Wild Pink – Dulling the Horns | Album Review

Fire Talk

If I wanted to place Dulling the Horns in a box, I could label it with the phrase “back-to-basics.” However, I don’t want to do that. The fifth LP from Wild Pink is rougher and rowdier than the band has ever sounded before, an advancement and experiment for John Ross and company. Extensive touring in the wake of ILYSM, the band’s collaboration-heavy shot at the moon, honed their edges into jagged spikes; those extremities were subsequently reigned into the controlled chaos of the mile-a-minute word tumble of “Eating the Egg Whole” and the sludgy canine declarations of love on “Bonnie One.” The sound of Dulling the Horns is mostly three or four people playing live in a room together, pushing against world-weariness with begrudging energy and resolve. 

Album opener and lead single “The Fences of Stonehenge” finds Ross reprehensive and reflective. Years of writing and touring have threatened to overwhelm the ridge of light that beckoned in the first place. Ramshackle guitars never quite drown out the ambiguity in a pointed question like “Do you still believe it?” In fact, directness drives the song out of the static and into a Petty-via-Young barn-burner. The terrain is harsher once you’ve abandoned the main course, but there is freedom in the abandonment. The thunder still looms heavy over the horizon, so why not take a detour? You can hop the chainlink barriers encircling the megalithic structure and get a little closer to the wonder, even if it gets you into a mess. Never let your stupid ass stop searching.

There are moments on the album reminiscent of another winding, fuzz-laden record made by a band of New Yorkers — Ben Seretan’s Allora. Both songwriters’ core curiosities aren’t sacrificed in the quest towards august straightforwardness and loud amps. The ragged distortion found on all ten tracks of Dulling the Horns doesn’t come at the cost of the esoteric non-sequiturs or stark emotions that flow through Ross’ lyrics. Light doesn’t stop shining in when the clouds roll in. The crescendoing ambition of Wild Pink’s music, from the scrappiness of the self-titled debut to the wind-swept wonder of A Billion Little Lights, is turned back into itself, given a more familiar, classic rock-indebted musical landscape to inhabit, one that still possesses the same crags and biting cold, glimmering stars and lurching valleys, sun and moon.

“Dracula was a Catholic, too, in fact,” Ross sings of the vampirian prince and his orthodoxy late on Dulling the Horns. Fraying and warm saxophone dances with plinking bells around this declaration of someone else’s faith. Perhaps only a takeaway line on another song, it provides “Catholic Dracula” with its title, packing a multitude of worries into a single bar about a single bat. Even the all-powerful Vlad the Impaler (not as prone to blood-sucking as his fictional counterpart) feared God and death, felt guilt, and raged against his shortcomings. Without reading further into the fanged one’s faith, he is humanized by Ross. A straight yet blurry line is drawn between the prevalent Catholic “imagery of suffering” and Dracula’s “later work” as a pole-sharpening brutalist. How does one reckon with their faith in the light of past suffering and struggle?

Elsewhere on the record, Ross still manages to cram in lines about “long-ass German words,” Michael Jordan’s hat in 1997, Heaven’s Gate, and Czech television news. His wandering imagination and invisible associations haven’t lost any prevalence, prescience, playfulness, or laugh-out-loud absurdity. Pro-Iraq War anti-France French fries were served “proudly” in Congressional cafeterias in 2003, the year Jordan retired — all of this time-and-place specificity is stuffed into just two bars. Despite the mess of every morning and the lyrical density, gleaming nuggets of truth shine through on every track. One of Ross’ strengths remains peculiar elegance, in how bits of songs get stuck in your head in true Bermanesque fashion and how guitars, piano, pedal steel, and sax rollick into each other. Dulling the Horns is meant to be lived in; it sure as hell ain’t meant to be forgotten.

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Aly Eleanor lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she writes, records, sends emails, and more for Ear Coffee, a DIY podcast and media “entity” that she co-founded. She can be found online, underground, at home with her rats, or @purityolympics.

Swim Into The Sound's 15 Favorite Albums of 2021

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. 

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15 | Wild Pink - A Billion Little Lights

Royal Mountain Records

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

Anti-

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

No Sleep Records

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

Get Better Records

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

Matador Records

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

Acrobat Unstable Records

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

Run For Cover Records

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

Epitaph

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

Drag City Inc

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

Counter Intuitive Records

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

Epitaph

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

Dead Oceans

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

Roadrunner Records Inc.

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

Ordinal Records

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

Knifepunch Records

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.

The Best of November 2021

A strange thing happened when I sat down to look at my list of albums and EPs that were released this November… Nothing really grabbed me. Sure there were a few big albums and some deep cuts for mega fans, but nothing that I felt compelled to cover in a monthly roundup. That’s no fault of the artists, more a byproduct of the music industry combined with my declining desire to “keep up” with new music at this time of year. Things tend to grind to a halt around the holidays, and I’m brave enough to admit that I’m more checked-out than I have been all year. 

Interestingly, when looking through my monthly Spotify playlist, there were a lot of singles that came out in November which I enjoyed, so I’m pivoting this (probably) final roundup of 2021 to focus on my favorite songs that were released over the past month.

Greet Death - “Your Love Is Alcohol”

Deathwish Inc.

I simply cannot stop listening to Greet Death. Seriously. Almost every time I’m ****** and don’t know what I want to listen to, I’ll just throw on this playlist and let their discography roll from the top. “Your Love is Alcohol” is the newest single from the band, following the awesomely dour “I Hate Everything” from a couple of months back. It’s still unclear whether these songs are building up to a full LP or are just one-off singles, but either way, I’m consuming them voraciously. For the most part, both songs drop Greet Death’s trademarked fuzzy shoegaze riffs and swap that distortion for something the band is describing as “Blackened Post-Alt-Country.”

Given its title, the band’s latest song could easily veer into hyper-unoriginal “your love is a drug” type territory; however, Greet Death deftly avoid this hackneyed sentiment in favor of something far more ownable. The track features a laid-back lounge singer soundscape led by a gorgeous piano and acoustic guitar. There’s a nice little harmonica solo, a cool reversed effect on the drums, and lyrics that hinge on pain and abandonment. It’s literally everything I want from my music. Greet Death forever.

Glass Beach - “orchids (playlist version)”

Run For Cover Records

In 2019 Glass Beach released their unforgettable debut album. Packed with songs of community, longing, and Christmas lights, the first glass beach album is a landmark record that sits at the intersection of emo and electronic music. The band’s debut has (rightfully) garnered a fervent fanbase over the last two years, but there was one problem; “orchids,” the album’s epic closing track, ends with roughly 30 seconds of meditative silence, and some fans didn’t like that. Early on in November, the band joked that their second album would “be the first album but with no silence at the end of orchids and silence added to the end every other song.” It quickly became a meme reinforced by fans and the band alike. Soon after that, the group dropped “orchids (playlist version),” an identical version of the 2019 song but with no silence at the end. Simply revolutionary. This, of course, led to further jokes, but also a good reason for the non-diehards to revisit the band’s first LP. Is it cheating to include what’s essentially a two-year-old song on a roundup of new releases? Maybe. Does that make “orchids” slap any less? Absolutely not. 

Caracara - “Hyacinth”

Memory Music

If there were any justice in the world, Caracara would be lauded with the same level of reverence as emo gods like The Hotelier and TWIABP. Sure they’re only 1.5 records deep into their career, but man, those 1.5 records we have so far are fantastic. Throughout their 60-ish minutes of recorded music, the band expertly wields remorseful emo sentiments over arid indie rock instrumentals for firey emotional outpourings. Songs like “Better” deserve to be as iconic as tracks like “Your Deep Rest” or “The Night I Drove Alone.” Caracara’s songs wind from natural wonder on “Crystalline” to left-field Foxing-style instrumentation on “Prenzlauerberg.” It’s evident that the band has depth, talent, and artistic vision; it’s just a matter of finding their audience and unleashing their sound upon them at the right time. The group’s newest single, “Hyacinth,” reassembles all of Caracara’s distinguishing elements for a bite-sized three-minute re-introduction to the band as they plot out their long-deserved indie rock domination.

The Wonder Years - “Threadbare”

Hopeless Records

The Wonder Years have been my favorite band for over a decade now. I’ve written about this love at length before, but that ten-year figure speaks for itself. Whether through the main band, solo projects, or some combination of the two, this group has released something substantial every year for the last decade, making them an immensely rewarding group of creatives to follow. Back in 2008, The Wonder Years released a song called “Christmas at 22,” which (as the title implies) talks about the holiday season from a fresh-faced, youthful perspective. In that song, the band talks about house parties, seeing childhood friends during the holidays, and subsisting on frozen pizza. Now, over a decade later, the group has released their second-ever Christmas song in “Threadbare.” It should come as no surprise that this one-off single reflects the decade-plus of maturity that the members have built up in the intervening years. Now discussing their families and loved ones with the reverence of wisened family men, “Threadbare” is a touching release that feels more like getting a holiday card from an old friend you still love but don’t talk to nearly as often as you should. 

Guitar Fight From Fooly Cooly - “Pyramid” 

Self-released

Last year, Guitar Fight From Fooly Cooly racked up a placement on our 2020 AOTY list for their debut album Soak. Featuring jittery instrumentals, tappy guitars, and skull-crushing breakdowns, Soak was a fun, energetic, and youthful emo record that genuinely feels like a torchbearer for the true spirit of the genre. This month, the group released “Pyramid,” a one-off addendum to last year’s impressive output which bears many of the same qualities. There’s shreddy guitar, gnashing bass, and snare that sound like a fucking dodgeball. It’s bouncy, fist-balling fun that culminates in a hardcore breakdown that will undoubtedly set off every live show the band puts on for the end of time.

Floating Room - Shima

Famous Class

I lied; this roundup won’t be all singles because Floating Room released the awesome Shima early on in November, and I simply have to write about it. Throughout this four-track EP, the Portland-based dream rock group helmed by Maya Stoner wafts from punchy punk rock to swaying shoegaze with ease. Whether penning love songs or bowling the listener over with raw emotions, Shima is a breathtaking 11 minutes of music. The heart of this EP comes at the end with “Shimanchu,” a blistering 3-minute song about feeling ostracized and tokenized in almost any given community. The band describes this track as both “a paean to Stoner's Uchinanchu heritage and a retort to the condescension she faces daily as an Asian American woman.” It’s a ferocious, catchy, and compelling song with a vital message (and a fun music video) that has already begun to find its audience.

Carly Cosgrove - “Munck”

Wax Bodega

When I first uncovered Carly Cosgrove, the band felt like a revelation. An iCarly-themed emo band? What a perfect four-word pitch. I may have been just-too-old to ride the iCarly Train, but I respect any group of creatives that can find each other, bond, and create art over such a specific shared interest. After cultivating their audience with an EP in 2019, and a double in 2020, “Munck” seems to be the launchpad lead single for the group’s yet-to-be-revealed upcoming full-length album. Both sonically and lyrically, “Munck” feels like the closest thing I’ve heard to a band picking up the baton laid down by Modern Baseball in 2016; an incredibly promising emo rock cut by a group of young creatives who are staying true to themselves. Here’s where I’d sneak in an iCarly reference if I ever watched the show, so I’ll just leave this here instead.

Wild Pink - “Florida”

Royal Mountain Records

Whenever an artist warns, “this song really picks up around the seven-minute mark,” I am in. Some people may hear that and tune out, but as I’ve recently discovered, that’s extremely my shit. The newest single from Wild Pink is a woozy nine-minute epic that also doubles as a perfect cap to a busy year. After dropping one of 2021’s first serious AOTY contenders in February, the New York-based heartland rock outfit has since released an EP, covers, collabs, and even a live album, all within the last 12 months. I loved them all, but with each release I thought, ‘surely that’s it,’ then lead singer John Ross found another way to breathe life back into the world of his particular blend of indie rock Americana. In what is surely the capper to a banner year for the project, “Florida” acts as a long and winding thank you to a year spent together. 

Quick Hits

For the sake of completion regarding November, we also had some excellent reviews from guest writers this month about the new releases from Snarls and Delta Sleep which I heartily endorse. 

The Best of April 2021

Porch beer indie rock, surprise-released ska, and apocalyptic anti-capitalist sentiments make up the best releases of April.

Ratboys - Happy Birthday, Ratboy

Topshelf Records

For a day typically filled with fibs, fakeouts, and general tomfoolery, Happy Birthday, Ratboy is no joke. Surprise released on April 1st, the fourth album from Ratboys is a celebratory and reflective recreation of their debut EP RATBOY. There are gorgeous pedal steel contributions, well-observed slice-of-life portraits, and tales of elderly neighborhood cats. The second side of the album finds the band collecting long-unreleased tracks and rarities, all capped off by a sunny new song, “Go Outside.” Happy Birthday, Ratboy is continuing proof that ten years in, Ratboys are some of the greatest (and hardest working) ever to do it. 

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! 

Constellation Records

Godspeed You! Black Emperor has always been a punk band in spirit disguised as a post-rock band in practice. While they are technically instrumental rock, the message behind their music was always lying in plain sight in the form of sampled field recordings, album art, coded song titles, and the occasional interview. In the case of G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END!, the group released a manifesto featuring a list of demands ranging from dismantling the prison system to taxing the rich. They’re anti-establishment, anti-capitalist, and anti-authoritarian, and those topics are a lot to break down without any concrete lyrics. 

Despite their status as the favorite band of Rate Your Music Boyfriends® the world over, Godspeed really is that good. They’ve become a benchmark for an entire genre, and that doesn’t happen by accident. The group’s latest album is centered around two twenty-minute tracks, each punctuated by shorter six-minute songs. The result is a powerful and moving 52-minute run time that ends on a delicate but (surprisingly) uplifting note. 

Wild Pink - 6 Cover Songs

Royal Mountain Records

I love Wild Pink. I also love a good cover song. Throughout 6 Cover Songs, Wild Pink bandleader John Ross culls together a half-dozen tracks that suit every style and tempo of music captured on A Billion Little Lights from earlier this year. Following up one of 2021’s best heartland indie rock albums with a collection of covers two mere months later is an unexpected move, but I suppose in retrospect, 2016’s 4 Songs and 2019’s 5 Songs had set out a clear pattern. What’s more, the song selections are nothing short of excellent. There are some artists who feel like a shoo-in for this type of thing: Springsteen and Coldplay, echoing recent covers by Waxahatchee and Hovvdy, respectively. There are also some batshit crazy wild swings like Taylor Swift and Carly Rae Jepsen that appeal to my inner poptimist and are pulled from various comps over the years. Perhaps most notably, there’s a 49-second cover of the Jeopardy theme song plopped smack-dab in the middle of the tracklist that acts as a sort of pleasant, wandering interlude. Show me any other artist who can do that.

Jeff Rosenstock - SKA DREAM

Polyvinyl Record Co.

Jeff Rosenstock announcing a ska rendition of his latest album on April Fool’s Day was funny. Actually following through and dropping it on 4/20 was even funnier. Falling back on the ska-based instincts from his Bomb The Music Industry days, SKA DREAM is a complete track-for-track re-recording of 2020’s NO DREAM, and it’s glorious. For what could have just been a fun, jokey novelty, the songs work shockingly well in this new context. There are skank-worthy “pick it up’s” on “Airwalks (Alt),” a woozy dub breather in the form of “Horn Line,” and even a Grey Matter-esque hardcore breakdown on “S K A D R E A M.” Plus, with guest contributions ranging from PUP and Deafheaven to ska mainstays like Jer Hunter and Fishbone, SKA DREAM is impressively diverse, shockingly faithful, and wonderfully inventive. 

Remember Sports - Like a Stone

Father/Daughter Records

The resting state for the fourth album from Remember Sports is unwavering boppy indie rock. As they grew from emo basement shows and rough-around-the-edges recordings, Like a Stone sees a band evolving into a finely-oiled version of what came before. Thriving in the space between the jangly country-tinged Ratboys and the confessional bedroom rock ethos of Adult Mom, this collection of tracks strikes a perfect mix between emotional and easy-going. It’s breezy springtime music that isn’t afraid to shy away from the harder feelings of life. 

Spirit of the Beehive - ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH

Saddle Creek

The world is sick, and we are the ones who have poisoned it. More specifically, capitalism has taken in, used up, and discarded Mother Earth for its short-sited pursuits. These heartless, unfeeling corporations have perverted and discarded our home, all in the name of profit and appeasing shareholders. Much like the new Godspeed record, ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH is an album mired in the failings of the modern world. It’s a disorienting, uneven, and uneasy listen designed to emulate the feeling that comes from thinking too long about the system in which we are forced to exist. As sampled commercials punctuate the band’s electro-psych indie rock, one can’t help but wonder if we’re witnessing the death throes of a dying empire. By the time the record is over, it genuinely seems like death is letting the system off easy.

PONY - TV Baby

Take This To Heart Records

When I first heard “WebMD” back at the end of 2020, all I could think was, ‘where has PONY been all my life?’ Effortlessly catchy, disarmingly personable, and scarily relatable, PONY spends a vast majority of their debut album cranking out tightly-refined grunge-pop tunes in the vein of Charly Bliss or Colleen Green. The songs glitter and glisten, accurately reflecting the album art’s sugary sweet bubblegum pink color. The combination of Sam Bielanski’s sharp vocals over the fuzzed-out guitar proves to be a beguiling mix that will keep you coming back for more like a bowl of candy that you just can’t seem to keep yourself from snacking on by the handful.

BROCKHAMPTON - ROADRUNNER: NEW LIGHT, NEW MACHINE

RCA Records

Even BROCKHAMPTON themselves wouldn’t deny they’ve hard their fair share of ups-and-downs. After a prolific three-album-run in 2017 led to high-profile lineup changes and a couple of rocky follow-ups, America’s favorite boyband is back and better than ever with ROADRUNNER. Welcoming a host of collaborators from Danny Brown to JPEGMAFIA, this record sees the collective leaning into a more West Coast style of rapping that suits them well. Each member has enough space to croon, spit bars, and produce without stepping over each other fighting for the spotlight. The result is arguably the most cohesive and crafted collection of songs the group has ever put out. 

Hey, Ily - Internet Breath

Lonely Ghost Records

When I sat down to listen to new music on Thursday night, I started with Internet Breath. That’s the kind of blind faith jump I like to take every once in a while, and boy did it pay off in spades here. Bearing a unique style of chiptunes-flavored emo, Internet Breath Is a six-track 17-minute excursion that defaults to catchy singalong hooks but occasionally vaults all the way up to a hard-hitting wall of distorted screamo. While emo can quickly wear out its welcome (even in 17-minute chunks), the electronic elements give this record a unique angle that feels refreshing from what’s going on in the rest of the scene. As the chiptune beats and autotuned singing depict a world of digital heartbreak, the electronics deftly shift between supplementary elements within the tracks to vital driving forces. A necessity.

Quick Hits

Noods - Blush - Effortlessly charming indie-pop bangers.

Lil Yachty - Michigan Boy Boat - An ice-cold, offbeat, and feature-packed “for the streets” tape from everyone’s favorite bead-adorned rapper.

Young Stoner Life - Slime Language 2 - Another collaborative compilation from Young Thug’s record label with Young Thug and Gunna serving as the Iron Man and Captain America-like figureheads. 

Taylor Swift - Fearless (Taylor’s Version) - A complete re-recording of the seminal pop star’s sophomore album with bonus tracks acting as the cherry on top of a (slightly tiring) near-two-hour listen.

Portugal. The Man - Oregon City Sessions - A long-lost 2008 concert film from Portugal. The Man comprised of one-take-only live tracks from their first three albums that did my PTM fanboy heart good. 

Sharon Van Etten - epic Ten - Disc one, a tenth-anniversary celebration of Sharon Van Etten’s sophomore album. Disc two, a track-for-track version of the same album with covers from everyone to Fiona Apple, IDLES, Shamir, and more!

Field Medic - plunge deep golden knife - It’s more Field Medic. 

The Berries - Throne of Ivory (Singles & B​-​sides) - Jaunty, jangly indie country that pairs perfectly with porch beers and wistful summer evenings. 

4AD - Bills & Aches & Blues - In celebration of their own 40th birthday, the longstanding indie label released this comp featuring current signees covering classic hits from alums.

Tilian - Factory Reset - The Dance Gavin Dance frontman takes center stage on his fourth alt-rock solo outing.

Trousdale - Look Around - Gorgeous harmonies and delicate sentiments make up this four-track folk-pop outing.

The Armed - ULTRAPOP - The once-anonymous punk band from Detroit that isn’t afraid to show their teeth while flexing their muscles on this bristling and artsy hardcore release. 

Dinosaur Jr - Sweep it Into Space - a shreddy, distorted return to form from one of the last(?) bastions of the grunge era. 

(T-T)b - Suporma - The first time I ever heard chiptunes, the genre blew my mind. Rock music and video game sounds? Suporma recaptures that magic with a slight emo twist. 

Origami Angel - Gami Gang - The sophomore double album from the emo duo with one of the strongest discographies in the scene. 

Manchester Orchestra - The Million Masks of God - Sad indie rock for emo dads.

Rosie Tucker - Sucker Supreme - Chill, folky, Sunday morning indie that (shockingly) wound up on Epitaph. 

Teenage Fanclub - Endless Arcade - Illusionary tunes oscillating from laid-back Silver Jews Americana to dirty garage rock.

girl in red - if i could make it go quiet - Norway’s answer to Billie Eilish unleashes her long-awaited debut album packed with heartfelt bedroom feelings. 

Gojira - Fortitude - Fist-balled, horns-in-the-air rock from the French metal quartet. 

DJ Khaled - Khaled Khaled - Look man, it’s DJ Khaled. There will probably be some breezy summer hits, some cool features, and some obnoxious adlibs. 

The Best of February 2021

In writing this month’s batch of mini-reviews, I realized that the title of this series is slightly misleading. These albums aren’t necessarily the “best” of the month; that’s a bit of a misnomer. None of these albums are objectively better or worse than anything else that released this month. These are simply the albums that I’ve been listening to the most and therefore have the most thoughts on. I still recommend checking each of these releases out, it’s just that some of these albums are great, and some are only great to me. Speaking of which, this seems like a perfect segue into the first record on our roundup...

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Foo Fighters - Medicine at Midnight

Roswell Records

For better or worse, I am a Foo Fighters Fan. I spent the better part of my middle school years discovering alternative rock with the Foo Fighters discography paving the way. Even as I fell in love with new genres and more “exciting” artists throughout high school and college, Foo Fighters remained a constant companion and a reliable source of competently-made hard rock. I made a yearly tradition out of watching Back and Forth, and about once a year, I’ll have a short but torrid love affair with the band, leaning more towards their pre-Sonic Highways albums. In the lead-up to Medicine at Midnight, I devoured reviews, think pieces, interviews, and rankings, unknowingly re-igniting my love for the band just in time for the group’s newest offering. Medicine at Midnight is a step above the last two Foo Fighters albums with songs that range from drum-led choirs, hard-charging guitar licks, and even Queens of the Stone Age-esque desert rock. All of these tracks utilize the band’s standard components (an over-abundance of guitars, solid rhythm sections, and Dave Grohl’s signature snarl), but they’re also filtered through a slightly dancy lens that gives the songs a noticeable amount of bounciness and life. I can see why someone wouldn’t like Foo Fighters, especially Medicine at Midnight; this is music that would fit just as well in a Dodge commercial as it would on my high school iPod, but that’s the duality of Foo Fighters, and consequently why I love them. 

Vampire Weekend - 40:42

Spring Snow, LLC

As a longtime post-rock fan, I’ve always joked that I’m just one step away from getting into jam bands. On top of that, I’m a hardcore Ween fan (a jam-adjacent band) and have spent hours listening to a podcast about Phish. In other words, that jam-band-guy-tendency has always been there, lying in wait for the perfect moment to strike. When Vampire Weekend dropped the Grateful Dead-worshipping Father Of The Bride in 2019, my interest was peaked. I’ve always liked Vampire Weekend but never consider myself a big fan. Nevertheless, Father was one of my favorite releases of that year. As I followed the album’s release cycle and watched how the band extended the songs out into longer, more jammy live renditions, I knew it was only a matter of time until the jam band thing came full-circle. Now with 40:42, the prophecy has been fulfilled. This release sees Vampire Weekend tapping jazz musician Sam Gendel and jam band Goose to remix “2021,” both artists blowing the song out into 20-minute and 21-second pieces of their respective genres to awe-inspiring and vibe-filled effect. 

Black Country, New Road - For the first time

Ninja Tune

Somewhere between Slint, Shame, and the first album by A Lot Like Birds lies Black Country, New Road. Extremely verbose and very British, For the first time is a wonderful debut that sees a band unflinchingly committed to their post-punk aesthetic. The record kicks off with “Instrumental,” which is a borderline post-rock track centered around a needly Klezmer riff, frantic drumming, and woeful saxophone. That opening salvo paves the way for ranting tales of science fair downfalls, romantic French encounters, and escaping behind the faint veneer offered by a pair of sunglasses. The lyrics include references to six-part Danish crime dramas, matcha shots, NutriBullets, and micro-influencers, all of which are delivered in a shaky, unstable vibrato that makes it sounds as if the narrator could burst at the seams at any minute. Though the release may only contain six songs, the 40-minute running time leaves the listener emotionally winded in its wake. 

Wild Pink - A Billion Little Lights

Royal Mountain Records

When I first heard Wild Pink’s breakthrough sophomore album, Yolk In The Fur,  it felt like a revelation. Heartland rock with a jangly indie rock twist and just a drop of emo? Not only did it feel tailor-made for me, but it was unlike anything I’d ever heard before. In fact, go back and read the July 2018 equivalent of this monthly roundup, and my excitement is still palpable. Three years later, A Billion Little Lights takes that sound and offers up more of the same. At first, the worst thing I could say about the new Wild Pink album is that it sounded exactly like the last Wild Pink album. That’s not a bad thing, just a little unexciting. Then I put the record on while driving, and boom, it came alive. As I flew down the highway, the album seemed to bloom around me, rising and falling with the hills off in the distance. It felt like that’s how these songs were meant to be heard. Of course listening to these songs alone in my apartment wasn’t going to hit the same. 

At times on songs like “Oversharers Anonymous,” it still sounds like I’m listening to something that could have come straight off of Yolk, but I don’t think that’s inherently bad. There are some cool, unique moments like a weird glitchy synth-based breakdown in “The Shining but Tropical” and a cathartic finish on “Die Outside,” and sometimes that’s all you need. If this is your first experience with Wild Pink, I emphatically recommend listening to this album and absorbing it fully, especially if you're moving somewhere with a purpose.

Katy Kirby - Cool Dry Place

Keeled Scales

Out of all the artists releasing warm, sunny, brightly colored albums this month, Katy Kirby might have released the most exciting and dynamic. While Wild Pink takes a more wide-open heartland rock approach and Sun June affects a more pensive, inward style, Katy Kirby uses a lush and expansive sound to examine the fragility of human relationships. Whether it’s the tasteful use of autotune on “Traffic!” or the spellbinding build on “Secret Language,” nearly every track on Cool Dry Place offers something different. The songs are all bound together by the common denominator of Kirby’s affectionate delivery and soft production. The end result is a pleasant and inoffensive album that also offers a surprisingly deep and layered reflection. As Cool Dry Place winds from light indie rock to late-afternoon piano ballads, you can’t help but be taken in by the breadth of emotions contained within the record’s mere 28 minutes. 

Mister Goblin - Four People in an Elevator and One of Them Is the Devil

Exploding In Sound Records

Do you like Pedro the Lion? Do you remember Devil, the 2010 M. Night Shyamalan movie where five people are trapped in an elevator, and one of them also happens to be the devil? If you answered ‘yes’ to both of these questions, then you are in the very specific cross-section that Mister Goblin is speaking to. Despite the overly specific target market that I just laid out, an intimate familiarity with either of these subjects is not a pre-requisite to enjoying the sophomore album from the Two Inch Astronaut frontman. Some of the tracks like “Get Gone” call to mind a particular brand of light-hearted and good-natured indie rock evocative of Brendan Benson. Aside from the aforementioned Pedro the Lion, this release also feels tonally-reminiscent of early-2000s Vagrant rockers like The Anniversary, the Get Up Kids, or the New Amsterdams. It’s an album that’s sonically unbothered but lyrically distraught, a beguiling mixture that proved to be a fantastic first listen. 

Miss Grit - Impostor

Self-Released

Easily my biggest surprise of this month, Impostor is a fantastically diverse and economical EP that manages to sound simultaneously familiar and wholly unique. After a glitchy and off-kilter electronic opener that undercuts any preconceptions, “Buy The Banter” deploys a heavily fuzzed-out bassline and hypnotic chorus for a grungy Garbage effect. “Blonde” begins with a crystal clear instrumental and Mazzy Star-esque vocals before growing into a towering Smashing Pumpkins riff and fading into a dreamy outro. There’s the dancy “Grow Up To,” the chunky “Dark Side of the Party,” and the starry-eyed title track. Despite how unique all of these songs sound, they still feel unabashedly committed to Margaret Sohn’s vision. This is a fantastic and uncompromising EP that offers comforting familiarity wrapped around sounds that feel like a breath of fresh air.

Mogwai - As The Love Continues

Rock Action Records

Mogwai have been a musical companion of mine for about a decade now. Ever since I first discovered Come On Die Young back in high school, I’ve been a diehard fan of the Scottish post-rock stalwarts. In fact, Mogwai has a special place in this blog’s history as our first ever article, though I don’t necessarily recommend you go back and read that. As The Love Continues takes the collection of sounds that Mogwai has spent 25 years cultivating and hones them to a fine point. All the usual Mogwai trappings are here: a groovy electronic cut, the uptempo dance track, unforgettable vocoder usage, the song with vocals, and, perhaps most importantly, the distorted heavy-as-shit riff. The band is able to take all of these different approaches to the genre and cram them into a one-hour thrill ride that oscillates from triumphant to despair to destructive and back again multiple times over the course of its run time. Simply put, they don’t miss.

Quick Hits

Hayley Williams - FLOWERS for VASES / descansos - A second, more subtle solo outing from the Paramore bandleader that’s a little more acoustic than last year’s Petals for Armor, but still just as deeply felt. 

Skatune Network - Ska Goes Emo, Vol. 2 - Another collection of iconic tracks spanning multiple waves of emo, all adorned with horns and upstrokes courtesy of the DIY ska mastermind Jeremy Hunter.

Cory Wong - Cory and the Wongnotes - Another funky outing from one of the highly prolific minds behind Vulfpeck.

The Obsessives - Monastery - A pleasant three-track pop-rock outing that’s capped off with a wonderful Breeders cover.

For Your Health - In Spite Of - In the same class as Portrayal of Guilt, For Your Health offer up brutal and visceral hardcore that thrives in garages, basements, and other places you might accidentally get punched in the face.

Sun June - Somewhere - Are you more of a Jackie O or a Karen O? Well, on Somewhere Sun June argues you can be both, but only if it’s in service of love. 

Another Michael - New Music and Big Pop - A blissful, colorful, and lovely collection of tracks that oscillate between unbothered and crushingly realistic. A musical Starburst. 

Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview on Phenomenal Nature - yet another of this month’s pleasant, naturalistic albums, this one with gorgeous sax, therapeutic exercises, and one of the best wah-wah deployments I’ve heard since Childish Gambino’s “The Night Me and Your Mama Met.”

Jetty Bones - Push Back - Somewhere between the neon fake happiness of After Laughter and the immaculate production of Lover-era Taylor Swift is the debut album of Jetty Bones, equal parts danceable and cry-able.

Danny L Harle - Harlecore - 40 minutes of high-energy, high-BPM from the hyperpop-adjacent happy hardcore electronic musician.

God Is An Astronaut - Ghost Tapes #10 - Proficient post-rock that leans toward progressive heavy metal.

Adrian Younge - The American Negro - One of the most powerful albums I’ve heard in years yet am wholly unqualified to speak on. 

Black Sheep Wall - Songs for the Enamel Queen - Incredible hardcore that winds from towering soul-destroying breakdowns, throat-shredding screams, and winding atmospheric passages.

Of Mice & Men - Timeless - Three metalcore songs that swing hard but don’t always land.

Julien Baker - Little Oblivions - The first full-band album from Julien Baker hits all the marks you would expect: religion, queerness, and crippling self-doubt. 

Nervous Dater - Call In The Mess - Poppy emo rock that stretches all the way from earthly farms to the far reaches of outer space.

The Weather Station - Ignorance - An earthy and emotional indie rock album that feels like the nighttime counterpart to Saint Cloud’s sunshine.

American Poetry Club - Do You Believe In Your Heart - A distraught emo EP that feels like it could collapse at any moment under its own emotional weight.

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - Carnage - A surprise-released album from Nick Cave and a single Bad Seed.

Cloud Nothings - The Shadow I Remember - Hard-charging punk rock in the vein of Titus Andronicus or Japandroids, just with a more naturalistic bent. 

Glitterer - Life is Not A Lesson - A dozen under-two minute cuts from the Title Fight frontman.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - L.W. - The second microtonal half of a double album from the ever-prolific and ever-psychedelic Aussies.

Half Waif - Orange Blossoms / Party’s Over - Two fresh tracks from the witchy and dancy electronica queen.