October 31, 2023

The Best of Q3 2023

October 31, 2023/ Taylor Grimes

We’re in the final stretch of the year, and while other music blogs are already gearing up for their Album of the Year lists, we’re still hung up on the summer. Continuing our series of quarterly roundups, here are some of our favorite albums, EPs, and splits released from July to September.

Angel Du$t – BRAND NEW SOUL

I have a few questions for you, dear reader: do you like ROCK music? Do you like LIFTING heavy things? Do you like SHAKIN’ your little butt? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then BRAND NEW SOUL might be for you. The latest album from the ever-shifting Justice Tripp-led supergroup picks up right where YAK left off, which is to say, wildly inventive and ignoring every boundary of genre or expectations. Less of a “hardcore” group than ever before, Angel Du$t feels like a band whose artistic mission statement is to follow whatever sounds fun at that moment. Most of their music can still be defined as “Very Aggressive” but morphs from folk-punk to electro-bops to Chili Peppers worship at a moment’s notice. There are still a couple of ragers here like “Sippin’ Lysol,” but most of the music should be filed under jammers and slammers – an important distinction. The girls that get it get it.

Taylor Grimes - @GeorgeTaylorG

Astra King – First Love

Midway through the year, the visionary PC Music announced that 2023 would be their last year releasing new music before shifting to archival projects. This was heartbreaking news for girlies, gays, and music fans all across the World Wide Web, yet we must rejoice, for Astra King is here with a definitive hyperpop contribution in the label’s eleventh hour. King is a relatively recent addition to the PC Music roster, a younger artist with less than a half dozen songs to her name; even still, the four tracks that make up First Love are so pristine that they somehow stack up to the decade-long legacy of the PC Music label. From the anthemic unfurling of “A Little Bit Closer” to the too-cute-for-its-own-good title track, every song fleshes out a different shade of reflective, chromium future pop. In many ways, First Love is the ideal EP: a lightweight fifteen-minute collection that finds an artist seemingly already zeroed in on her sound and going four for four, all with one of the coolest covers of the year to boot.

Taylor Grimes - @GeorgeTaylorG

awakebutstillinbed – chaos takes the wheel and i am a passenger

awakebutstillinbed’s brand of throwback ‘90s emo has always been my jam ever since pressing play on their 2018 LP, what people call low self-esteem is really just seeing yourself the way other people see you. The band’s latest record, chaos takes the wheel and i am a passenger, picks up where the last left off, but already the sounds and songs are better. The drums hit hard and dry, snapping like twigs and booming like thunder as spindly guitars snake through adagio dirges such as “bloodline.” Shannon Taylor, whose ragged and reedy voice stands strong in a scene that’s rapidly embraced pop vocal sounds, really lets her vocals shriek, crack, and take center stage. Every chord feels knotted and dissonant, but every song is beautiful, and though most of these tracks are north of three minutes by a large margin, you won’t be snoozing at any point. This is what a perfect emo record sounds like in 2023.

Michaela Montoni - @dumpsterbassist

Broken Record – Nothing Moves Me

Denver-based Broken Record are self-described “stadium emo,” and you know what? That’s so goddamn true. Their very good second full-length, Nothing Moves Me, pulls from some of the greatest bands to ever make the jump from DIY house shows to playing for thousands. Think Jimmy Eat World, Sunny Day Real Estate, and the best second-wave emo bands who also obsessively listen to The Cure. The album sounds amazing (produced and recorded by Broken Record’s Lauren Beecher and Gleemer’s Corey Coffman), the guitars are huge, the riffs are crushing, the drums are driving, and the hooks are singable—this band rocks.

Ben Sooy - @bensooy

Read our review of Nothing Moves Me here.

Chain Whip – Call of the Knife

Vancouver’s Chain Whip is a down-and-dirty punk band with viciously compressed production and the tightest 13-track LP I’ve heard in years. This shit is all the garage energy of Amyl and the Sniffers with none of the major-label Gucci-deal bravado. The production is homespun but clear: the drums pound, the guitars rip, and the vocals sound like an unhinged goblinesque Jello Biafra. Chain Whip aren’t just any modern punk band, either, with vague allusions to political messaging. Tracks like “The Flag Means You Suck” and “Class Decay” pull no punches against the totalitarian fist of Western “democracy.” Spin this or get fucked, it’s only 21 minutes.

Michaela Montoni - @dumpsterbassist

Coronary – The Future… Is Now

These days, the market for fast hardcore is pretty much gone– industrial and blackened beatdown have infected the mainstream like a disease, and slam-dancing has taken the masses by storm (see: endless mosh discourse, the new Knocked Loose). But the world has not stopped making punk rock music, and Coronary from Chicago are proof– thrash-punk crossover guys playing ridiculously fast. Their guitar playing is impeccable, the drums rumble and sputter like a chainsaw engine, and the lyrics cut straight to the heart of the political issues of our day. Does it reinvent the wheel? Yes and no– while sonically, it’s hard to say that anything happening here started in 2023, it’s so rare to find a band this hard-rocking with slick production, a huge sound, and good hearts. It’s rare, it’s great, I love it, and I want to hear more of it.

Michaela Montoni - @dumpsterbassist

Del Paxton – Auto Locator

For some people, emo is a seasonal genre. I’ll admit the crunch of a fall leaf hits extra hard when you’re listening to American Football or AGBPOL, but that could never be me. I spin this shit all year long; even still, there’s an undeniable fall air about Auto Locator, the first album from Del Paxton since 2017. The record opens with a freight train headed directly toward you and ends with a sizzling 7-minute send-off that still somehow leaves you wanting more. Aside from the palpable fall feeling, Auto Locator offers up bouncy rippers like “Up With A Twist” and “Chart Reader,” but also aren’t afraid to gnash their teeth and get a little aggressive on tracks like “100 Words For Snow.” The whole thing feels like an emo record from a different era in the best way possible.

Taylor Grimes - @GeorgeTaylorG

Downward & Trauma Ray – Split

It’s fall, and Shoegaze Season is officially here. While there’s no shortage of dudes with bad hair and black jeans cranking out over-fuzzed riff slop and Whirr worship, these bands are not that. Coming off a pair of excellent 2022 EPs, Downward and Trauma Ray have combined forces for a four-song split that pummels the listener into submission with distorted guitars, floaty vocals, and forceful riffs—a perfect way to kick off the season where heavy music hits the hardest.

Taylor Grimes - @GeorgeTaylorG

Equipment – Alt. Account

Equipment has been a band for almost a decade at this point. They’ve released fantastic EP after fantastic EP, including one earlier this year, and even though 2018’s Ruthless Sun is the band’s first LP, in many ways, Alt. Account is the band’s first album. During the album’s writing process, Equipment’s lead singer/guitarist, Nick Zander, was diagnosed with bipolar II; his first medication is seen on the cover of the record, and the insomnia it gave him led to the creation of the majority of this album. The result is a collection of emo-tinged indie rock that feels like a celebration of the fact that he’s now tamed the instability of his initial diagnosis. Songs are punctuated by clips of a 12-year-old Zander, who can be heard talking about LEGO stop-motion and the Sega Genesis, all snippets ripped directly from his 2008 YouTube channel. It’s a lot to take in, but luckily, Alt. Account is just as listenable without any background, a record packed with sublime riffs, singable choruses, and highly relatable sentiments. With a solidified lineup, an undeniable collection of bangers, and a tour-ready spread of merch, all self-released under their own label, Alt. Account is just the first step in Quippy World Domination.

Taylor Grimes - @GeorgeTaylorG

Fiddlehead – Death is Nothing to Us

After hearing the sophomore record from Fiddlehead, I was a little worried that the band had run out of things to say. It’s not like Patrick Flynn has any shortage of thoughts to share, more so that Fiddlehead was initially started as a one-off supergroup collaboration that wasn’t meant to last beyond a single EP. Through a combination of luck, pre-existing fanbases, and stellar songwriting, Fiddlehead have now created three albums, and Death is Nothing to Us makes a strong case that this band was always meant to exist. There are kickass riffs, surprisingly sharp melodies, and enough group chants to make you lightheaded screaming along. As you would expect from the title, the band’s latest record is primarily concerned with death (as was the case on the last two albums as well), yet the band finds an infinite number of new ways to pontificate on and philosophize around this topic, wrapping everything in a catchy hardcore outpouring that lends some comfort to the living.

Taylor Grimes - @GeorgeTaylorG

Gravess – i still feel it, crawling, under my skin.

Continuing the trend laid out by bands like Funeral Homes and Rosewilder, Gravess is yet another stellar shoegaze project out of Florida. While those other bands lean further into the dreamy side of the genre, Gravess aren’t afraid to throw in a few extra screams and breakdowns for good measure. You can practically see the mosh pit form when listening to the one-two punch of opening tracks, but the high point of this bite-sized EP comes in its final two songs, where the band deploys a hypnotic guitar lick and then proceeds to construct a brilliant cresting instrumental around it. Beginning in a suspended dream state, the band eventually unleashes a torrent of heavy music, sweeping the listener up in a beautiful cacophony.

Taylor Grimes - @GeorgeTaylorG

Harrison Gordon – The Yuppies Are Winning

The one good thing TikTok ever did was show me Harrison Gordon. The million-viewed video speaks for itself, featuring POV footage from a “sweaty house show” and the bridge of “Kirby Down B,” which references Zelda, Dragon Ball Z, and, of course, Super Smash Bros. It’s a frenetic song whose energizing call to action, “OI OI OI,” has led me to describe the project as “Zoomer Jeff Rosenstock.” After I kept coming back for “Kirby Down B,” I gradually became obsessed with the rest of the album, which deals with post-gifted-kid syndrome, decaying childhood friendships, meds, and self-destructive tendencies. There are a couple of Worst Party Ever-style acoustic tracks that provide a brief respite from the seemingly bottomless supply of group chants, but what I love most about this record is how old it makes me feel. For the first time ever, it feels like I’m listening to the next generation of emo kids reflecting on their own nostalgia from a time when I was already an adult. The fact that I can still connect to it goes to show how wonderfully written these songs are. Here’s hoping I’ll soon be packed in that sweaty house show, screaming along to songs about Kirby.

Taylor Grimes - @GeorgeTaylorG

Honey Creek – Self Preservation

When I first became musically conscious, I knew early on that I was drawn towards “rock music.” In my mind, this descriptor covered everything from AC/DC and Motorhead to Sum 41 and Nirvana. Eventually, I learned more about genres and subgenres, and I’d wager one of the first hyper-specific scenes I became obsessed with was easycore. This semi-fake genre was basically pop-punk that threw in a breakdown once in a while and often used high-pitched keyboard noises. Think A Day To Remember, Four Year Strong, and Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! Imagine my surprise then when Honey Creek started rolling out the singles for their awesome new EP, and it sounded exactly like some shit I would have been obsessed with in high school. The band has fresh-as-fuck all-white fits, cool music videos, catchy-as-hell choruses, and (thankfully) dig a little bit deeper than the typically-bro-leaning undertones that come with most easycore. It may just be 11 minutes, but there’s not a wasted moment or bit of energy on this EP, and while it may lean on some trappings of a very specific subgenre, Honey Creek do a fantastic job of making these sounds feel updated for 2023.

Taylor Grimes - @GeorgeTaylorG

Josaleigh Pollett – In The Garden, By The Weeds

Salt Lake City DIY artist Josaleigh Pollett is a beautiful enigma to me. The closest artist I can truly compare them to is David Bazan, especially those Care and Blanco records, not just because they share some musical DNA with Pollett’s In The Garden, By The Weeds, but also because Pollett is a lyricist (a songwriter! a poet!!) on par with Bazan. The recording of In The Garden… was a partnership with producer Jordan Watko, and what they’ve made together is one of the greatest indie pop albums of all time. Pollett’s vocals will break your heart, Watko’s beats will have you dancing your ass off, but in like a moody and hopeful sort of way.

Ben Sooy - @bensooy

Read our review of In The Garden, By The Weeds here.

Mauve – About The Weather

The crazy thing about the internet is that I can show you my exact first impression of Mauve. Back in January, my brother and I were huddled up against a table in McMenamins White Eagle Saloon, nursing a couple of ciders. We were there mainly to catch the Tallest Emo Band™ Swiss Army Wife, but when Mauve took the stage and started tuning, I could already tell we were in for a treat. We secured a primo spot right up front and proceeded to take in a set of pure, unbridled Portland Emo. Once I found myself on the other side of the band’s invigorating performance, I was absolutely over the moon that my hometown felt like it had a legitimate emo scene for the first time ever. Released six months after that fateful concert, Mauve’s debut album is chock-full of tasty riffs, gnarly screams, and pit-opening tunes that show a glimpse into an alternate reality where the Pacific Northwest eclipsed the Midwest as the true ruler of the emo genre.

Taylor Grimes - @GeorgeTaylorG

MINDCLOT – Profit Over People

From the instant you press play, it’s apparent that MINDCLOT are not fucking around. Their weapons-grade d-beat hardcore doesn’t let up for the entire duration of their second album, blasting through politically charged ragers like it’s nothing. Vocalist Mike Mutersbaugh’s piercing shriek cuts the tastefully muddy mix like butter, and the driving rhythms will surely keep any show-goer in the most violent pit of their life. There are tastes of the moshcore revival here too towards the back end, with straight-ahead and danceable two-steppers like “Hypocrisy” rounding out the straight-ahead Discharge-worship on Side A. With a quick run-time and absolutely killer riffs front to back, particularly “Poison” and “Two Faces,” this release is sure to be a modern punk touchstone for ages to come. Up the punx, check out MINDCLOT if you know what’s good for you.

Michaela Montoni - @dumpsterbassist

Pacing – Real poetry is always about plants and birds and trees and the animals and milk and honey breathing in the pink but real life is behind a screen

If you couldn’t tell from the album title, the second full-length album from Pacing is very funny, extremely clever, and painfully self-aware. There’s a Sidney Gish sensibility that runs through the whole thing, making it a joy to listen to, inspiring to read along with, and rewarding to revisit. In an early song, Katie McTigue ponders whether it’s weird to go for a walk, a concern that spirals into a commentary on her own laziness, paranoia, and climate change – all in two minutes! There are well-observed songs about home ownership, surface-level wellness culture, and obnoxious electronic communication, but, to me, the crux of this record can be found on “unReal / forReal,” which finds our hero questioning the intertwined reality and the surreality of the world around us. Things end with McTigue waking up and realizing that she “forgot to be scared,” which, given everything that’s happening, can feel like a blessing or at least a brief respite. While this all might sound heavy, the bubbly delivery and anti-folk instrumentation help keep things light and breezy, even as you contemplate societal decay and mourn the environment’s decline.

Taylor Grimes - @GeorgeTaylorG

Ratboys – The Window

Twang is so hot right now. In fact, “twang” is so popular that Spotify has a playlist showcasing the best country-flavored indie rock we have to offer, including MJ Lenderman, Florry, and Hovvdy. Ratboys, however, have been making music at this intersection for twelve years now, and The Window sees them as masters of their domain. From the scintillating 8-minute lead single to the Frankenstein-esque “It’s Alive!” the Chicagoans spend 47 minutes and 45 seconds flexing their musical chops, with the four band members more in sync than ever before. There’s a suite of love songs in the album’s title track, “I Want You (Fall 2010),” and “Bad Reaction,” making a case for this being the most tender-hearted Ratboys record yet, but the band isn’t afraid to make some noise with snotty punk tracks and exuberant guitar solos. Just another day of being the world’s greatest indie rock band.

Taylor Grimes - @GeorgeTaylorG

Read our review of The Window here.

Ringworm – Seeing Through Fire

Ringworm’s demo turns 32 years old in 2023, which is mindblowing to think about. They’ve consistently been one of the heaviest and most biting bands in metallic hardcore since then, and Seeing Through Fire is no deviation. The band continues to find new ways to make the most explosive sounding aggressive music out of the Midwest, with another crop of anthemic circle pit initiators like “No Solace, No Quarter, No Mercy” and “Thought Crimes.” Ringworm is keeping their Holy Terror scene alive with each new album, and they’ve outdone themselves once again.

Logan Archer Mounts - @VERTICALCOFFIN

Slow Pulp – Yard

This August, I spent a few weeks boxing up my childhood room as my parents prepared to sell the house where I spent the first twenty-something years of my life. As I was unearthing adolescent artifacts long since forgotten, I was spinning an advance of Slow Pulp’s Yard, which perfectly soundtracked this excavation. Since the beginning of the year, the album’s lead single, “Cramps,” had already become a mainstay on my playlists, and my excitement only mounted with “Slugs” and “Doubt,” each song eclipsing the last as my favorite thing the band has ever done. The album collects these knockout singles and pads them out with a few more mid-tempo tracks of transition and impermanence. Having relocated from Madison to Chicago in the time since their excellent 2020 record Moveys, Slow Pulp themselves have undergone a move as a collective, and Yard reflects that. There are multiple songs about moving away and making changes in your life, all of which made it feel stupidly on-brand to spin as I moved every earthly possession I have into boxes to be opened at a later date. There’s a slight lull in the middle, but the rockin’ “MUD,” woozy country-leaning “Broadview,” and the pensive “Fishes” make for a final three-song stretch that balances out the pep-heavy front half. All in all, Yard makes for one of the most exciting, youthful, and catchy indie rock records of the year.

Taylor Grimes - @GeorgeTaylorG

Squirrel Flower – Tomorrow’s Fire

Smoldering. If I were to boil Tomorrow’s Fire down to one single descriptor, it would be that. After an album full of slow-burn stunners that were kneecapped by the pandemic, Ella Williams was anything but discouraged. Over the last couple of years, she segued some phenomenal covers and singles into the desolate, naturalistic heat death of Planet (i) and a haunting companion EP that leaned into her more minimalistic sensibilities. It’s understandable that after all of the false starts and fraught life events, Williams was ready to rock. Earlier this year, she dropped “Your Love,” a one-off single featuring a full-band recreation of a similarly named song from the Planet EP, signaling a new page for the project. Backed by a band comprised of MJ Lenderman, members of Bon Iver, and the War On Drugs, Williams had free reign to construct the most grand, sweeping, and holistic collection of songs ever released under the Squirrel Flower moniker. There are reflections on the spirit-crushing nature of capitalism, queer Springsteen-style love songs about escaping out past the edge of town, and unrequited skatepark hookups aplenty. The songs tend to crackle as monstrous shoegaze riffs but also know when to pull back into something slower for maximum impact.

Taylor Grimes - @GeorgeTaylorG

Star99 – Bitch Unlimited

The debut LP from Bay Area four-piece Star99 has maybe the most perfectly-matched-to-the-music cover art of 2023. An I-Spy-esque jumble of kitsch and miscellany–stickers, teacups, a stray earring, model train tracks –crowd a floral surface (“an I-Spy-esque jumble of kitsch and miscellany” would also be an apt description of the ten songs as well). Peeking out from underneath the Dollar Store clutter is the album title: Bitch Unlimited. It all feels like it was ripped straight from Rookie Mag circa 2013 or the 8tracks account of the coolest girl at your high school (also circa 2013), an effect that only intensifies when you press play. This isn’t to suggest that Bitch Unlimited is in any way stale or derivative– it’s one of the freshest, most innovative rock records I’ve heard all year –but Star99 feels like the kind of band that I thought didn’t exist anymore. Their earnest-yet-irreverent blend of pop-punk, power pop, and garage rock hearkens back to bands that existed on the fringes of emo’s fourth wave. Bands like Chumped and Swearin’ that were bursting at the seams with snark, exuberance, and the stickiest of hooks. Bookended by slot machine sound effects and eschewing any polite, small-talking introduction, opener “Girl” barrels in with blistering snapshots of suburban angst and young heartbreak, culminating in frontwoman Saorise delivering a gleeful “guilty” verdict. From there, the hits don’t let up, with Saorise and Thomas switching off on lead vocals. From the Joyce Manor-reminiscent jaunts about self-sabotage (“Salt”) to poppy confessions about the less-glamorous aspects of living and working in DIY spaces (“South Second”) to meditations on codependent friendships (“Elastic”) to frenetic bouts of agoraphobia (“Vegas”), Bitch Unlimited is a 26-minute firecracker, its fuse lit by defiant spirit and white-hot hooks. During “Spit Take,” Saorise declares, “Life’s a bitch, and so am I!”; life may be a bitch, but bands like Star99 make it way more fun.

Grace Robins-Somerville - @grace_roso

Stephen O’Malley & Anthony Pateras – Sept duos pour guitar acoustique et piano préparé

That title translates to “seven duets for acoustic guitar and prepared piano,” in case it seemed like a mystery what you might be in for on this album. Stephen O’Malley is one half of Seattle’s drone legends Sunn O))), and he appears in collaboration on this album with Australian composer Anthony Pateras. It’s their second album together following 2018’s Rêve Noir, and it’s a perfect split between unsettling and comforting. The two compliment each other pristinely, O’Malley adding unsuspecting guitar strums over Pateras’ minimalist, avant-grade piano hits. Both musicians are incredibly prolific and are no strangers to experimental music, so their second team up here seemed like it would have been a knockout no matter what.

Logan Archer Mounts - @VERTICALCOFFIN

Talking Kind – It Did Bring Me Down

Somewhere, there exists a Venn diagram containing MJ Lenderman, Slaughter Beach Dog, and the Barenaked Ladies. At the center of this diagram, you’ll find Talking Kind. Talking Kind is the project of Pat Graham, a Philly-based musician making catchy, power-poppy, singer-songwriter fare that’s as touching and true as it is goofy and fun-loving. The first song on It Did Bring Me Down utilizes features from Radiator Hospital and The Goodbye Party to deliver a title drop and mission statement for the project after Graham explains “I just say shit.” Over the album’s remaining 24 minutes, Graham busts out immaculate melodies (“Damn Shame”), makes adorable pasta-based improvisations (“Pretty Flowers”), and romanticizes truck life (“My Truck”). There’s some beautiful slide guitar on “Never Bored” and one of the best love songs of the entire year in “Trader.” The whole release wraps up on “World of Peace,” an ode to fellow Philly musician Greg Mendez that doubles as a thought experiment about how beautiful the world would be if everyone were literally Greg Mendez. That’s the world I want to live in.

Taylor Grimes - @GeorgeTaylorG

Teenage Halloween – Till You Return

I know what you’re thinking, and no, this isn’t some Misfits-esque horror punk band; rather, Teenage Halloween describe themselves as “flaming queer power pop,” and if that doesn’t perk your ears up, then I don’t know what to tell ya. The group’s second album refines the recipe laid out in their previous work but blows the colors up to maximum saturation and packs the whole thing with catchy hooks and boisterous shouts. There are still deep questions to be grappled with here, like mental health and navigating the world as a queer person, but with those moments of realness also come euphoric successes and moments of love. The whole thing is speedy, shouty, and lively–a record that feels tailor-made for sweaty New Jersey basements packed wall to wall with people who share the same struggles as you. This album is the sound of being alive.

Taylor Grimes - @GeorgeTaylorG

Thank You, I’m Sorry – Growing in Strange Places

Thank You, I’m Sorry has had a few lives. The project initially began as Colleen Dow, alone, recording solitary acoustic songs about heartbreak, self-doubt, and isolation. Eventually, Dow was joined by a talented group of musicians who helped flesh out some of those initial songs and added a few new ones on 2020’s I’m Glad We’re Friends. Now, a little over three years later, we have Growing In Strange Places, a sprawling and impressively diverse collection of indie rock songs that shows a band working together to push far beyond any descriptor that’s ever been applied to them in the past. The emotions are still conveyed primarily through Dow’s infinitely charming vocals, but the instrumentals range from kaleidoscopic electronica and desolate slowcore to relatable dance-ready bops and even a hardcore rager for good measure. There’s also one of the best love songs of the year, and the whole thing wraps on a solo song that feels like a beautiful full-circle moment for the project. Song topics are just as relatable and confessional as before; the difference is now the artistic expectations have been dismantled entirely. The result is an album that feels like TY,IS achieving their true potential: a collection of tracks as vibrant, engaging, and ever-changing as the people behind the music.

Taylor Grimes - @GeorgeTaylorG

TORSION – DEMO 2023

I’d be remiss not to talk about hometown greats. No one knows anything about this band yet. Their debut 7” just came out a matter of days ago. It’s five songs, five minutes long (and change), and one track on Bandcamp. It’s fucking blistering. The guitars are gnarled and heavy, the d-beats fly on a thumpy cardboard drum kit, and the vocals are low and gravelly in that perfect early black/death metal way. This is fucking Pittsburgh hardcore, and I can’t wait to hear more riffs. If you’re in the area, stay tuned for one of their shows, and if you like Bomb Threat or Razorblade, you’re gonna fucking love this.

Michaela Montoni - @dumpsterbassist

December 29, 2021

Swim Into The Sound's 15 Favorite Albums of 2021

December 29, 2021/ Taylor Grimes

I hate to always start these with a gloomy intro paragraph, but I’ll be real; 2021 has been hard. In some ways, harder than 2020. While many of us spent last year hunkered down and reeling from a global pandemic, this year has been far more undefinable. We’re nearing a million dead from COVID here in the US, and the government response has essentially boiled down to a shrug. At least last year, it felt like we were all in this together.

For me, 2021 has been a year of breakups, burnouts, and overall bummers. As we sit on the brink of another outbreak with collective “pandemic fatigue,” I’m beginning to think that we’re never getting out of this. It seems that, when faced with two options, most people will opt for the one that helps them and them alone. Either that or people are so far down their individualistic rabbit holes that they can’t see the forest for the trees. It’s been a debilitating and demoralizing season, but I’m still here, and so are you.

As with most other years, music was a shining bright spot in my life that helped me through each and every day. Whether consoling, comforting, or just helping me forget about the outside world for a few minutes, there were plenty of albums this year that I found peace in. These albums have been my oasis. The safe space that allowed me to weather the storm and make sense of it all. They’ve soundtracked moments of joyous exhilaration and crushing loss. No matter what they sound like, these are the albums that have helped me through a very dark, very long, very hard year.

Despite how dour I sound and how paralyzed I feel, I am thankful to be here and grateful that I get to experience works of art such as these. Here are my 15 favorite albums of the year.

15 | Wild Pink - A Billion Little Lights

For the better part of the last decade, Wild Pink have been carefully fleshing out their own corner of the musical world with loving brushstrokes. Sometimes those brushstrokes would be long, vibrant streaks like 2018’s Yolk in the Fur, and other times they would be shorter dispatches like an EP here, or a random Taylor Swift cover there. Throughout 2021, the heartland indie rockers seemed hellbent on adding more onto their canvas than ever before. Released in February, A Billion Little Lights is a searching album that conjures the awe-inspiring feelings of a drive through America’s heartland. The sun shines down upon you as you feel the wind in your hair and take in the vast expanse before you. The amber-coated fields of grain contrast the cloudless blue skies, and you feel at home, even though you’re hundreds of miles away from everything you’ve ever known. That’s what listening to A Billion Little Lights is like. Supported throughout the year by a tour, an EP, some covers, a live album, and capped off by an excellent single, there has never been a better or more rewarding year to live within the world crafted by John Ross & co.

14 | The Antlers - Green To Gold

Some albums capture the frigid landscape of winter. Others embody the celebratory warmth of summer. While I love those types of albums, I’ve never heard a record capture the transition between seasons quite like Green To Gold. With dreamy lounge piano, vibrant steel guitar, and expansive instrumental stretches, The Antlers’ sixth studio album (and first in seven years) sees the band at a transitionary period too. Conceived and written almost entirely in the morning hours, the band’s latest is, as lead singer Peter Silberman puts it, “the first album I’ve made that has no eeriness in it.” He went on to elaborate, “I set out to make Sunday morning music.” Despite this aversion to darkness, everything about Green To Gold, from its title to the songs contained within it, is about the liminal spaces of life. And when you really think about it, aren’t those in-between moments are more compelling anyway? It’s easy to paint life with binaries, but the truth is more often somewhere in the middle. What’s really telling of who you are as a person is what you do to swing out of those periods and move between them. What do you do when you don’t know what to do? For The Antlers, the answer lies within this record.

Just as Green To Gold soundtracked our world’s unthawing, the recently-released Losing Light captures our yearly withdrawal. Slower, darker, and released at the perfect time in the depths of November, the EP is a worthy addendum to the band’s latest record that makes it feel like a living, breathing piece of art.

13 | Good Sleepy - everysinglelittlebit

everysinglelittlebit begins like a dream. As the album’s introductory track unfolds, it feels as if you’re making your way through a dense, moss-covered forest. Thick fog fills the air, carrying disembodied voices that swirl around the outer reaches of your perception, and suddenly everything drops out at once with “suffokate.” It’s like one of those trapping pits where hunters cover the opening in branches and leaves. You set foot onto it, shift your weight, and suddenly find yourself in a freefall. The song hits you like a punch to the gut, combining jittery guitarwork with a tight rhythm section and weighty shout-along vocals. Despite this bombastic sequencing, the tracklist does a good job of giving the listener a chance to catch their breath every once in a while, only to sap it away with the next track. Good Sleepy spend the duration of their debut album grappling with overwrought emotions, complicated relationships, and the idea of emotional self-sustainability. The instrumentals are tight and punchy, settling in at a middle ground somewhere between Stars Hollow and Ogbert The Nerd. The end result is an album with the nervous energy of speeding down the highway while chugging a Red Bull on your way to a basement gig. I know with everysinglelittlebit of myself that we’ll all be back there soon.

12 | Alien Boy - Don’t Know What I Am

Don’t Know What I Am plays out like the soundtrack to a long-lost mid-90s coming-of-age teen comedy. I’m not even talking about that made-for-TV trash, I’m talking top-of-the-line teen dramedies like Heathers and 10 Things I Hate About You. The kind of movies that culminate in a house party and always know when to bust out a peppy pop-punk tune. I suppose that would make “The Way I Feel” the scene-setting opening credits song that would play as we swoop into some bustling high school and meet our main characters. Throughout the record, the Portland rockers do an excellent job of introducing themselves to the audience, guiding them along this emotional journey, and pulling on our heartstrings with expertly-crafted hooks fit for 90s alt radio. The instrumentals are dripping in fuzzy shoegaze feedback that borrows equal parts from power pop and emo. Best listened to loud af, Don’t Know What I Am tackles topics of self-discovery, partnership, and queerness. More than anything, this record sounds like unrepentant love. It sounds like teenage adoration. It sounds like finding someone who loves you for who you are. This is the way things should have always been and should always be. It’s love the way you always wanted.

11 | Lucy Dacus - Home Video

Home Video hurts to listen to. Not just because it’s a collection of raw feelings and confessional songs, but because it was released as my relationship was crumbling in real-time. I usually try to not inject too much of my personal life on here (much less in an AOTY countdown), but this album’s pain feels intertwined with my own. The songs of unfit pairings, longing, and heartbreak mirror the feelings I’ve experienced this year. Home Video is a hard album to listen to, but even still, I can’t deny its mastery. This record delivers everything I loved about 2018’s Historian and makes it even more approachable. There are still killer guitar solos, anthemic choruses, and aching balladry, but Dacus seems even more sure of herself. These pleasant qualities help dislodge these songs from the hurt. This record may still be hard for me to listen to, but a few years down the line, I can’t wait to revisit this release from a new perspective and ride alongside in Dacus’ passenger seat, taking in the world.

10 | Stars Hollow - I Want to Live My Life

Like most emo records, the debut album from Stars Hollow sees our narrator coming face to face with their faults. The key difference between I Want to Live My Life and most other emo records is that we actually accompany our hero on their journey towards self-betterment. While other releases of this genre lament not being able to get the girl or dig yourself out of a rut, I Want to Live My Life rolls up its sleeves and actually does the hard work. This means is that the listener experiences every phase of this journey as the band works their way from merely maintaining to striving to achieve something more. It’s a beautiful and true human experience captured in a compelling 25-minute run time.

Read our full review of I Want to Live my Life here.

9 | Fiddlehead - Between the Richness

While Springtime & Blind was an album mired in death, Between the Richness is an album about life. Specifically, about the things that define a life. Inspired by lead singer Patrick Flynn’s experience as a recent father, the album uses his newfound perspective to unflinchingly capture the things that define us early on. Childhood friendships, mentors, conflicting emotions, growing apart, and academic expectations are all topics that inform the songs here. This all builds to an album-length collage that mirrors the building blocks most of us are comprised of.

After many, many, many repeated listens of Between the Richness, there’s one thing that always sticks in my mind. After all the dust has settled; after the EE Cummings poem, the Latin passages, and the obituary readings, one lyric always rattles around in my brain for hours on end; “How do I say goodbye?” Like many other lines on the album, it’s belted in a near-scream by Flynn, but is swaddled in a melody that can get stuck in your head for hours… and therein lies the beauty of Fiddlehead. Complicated articulations of even more complicated feelings delivered in a cathartic way that not only makes sense but makes you want to join in.

8 | Mannequin Pussy - Perfect

Punk music was never meant to be indulgent, and no release this year proved that more than Mannequin Pussy’s Perfect. A compact collection of five songs weighing in at a collective 14-minute runtime, this might be (pardon my pun) the perfect punk album… or at the very least, the best distillation of Mannequin Pussy’s range of sounds. “Control” is the ultra-relatable lead single, “Perfect” is the burn-it-all-down punk cut, and “To Lose You” is the soaring lovelorn middle child. Beyond that trifecta, “Pigs Is Pigs” is a bass-led hardcore sucker-punch with a vital message immediately contrasted with “Darling,” the EPs solitary closing ballad. Perfect is a full range of emotions captured in a rapid-fire montage of rage, love, injustice, hate, loneliness, and adoration. There’s simply nothing more you could ask for.

7 | Cory Hanson - Pale Horse Rider

In my mind, Pale Horse Rider is a concept album. It’s a record about a cowboy riding an undead skeletal horse to the psychedelic depths of hell. The reason isn’t entirely clear, but odds are he’s going to rescue the girl from a hulking demonic behemoth. It’s like a Robert Rodriguez film, but way more laid back. Or maybe Evil Dead if the characters cracked a few less jokes. It’s Dante’s Inferno in a western setting.

The title track is an early tent poll that plays out like the would-be movie’s title card. From there, we wind from the desert-like desolation of “Necklace” to the epic battle portrayed as a guitar solo on “Another Story From the Center of the Earth.” Even the celebratory moments like “Limited Hangout” are carried out after acknowledging how arduous the journey has been. “Sometimes it's so hard not to feel like a corpse Dragging a soul on two broken wheels / I have often felt the edges of my body trying to escape,” Hanson bemoans before picking up a drink. It’s a nice little moment of lightness that still acknowledges the dark reality we often find ourselves in.

With Hanson as our ferryman, he guides us through the voyage with crystalline pedal steel, rumbling cowboy drums, and jangly campfire acoustic guitar. Despite the macabre theme and overall mood, the release closes out with a sunny disposition on “Pigs,” which plays out like the final credits after we’ve clawed our way back to the surface of the earth. In true old west fashion, the album leaves you ready for another pulpy expedition, but not before celebrating with a stiff drink.

6 | Jail Socks - Coming Down

When I listen to Coming Down, I hear Jail Socks, but I also hear my childhood. I hear my first collection of CDs like Sum 41, Good Charlotte, and Simple Plan. I hear candy-coated pop-rock with immaculate hooks and catchy choruses that mask a more profound layer of emotions lying just beneath the surface. Essentially an album about the comedown of youth, the band’s debut album builds off the foundation laid out in their 2019 EP and draws influence from 90s alt-rockers like Third Eye Blind and Jimmy Eat World. From outright rippers like “Peace of Mind” and “Point Point Pleasant” to more pensive moments found on “Pale Blue Light” and “More Than This,” the band explores a dazzling range of early-20-something lamentations on this record. Already my most-listened-to album of 2021, I know that Coming Down will be an album I’ll return to for many years to come.

Read our full review of Coming Down here.

5 | The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Illusory Walls

An 80-minute post-emo, post-hardcore, post-rock album about the social, moral, and ideological rot of late-stage capitalism? AND it’s all passed through a conceptual Dark Souls filter? I am in. There’s simply no amount of hyperbole I could pack into this introduction that would do Illusory Walls justice, so I’ll just say that this was one of the most impactful first listens I’ve had with an album in years. The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die are perhaps best known for being forebears of the 2010s Emo Revival. Famous for their long name and even longer list of band members, everything about Illusory Walls seems counter to their previous work. It’s a darker, fiercer, and more focused album that was conceived amongst the group’s (now core) five members.

While the singles range from a mixture of The Anniversary and Broken Social Scene on “Queen Sophie For President” and heavy metal riffage on “Invading the World of the Guilty as a Spirit of Vengeance,” the group rounds out distant corners of their universe on songs like “We Saw Birds Through the Hole in the Ceiling” and “Your Brain is a Rubbermaid.” The cherry on top of this album comes with the one-two punch of its closing tracks. Both the 16-minute “Infinite Josh” and the 20-minute “Fewer Afraid” are absolutely jaw-dropping tracks that are guaranteed to inflict goosebumps upon any listeners who might take them in with an open heart. While “Infinite Josh” is built around a post-rock build and steadfast bassline, “Fewer Afraid” is a career highlight manifesto complete with a spoken-word passage and philosophical sentiments. The latter of these two songs evoked an actual joy-filled scream from me upon first listen when the band broke out into an interpolation of my favorite song of theirs from nearly a decade earlier.

Over the course of this album’s final 36 minutes, the group touches on topics like death, the passage of time, religion, and the desire to make the world a better place. It’s inspiring, cosmically-affirming, and downright staggering. In one of the record’s most profound lines, friend of the band Sarah Cowell sings,

You cry at the news, I just turn it off
They say there's nothing we can do and it never stops
You believe in a god watching over
I think the world's fucked up and brutal
Senseless violence with no guiding light
I can't live like this, but I'm not ready to die

Even if you aren’t a fan of this band or emo as a whole, Illusory Walls is a boundless work that shatters nearly every preconceived notion one might have about the possibilities of this genre—an extraordinary feat of the medium.

4 | Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

Michelle Zauner has had a hard couple of years. After the dissolution of her previous band and the death of her mother, Zauner coped the best way musicians know how: by creating. She recoiled into grief over the series of several Bandcamp EPs, culminating in 2016’s phenomenal Psychopomp. She processed her loss in the outer reaches of space with 2017’s Soft Sounds From Another Planet and then took a few years to explore her creative whims. She recorded some covers, did some collabs, and even wrote a damn book. This is all to say that Zauner has kept busy, and after plumbing the depths of sorrow for nigh on five years, she has earned herself a bit of joy. Enter Jubilee.

Japanese Breakfast’s aptly-titled third album finds Zauner basking in vibrant colors, biting into a sweet persimmon, and allowing herself a cautious bit of happiness. “Paprika” sifts through the rubble, eventually uncovering a triumphant parade of love. This leads directly into “Be Sweet,” which is a downright untouchable anthem that deserves nothing less than to be sung at the top of your lungs while bouncing around in pure revelry. This is not to say Jubilee is all good vibes; the album’s happiness is also tempered with plenty of realism and darkness found in songs like “Posing In Bondage” and “Savage Good Boy.” Just as there will always be loneliness and shitty men even in life’s best moments, Jubilee acknowledges the presence of good alongside the bad. It’s a complete spectrum of emotions that all cement in the epic six-minute slow-burn closer “Posing For Cars.” Michelle Zauner will not be defined by her grief nor her happiness. She is a complete human with a planet’s worth of emotions contained within. Jubilee is merely Zauner’s attempt at capturing that ever-shifting mix of feelings. It’s a rush.

3 | Turnstile - Glow On

Before Turnstile even announced Glow On, the band’s four-song Turnstile Love Connection had already made its way onto my album of the year shortlist. On Turnstile’s third studio album, the band builds off their summer sample platter (and excellent visualization) into an expanded world of pink cloud hardcore punk. One spin of the album’s opening call to action, and it’s easy to see the appeal; muscular guitar riffs, exhilarating instrumentals, and catchy scream-along lyrics are all things the group has mastered now over a decade into their career.

Months ago, I saw someone online describe the album as “pop-punk,” and I have become obsessed with that descriptor. Glow On isn’t pop-punk in the frosted tips Sum 41 sense of the term but in a much more literal interpretation of those two words. This is hardcore punk music made in a poppy, approachable way. This is radio rock that can deadlift hundreds of pounds and throw up a 6-minute mile no problem. If this album doesn’t want to make you take flight, then quite frankly, nothing will.

2 | Wednesday - Twin Plagues

How many of us have experienced Twin Plagues over the last year? The loss of a family member and the loss of a job. A life-threatening accident and a breakup. Bad news following already bad news. Sometimes these things just overlap, and when they do, they compound, making each feel worse in the process. Add a climate crisis, political regression, and a pandemic on top of it, and you’ll find that one section of your brain has been passively worrying for the last two years, if not longer.

Twin Plagues is an album full of these dual-wielding worries, contrasted against midwest mundanities. NFL teams, burned-down fast food buildings, high school acid trips, family photos, and dead pets are brought up and passed by like a roadside attraction that nobody wants to stop the car for. While nondescript on paper, these observations are rendered beautifully within the album, set to an instrumental backdrop that ranges from fuzzed-out shoegaze to wistful slide guitar.

This record captures these overlapping plagues and offers a surprising amount of compassion to the emotionally rung-out listener. It’s the sound of multiple major life events converging on you at once, all while the world outside continues to spin onward. It’s the sound of catastrophe happening while you find yourself caught in the eye of the storm.

That said, there’s still escape and comfort to be found here. Twin Plagues may not offer a solution, but in a way, it offers something better; solidarity. It provides the knowledge that you are not alone. It quells your mind with the fact that there are other people out there experiencing the same thing, and, despite how it may seem, we are stronger together than anything the world can throw at us individually. And if you’ve made it this far? If you’ve weathered those Twin Plagues or you doubt that you have the strength to do so, then look no further than the affirmative first words of the album: you are fearless.

1 | Home is Where - I Became Birds

If I were to describe I Became Birds with one word, it would be electrifying. There are tons of things you can compare Home Is Where to: Neutral Milk Hotel, Bob Dylan, and your favorite local punk band, just to name a few. But simply put, this band is unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. As a collection of songs, I Became Birds is all of those sounds and influences packed into a magnificent 19 minutes that strikes my soul like a bolt of lighting. With poetic and visceral lyrics that capture the trans experience, these songs tackle important and seldom-discussed topics like body dysmorphia and self-discovery in inventive and affirming ways. The band also touches on rustic backcountry sentiments, the desire to pet puppies, and presidential assassinations throughout the album’s blistering fast runtime.

Back in March, I described the release as a rickety roller coaster, and I standby that. Every time I give this record a listen, I half expect it to collapse under the weight of itself. This is even reflected in the band’s live performances as lead singer Brandon Macdonald leaps, screams, shouts, wails, and collapses as the songs unfold. The guitars sway, tap, and shred with a fiery passion, floating just above the propulsive rhythm section, which alternates between gently guiding the songs forward and putting the pedal to the metal, forcing them into a careening full-tilt. Throw in some harmonica, synth, horns, violin, group chants, and a singing saw, and you have an honest, revelatory, and elating experience that also makes for the best album of 2021.

June 04, 2021

The Best of May 2021

June 04, 2021/ Taylor Grimes

Easily the most stacked month of 2021 thus far, May saw oodles of emo, heaping helpings of punk, and even a few fantastic folk releases. Of course, we also threw in some blues and metalcore for good measure, plus an actual grunge album to top it all off.

Stars Hollow - I Want to Live My Life

The Iowa emo trio moves from licking their wounds on Happy Again and arrested development on “Tadpole” to active progress on their debut album. Capturing equal parts self-discovery, self-destruction, and self-improvement, I Want to Live My Life is one person’s journey from passive complacency to active betterment. This story is soundtracked by tappy guitar licks, emotive screams, and killer drum fills. As the listener stitches together the threads connecting each song, putting the pieces together results in one of the most satisfying emo experiences this year.

Read our full review of I Want to Life My Life here.

NATL PARK SRVC - The Dance

The Dance sounds like mid-aughts “classic” indie rock in the best way possible. Seven members deep, complete with a horn section and occasional strings, NATL PARK SRVC sounds like they could have opened for Arcade Fire or Broken Social Scene at the peak of those band’s respective Pitchfork-fueled successes. The Dance feels like a hidden gem you’d stumble across in a record store circa-2003 and would obsess over for years. It sounds like the cassette you’d find in the car of your best friend’s cooler older brother and would have an immediate respect for based on that association alone. This is a high-flying, highly-polished indie rock album that arrives to us fully formed. While the record comes with familiar trappings, it feels like NATL PARK SRVC have already carved out their own corner of the world in just 48 minutes and 7 seconds.

The Black Keys - Delta Kream

I’ve been a fan of The Black Keys for as long as they’ve been around. In retrospect, picturing myself as a pre-teen listening to Junior Kimbrough covers and songs like “Grown So Ugly” is objectively hilarious but made all the sense in the world as an accompaniment to my rabid White Stripes fandom. Watching the band evolve from sleazy, sloppy garage rock into a poppier and poppier version of themselves has been one of the great displeasures of my music listening career. That said, I don’t begrudge the band for chasing success, even if it means becoming synonymous with car commercial music in the process.

On Delta Kream, The Black Keys genuinely get back to their roots with 11 covers of blues greats ranging from R. L. Burnside to John Lee Hooker. This record captures my favorite version of the band; it’s the one that I first fell in love with and one that I never thought we’d see again. The guitar tone is muddy, the vocals are mumbled, and the songs feel like they have space to breathe. This album is a direct contrast to 2019’s “Let’s Rock”, which feels like a collection of blues-rock songs that were bitten by a radioactive Subaru Outback. Delta Kream may not get a sold-out tour or million-dollar placements in commercials, but I’m glad it exists, and I know I’m not alone.

Smol Data - Inconvenience Store

As explained by the band themselves on Twitter, Inconvenience Store is a collection of songs about the “insane little art community you made the center of your universe as a teenager.” More specifically, the album is about aging out of that community and trying to figure out where the hell you’re supposed to go next. That’s a pretty universal experience every music-adjacent creative feels growing up, and the songs reflect that universality whether it’s through the poppy hums of “Salaried (Bankruptcy Eve)” or the ska-flavored “Bitch Store.” The record stakes out a space that melds the personable, eccentric indie-pop of Illuminati Hotties with the wholistic world-building of Glass Beach, and that is a Venn diagram I can one-hundred percent get behind.

Just Friends - JF Crew, Vol. 2

Just Friends is serotonin in audio form. Just Friends is pure adrenaline packed with a punch of love, acceptance, and good vibes. Following an excellent three-pack of songs from earlier this year, the band is back with another stack of fun-loving funk-rock tunes. Opening track “Sizzle” is a 100-mile-per-hour banger that sees lead singers Sam Kless and Brianda "Brond" Goyos Leon vivaciously trading bars. As Brond delivers a series of spitfire boasts with Sam as her hypeman, the song eventually breaks down into a stank-face-inducing stoner rock riff. The grooviness doesn’t stop there because this opener gives way to a Lil B remix and a fantastic No Doubt cover in the proceeding tracks. Three songs, no misses. With this EP, Just Friends once again prove that they are a reliable supplier of feel-good ass-shakin’ tunes… as if there was ever any doubt.

The Devil Wears Prada - ZII

Back in 2010, The Devil Wears Prada were riding high. They had just released (arguably) the best album of their career one year prior, then they dropped a zombie-themed EP at the undeniable height of the early-aughts zombie zeitgeist. Aside from being a collection of six fantastic songs, in retrospect, it’s impressive how well the band was able to strike while the iron was hot. The Walking Dead was just revving up on TV, the video game world was inundated with games like Left 4 Dead and Call Of Duty, and films like Zombieland were doing gangbusters at the box office. Over the next decade, the band became a little shakier. They got heavier and darker with Dead Throne in 2011, they lost a founding member in 2012, and then released the middling 8:18 in 2013. The group seemed to be righting the ship in 2015 with Space EP, a similarly committed concept EP about the dangers lurking in the sci-fi corners of space. One year later, they delivered the massively underrated Transit Blues in 2016, then released the somehow even more underrated The Act in 2019. With ZII, the band is signaling that they’ve finally returned to the heights they achieved over a decade ago.

The Devil Wears Prada may have undergone lineup changes and indulged in new sounds that didn’t always pay off, but now they are venturing back into the zombie world they began to flesh out back in 2010, and this time it’s not a gimmick. The band is able to pick up right where they left off on the first Zombie EP as if the intervening years happened in the blink of an eye. The band sounds as sharp, and the screams sound as ferocious as they did a decade ago. The lyrics faithfully stick close to the horror theme but still leave room for compelling narratives and bits of songwriting to occur without being overshadowed by a sense of novelty. For those who have been “tuning out” of the metalcore scene for the last few years, this EP is an appeal directly to you. For most fans, it was clear that the band was achieving new artistic heights with their last full-length, but this EP is an affirmation. It’s a signal to grab your old metalcore tee out of the closet and break it out one last time for 2010’s sake.

Mannequin Pussy - Perfect

Mannequin Pussy are masters of the punk craft, and with each release, the band’s skills have only sharpened. The group’s newest EP, Perfect, is a five-song master class in the punk genre. The emotions have become more fierce but also more controlled. The choruses have become catchier but don’t forfeit their deep-rooted rage. Every type of Mannequin Pussy song is represented here. “Control” hones in the poppier chorus-driven side of the band’s spectrum, “Perfect” is the fast, thrashy punk song, and “To Lose You” is the mid-tempo rocker that pulls at your heartstrings ever so slightly. While each track is fantastic in its own right, the two biggest surprises come at the tail end of the release.

“Pigs Is Pigs” sees Missy handing vocal duties over to bassist Colins "Bear" Regisford for a Turnstile-esque track that tackles police brutality. Based on Ellis Parker Butler’s short story of the same name, “Pigs Is Pigs” encapsulates an all-cops-are-bad-narrative by illustrating how bureaucratic, systematic violence by the cops will never truly end by weeding out the “bad apples” and calling it a day. Bear uses this short story as an analogy for the dire need to defund the police as well as the ideology and policy set during the days of slave patrolling which formed the force from the inside out. As policing has become more assertive, expansive, and militaristic, the techniques have become more violent, punitive, and discriminatory, leading to extreme cycles of violence and death. Furthermore, as the rules behind policing become more violent and fascist, the general public has continued to fear the cops and act within privileged safety nets. On this song, Bear reminds the listener that these rules ascribed to us are only disguised as “right” to hide the violence and injustice behind them. This challenges all of us to decide what is actually right. Is the pervasive narrative good for your community and humanity, or are you just listening to what you’re being told? Mannequin Pussy tells us to pick a side: fear or fight.

Closing track “Darling” is a soft-spoken confessional ballad with an electronic beat, understated guitar, and even delicate bells which carry the release out. Over its 14 minutes, Perfect sees hardened punk perfection slowly unraveling to reveal a tender core. Closing out a rager of an EP with a muted love song follows the sentimental theme found on the closing track of 2019’s Patience, and it is as poignant as it is lovely.

Fiddlehead - Between the Richness

When Fiddlehead dropped their debut album back in 2018, I went in completely blind. I hadn’t heard the band’s ep from three years prior; I wasn’t even familiar with the member’s other projects, Have Heart or Basement. Nevertheless, I checked the record out solely because Springtime and Blind was being put out on Run For Cover, and that was a label I trusted implicitly. My trust paid off, and that album became my favorite of 2018.

After a brief pitstop in 2019, Fiddlehead is back with another 25 minutes of careening and grief-ridden post-hardcore. While Springtime and Blind saw lead singer Patrick Flynn reckoning with his father’s death, Between the Richness is a markedly more optimistic record about centering yourself and finding peace in between the ambivalent chaos of life. While Between The Richness may be more uplifting, that doesn’t mean the band has made a complete sonic shift. Luckily, this record bears the same throat-shredding bellows as the group’s previous work. The choruses are sticky and primed for anthemic sing-alongs in a crowd full of sweaty strangers. Richness is life-affirming rock music that comes from a deep and genuine place. Being able to venture into this world for 25 minutes at a time is an absolute miracle.

Bachelor - Doomin’ Sun

My first listen of Doomin’ Sun happened in a cabin on a farm tucked far up in the mountains of Colorado. This first listen came at the tail end of a long day spent hiking, taking in the natural world, and feeling appreciative of the love I’m able to share with my partner. It turns out that was the perfect way to first experience the collaborative album from the minds behind Jay Som and Palehound. Doomin’ Sun is an album made for porch beers and long drives through the mountains at sunset with the person that matters most to you. It’s laid-back, easy-going, and emotionally forthright. I look forward to this record soundtracking many more sun-drenched memories over the coming months and years.

Downhaul - Proof

Much like the debut album from Stars Hollow, Proof is a record about personal growth as measured through one person. Throughout its ten songs, we watch our narrator work his way from hollow connections to genuine betterment. However, unlike most albums centered around this topic, Proof recognizes that the most challenging part of personal progress isn’t always growth itself, but admitting you need it in the first place. Proof is an album about wrestling with the almost imperceptible seismic shift that happens once you fully own up to the weight of your existence in every form.

Read our full review of Proof here.

The Give & Take - Great Pause

After a five-year hiatus, Expert Timing drummer Gibran Colbert revives The Give & Take to deliver a collection of five excellent songs about uncomfortably growing into the first real adult phase of your life. These songs focus in on physical manifestations of adulthood like a gifted briefcase that has fallen into disuse. They also pan out to address more universal issues like religion, isolation, and mental health. Colbert describes the band as “twinkle country” with inclusive, positive vibes, and the release reflects that, even in its moments of vulnerability. Songs like “Settled” possess an easy-breezy porch swing sway, despite the topic of not quite being where you want to be. The release finds peace in what might make others uncomfortable, all leading up to the last two tracks, which form an emotionally resonant one-two punch that gives this EP the heft of a full-length album.

Gulfer, Charmer - Split

*Topshelf Records, No Sleep Records, Royal Mountain Records*

Ever since I heard the first chaotic yelps of Dog Bless, I knew there was something special about Gulfer. They were an emo band that knew how to mix humor and levity with the usual overwrought sentiments of the genre. Their instrumentation was tight, their vocals stuck, and they were on a legendary emo label to boot. Oppositely, Charmer’s self-titled record was a slow-burn that worked its way up from standard emo fare to an album I’d consider “perfect,” even if only within the bounds of the genre. Charmer had choruses for days, and the band’s songs never overstayed their welcome. Sprinkle both of these releases with well-placed instrumentals, short run times, and excellent production, and you have two modern emo classics.

Last year, both bands released excellent follow-ups to their respective landmark albums that flew (relatively) under the radar in emo circles. Now, they’re back, and they’ve teamed up for a split of two songs that see each band indulging in the best aspects of their respective styles. Gulfer jolts the listener with a jagged instrumental barrage on “Look,” while Charmer croons over guitar tapping on “Diamond (Sprinkler).” This split may only be two tracks, but it’s a team-up that feels tailor-made to me and every other emo out there in need of six minutes and 35 seconds of deep human connection.

Jimmy Montague - Casual Use

While the music world was focused on the middling new 70s-inspired St. Vincent album, Jimmy Montague surprise-released a 70s-indebted record of his own. While it’s easy to listen to Casual Use and hear the classic rock inspiration, it’s something that can sound great on paper but easily fail in execution. So how do I know that Casual Use is the real deal? Well, I sent it to my father, who came of age when this type of music was in its heyday. My dad’s review? “Very good tunes” that will “probably be a regular” on his playlists. That endorsement says more than I ever can.

Palette Knife - Ponderosa Snake House and the Chamber Of Bullshit

Ponderosa Snake House and the Chamber Of Bullshit is an album whose DNA is composed of equal parts Studio Ghibli sentimentality and Vine-era internet humor. It’s a collection of 11 caring, cathartic, and catchy songs, all fueled by the satisfying effervescence of LaCroix. Ponderosa Snake is an exceptionally crafted emo release that ticks all the possible boxes that the genre offers. Tappy guitar parts? Check. Immaculate production? Check. Fun choruses punctuated by brutally honest verses? Double fucking check.

Superbloom - Pollen

A grunge album released in 2021? It’s more likely than you think! The first song on Superbloom’s Pollen is titled “1994,” which is either incredibly apt or incredibly on-the-nose, depending on who you ask. Regardless, “1994” serves an important purpose of setting the listener’s expectations before they even click play. Upon entering the album, you’re met with a wall of sludgy guitar tone, and raspy mumbled vocals that sound about as close to Kurt Cobain as that AI-created Nirvana song from earlier this year. Taking all the best lessons from the Stone Temple Pilots and the Soundgarden’s of the world, Superbloom effortlessly blends together a wide swath of 90s sounds into one throwback release that speaks directly to my inner 90s kid. There are hooks worthy of a Nirvana song, guitar tones akin to a Smashing Pumpkins track, and self-loathing only bested by the aforementioned Stone Temple Pilots. Lead singer Dave Hoon has a voice that sits somewhere between Cobain and the nu-metal bands who took up the mantle of grunge in the early 2000s.

With Totally 90s™ song titles like “Whatever” and others that nod to influential acts of the time like Built to Spill, it can sometimes feel like the band is merely cosplaying this era of music à la Greta Van Fleet. Even if that’s true, the songs end up coming off as more admiration than emulation. Pollen feels like a release from a bunch of 20-somethings who grew up spending hours with their Smashing Pumpkins CDs, and I respect that because, hey, me too. Pollen sounds like an album lost to time and only recently uncovered. It sounds like time traveling back to Portland in the 90s. It sounds like grunge.

Quick Hits

BUG MOMENT - BUG - The 100 gecs-ification of bedroom rock is here, and I adore it.

Pearl Jam - Deep - A gargantuan, too-big-for-any-normal human 5504 song collection of bootleg live recordings taken from 186 shows across Pearl Jam’s decade-spanning career.

Angel Olsen - Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories - Angel Olsen closes out her current era with a collection of her last two records capped off with new songs and remixes.

St. Vincent - Daddy’s Home - After an exhausting album cycle, Annie Clark finally drops her woozy 70s-indebted record that attempts to recapture the grit of New York at its most mystical and drugged-out.

Pet Fox - More Than Anything - A three-pack of poppy and impeccably put-together shoegaze tracks via Exploding In Sound records.

Fiver - Fiver With the Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition - Spacious indie rock with a country tinge and Fiona Apple-like vocals.

Marble Teeth x Riddle - Split 7” - One of my favorite lyricists in the midwest teams up with a friend from his hometown in this lovely little four-track split.

Weezer - Van Weezer - Initially intended to be released around the same time as last year’s ill-fated Hella Mega Tour, the newest LP from Weezer sees the band going full over-the-top 80s guitar-shredding in this album-length genre pastiche.

SeeYouSpaceCowboy x If I Die First - A Sure Disaster - A short split (and fun video) from two of the bands bearing the torch of Rise Records-style Mallcore in 2021.

Skatune Network - Greetings from Ska Shores - The ever-prolific god of upstrokes drops a collection of Animal Crossing songs, all rendered in a sunny ska style.

Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR - If the plodding ballads from Phoebe Bridgers’ Punisher traded LA-Brain for the suburbs and then went to go karaoke Lorde songs.

Good Sleepy - everysinglelittlebit - 30 minutes of cleanly produced, emotionally messy tap-heavy emo. An impressive debut.

Babe Rainbow - Changing Colours - Sunny vibe-filled music primed for beachside hangouts, midday beers, and watching summer sunsets from the comfort of a lakeborne boat.

Missing Life - DEMO - A shoegazy four-song demo from one of the minds behind Mover Shaker that sits somewhere at the intersection of Slowdive and Snow Patrol.

Boyish - We’re all gonna die, but here’s my contribution - Beautifully emotive and inward bedroom indie that cuts straight to the heart of relationships.

A.G. Cook - Apple vs. 7G - An album from the hyperpop head of PC Music collecting remixed tracks from last year’s fantastic Apple and the seven-disc-long 7G.

Pomegranate Tea - Life Is Getting So _____. - Six emo songs with the potential to come to life in small basements and sweaty bars.

Beatricks - Razzle Frazzle - A series of compelling bleeps, bloops, screams, and strums that make you feel like you’re about to set the world on fire.

Hot Mulligan - i won’t reach out to you - Emo stalwarts Hot Mulligan release a short addendum to last year’s fantastic sophomore album you’ll be fine.

.michael. - Secret Handshake - 100 cute and surprisingly well-crafted songs all written in five minutes or less.

Green-House - Music for Living Spaces - Relaxing synthy songs designed to “hit that part of the brain that’s affected by the emotional state that you’re in when you perceive something as cute.”

April 11, 2020

On Running Times: The Importance of Album Length

April 11, 2020/ Taylor Grimes

Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of my favorite parts of meeting new people is learning what kind of music they’re into. Usually, I’ll wait for it to come up in conversation naturally (so as not to overwhelm them with the firehose-like pressure of my own nerdiness), but it’s still something I look forward to whenever I’m getting to know someone. Not only is music one of the few things I feel confident in talking about endlessly, but it’s also a fantastic way to learn about who someone is as a person. Sometimes you meet someone who isn’t “into music,” and it’s fun because you get to slowly immerse them in your favorite records and reveal a part of yourself to them. Sometimes you meet someone for the first time and you both share a love for so many bands that it’s almost eerie. Those latter cases are fun just because you just get to geek out about cringy high school music that was somehow omnipresent enough for both parties to have separate nostalgia for it.

Those weird cases of shared musical backgrounds are so rewarding because it feels like some cosmic affirmation of my (mostly questionable) high school music choices. I made a friend like this in early 2019 who shared a nearly-identical background with me of pop-punk, hardcore, and emo. We were kind of at different points in that triangle of genres, but he got me deeper into pop-punk, I got him deeper into emo, and it was a rewarding friendship from that perspective.

At some point after a few weeks of knowing each other, my friend asked me what my favorite album of 2018 was, and I started going on about Fiddlehead’s Springtime and Blind. I talked about the hard-hitting Title Fight-esque delivery, the guilt-ridden emotional lyricism, and the well-placed world-building interludes. I tied a bow on (what I thought was) a compelling argument in favor of the record by emphasizing its running time of just 24 minutes. My friend paused for a second, thought to himself, then replied with “man, you really love talking about album lengths.” I was taken aback.

Here I thought I’d made a passionate argument for this album that I adored, and my friend just pointed out how often I bring up running times. But then I thought about it, and he was right. I realized over the course of knowing each other for just a few weeks I’d used that as a selling point in favor of an album more than once. More than that, it also shocked me that the length of an album wasn’t something he particularly cared about.

Earlier this year, I was listening to the new Beach Bunny record and (half) jokingly tweeted that “any LP that's less than 26 minutes is an automatic 9/10 in my mind.” That’s obviously a slight exaggeration, but I do think that shorter albums are generally better and harder to pull off than longer ones. While I realize the running time of a record may seem like an esoteric piece of trivia, I believe it’s actually a vital component of what makes an album good. Sure, I love long-winded double albums, 20-minute songs, and concept albums as much as the next guy, but by and large most of my favorite records, especially recently, are ones that tend to be leaner and more economical with their time. Hell, my favorite album of last year was a 6-track EP, so this post is a long time coming. Truthfully I think shorter records are harder to make and therefore are not the norm. I also think they can be stronger, more creative, and more impactful than a “traditional”-length album for many reasons.

In my mind, an album’s running time is as essential as it’s tracklist or sequencing. Many artists don’t take those things into consideration, but the ones that do often end up crafting a more compelling piece of art. The new Ratboys album is a perfect example of a masterfully-sequenced record; each side opens with a fast-paced single, side one closes with a banger, and the back half of the album works up to a beautifully meditative title track made all the more poignant by the flow of the songs that come before it. Part of what makes Printer’s Devil great is, yes, the songs themselves, but also how the band decided to order those songs and walk the listener through them. You could take those same 11 tracks, rearrange them, and the album would be flat-out worse.

When an artist releases an album, generally, it has a point. The musician sets out to capture a feeling, depict a time in their life, or make a statement on something in the world. If you can get your point across in less time, that only makes your message all the more compelling. One of the first times I consciously began to think about album running times was when Japanese Breakfast released Psychompmp back in 2016. Admittedly enamored with the (now) infamous long-form indieheads shitpost about the album, I went into the record with almost-non-existent expectations and came out the other side 25-minutes later blown away.

Essentially a concept album about her mother’s death, Michelle Zauner set out to capture her grief, experiences, and feelings that surrounded this major event in her life. The album opens poppy enough with the mystifying “In Heaven,” the soaring “Rugged Country,” and the immensely danceable “Everybody Wants to Love You.” Things take a turn halfway through where the titular “Psychopomp” stops the listener in their tracks with a spacy instrumental containing a voicemail of Michelle’s mom. From there, “Jane Cum” bowls the listener over with a wordless explosion of grief, pain, and sharp feelings. Not only is “Jane Cum” one of the most authentic expressions of loss ever captured in music, but it’s made stronger thanks to the songs that surround it. The record is so well-paced, and it’s conscious build-up to that pivotal moment of loss makes the feelings Michelle’s depicting all the more raw and impactful. After that heaviness “Heft,” “Moon on the Bath,” and “Triple 7” act as a sort of post-script to death that sends the listener off on a (slightly) more hopeful note, though not by much. The fact that Michelle was able to fit all of those feelings into an album that’s shorter than most episodes of TV is nothing short of spectacular.

One of the reasons I love music is because it’s the only medium with the ability to make such a compelling depiction in such a short amount of time. TV shows and movies are great, but at best they take 2 hours to create a similar effect. I suppose you could make the argument that shorter-form art house movies broach a similar level of impact, but even then the two mediums don’t exist in the same quantities. There’s a more compelling narrative in the four and a half minutes of “Born to Run” than there was in whatever new teen drama Netflix shat out this weekend. There’s no comparison.

This feels like a good place to say that I’m not against long albums, one of my favorite records of all time is The Monitor by Titus Andronicus; a 65-minute punk epic that’s loaded with 8-minute songs and capped off by a blistering 14-minute coda. The same thing goes for Sufjan’s Michigan, and Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly, sure I’m cherry-picking some of the greatest albums of all time, but they’re all examples of artists using their hour-plus running times to craft a compelling story that could not have been told any other way. Those records are still economical in that sense, it’s just that they take a little bit longer to arrive at their final conclusion.

On the opposite end of the cultural spectrum, you have records like Migos’ Culture II, which is admittedly a bloated 24-track 2-hour mess, but it’s a bloated mess I don’t have a problem with because it’s just a glorified playlist that you put on while doing anything else. Drake literally did this when he released More Life, a mixtape that he marketed as a “playlist.” That’s code for “don’t think about this too much and just give me 22 streams.” I’ll admit I like More Life alright, but then you see the same thing happening on Scorpion, which is 90 minutes of some of the blandest, most mind-numbing, lobotomy-inducing hip-hop that I’ve ever heard in one place. That album just feels like Drake gaming the streaming system to get as many plays as possible while offering nothing of artistic substance.

Another thing worth bringing up here is the history of the physical album. The fact that records used to be based solely on two 23-minute sides of a vinyl record meant that 40-ish minutes became the default. Then once CDs became prominent enough, their 80-minute capacity meant that hour-length albums could become the norm. Once iTunes, Pandora, and digital music paved the way for streaming services an album could be literally anything. Artists are no longer restricted by the realities of a physical format, and that’s a good thing.

I know there are plenty of people out there who just listen to an album, click the “heart” button on their favorite songs, and then craft their daily music experience around a playlist of those cherry-picked favorites. That’s fine, but I believe that the album format is still a viable medium and an essential piece of the music creation process. I feel that “The Album” is the barometer under which all music should be measured. You can have a couple of great tracks, but if the rest of the songs surrounding it don’t measure up, then you don’t have a great album. That’s part of the problem with albums like Scorpion where you have a few objectively fire songs like “Nonstop” and “Nice For What” surrounded by utter nonsense like “Ratchet Happy Birthday.” Truth be told, I can’t even name any of the other “bad” songs on that album because there’s so much fat that record that it all blurs into one incoherent mess of sleepy pop-rap. It makes me like the entire thing less, and therein lies the problem.

Meanwhile, take a look a the new Beach Bunny album; a 9 track 25-minute debut that ranges from catchy sing-along love songs, confessional tales of heartbreak, and masterful builds of unrequited love. Truth be told, Honeymoon is not really making any grand artistic statement on love and relationships, but it set out to offer a collection of saccharin poppy love songs, and it did just that. It didn’t need an hour, it didn’t need interludes, it’s just nine tight tracks of well-written indie-pop and that alone elevates it above other albums of its ilk.

The minute an album has worn on long enough for you to check the tracklist to see how much is left, then the artist has failed. Every preceding song may be great, but the longer an album is, the more chances there are for lulls like that. The shorter a record is, the less room there is for error.

I’m not saying artists should limit themselves; musicians should take as much time as they need to craft their work and get their point across, it’s just that the less time they manage to do it in, the more impactful the message feels. Much like you’re probably reading this, 1900 words deep and wondering when it will end.

The “album” is a fluid concept in 2020, more fluid than it’s ever been in fact. There are artists breaking barriers every day, and album length is only one small piece of that. It just feels notable to me when an artist manages to create something so compelling and get it across in such a short amount of time. After all, if you love it and want more, you can always just start it all over again from the top.

May 07, 2018

April 2018: Album Review Roundup

May 07, 2018/ Taylor Grimes

We’re back for another (slightly-delayed) roundup of new releases. Between procrastination, life, and launching the newly-designed version of Swim Into The Sound, this post has just managed to slip through the cracks. I also lost progress on this document an unprecedented four times, so at this point, I’m convinced that it’s cursed.

Personal drama aside, I’m also thankful that April broke the upward-trend set by previous months and gave me a bit of a break from the torrential flood of new music that we’ve been lucky enough to receive this year. And while April may have been a relatively quieter month in terms of albums released, the quality of the albums we got more than made up for it. In fact, this month’s roundup possibly contains the single widest array of genres we’ve written about, as well as some of the strongest contenders for Album Of The Year we’ve seen thus far. There’s also a weird through-line of albums about death, so it’s gonna get morbid, but you’ve been warned. Let’s get right into it and start off with one of my biggest surprises of 2018 thus far.

Fiddlehead - Springtime and Blind

Fiddlehead is an emo supergroup comprised of members from Basement and Have Heart who are making hard-charging punk in the style of Jawbreaker or Balance and Composure. A recent addition to the Run For Cover family, the label’s co-sign immediately put the band on my radar and got me to give this debut a shot. While the 24-minute running time makes Springtime and Blind an easy listen, the lyrical content makes it anything but. After witnessing the impact of his father’s death on his mom, lead singer Patrick Flynn set out to bottle up that emotion and hurl it back in the face of his audience. Opening track “Spousal Loss” immediately sets the tone of the record, and (aside from an interlude or two) the heavy-hearted energy of this release doesn’t let up until its final moments. It’s a compelling and expansive listen that grabbed me on first spin and has somehow managed to hit even harder with each subsequent listen. It’s musical and spiritual forward momentum.

Hop Along - Bark Your Head Off, Dog

Known for their agile guitar-work, hard-hitting lyricism, and Frances Quinlan’s destructive vocals, Hop Along have made a name for themselves as a figurehead of the growing indie folk rock movement. Fusing indie rock, emo, folk, and even a dab of twangy country, Hop Along’s sound is both unmistakable and immediate. On Bark Your Head Off, Dog the group is more reserved than ever, playing their cards close to the chest and only letting their emotion get the better of them when it matters most. Each song unfolds with a rich tapestry of instrumental layers, passionate vocals, and haunting lyricism. It’s a feast for the ears and an album that explodes with both color and vibrance.

Saba - Care For Me

While most listeners will probably recognize Saba for his contributions to Chance the Rapper’s “Angels” in 2016, he’s been a figure in the Chicago hip-hop scene for years now. Taking cues from the SaveMoney sound, Saba makes woozy and poetic jazz rap in the vein of Noname or Towkio but ratchets the darkness up to near-uncomfortable levels. Just as the cover would lead you to believe, Care For Me is neither a “fun” or “bright” album, but that doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable. Like a mix between I Don’t Like Shit and Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, Saba takes an open-heart approach to his music, using the album’s 41 minutes to vividly depict the loss, sadness, and strife that he encounters on a daily basis in Chicago. The album’s high point comes in the form of its penultimate “PROM / KING,” a song that recounts the life of Saba’s childhood friend and cousin who was stabbed to death in early 2017. Through these stark second-hand accounts, it quickly becomes clear that the album’s title is acting, not as a half-hearted ask, but a mission statement, a demand for compassion, and a plea for help.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Sex & Food

For their fourth record as a band, the New-Zealand-born, Portland-based psych group seem to have taken a negative perception of the world and spun into something positive. “Sex and food are the only two good things left anymore” UMO mastermind Ruban Nielson explained as he officially announced the album at the beginning of the year. Perhaps thanks to that focused but vague viewpoint, we now have what is essentially a Seinfeld of an album about nothing in particular. “This record is not political at all, to me. I'm surrounded by everything that's happening, but it's just about my feelings” and thus; Sex & Food. The approach Ruban & co. seem to be taking with this record is actually shockingly-similar to my own personal philosophy: the world may suck, but it’s important not to drown in that fact. There are still wholesome acts, beautiful moments, and communal strength to be found in the face of absolute oppression. Sometimes it can come across as a borderline-hedonistic fixation on the positive, but for Unknown Mortal Orchestra, it simply means good music. Sex & Food ends up being a wonderfully-groovy outing featuring chilled-out and laid-back tracks that perfectly mirror this philosophy of pleasure.

Underoath - Erase Me

If there’s such a thing as a “legacy act” in metalcore, Underoath has undoubtedly achieved that status. Active since 1997, the group has released eight albums, survived a breakup, and acted as a genre-wide entry-point for millions of fans (myself included). They’re about as close to a household name as metalcore gets, yet unlike most other bands in their position (The Devil Wears Prada, August Burns Red, Bring Me the Horizon), they are now in the unenviable position of releasing their first album in nearly a decade. Stuck at a crossroads between accessibility and expectations, the band embraces pieces of each style resulting in an enjoyable, yet somewhat-uneven pastiche of opposing voices. There are spots of genericism in both the lyrics and the instrumentals, but these instances can probably be chalked up to time more than anything else. The band members have changed just as much as their army of listeners over the course of the past decade. They’re not the same people that recorded “Reinventing Your Exit” in 2004, and they never will be again. Erase Me is about as solid of an album as one could expect given all the elements at play. This comeback album is a nice compromise between the Underoath we know and the developments that have occurred in the genre during their absence. Erase Me is not bad, but it’s not an instant classic either, and the truth is it doesn’t really matter because at the end of the day it’s just great to have Underoath back.

Half Waif - Lavender

As the lead singer, keyboardist, front-woman and overall creative force behind Half Waif, a lot of responsibility lies on the shoulders of Nandi Rose Plunkett. After rocking the world (and my emotional state) with 2017’s form/a, Half Waif has returned only one year later with her full-bodied third LP titled Lavender. Created in the wake of a family death, the album acts as a memoriam; a loving document of Nandi’s recently-passed grandmother. More than that, Lavender stands as a testament to maternal strength, inter-generational wisdom, and the ever-shifting self. Tender, loving, and deeply personal, Lavender swirls around the listener and slowly bathes them in an aroma of loss and compassion for 38 minutes. If any of us are fortunate enough to have such a gorgeous work of art commemorating our lives, we should consider ourselves lucky.

The Wonder Years - Sister Cities

The Wonder Years are my favorite band of all time, full-stop. As documented in my Upsides write-up (and the fact that I spent over $110 on the ultimate bundle of this album), this is a band I love, trust, and follow implicitly. While I was originally drawn to the group for their fast-paced pop-punk stylings and heart-on-sleeve lyricism, its members have (expectedly) matured in the near-decade since I’ve been following them. Gradually shifting away from that explosive in-your-face musicality, the band has been growing up, mellowing out, and moving on to the point where they no longer identify with that aggression any longer. Using their last album as a bit of half-step between these two styles, Sister Cities finds the band fully-realizing their new sound with a now-fleshed out and fine-tuned musical pallet.

Opening track “Raining in Kyoto” finds lead singer Daniel Campbell an ocean away from his dying grandfather, regretfully missing his last opportunity to say goodbye before he passes. While it starts on a dour rainy mood, the song (and album as a whole) eventually shift toward positivity and even joy in some spots. Sister Cities is a record about how little distance truly matters. It’s about love, and life, and heartbreak, and death, and all these concepts that bond us as humans. No matter where we are or who we’re with or what we’re doing, there are life events that are so intrinsic to the human experience that they bond us in this beautiful and inescapable way. It’s an album about the resilience of humanity. The good in us and the beauty within others.

I’ll admit I still like the band’s “faster” music much more, but even then I can see that Sister Cities is just as poetic and personal as the band’s early work. Their first few albums were about longing for happiness, purpose, and a sense of being, and now that they’ve finally achieved some of those things, they’re looking back in appreciation. Their discography is like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs; those base-level traits are the things bond us. Meanwhile those higher needs are are the things that we’re all striving for, but you cant skip straight to them. When the band members were in their 20’s those base level things seemed almost impossible to maintain (or achieve in the first place), but now that they’ve grown as humans, they’re looking up at the next level confidently for the first time in their lives. As they stretch and reach to those top-tiers towards self-actualization, they find themselves tumbling back down over and over again, but the point is that they never give up.

Janelle Monáe - Dirty Computer

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It’s a bit early to claim anything as album of the year, much less pronounce a record’s eventual impact on an entire genre, but if there’s a better candidate for both of those accolades than Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer, then I haven’t heard it yet. Wonderfully-accessible, powerfully-confident, and unabashedly-weird, this is the album we need in 2018. Dirty Computer is about extending the middle finger to assholes of every type from close-minded bigots to our very government. It’s an album about being yourself and owning it. It’s an album about the prison of technology and the hangups of society. It’s an album about everything. There are bangers like “Django Jane,” and undeniable bops like “Pynk,” even Prince-esque perfection on “Make Me Feel,” and those songs are all next to each other on the album. Dirty Computer is expertly-balanced, wonderfully-varied, and well-paced, but most importantly, it’s coming at the perfect time. It all hangs together beautifully and should cement Janelle Monáe as one of the most fantastic and creative thinkers of our time. An achievement of pop.

Quick Hits

I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas: A full-album cover of The Mountain Goat’s seminal All Hail West Texas featuring a compilation of artists from the Night Vale-adjacent I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats podcast.
Cardi B - Invasion of Privacy: personable bangers of empowerment from the stripper turned platinum rapper.
Adam Ackerman - Autobiologist: Sorority Noise guitarist and known shredder Adam Ackerman gets emotional on his first release as a solo artist.
Kississippi - Sunset Blush: Sunny, shimmering, and soulful, Kississippi’s long-awaited debut is a brightly-colored reflection of interpersonal drama.
Flatbush Zombies - Vacation in Hell: The Brooklyn trio unleashes a series of never-ending and always-varied flows against a background of brightly-colored tie-dye.
Young Thug - Hear No Evil: A triplet of rubbery trap songs with big-name features, all of which allow ample room for Thug to zanily bounce around like the living Animaniac that he is.
Animal Flag - Void Ripper: Heavy alternative rock that’s not afraid to bask in regret.
Princess Nokia - A Girl Cried Red: The latest development in the emo trap movement ignited by Lil Peep.
King Tuff - The Other: Sun-drenched psych rock in the style of Ty Segall.
J. Cole - KOD: I’ll be the first to admit I’m no J. Cole fan, and while KOD sometimes veers into Mr. Mackey territory, there are still enough scattered moments of poignancy to make this an endearing listen.
Sleep - The Sciences: It’s not often that you can point to an entire genre’s definitive album, but Sleep managed to craft one with 1999’s Dopesmoker. Now nearly two decades later they have an official successor in the form of The Sciences, an album about smoking weed in space (suitably) released on 4/20.
God is an Astronaut - Epitaph: Monolithic and star-dusted instrumental post-rock from the enigmatic Irish trio.
GIRAFFES? GIRAFFES! - Memory Lame: The first album in seven years from the doubly-named math rock duo.
Royal Coda - Royal Coda: Legendary post-hardcore singer Kurt Travis returns to the genre with a new band and a blistering debut that proves he’s still one of the best in the game.
Grouper - Grid Of Points: Pensive and slow-winding piano ballads that bottle up the trauma of heartbreak and serve it up to the listener in a foggy, dreamlike state.
Post Malone - Beerbongs & Bentleys: Admittedly wack, but somebody needed to fill the void left by Kid Rock, and therefore; Post Malone.
Sigur Rós - Route One: After driving around Iceland for a full day creating procedurally-generated post-rock with stems from "Óveður," Route One is a 40-minute album highlighting the best moments from the highly-conceptual nation-wide commute.
Dr. Dog - Critical Equation: An extraordinarily well-polished psych album from the band that’s now been around almost long enough to have received an actual doctorate.

Plus we got new singles from Drake, St. Vincent, Dance Gavin Dance, A$AP Rocky, Get up Kids, Haley Heynderickx, Amine, Dr. Dog, Slim Jxmmi, Field Medic, Denzel Curry, Beach House, Kid Cudi, Florence + The Machine, Nicki Minaj (twice), God is an Astronaut, Lil Uzi Vert, Lithics, Lil Pump, Father John Misty, Denzel Curry, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, FIDLAR, Billie Eilish, Mitski, Ariana Grande, Ty Segall, Clairo, Mogwai, The Internet, and Kanye West.

Blog

Angel Du$t – BRAND NEW SOUL

Astra King – First Love

awakebutstillinbed – chaos takes the wheel and i am a passenger

Broken Record – Nothing Moves Me

Chain Whip – Call of the Knife

Coronary – The Future… Is Now

Del Paxton – Auto Locator

Downward & Trauma Ray – Split

Equipment – Alt. Account

Fiddlehead – Death is Nothing to Us

Gravess – i still feel it, crawling, under my skin.

Harrison Gordon – The Yuppies Are Winning

Honey Creek – Self Preservation

Josaleigh Pollett – In The Garden, By The Weeds

Mauve – About The Weather

MINDCLOT – Profit Over People

Pacing – Real poetry is always about plants and birds and trees and the animals and milk and honey breathing in the pink but real life is behind a screen

Ratboys – The Window

Ringworm – Seeing Through Fire

Slow Pulp – Yard

Squirrel Flower – Tomorrow’s Fire

Star99 – Bitch Unlimited

Stephen O’Malley & Anthony Pateras – Sept duos pour guitar acoustique et piano préparé

Talking Kind – It Did Bring Me Down

Teenage Halloween – Till You Return

Thank You, I’m Sorry – Growing in Strange Places

TORSION – DEMO 2023

15 | Wild Pink - A Billion Little Lights

14 | The Antlers - Green To Gold

13 | Good Sleepy - everysinglelittlebit

12 | Alien Boy - Don’t Know What I Am

11 | Lucy Dacus - Home Video

10 | Stars Hollow - I Want to Live My Life

9 | Fiddlehead - Between the Richness

8 | Mannequin Pussy - Perfect

7 | Cory Hanson - Pale Horse Rider

6 | Jail Socks - Coming Down

5 | The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Illusory Walls

4 | Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

3 | Turnstile - Glow On

2 | Wednesday - Twin Plagues

1 | Home is Where - I Became Birds

Stars Hollow - I Want to Live My Life

NATL PARK SRVC - The Dance

The Black Keys - Delta Kream

Smol Data - Inconvenience Store

Just Friends - JF Crew, Vol. 2

The Devil Wears Prada - ZII

Mannequin Pussy - Perfect

Fiddlehead - Between the Richness

Bachelor - Doomin’ Sun

Downhaul - Proof

The Give & Take - Great Pause

Gulfer, Charmer - Split

Jimmy Montague - Casual Use

Palette Knife - Ponderosa Snake House and the Chamber Of Bullshit

Superbloom - Pollen

Quick Hits

Fiddlehead - Springtime and Blind

Hop Along - Bark Your Head Off, Dog

Saba - Care For Me

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Sex & Food

Underoath - Erase Me

Half Waif - Lavender

The Wonder Years - Sister Cities

Janelle Monáe - Dirty Computer

Quick Hits

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