The Best of August 2021
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Groovy licks, spacious shoegaze, and vivacious bars make up the best releases of August.
Mud Whale - Everything In Moderation
Self-released
One indicator of a great band is how fast they can turn you into a fan, especially if you go into their record blind. I queued up Everything In Moderation on release day, not knowing what to expect. Once the opening track “Karmageddon” kicked in, I was sold within seconds. As the song’s tappy emo intro led to a Touché Amore-caliber scream, I knew I was in for a wild ride. The record has flavors of post-hardcore on “Haze Jude,” a Title Fight bent on “Scapegoat,” and even a jazzy little love song in “French Roast.” Whether through nifty emo noodling or barrel-chested bellows, Mud Whale’s debut is a beautifully polished and inventive record that’s packed with an impressive variety of sounds.
Kississippi - Mood Ring
Triple Crown Records
Heartbreak is hard. That observation on its own isn’t compelling, but on Mood Ring, Zoe Reynolds manages to make it feel one-of-a-kind. Over the course of ten shimmering synthpop tracks, the record captures the life of a relationship from initial spark to inevitable heartbreak. There’s soaring jubilation and excitement on songs like “Around Your Room” and “We’re So In Tune,” but things begin to decay in real-time as you listen. By the time the closing one-two punch of “Big Dipper” and “Hellbeing” rolls around, the feeling of loss hangs heavy in the air. There’s catharsis to be had here in the form of big, singalong choruses that stick to your brain, much like the bubblegum depicted on the album’s cover. Whether filtered through a 1989-style pop music filter or celestial metaphors, Kissy’s emotions remain a powerful driving force throughout Mood Ring. Through this relatability, Reynolds provides the listener with a strong figure to aspire to, all but saying, “if I made it through this, then you can too.”
Ty Segall - Harmonizer
Drag City, Inc.
Being a prolific artist, while admirable, is not always enough on its own. Much like fellow psych-rockers King Gizz, Ty Segall is a textbook prolific artist; he releases solo albums, collaborations, and demos at a consistent clip that can sometimes feel more like an avalanche. I like Segall quite a bit, but I’ll admit I am not die-hard enough to sit with each of these releases long enough to do them justice. And they’re not all for me. Segall’s newest LP, Harmonizer, is definitively made for me. This record takes the chunky, funky, fuzzed-out riffs of Melted and lays Segall’s signature cocky, strut-worthy T. Rex-indebted vocals over-top for a groovy (and punctual) collection of tracks that will make you feel like a Robert Crumb cartoon.
Snow Ellet - suburban indie rock star: re-release
Wax Bodega
When Snow Ellet dropped suburban indie rock star back in March, I never got a chance to write about it in a monthly roundup because, well, I slept on it until April. But now, with its re-release on Wax Bodega, I finally get an excuse to write about one of my favorite EPs of the year. In the time since suburban indie rock star’s initial release, the project has received Pitchfork reviews, Stereogum coverage, and even lined up a tour with pop-punk stalwarts Knuckle Puck, and it only takes one song to see why. Under the moniker Snow Ellet, Eric Reyes effortlessly delivers sunny Oso Oso vocals over slick riffs, all with the 90s alt-rock worship of Equipment’s All You Admire. This results in a distinct confluence of styles that Reyes self-describes as “pop-punk for the indie kids, indie rock for the pop-punk kids.” With a cover that screams ‘cassette by a turn-of-the-millennium indie band from the Pacific Northwest,’ it’s no wonder why this unique combination of sounds feels so tailor-made for me. Plus, now with two new tracks added onto the original EP, there’s never been a better time to jump on the Snow Ellet train.
Indigo De Souza - Any Shape You Take
Saddle Creek Records
How are you doing? Like, how are you really doing? That’s the subtext that I read when listening to Indigo De Souza’s stunning sophomore album. At a certain point, Any Shape You Take feels less like a collection of songs and more like checking in on an old friend. The sentiments are honest, the topics are morbid, and the delivery is modest as if honed from years of familiarity. These lyrics are often placed over a controlled indie rock jangle but occasionally stretch to the outer reaches of the universe. For example, “Real Pain” begins at a subdued even keel but gradually erupts into a chaotic burst of noise and screams that track perfectly with the emotion of the song. Songs address complex and hard-to-pin-down subjects like breakups, aging, and finding comfort in closeness. All of this is tied up with a neat little bow on “Kill Me,” which is easily one of the best songs of the year. Any Shape You Take is a stunner of an album that helps me better understand the world.
Farseek - Standstill
Self-released
Much like Oso Oso, Farseek feels like a project with a singular focus that can only be the product of an individual mind. Performed, written, and engineered by Cameron Harrison with friend Corey Jacobsen filling in on drums, the lineup and arrangement are almost identical to Jade Lilitri. Not only is that impressive, but it also takes a level of skill and vision that not many musicians have. It feels like every aspect of each song has been carefully considered. Every lyric, guitar lick, and drumbeat has been intentionally placed, resulting in five emo tracks that beautifully hang together and feel like a holistic experience. Standstill is tentpoled by “Crying” and “New Short Haircut,” both of which are energetic, dynamic emo songs that hang on beautiful details of fleeting moments. Clocking in at a lightweight 16 minutes, this is an unassuming emo release that will sink its hooks in and beguile you over time.
Wednesday - Twin Plagues
Ordinal Records
Wanna know how to suck me into an album instantly? Start with a lumbering, fuzzed-out riff. This approach is precisely what Wednesday deploy on Twin Plagues. After roughly a minute of swaying shoegaze, the opening title track bottoms out into an all-too-relatable bedroom indie rock verse. Soon enough, momentum takes hold once again, and the group swings back into the borderline-stoner rock riffage, combining these two elements in a whirlwind of raw feelings. This is the dynamic that’s constantly at play throughout Wednesday’s sophomore album, and it is nothing short of entrancing. The marriage of moody instrumental tone with the occasional country-flavored jangle and hyper-personal lyrics delivered in a disaffected style is an absolute revelation.
A Great Big Pile of Leaves - Pono
Topshelf Records
Confession time: I’ve never listened to A Great Big Pile of Leaves before this year. They were one of those emo revival acts that just managed to pass me by, so I sadly couldn’t join in on the hype for Pono when it was announced but two short months ago. Now that it’s here, I’m simultaneously overjoyed and kicking myself for sleeping on this band for so long. I also felt the need to preface this write-up with my lack of AGBPOL history because everything I wanted to compare this album to came in their wake. It’s one of those instances where you don’t realize the breadth of a band’s influence until you discover them. Pono is a beautifully sunny emo-light record where groovy Turnover instrumentals merge with lackadaisical Seahaven singing and the occasional arid Balance and Composure guitar tone for a cosmic gumbo of dancy emo tunage. Much like Frank Ocean’s Blonde, Pono feels like it was released at the perfect time, effortlessly catching the post-summer glow of late August.
Big Red Machine - How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last?
Jagjaguwar / 37D03D
I’m a Bon Iver guy from way back. I stumbled across For Emma, Forever Ago as it came out, and for a 15-year-old whose default mode was “pining,” that record spoke to me unlike anything I’d ever heard. Over time, I grew with Bon Iver, and I’d like to think that the project grew with me in turn. While nothing overtly revelatory, the first Big Red Machine album felt like a one-of-a-kind project when it dropped. That release saw Justin Vernon (of Bon Iver) and Aaron Dessner (of The National) meeting at an intersection of their respective careers and feeding off each other creatively. The “concept” of the album is explained pretty succinctly in the opening paragraph of the Pitchfork review, but musically, the result was an experimental, hypnotic, bleary edible trip of an album that allowed both artists to indulge in some of their less overt tendencies.
It was clear from the first single (and became more evident each of the four subsequent singles) the second album from Big Red Machine was not going to be that inward. Instead, the sophomore effort from this indie-folk brain trust involved turning the project into a sort of Avengers of the music industry. While a far cry from the isolated-but-collaborative nature of their first release, How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last? is a little muddled but still fun in a different way. It feels less like ‘two dudes hanging out making loopy shit in the woods’ and more like “Vernon, Dessner, and Friends,” which is still viable. Does it reach the artistic highs of Bon Iver or Sleep Well Beast? Nope. Will that stop me from keeping it on repeat all season? Not a chance.
see through person - sun
Acrobat Unstable Records
Let me spit some phrases at you. Jail Socks. Dance Gavin Dance. Dogleg. Fatty basslines. Extra-chunky riffs. Thrashy drums. Killer screams. If this combination of sounds seems too good to be true, all you need to do is click play on sun to see the light. The three-track EP from the Florida emo act is an exercise in explosive instrumentation, soaring vocal melodies, and bombastic emotions. It may only be 7 minutes long, but when taken in alongside last year’s chariot, it’s easy to see the bigger picture. If I were a betting man, I’d wager that the vinyl collection of these EPs will achieve legendary status in a matter of years, if not months.
Telethon - Swim Out Past The Breakers
Take This To Heart Records
Come for the features, stay for the rippers. That’s the motto on Swim Out Past The Breakers, the excellent sixth LP from Milwaukee-based indie rockers Telethon. Even a cursory glance at the album’s Spotify page reveals features from labelmates Future Teens, upcoming popstar Jhariah, and even handsomeman Chris Farren. This leads to a stacked DJ Khaled-esque lineup, the difference here being that Telethon are genuinely talented artists in their own right who are also pursuing a larger vision. On the opening track, “Shit (Jansport),” the band offers a crash course introduction to their Hard Pop style as they vault from over-the-top Glass Beach zaniness to a big top circus riff before launching into a crowd-churning breakdown. On paper, that’s a chaotic mishmash of incongruent sounds, but somehow the band manages to make it all click. Just to give a quick machinegun blast of the sounds and topics contained within this album, there’s jangly alt-country, AC/DC guitar licks, email-inflicted strife, Xenomorph encounters, Blink-182 interpolations, and an ‘80s-style TV interstitial.
In one seventy-second stretch within my favorite song on the record, the band name-drops Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell, chiptunes act (T-T)b, My Morning Jacket’s hoedowns, and skatepunk icons PEARS as influences. And that’s just the instrumental which sits underneath a blistering punk verse courtesy of Intolerable Swill. In true emo fashion, about half of the songs on the album are punctuated by pop-culture samples that range from Tracey Ullman-era Simpsons to the Robin Williams classic Parenthood. Put simply, Breakers feels like a bunch of music nerds making songs for other music nerds, and I mean that in the best way possible. The album is a kaleidoscopic transfusion of pop culture references, out-of-this-world instrumentation, and impressive vocal performances. Honestly, what are you doing still reading this? Go listen right now.
Pink Navel - EPIC
Ruby Yacht
One of my favorite songs on EPIC opens with a Boxxy sample, then goes on to name-drop Dunkey and Scott the Woz before turning the titular “Ze Frank” into a tweet-worthy boast. If you understood any portion of that sentence, then it’s likely that this mixtape is made for you. On Pink Navel’s eighth album, rapper Devin Bailey infuses hard-hitting beats with obscure pop culture samples and hyper online lyrics, resulting in a project that feels wholly unique and extraordinarily personal.
The opening to “GRATEFUL BARD” comes across as a sort of manifesto for the project as Bailey raps, “I don’t like that quiet serious musician attitude / If you are a grateful bard then you should change the magnitude / Of how you magnify or flatterize all your disaster tunes / To get a group of kids to feel the same brand of the sad as you / What, uh, is that too much for an opening bar?” Not only do these lines deliver a clear modus operandi, but they’re also punctuated by a wink that hits you on multiple levels at once.
The penultimate track, “AN INVOCATION FOR BEGINNINGS,” turns the record into an inspirational affirmation both for the listener and Bailey as they shift into a preacher’s cadence while reciting Ze Frank’s piece of the same name. This leads closing track “R U BASHFUL?” to feel more like a victory lap, a self-exultation that closes out 30 minutes of explosive creativity. Bailey says EPIC “encapsulates a release of frustrated energy at the world and at the web, in response is unfiltered positivity and joy, with a light shining so bright, the smug can only look away, or embrace it's wide, warm arms” and embrace the light we shall. Quick Hits
I am officially abandoning this section of one-sentence reviews because they’re just too much work to keep interesting. However, if you’d like to see my favorite song off every release I listened to this month, here’s a Spotify playlist.
If you’re looking for even more tunes from August aside from the albums listed above, we also published standalone reviews for the new Catbite, Pet Symmetry, and Killers albums.
