{"id":9188,"date":"2021-10-31T17:03:21","date_gmt":"2021-10-31T21:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=9188"},"modified":"2021-10-31T20:57:39","modified_gmt":"2021-11-01T00:57:39","slug":"music-update-october-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2021\/10\/31\/music-update-october-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Music update, October 2021."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Whew, that might be the most loaded month I&#8217;ve seen since I started doing monthly new music playlists in January of 2015 \u2013 a function, I&#8217;m sure, of the easier access to all kinds of music, and perhaps my expanding tastes, but there was just a lot of great fucking music released in October. I omitted plenty of tracks from artists I like, including new material from CHVRCHES, Yard Act, Metronomy, Snail Mail, Frank Turner, Jack White, Shamir, Tom Morello, Soft Cell (!), Robert Plant &amp; Alison Krauss, and more. I also ended up cutting Janelle Mona\u00e9&#8217;s new version of &#8220;Say Her Name,&#8221; since it&#8217;s 17 minutes long and a new version of an old track from 2013. As always, if you can&#8217;t see the widget below, you can <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/playlist\/1F23guhLqc8QQDNoJzonDi?si=a97b6afbc6c04033\">access the playlist 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 October 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\/1F23guhLqc8QQDNoJzonDi?si=779b4c819f45457d&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>White Lies \u2013 As I Try Not to Fall Apart<\/strong>. Few bands have channeled &#8217;80s new wave as successfully as White Lies, who don&#8217;t so much mimic the sound as the entire vibe of those synth-heavy (and heavily made-up) bands from that era that was so formative for my own music tastes. This is easily one of my two or three favorite songs of theirs, right up there with &#8220;There Goes Our Love Again.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>C\u0153ur de Pirate \u2013 Tu peux crever l\u00e0-bas<\/strong>. C\u0153ur de Pirate&#8217;s latest \u00e1lbum, <em>Impossible \u00e0 aimer<\/em>, is her best full-length LP so far, with some incredible melodies beneath her typically dark, incisive lyrics. This track is the strongest on the album, and for those of you who don&#8217;t speak French, it means &#8220;you can die over there.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Mysterines \u2013 Hung Up<\/strong>. This Liverpool group, led by singer\/guitarist Lia Metcalfe, will finally get to release their debut album <em>Reeling<\/em> on March 11<sup>th<\/sup>, but in the meantime, here&#8217;s another driving, snarling track in the vein of their earlier tracks like &#8220;Gasoline&#8221; and &#8220;I Win Every Time.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Gang of Youths \u2013 the man himself<\/strong>. This Australian indie-rock quintet are running headlong into comparisons with peak U2 with tracks like this one, an atmospheric rocker with introspective lyrics about the death of lead singer Dave Le&#8217;aupepe&#8217;s father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Wombats \u2013 Ready for the High<\/strong>. I&#8217;m always going to want the Wombats to recreate their incredible no-skips 2015 album <em>Glitterbug<\/em>, even though I&#8217;m sure they want to continue to evolve past that. This is a pretty good twist on that sound, with Matthew Murphy&#8217;s typically absurd lyrics and a little more crunch to the guitars. Their sixth album, <em>Fix Yourself, Not the World<\/em>, is due out on January 7<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>alt-J <strong>\u2013<\/strong> U&amp;ME<\/strong>. Speaking of wanting a band to be something else, the version of alt-J from their debut album is long gone, and they&#8217;re just another decent indie band now, with a clear commercial leaning they didn&#8217;t have a decade ago. But this song is pretty catchy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hatchie \u2013 Crush<\/strong>. Yep, this is a cover of one-hit wonder Jennifer Paige&#8217;s 1998 song, which reached #3 on the <em>Billboard<\/em> Hot 100, but Hatchie makes it less overtly poppy and more dream-pop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Courtney Barnett \u2013 Write a List of Things to Look Forward To<\/strong>. Definitely one of Barnett&#8217;s better guitar riffs, with a tempo that better complements her laconic vocal delivery than some of her slower material. She also released &#8220;Smile Real Nice&#8221; from the soundtrack to the upcoming Apple+ series <em>Harriet the Spy<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Districts \u2013 I Want to Feel It All<\/strong>. The opening to this track keeps tricking me into thinking it&#8217;s Nine Inch Nails&#8217; &#8220;Down In It,&#8221; which should give you some idea of the change in style here for these indie-rock stalwarts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The World Is a Beautiful Place &amp; I Am No Longer Afraid to Die \u2013 Trouble<\/strong>. Terrible band name, although I suppose it fits their retro-emo sound. This was my favorite track off their latest album <em>Illusory Walls<\/em>, which reminded me of Pure Reason Revolution&#8217;s blend of metal elements into emo tracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Speedy Ortiz \u2013 Cutco<\/strong>. Sadie Dupuis, who records as a solo artist under the name sad13, re-recorded this early track, from when Speedy Ortiz was primarily a solo project for her, as part of the upcoming double LP <em>The Death of Speedy Ortiz &amp; Cop Kicker\u2026Forever<\/em>, a joint reissue of their first album and their first EP, both released in 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sprints \u2013 Modern Job<\/strong>. Another strong post-punk track from the Irish group who brought us &#8220;The Cheek&#8221; last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Michael Kiwanuka \u2013 Beautiful Life<\/strong>. The first new music since his last album <em>KIWANUKA <\/em>won the Mercury Prize is this soul\/trip-hop track from the upcoming documentary <em>Convergence: Courage in a Crisis<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sunflower Bean \u2013 Baby Don&#8217;t Cry<\/strong>. This is Sunflower Bean&#8217;s second one-off single in the last two-plus years, since the <em>King of the Dudes<\/em> EP, with no word on a new album coming, although they do plan a UK tour in the spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hinds \u2013 De la Monarqu\u00eda a la Criptocracia<\/strong>. Maybe this is the step forward I&#8217;ve been waiting for Hinds to take, with lyrics that aren&#8217;t so much yelled-sung as just sung. Maybe it&#8217;s because they&#8217;re singing in their native Spanish, although that wouldn&#8217;t explain the stronger guitar work, but regardless of the reason, this is an evolutionary step the band needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DARGS featuring James Chelliah &amp; Moses Boyd- Hold On, Part 2<\/strong>. DARGS is David Darghi, a producer who&#8217;s released just two short tracks so far (and the first was not, in fact, &#8220;Hold On, Part 1&#8221;). I found this because he worked with drummer Moses Boyd, who had my #1 song of 2020, &#8220;Shades of You.&#8221; It&#8217;s a relaxed, sensual track with vocals from &#8220;existential indie&#8221; rapper Chelliah and an unnamed female vocalist, which I think is a bit weird.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Lottery Winners \u2013 Much Better<\/strong>. I have no idea how these guys keep churning out one great pop melody after another, but they have another one with the earworm chorus to this new track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Anxious \u2013 In April<\/strong>. If I say punk-pop, you&#8217;re probably not thinking of that as a compliment, but this Connecticut five-piece&#8217;s sound here is less overproduced or cloying than many bands that earned that moniker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Horrors \u2013 Against the Blade<\/strong>. The Horrors haven&#8217;t released an album since 2017&#8217;s <em>V<\/em>, but they announced their second EP of 2021, also called <em>Against the Blade<\/em>, featuring this heavy, industrial track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Boo Radleys \u2013 I&#8217;ve Had Enough I&#8217;m Out<\/strong>. What a surprise to find out these Britpop stars were still around, although I&#8217;ve found a lot of acts from that era can&#8217;t recapture the sound that carried them on up the charts in the late 1990s. A lot of the Boo Radleys&#8217; recent tracks are too slow and very light on the pop part, but this one comes the closest. I&#8217;ll still choose &#8220;Wake Up Boo&#8221; and &#8220;It&#8217;s Lulu&#8221; over this, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Band of Horses \u2013 Crutch<\/strong>. Band of Horses&#8217; sixth album, <em>Things Are Great<\/em>, their first LP since 2016, will be released on January 21<sup>st<\/sup>. This lead single is strong, very jangle-pop, and is their first new material featuring guitarist Ian MacDougall and bassist Matt Gentling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The War on Drugs \u2013 Change<\/strong>. Yes, it&#8217;s too long \u2013 six minutes and four seconds \u2013 but this is two straight tracks from The War on Drugs that feature a cohesive hook rather than more of a general vibe, which is how I&#8217;d describe a lot of their earlier material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lemaitre feat. Anna of the North \u2013 What About U<\/strong>. This is definitely Lemaitre&#8217;s best track since 2019&#8217;s &#8220;Rocket Girl,&#8221; featuring Betty Who, here going for a more ethereal, softer sound that works with Anna Lotterud&#8217;s voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Defcon Lawless feat. Band of Skulls \u2013 Slicktalk<\/strong>. I know nothing about Defcon Lawless, but have liked a lot of Band of Skulls&#8217; music in the past, especially 2014&#8217;s <em>Himalayan<\/em>, and the psycheledic-rock backdrop they contribute here behind Defcon Lawless&#8217; rhymes makes this something very different from most modern rap tracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Parquet Courts \u2013 Walking at a Downtown Pace<\/strong>. I have never liked anything by Parquet Courts before this new album, <em>Sympathy for Life<\/em>, but there are at least three bangers on this record. It seems like they settled down and worked on songcraft without totally compromising their garage-rock sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Potty Mouth \u2013 Contessa Barefoot<\/strong>. I don&#8217;t get the song&#8217;s title, but I&#8217;m glad Potty Mouth is back with their power-pop sound, although this doesn&#8217;t have quite the killer hook of &#8220;Cherry Picking.&#8221; UPDATE: A reader pointed out that Potty Mouth <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stereogum.com\/2165538\/potty-mouth-break-up-final-ep\/music\/\" target=\"_blank\">announced their breakup this week<\/a>. This song will be on their final EP, <em>1% Happier<\/em>, due out November 19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Geese \u2013 Rain Dance<\/strong>. This Brooklyn quintet&#8217;s debut album, <em>Projector<\/em>, just dropped this month, barely a year <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/27\/arts\/music\/geese-projector.html\">after the members graduated from high school<\/a>. Guitarist Foster Hudson cites Television&#8217;s debut album as a major influence, which is very evident across the album, but if you want a contemporary comparison, imagine black midi with less of the noise-rock trappings. Other standout tracks include &#8220;Low Era&#8221; and &#8220;Disco.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Spoon \u2013 The Hardest Cut<\/strong>. I&#8217;d say this is the hardest Spoon song I&#8217;ve heard, but I&#8217;m good with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mastodon \u2013 Teardrinker<\/strong>. <em>Hushed and Grim<\/em> just dropped on Friday and I haven&#8217;t gotten to listen to it all the way through yet, but I&#8217;ve loved this, &#8220;Pushing the Tides,&#8221; and &#8220;Savage Lands&#8221; so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Zeal &amp; Ardor \u2013 G\u00f6tterd\u00e4mmerung<\/strong>. The death growls are back, but so are the great metal riffs, including a pedal-point riff here that really drives this song forward. This gospel\/death metal band&#8217;s next album is due at some point next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Kowloon Walled City \u2013 Lampblack<\/strong>. Featuring Ian Miller of Puig Destroyer and the Productive Outs podcast on bass, KWC just released <em>Piecework<\/em>, their first new album since 2015, on October 8<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>K\u00e6len Mikla feat. Alcest \u2013 Hv\u00edtir Sandar<\/strong>. I&#8217;m interested in this Icelandic goth\/avant-garde trio&#8217;s music thanks to the guest appearance here by shoegaze-metallers Alcest, whose last two albums were among my favorite metal LPs of the past decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Toundra \u2013 El Odio, Parte I<\/strong>. An eight-minute instrumental from this Spanish progressive metal band, which only does instrumental music, and a preview of their upcoming album <em>Hex<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whew, that might be the most loaded month I&#8217;ve seen since I started doing monthly new music playlists in January of 2015 \u2013 a function, I&#8217;m sure, of the easier access to all kinds of music, and perhaps my expanding tastes, but there was just a lot of great fucking music released in October. I [&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":[1219,359,167,979,757,852,787],"class_list":["post-9188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2021-in-music","tag-alternative","tag-indie","tag-melodic-death-metal","tag-metal","tag-music","tag-progressive-metal","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9188","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=9188"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9193,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9188\/revisions\/9193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}