em>KIWANUKA<\/em>, the third album from this English singer\/songwriter, one of the best albums of the decade, which got my attention. If you played me this soul\/rock\/funk song cold, I&#8217;d guess it was from 1972, and I&#8217;d wonder why I&#8217;d never heard it before given how fucking great it is.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mourn \u2013 Jumping Someone Else&#8217;s Train.<\/strong> This Barcelona trio released <em>Mixtape<\/em>, an EP of covers from indie-rock artists who recorded before these women were born, including tracks by Come, dEUS, Chris Bell (of Big Star), and this song by the Cure.<\/p>\n<p><strong>White Reaper \u2013 Hard Luck<\/strong>. The world&#8217;s greatest American band released their third album, <em>You Deserve Love<\/em>, a week ago, but I haven&#8217;t had time to get into it yet. I&#8217;ve liked the songs I&#8217;ve heard so far, which very much follow the same punk-influenced, upbeat alt-rock pattern of their first two albums.<\/p>\n<p><strong>LIFE \u2013 Niceties<\/strong>. Tough name in the Google era, but LIFE are Brighton punks who are appropriately angry at the world, and who just released their second album <em>A Picture of Good Health<\/em>, which has a lot of songs that push the boundary into outright abrasiveness (or push right through it). This and &#8220;Hollow Thing&#8221; are the standout tracks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CHVRCHES \u2013 Death Stranding<\/strong>. The Scottish trio&#8217;s contribution to the soundtrack of the video game <em>Death Stranding<\/em> is better than anything off their last album.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MisterWives \u2013 the end<\/strong>. MisterWives, which is really a vehicle for charismatic lead singer Mandy Lee, are really a pop band who&#8217;ve been mislabeled an alternative act because they haven&#8217;t broken through yet. I thought &#8220;Machine&#8221; might do the trick a few years ago. Maybe this very catchy, poppy track will be their breakthrough.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Foals \u2013 Like Lightning.<\/strong> I think my ultimate verdict on Foals&#8217; two albums this year, <em>Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, Parts 1 and 2<\/em>, will be that they had enough material for one incredible album but spread the best tracks across two uneven LPs instead.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Great Grandpa \u2013 Bloom.<\/strong> My favorite track from the quintet&#8217;s new album <em>Four of Arrows<\/em>, &#8220;Bloom&#8221; has a little of all of the sounds Great Grandpa usually incorporates, but doesn&#8217;t skimp on the main hook or let the tempo flag (as on &#8220;Digger&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Maisie Peters \u2013 Look At Me Now.<\/strong> By my count, the now 19-year-old Peters has released 17 songs across two EPs, including the new <em>It&#8217;s Your Bed Babe, It&#8217;s Your Funeral<\/em>, over the last three calendar years, although she&#8217;s received virtually no press or airplay in the U.S., which I think is a damn shame. This track, from the new EP, is a good example of her style, although it&#8217;s not quite as immediate as &#8220;Place We Were Made&#8221; or &#8220;Best I&#8217;ll Ever Sing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tei Shi feat. Blood Orange \u2013 Even If It Hurts<\/strong>. I&#8217;m just so-so on the song as a whole, but good luck getting this chorus out of your head.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Floating Points \u2013 Anasickmodular.<\/strong> It was tough to pass up on &#8220;Bias,&#8221; also from Floating Points&#8217; new album <em>Crush<\/em>, but I think this is a better track from neuroscientist Sam Shepherd&#8217;s latest album of electronica.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Longwave \u2013 If We Ever Live Forever.<\/strong> Longwave returned from a decade-long hiatus with last year&#8217;s &#8220;Stay With Me,&#8221; and they&#8217;re now back with a new album, with this as the title track. It&#8217;s more guitar-driven than last year&#8217;s song, but still has some of the bass\/synth underpinnings that recall &#8217;80s new wave and alternative.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Potty Mouth \u2013 Favorite Food.<\/strong> A battle with an intransigent record label forced Potty Mouth to go six years between its first and second albums, with the latter, SNAFU, dropping this past March, but they&#8217;re already back with another punk-pop single that just came out this morning.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Highly Suspect \u2013 Canals.<\/strong> The Grammy-nominated trio have just enough of a blues rock\/metal foundation to keep pulling me in even when they seem to be actively trying to piss their listeners off. I love the guitar work in this one, which reminds me a lot of Royal Blood.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Alcest \u2013 Les jardins de minuit.<\/strong> This two-man French &#8220;blackgaze&#8221; (what a dumb term) metal project is back with Spiritual Instinct, a harder album than 2016&#8217;s superb Kodama and I think their heaviest since \u00c9cailles de Lune in 2010. There&#8217;s some blast-beat silliness on here, but the soundscapes Alcest creates through the rest of the track are immersive with brief moments of brooding heaviness.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Wilderun \u2013 O Resolution!<\/strong> This is some Blackwater Park-level shit, right down to the superfluous death growls, but I am totally here for it. I&#8217;m even getting a little Candlemass out of the backing vocals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>October may have been a weak month for new music, but it&#8217;s also quite possible I was too busy with finishing up the first draft of The Inside Game, going to the Arizona Fall League, and watching the playoffs to find new tracks as often as I usually do. I&#8217;m definitely behind on some promising [&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":[1085,359,755,852,787],"class_list":["post-7971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2019-in-music","tag-alternative","tag-electronic-music","tag-music","tag-progressive-metal","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7971","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=7971"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7973,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7971\/revisions\/7973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}