{"id":9153,"date":"2021-10-01T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=9153"},"modified":"2021-09-30T22:11:16","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T02:11:16","slug":"music-update-september-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2021\/10\/01\/music-update-september-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Music update, September 2021."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Whew. That turned out to be an epic month for new music, with my top album of 2021 so far dropping on the first Friday, a bunch of returns from old favorites, even some tracks from artists I didn&#8217;t love who surprised me with great new material. That means this playlist is one of my longest ever \u2013 29 songs and 104 minutes. Enjoy. You can access <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/playlist\/1QZFTPZj37AuzBvIT7Biyt?si=beb8dfb9c3944aa5\">the playlist here<\/a> if you can&#8217;t 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 September 2021 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\/1QZFTPZj37AuzBvIT7Biyt?si=bb93b7f129594bbb&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Little Simz feat. Obongjayar \u2013 Point and Kill<\/strong>. I&#8217;ve said a few times now that <em>Sometimes I Might Be Introvert<\/em> is my favorite album of 2021, and this track, featuring the Nigerian singer Obongjayar, is a major reason, one of the many standouts on the record along with the title track, &#8220;I Love You, I Hate You,&#8221; &#8220;Woman,&#8221; and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sleigh Bells \u2013 True Seekers<\/strong>. My favorite track from this duo since &#8220;Rill Rill&#8221; over a decade ago. Their music can be so deliberately abrasive that it often turns me away even when there&#8217;s a good vocal hook, but this song is a sort of anti-pop anthem that I can&#8217;t get out of my head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hatchie \u2013 This Enchanted. <\/strong>I loved the melodies in Hatchie&#8217;s first album and earlier singles, all in the sort of dream-pop sound that reminded me of early Cranberries or Lush, but her voice is a little bit soft and I think she fares better when the production puts her voice down into the music rather than out front. This new single does just that and it&#8217;s among her best so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Snail Mail \u2013 Valentine<\/strong>. Lindsey Jordan, who records as Snail Mail, is now all of 22 years old, and her second album, also called <em>Valentine<\/em>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Parcels \u2013 Somethinggreater<\/strong>. I was not familiar with Parcels at all before hearing this track, but I&#8217;m all in on this funky, R&amp;B-inflected pop gem. It&#8217;s the third single they&#8217;ve released ahead of the double album they&#8217;re putting out on November 5<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Frank Turner \u2013 Haven&#8217;t Been Doing So Well<\/strong>. Love when Turner gets into his punk roots more, which he really does here as on &#8220;1933&#8221; or &#8220;Recovery.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The War on Drugs Feat. Lucius \u2013 I Don&#8217;t Live Here Anymore<\/strong>. At least Adam Granduciel is just leaning into the Bob Dylan thing, singing &#8220;a creature void of form&#8221; on this song before name-checking Dylan directly. The singers from Lucius bring a lot to the chorus here, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>C<\/strong><strong>\u0153ur de Pirate \u2013 On s&#8217;aimera toujours<\/strong>. B\u00e9atrice seems to be locked into singing in French these days, which is fine, as I think her voice is beautiful, as is the language, although I feel like the U.S. audience is going to miss out on some great indie-pop because of it. If you&#8217;re wondering, the title means &#8220;We will always love each other.&#8221;<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jerro &amp; Panama \u2013 Lost for Words<\/strong>. Producer Jerro&#8217;s debut album comes out today, and this single features Australian producer Panama, who appeared on several of my playlists in the mid-teens with &#8220;Always&#8221; and &#8220;Hope for Something.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Obongjayar &amp; Sarz \u2013 Sweetness<\/strong>. And here&#8217;s a track from Obongjayar&#8217;s latest EP of the same name, also featuring the Nigerian musician\/producer Sarz, an Afrobeats-centric record with a heavy dose of &#8217;80s R&amp;B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bartees Strange \u2013 Weights<\/strong>. Strange is an avowed fan of the National, but I like him anyway, and here it sounds like he merged the National with the Hold Steady while adding his own vocal flourishes. It&#8217;s more than the sum of its parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Pond \u2013 Human Touch<\/strong>. These Aussie psych-rockers just released their ninth album, simply called <em>9<\/em>, today, with this as the second track and third single released ahead of the record, along with the also strong &#8220;America&#8217;s Cup.&#8221; Their brand of psychedelic rock emphasizes groove over the hazy production more typical of the genre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Lottery Winners feat. KT Tunstall \u2013 Dance With the Devil<\/strong>. I&#8217;ve been on the Lottery Winners for a few months now, but just discovered that the bio on their Youtube channel calls them &#8220;a mob of four twits from a rubbish working class town called Leigh, near Manchester.&#8221; Anyway, <em>Something to Leave the House For<\/em>, their second album, drops on October 29<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sam Fender \u2013 Get You Down<\/strong>. I wasn&#8217;t familiar with Fender&#8217;s work, although with a name like that, you&#8217;d better play one. He&#8217;s pretty popular in the UK, with his first album hitting #1 and his second due out on October 8<sup>th<\/sup>, with a sort of emo-tinged indie-rock that I think could play pretty well here too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Zeal &amp; Ardor \u2013 Bow<\/strong>. The gospel\/black metal fusion isn&#8217;t quite so present here \u2013 there&#8217;s some distorted guitars at the back of the mix, but this minimalist track from Manuel Gagneux puts his vocals front and center, where they belong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Yard Act \u2013 The Overload<\/strong>. I feel like this particular brand of post-punk music only works if you have a working-class English accent, so that the deadpan talk-sung lyrics sound charming rather than offputting. Whatever the reason, it works for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Stereophonics \u2013 Hanging on Your Hinges<\/strong>. The <em>Guardian<\/em>&#8216;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2021\/sep\/17\/this-weeks-new-tracks-abba-josef-salvat-vengaboys\">final tracks of the week<\/a> column called this song &#8220;the biggest pile of sh**,&#8221; but this song, while not exactly vintage Stereophonics, rocks. That&#8217;s a great riff that carries the whole track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eels \u2013 Good Night on Earth<\/strong>. I didn&#8217;t realize Mark Oliver Everett \u2013 sometimes known simply as E \u2013 was still churning out albums every two years or so, but so it is. This track wouldn&#8217;t be out of place on <em>Electro-Shock Blues<\/em>, which is high praise. Also, I need to say this pretty much every time I talk about Eels: E&#8217;s father, Hugh Everett III, came up with the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. What&#8217;s the cooler legacy: that, or &#8220;Novocaine for the Soul?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Talk Show \u2013 Underworld. <\/strong>I feel like at some point this new wave revivalist band will run into trouble thanks to the one-album act of the same name that included three members of Stone Temple Pilots (without Scott Weiland). &#8220;Underworld,&#8221; the first release off their EP <em>Touch the Ground<\/em>, due out in early 2022, straddles the genres of new wave and post-punk, like someone remixed a Gang of Four track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mini Trees \u2013 Carrying On<\/strong>. Lexi Vega, who records as Mini Trees, just released her debut album, <em>Always in Motion<\/em>, two weeks ago, featuring this lush dream-pop track and earning some extremely positive reviews already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ovlov \u2013 Land of Steve-O<\/strong>. Ovlov doesn&#8217;t release much music \u2013 their 2018 album <em>Tru<\/em> is their only LP since 2013&#8217;s <em>am<\/em> \u2013 but their sound is still intact, very &#8217;90s Dinosaur Jr.\/Sebadoh lo-fi fuzz-rock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Parquet Courts \u2013 Black Widow Spider<\/strong>. I have never been a fan of Parquet Courts, or Parkay Quartz as they once called themselves, but this song is fantastic. It&#8217;s off <em>Sympathy for Life<\/em>, their seventh album, which comes out today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Aeon Station \u2013 Queens<\/strong>. Aeon Station is Kevin Whelan, bassist and co-founder of the dormant band The Wrens, along with two other members of the Wrens. Their first album, <em>Observatory<\/em>, comes out in December, and includes five tracks Whelan wrote for the never-completed fourth Wrens album. Charles Bissell, the guitarist and co-founder of the Wrens, is not involved, and has said that band is now &#8220;dead&#8221; and he&#8217;ll release his own solo work. It sounds like a big mess. Anyway, I wasn&#8217;t familiar with The Wrens at all before this track, but it&#8217;s good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mastodon \u2013 Pushing the Tides<\/strong>. These metal stalwarts&#8217; eighth album, <em>Hushed and Grim<\/em>, comes out on the 29<sup>th<\/sup>. This track, the first single released off the album, veers back more towards the heavier technical metal of their early career, and while I loved their last record&#8217;s more accessible sound, I&#8217;m good with just about any direction Mastodon wants to take \u2013 as long as they don&#8217;t release their version of the Black album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Thrice \u2013 Summer Set Fire to the Rain<\/strong>. Featuring Puig Destroyer drummer Riley Breckenridge, Thrice will release their eleventh album, <em>Horizons\/East<\/em>, next Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Monolord \u2013 The Weary<\/strong>. This is the first track I&#8217;ve heard from this Swedish doom metal band, with some stoner metal influences here as well, so this is more than just the eight thousandth version of Cathedral or another Sabbath ripoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Black Map \u2013 Chasms<\/strong>. I thought Black Map, which comprises members of several other bands (Dredg, Far, The Trophy Fire), was a one-off project, but they&#8217;re back, with the same style of classic metal with hints of prog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Iron Maiden \u2013 Days of Future Past<\/strong>. Obligatory, although I maintain that the vocal melodies are beyond Bruce Dickinson&#8217;s capabilities at this point and end up detracting from the song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Carcass \u2013 The Scythe&#8217;s Remorseless Swing<\/strong>. They&#8217;re back, with their first album in eight years and only their second in the last quarter-century. <em>Torn Arteries<\/em> includes this track, which has an incredible 70-second instrumental opening, as well as 2019&#8217;s &#8220;Under the Scalpel Blade.&#8221; I don&#8217;t think their sound has changed or evolved much if at all since <em>Surgical Steel<\/em>, which was the best extreme metal album of the last decade and maybe the best metal album of the decade, period, but I&#8217;m okay with this. Carcass more or less perfected melodic death metal, and while I could do without some of the blast beats and will never really enjoy the death growls, the guitar and bass work here is just incredible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whew. That turned out to be an epic month for new music, with my top album of 2021 so far dropping on the first Friday, a bunch of returns from old favorites, even some tracks from artists I didn&#8217;t love who surprised me with great new material. That means this playlist is one of my [&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":[1219,1259,359,167,979,757,852],"class_list":["post-9153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2021-in-music","tag-afrobeats","tag-alternative","tag-indie","tag-melodic-death-metal","tag-metal","tag-music","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9153","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=9153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9154,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9153\/revisions\/9154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}