Marv Won - "I'm Fine, Thanks for Asking" | Album Review
Jim White - "All Hits: Memories" | Album Review
His first solo album, wryly titled All Hits: Memories, is an extremely intelligent work by a musician who has long paid his dues playing with PJ Harvey, Cat Power, Bill Callahan, and his own long-term project, Dirty Three. Like many percussionists, White has often situated himself comfortably in the background. On this release, he shines.
Guided By Voices - "Same Place The Fly Got Smashed" (Reissue) | Album Review
It was 33 years ago that Robert Pollard recorded what was almost the last Guided by Voices album, Same Place The Fly Got Smashed, which would have been a complete travesty to music. Now you can go to your favorite local record store and buy a new reissue of this album via Scat Records, the first label that truly believed in Bob and co.
Claire Rousay - "Sentiment" | Album Review
Ambient musician claire rousay’s first proper foray into more traditional song forms, sentiment, nonetheless opens with a spoken sample, “It’s 4pm on a Monday and I cannot stop crying.” Perhaps the clip makes sense for an artist who is best known for her work trying to coax emotionality out of the sounds of mundane tasks and ideas.
Alien Nosejob - "The Derivative Sounds Of... Or... A Dog Always Returns To Its Vomit" | Album Review
Alien Nosejob does it all, and its sole member Jake Robertson shows off this ability, and shines while doing it, on his sixth, most recent album, The Derivative Sounds Of…Or…A Dog Always Returns To Its Vomit. That mouthful of words does not even begin to portray the wide range of musical styles touted on his fall 2023 release.
Couch Slut - "You Could Do It Tonight" | Album Review
ALBUM OF THE WEEK: Necrot - "Lifeless Birth"
Necrot are capable of sheer destruction but there’s a thoughtfulness to their songwriting, an intention beyond disgust and putridity. Lifeless Birth, their third album, is rooted in reality, an old school death metal record with a focus on modern times. Void of the cosmic, supernatural, and demonic, they explore the terrors of this world.
METZ - "Up On Gravity Hill" | Album Review
Jean Mignon - "DIRTY MEAN FAST" | Album Review
Has anyone been asking for an album that can unite fans of Van Halen and Suicide? Doesn’t matter, we have it now. Jean Mignon is a solo project from NYC-via-Boston noise impresario Johnny Steines. He borrows the name of a 16th century French engraver to plunge into a breakneck, blistering river of feedback.
Yard Act - "Where's My Utopia?" | Album Review
“Post-punk’s latest poster boys” ask Where’s My Utopia? on their newest album, a tongue-in-cheek, sarcastic, and groovy record. They create a very dynamic and lighthearted kind of sound, which shows how much they’ve grown since The Overlord. Listening to this album is immersive and feels transcendent, like entering a vivid dreamscape.
Tapir! - "The Pilgrim, Their God and The King Of My Decrepit Mountain" | Album Review
The Pilgrim, Their God, and The King of My Decrepit Mountain is a fantastically listenable record whose somewhat cryptic narrative never distracts from the truly great songs and detailed arrangements, and instead only increases the intriguing nature of it all. It's both digestible and obtuse, and in that contradiction the album finds its magic.
ALBUM OF THE WEEK: Rosali - "Bite Down"
No one song on the record sounds much like the others, and as her role in the ensemble shifts from song to song, Rosali's voice and vantage point shifts, too. Rather than being an inconsistency, this is a unique, characteristic strength of Rosali's artistry. With Bite Down, she becomes multitudinous.
Bnny - "One Million Love Songs" | Album Review
Returning with her sophomore album, One Million Love Songs, Viscius is now boldly taking on another one of the most complicated components of being human; love. Recorded in Asheville with production help from Alex Farrar, the album finds Bnny in confident forward motion as she learns to embrace everything that love throws at her.
Vessel - "Wrapped In Cellophane" | Album Review
Wrapped in Cellophane is the debut from Atlanta quartet Vessel who traffic in post-punk with some unexpectedly exotic flourishes and sparse bobbing hooks punctuated by Alex Tuisku's lyrics. The band’s sound is full of space, led by remarkably flexible rhythms and an unstoppable ability to find the ever shifting groove.
Chastity Belt - "Live Laugh Love" | Album Review
After a five-year gap, the American rock band from Walla Walla arrives with a new studio album, Live Laugh Love. Recorded in three different sessions over a couple of years, the album marks the first time all four members sing, and they enjoy every second of it despite the ambivalent emotions they sing about.
Pouty - "Forgot About Me" | Album Review
ALBUM OF THE WEEK: Dana Gavanski - "LATE SLAP"
While her previous releases showcased her arresting voice and undeniable spirit, they feel reserved in comparison to the new record. LATE SLAP is teeming with life, in all its joy, heaviness, and whimsy. It’s teeming with music: beautiful, uncanny layers of voice, a menagerie of synth tones, guitar jangles, tasteful strings and enthralling melodies.
Sam Evian - "Plunge" | Album Review
Adrianne Lenker - "Bright Future" | Album Review
Adrianne Lenker is one of contemporary American folk music’s poets in residence. Between her song writing in Big Thief and her solo project, she manages to create worlds that feel so familiar, but then intertwine them with transcendentalist romanticism, rendering these views slightly more esoteric and impalpable.