June 2018: Album Review Roundup

Vermont is for Lovers, and (apparently) June is for Hip-hop. At the time of writing, we now find ourselves halfway through the year, at the start of a hot summer, and emerging from an absolute barrage of new releases from some of the biggest names in music. I’m not gonna beat around the bush, lots of objectively-fucked up shit happened in June, but for the sake of avoiding politics and leaning into happiness, let’s take a break from that and focus on some of the life-affirming art we’ve been lucky enough to receive this past month.

Just in the past 30 days we’ve witnessed numerous Kanye-produced records, multiple collab albums, surprise drops, and long-awaited debuts from rising up-and-comers. Let’s jump into our recap of June’s best albums and kick things off with one of my most conflicted releases of the year.

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Kanye West - ye

Kanye West likes Donald Trump. There’s no way around it, and it’s an ugly fact that I’d rather ignore, but much like AA, the first step is to say it out loud just to get over the mental hangup. Ever since Kanye’s pre-album political nonsense this spring, I’ve approached his music and persona with more apprehension than ever before. While I already detailed my excited, confused, and conflicting thoughts on Kanye’s eighth album here, I feel it’s worth mentioning in this roundup if only because June was a month dominated by Mr. West and it all kicked off with this album. 

On ye, it seems as if Kanye is fully-embracing his life philosophy of “soon as they like you, make ‘em unlike you,” the only problem is, this is the first time I've ever personally found myself unliking him. I can see where he’s coming from (at the end of the day, Kanye has more in common with Trump than he does with Obama) but his public support remains a massive enjoyment-deterring red flag that lingers in the back of my brain while listening to this album. 

If you’re wondering why I’m talking so much about politics, and controversy, and things outside the music, it’s because that’s exactly what the album itself does. My primary criticism with ye is that it’s mired almost exclusively in the events of the past few weeks. It sounds cool, it’s well-produced, and has some fun moments, but politics aside I fear for how well this album will age. Especially when stacked up against other classics in a discography of records that have only gotten better with age, I don’t see ye standing the test of time. Maybe it will turn out to be a fun time capsule, but I don’t know how much I’ll want to be remembering Kanye’s TMZ interview years down the line. ye is timely, not timeless. All we can do now is wait to see how well it holds up and hope that the damage isn’t irreparable.

Read our full review of ye here.

Dance Gavin Dance - Artificial Selection

Dance Gavin Dance’s debut was bookended by the lyrics “I believe there’s meaning / No I believe there’s nothing,” an anthemic refrain that ended up becoming a sort of mission statement for the Sacramento natives. Active for over a decade, Dance Gavin Dance have inadvertently become old guards of the post-hardcore scene, a single constant among one of the most volatile and ever-changing musical genres. Not to say the band themselves haven't had their share of ups and downs; after a revolving door of members leaving, re-joining, and then re-leaving, the group seems to have finally cemented into a steady line-up that they've maintained for four albums now. After hitting a possible career-high with 2016’s Mothership, the group has returned with Artificial Selection, their longest and most powerful output to date. 

To me, Dance Gavin Dance has always embodied the best this genre has to offer; beautiful, emotional, and earnest melodic singing stacked against overtly-goofy but hard-hitting screams all battling for the listener’s attention over hyper-proficient musicianship. It’s a musical Yin and Yang with two sides that are diametrically opposed, yet somehow work together to raise each other. Regardless of the lineup, each Dance Gavin Dance album feels like the band is a cohesive entity working together for one common purpose, clawing tooth and nail toward their greater artistic vision. 

While most of Artifical Selection is precisely what fans have come to expect from DGD, the album’s most impressive feat comes in its closing moments on “Evaporate” when the group runs through a breathtaking medley of eight songs during the album’s final minute. The result is a one-of-a-kind career-spanning highlight reel that encapsulates 13 years of musical highs, lows, phases, and lineups. The 60-seconds are jam-packed with second-long flashes from different bygone eras, each of which unearth long-buried feelings that now feel fresh as ever. It’s an absolutely staggering musical achievement, and one that only long-time fans will fully-appreciate, but this goosebump-inducing outro alone is worth the price of admission. 

Nas - Nasir

Despite claims of album completion in 2016, it took until this month for the public to hear Nas’ long-awaited twelfth studio album. Undoubtedly re-written, retooled, and revamped in the intervening years, Nasir is the penultimate release of Kanye West's Wyoming Sessions. Opener “Not For Radio” throws the listener headlong into a torrent of various political proclamations that let the listener know what they’re in for by immediately baptizing them in the deep end. From there “Cops Shot the Kid” is a unique and poignant track placed over a constantly-repeating Slick Rick loop that bears the song’s title. Other highlights include the soulful “White Label” and the far-out “Simple Things.” Overall, Nasir is a bold, compact, and political release from one of the former figureheads of the hip-hop scene. 

Colin Stetson - Hereditary (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) Spoiler-Free 

Whew. I don’t write about soundtracks on here very often, but Hereditary has hung with me long after my first viewing. I went into the movie alone on a stormy Wednesday as a way to test out my new MoviePass card when I found myself with an abundance of free time. Aside from social media hype and my passive A24 fandom I had no idea what the movie was about or what to expect going in. Hereditary is the first time I’ve ever experienced true horror in a movie theater on a genuine level. I covered my mouth during one scene that took me by such surprise I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing. My heart was beating out of my chest for the film’s final act, and I had to consciously remind myself that this was only a movie. I left the theater speechless, physically weak, and in awe of what I’d just taken in. 

Award-worthy direction, writing, and performances aside, an essential element to the film is Colin Stetson’s reserved score. It oscillates between moments of minuscule almost non-existent instrumentation that then quickly drop out into explosions of unease that coincide with the film’s most disturbing moments. Both as a movie and an album, Hereditary is absolutely dreadful. A horrific march through grief, death, and trauma that has haunted me more than any other film I’ve ever seen in my life. 

Beyonce & Jay-Z - Everything Is Love 

Surprise released on an unsuspecting Saturday night in mid-June, Everything Is Love finds the biggest power couple in music teaming up for a collab album of fashionable flexing and marital bliss. Hopefully the final nail in the coffin of the “Lemonade Narrative,” the album sees both Bey and Jay mending fences following 2016’s embarrassingly-public infidelity. Full of lavish beats, ballads, and bangers, the duo’s joint effort is just as opulent as their previous work would lead you to believe. Most of the tracks see Beyonce pulling double duty as both singer and rapper, occasionally passing the mic off to Jay for him to interject a verse or two of his own. Soulful, holistic, and (fittingly) loving, this record is pure fun, even if it’s exactly what you expect going in. 

Nine Inch Nails - Bad Witch

Following a detour into ambient, a memorable Twin Peaks appearance, and a (still-ongoing) love affair with film scores, Reznor and Co. are back with one of the darkest and most disintegrated releases they’ve ever recorded. Both a return to form and a bit of a curveball, Bad Witch is a dark, distant, and delightfully-distorted vision of a bygone future. Simultaneously jazzy and machine-driven, NIN’s latest record finds inspiration in David Bowie’s near-death Blackstar, so much so that I actually mistook album closer “Over and Out” as a posthumous feature from the Goblin King himself. Technically the third entry in a trilogy of EPs following 2016’s Not the Actual Events and 2017’s Add Violence, this record’s Bowie emulation has led fans to believe this grouping of EPs is Reznor’s approximation/interpretation of the Berlin Trilogy. A bold comparison to draw, but Bad Witch is so strong, I don’t think that many could begrudge it. There are long-winding instrumental stretches, far-off intermittent vocals, and even an unexpected sax interjection at one point. The singing is sparse and drowned-out in ancillary noise, but the end result is a potent and impactful release that will likely be vaulted up with the decade-old classics of NIN’s long and storied discography.

Father John Misty - God’s Favorite Customer

I don’t even know where to begin with Josh Tillman anymore. His extra-musical antics range from clever to tiring, but primarily because they’re never-ending. While I enjoyed 2017’s Pure Comedy enough for it to end up on our 2017 AOTY list, that record was still a draining, exhausting, downer of a listen. In contrast, God’s Favorite Customer offers almost a polar opposite: a hyper-specific depiction of Tillman’s life on a micro level that still manages to retain some of the grandiose musicality from his last release. 

If I Love You, Honeybear was an album about his wife, Pure Comedy was a record about all of humanity, and now Pure Comedy is an album about himself. Stark and introspective, Tillman balances the balladry of Comedy with the more ornamental musicality of Honeybear for a record that ends up feeling like the best of both worlds. It’s an album written mid-breakdown while holed away in a Wes Anderson-esque hotel. There are pangs of paranoia, depression, and crippling self-doubt, but the important thing is that both the narrator and the listener emerge from the experience as better people.

Snail Mail - Lush

At the risk of echoing already-hyperbolic publications, I flat-out adore Lush. I’ve previously written quite a bit about Snail Mail, even going as far as to call this my most anticipated release of the year, and I’m now proud to write that Lush is everything I’d hoped it would be.

I first discovered Snail Mail last year when they were opening for Girlpool. I had already staked out a great spot for the main act one or two people away from the front of the stage in a small 200-some capacity venue here in Portland. I’d never heard of Snail Mail, but once they started playing my jaw just dropped, and I was rapt for their entire set.

There’s something pure about “discovering” a band like that, especially in a live setting just a few feet away from the music. It has been weirdly-affirming to watch Lindsey Jordan blow up since then. Between the Matador signing, her Tiny Desk concert, and all this recent press, it’s been wild to watch her soar so high so quickly.

I guess I feel a microcosm of the “I liked them before they were cool,” but at the same time, I’m goddamn happy for her. I’ve been spinning Habit and her (now deleted?) Sticki EP endlessly since that concert last year, even going as far as to manually rip the Tiny Desk performance onto my phone just so I was able to listen to “Anytime” at any time. This record has been a year in the making for me, and I couldn’t be happier.

Lush is somber, morose, and personal. Built around heartfelt tales and personal drama, each song features Jordan’s voice front and center, often working itself up to an explosive and passionate melody over her own jangly guitar-work. It hurts to listen to, but it also helps the ease the pain at the same time. It’s a beautiful contradiction, an awe-inspiring exploration of growth, and the exact kind of record I need right now.

Kids See Ghosts - Kids See Ghosts

Bookending this month’s roundup we have Kids See Ghosts which is the collaborative project of Kid Cudi and Kanye West. Practically the polar opposite of the hyper-timely slice-of-life lyrics found on ye, Kids See Ghosts is a psychedelic and ethereal release that feels much more refined and long-lasting. The album ranges from anthemic (“Freeee (Ghost Town, Pt. 2)”) to absurdly-confident (“Cudi Montage”) but everything circles around a central theme of mental health which both men have publicly struggled with in recent years. Having emerged from the other side of their respective traumas (and even beef), Kids See Ghosts is both celebratory and affirming, a joint effort to be better, happier people. Both artists provide spectacular counterpoints to one another, and the entire collaboration feels like an equitable, vibrant, psychedelic journey to the higher self.

Quick Hits

• Oneohtrix Point Never - Age Of: Medieval psychedelic rock beamed to earth from an abandoned space-station that grows increasingly-schizophrenic with each passing minute.

• Natalie Prass - The Future and the Past: Funky hip-swaggering indie rock with heartfelt vocals that pierce through your soul.

• Anthony Green - Would You Still Be In Love: The Circa Survive frontman takes a rustic acoustic detour to wax poetically about love and life.

• Joan Of Arc - 1984: Collaborative indie rock that give a voice to those that are hungriest.

• Get Up Kids - Kicker: A four-track EP and the first material in seven years from the forefathers of pop-punk. A warmly-welcomed return to the genre.

• Pllush - Stranger to the Pain: Blissed-out and dreamy emo rock with siren vocals, swirling soundscapes, and heartfelt lyrics.

• serpentwithfeet - soil: Smutty lower-case R&B that gets progressively more depraved as it goes along.

• gobbinjr. - ocala wick: Hyper-personal bedroom indie rock that bleeds rawly over bouncy electronic bloops and gorgeous guitar work.

• Würst Nürse - Hot Hot Hot: Balls-out fully-female punk rock. A quartet of hot tracks that shred, rip, and thrash their way towards triumph.

• Flasher - Constant Image: Blissed-out grunge-influenced tunes for lovers of the Pixies and similarly-sharp alternative.

• Jorja Smith - Lost & Found: After vaulting to fame thanks to a 2017 Drake appearance, Jorja Smith is now fully-ready for the RnB spotlight.

• Petal - Magic Gone: Throwback grungy tunes with a voice like a bell and emotions like a shark.

• Protomartyr - Consolation: Crushing post-punk with rolling drums and charging bass. A wall ready to be defaced.

• Melody’s Echo Chamber - Bon Voyage: Ever-changing and dreamy French indie rock.

• Jay Rock - Redemption: Reformed gangster tales from the TDE mainstay. Well-polished and hard-hitting, this is the hip-hop dark night of the soul you need at 2am.

• SOPHIE - Oil Of Every Pearl's Un-Insides: Shiny, polished, and clean electronic pop from the renowned and enigmatic producer.

• State Champs - Living Proof: Happy-go-lucky pop-punk with more group chants, anthemic choruses, and maudlin sentiments than you can shake a stick at.

• The Sloppy Boys - Lifelong Vacation: Comprised of indie comedy legends Mike Hanford, Tim Kalpakis, and Jefferson Dutton, Lifelong Vacation is a hilarious, fun, and rockin’ outing that I can’t get enough of.

• Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Hope Downs: Sharp and surfy tunes from the Australian indie rockers.

• Culture Abuse - Bay Dream: Unrelentingly-joyous and fast-moving, Bay Dream is a textbook pop-punk Summer album.

• Death Grips - Year Of The Snitch: 👄

• Freddie Gibbs - Freddie: Hard beats and hard bars, all delivered in under 30 minutes.

• Drake - Scorpion: After getting publicly-owned in one of the decade’s most high-profile rap beefs, Drake is back with an exhausting 25 tracks of rap-singing and Drive-inspired outerwear.

• Jim James - Uniform Distortion: The fourth solo album from the My Morning Jacket frontman with just as much distortion, charm, and good vibes as fans have come to expect.

• Florence + The Machine - High as Hope: Sweeping, ornamental, and theatrical, High as Hope captures slowly-building slice of life confessions.

• Spencer Radcliffe - If I Knew How: Earnest as ever, Spencer Radcliffe’s newest EP contains a handful of early recordings that showcase the development stages of the songwriting process.

• Self Defense Family - Have You Considered Punk Music: The newest stark and emotional journey courtesy of Run For Cover Records.

• The Milk Carton Kids - All The Things That I Did and All The Things That I Didn’t Do: Slow-burning and fast-smoldering country tunes.

Singles from St. Vincent, Mezingers, Saba, Asking Alexandria, Charli XCX, MadeinTYO, IDLES, Interpol, Manchester Orchestra, Mom Jeans, Death Cab For Cutie, Alt-J, The Kooks, Nicki Minaj, Mogwai, Yo La Tengo, Mitski, Sheryl Crow, Angelo De Augustine, Rubblebucket, 2 Chainz, Grimes, The Mountain Goats, Tyler, The Creator, Deafheaven, Meek Mill, Thee Oh Sees, Smashing Pumpkins, and BROCKHAMPTON.

Rewind

Finally, here are some 2018 records from earlier months that I missed, but wish I hadn't.

• Deeper - Deeper: Bouncy indie rock that keeps time like a well-oiled machine.

• Bonny Don - Longwave: Laid-back, jangly, and jaunty indie rock with a tasteful tinge of country. The perfect album for a porch beer.

• The Fearless Flyers - The Fearless Flyers: Someone this passed me by (despite receiving multiple emails about it) but the latest spinoff from the Vulfpeck collective is irresponsibly funky.

• Harrison Whitford - Afraid of Everything: Heartfelt soul-prodding folk with a jangly country bent.

Album Art, Visual Translation, and A Pride Week Collage

Album art is sacred. It is the physical embodiment of a record’s soul, a manifestation of the thoughts, strife, and emotion that went into its creation. Album art is often the one chance an artist has to distill their work into something visual; into one composition that translates the art they’ve made into an entirely different medium. An album’s cover is both the face and synopsis of the music that lies directly behind it.

Even outside of vinyl, the artwork of an album is a vital piece of the overall music experience. As we cram albums onto our phones by the hundreds and platforms like Spotify continue to shrink artwork down to hundred-pixel squares, it’s more important than ever to appreciate the work and artistry that goes into a cover. 

In 2018 it’s less important to have a cover that “sells” a potential listener simply because there’s rarely ever a sale in the traditional sense anymore. When everything is one click away, the listener has nothing to lose aside from the three-minute commitment it takes to listen to a song. Sure artists can still use sex or controversy to court discussion and clicks, but now more than ever the cover’s primary job is to translate the senses of the record into something outside of itself. Something recognizable, something beautiful, something with heart. 

I’ve long been fascinated with album art, and more recently I’ve found myself looking at my music library abstractly, organizing albums and playlists not by artist, alphabet, or genre, but by color. If records are the physical embodiment of the artist's music, then the color can tell us a lot about the mood and texture of their songs at a glance. 

Earlier this year I found myself face to face with a playlist of all pink albums and enjoyed the experience of interacting it so much that I figured why not do that for every color? I sat down, scrolled through my library, and after collecting all of these lovely records into one mood-board-like word document, it only made sense to talk about them here. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed apropos to have this multi-color collage coincide with Pride Week, the most colorful time of the year. So here are 60 (mostly single-color) albums that are largely well-regarded, but also definitively “Taylor-core.” 

And In addition to the six-row “Pride Flag” layout above, I’ve also created a “Full Spectrum” rainbow version, since white pink and black were three of the easiest colors to fill out. You can find the full-resolution versions of these collages here and here. I dare your ass to name all 90 albums.

But wait, that's not all! In addition to these images, I’ve plucked one album from each color and given it a short mini-review. Most of the covers above fall under "classic" territory, but there are also some deeper cuts that I've always wanted to write about on here, even if it's just for a short paragraph.

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Owen - I Do Perceive

Husband, father, and noted sad man Mike Kinsella has been making music for a majority of his life. From his work as a teenager in the late-90’s under Cap'n Jazz and American Football to his current solo work as Owen, Kinsella is a prolific artist who seems to be continually overflowing with both good music and raw emotion. While American Football’s self-titled debut is now viewed as an all-time classic in the emo/indie/underground circuit, I posit that I Do Perceive should be brought up with the same level of reverence. Offering a slightly more “adult” counterpoint to his younger self, Perceive is an early-morning exploration of Kinsella’s headspace and the inner-workings of his most intimate relationships. Packed with smart observations, clever topics, and lush instrumentation, this album aches with beauty and honesty. 

John Frusciante - PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone

Perhaps best-known for his work with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers during some of their most successful releases, anyone who dives into John Frusciante’s solo records will quickly come to realize what an essential (and artistic) role he played in the group. From his early drugged-out acoustic albums to later-career dissonant electronic phases, Frusciante is a complicated musician with a vast body of intricate work. PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone is a 2012 experimental album that blends electronic, indie, and hip-hop into one schizophrenic explosion of songs that shift rapidly and without warning. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard in my life and concrete evidence that Frusciante is a genius with a mind and vision all his own. 

The White Stripes - The White Stripes

While they achieved greater success and recognition with later records, The White Stripes’ self-titled debut remains a fantastic release that marks the beginning of an incredibly strong discography. Featuring punchy, thrashy, and messy garage rock, The White Stripes shows us a band in its charming infancy. There are well-crafted choruses and catchy melodies, but at the same time everything is so ragged and distorted that the entire record sounds as if it was recorded in one take. There’s something pure about pre-fame Jack White, and the band’s rough-around-the-edges debut is eternal proof that everyone must start somewhere. 

Sharks Keep Moving - Pause and Clause

While it’s only three songs long, Pause and Clause stretches out over a luxurious and lavish 21 minutes. Technically only an EP, this shorter format allowed the band to embrace some semblance of punctuality while simultaneously giving the songs proper time to breathe. Fronted by Minus The Bear’s Jake Snider, Sharks Keep Moving is a reverse-super group whose members went on to form Pretty Girls Make Graves, The Blood Brothers, and These Arms Are Snakes. Pause and Clause, the group's final release, features long-winding and arid songs of love, heartbreak, and disappointment, the centerpiece of which is the 11-minute “Like A River.” One of my favorite songs of all time, “Like A River” tells a tale as old as time of a man, a woman, and a bar. It’s a song that’s not afraid to writhe in its emotions and say exactly what it’s thinking. The lyrics are few and far between, but each line hangs in the air as a poetic observation of the simple beauties in life. The song’s instrumental outro is thrilling and gorgeous, allowing the listener’s mind to reel in their own experiences and project themselves onto the multi-colored soundscape of love and affection.

Sorority Noise - Joy, Departed

After gaining a cult following with 2014’s Forgettable, Sorority Noise returned one year later with their landmark Joy, Departed. Decidedly more serious, mature, and musical, the group’s sophomore effort sees a shift from half-goofy pop-punk into full-blown heart-on-sleeve emo. In retrospect, this release does a fantastic job of acclimating the listener into the band’s more-grounded later work, but still manages to strike a balance between sing-along pop-punk and moody emo that I find enchanting. With poetic lyrics tackling depression, self-harm, and drug addiction, Joy, Departed is far from a “fun” listen, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable or important.

Band of Horses - Everything All the Time

Assisted by Seattle’s own Sub-Pop, Everything All The Time was Band of Horses grand unveiling to the world. While “The Funeral” will probably always be their best-known and most widely-recognized song, Everything All The Time is an incredibly-well put-together album featuring personable and charming songs of lackadaisical indie rock with just a tinge of country. Tracks like “The First Song” and “I Go To The Barn Because I Like The” offer laid-back earthy slice of life vignettes that all add up to one of the better debuts of the 2000’s. 

Explosions in the Sky - How Strange, Innocence

For an album that was recorded in only four days, How Strange, Innocence is absolutely immaculate. Even when taken in nearly two decades later, Innocence fits squarely into the Explosions In The Sky’s discography and feels like a group that already knew exactly what they wanted. While the band’s later work gradually became quieter and more subtle, their debut is the loudest, most distorted, and most singular thing they’ve ever recorded. Each song explodes with a wall of guitar, drums, and bass that all chug forward relentlessly until crescendoing into sparks of violent beauty. It’s an absolute wonder. 

Tame Impala - Currents

After achieving commercial success and near-universal acclaim on his first two records, Tame Impala’s third album found Kevin Parker moving away from Beatles-esque psychedelia and further into electronic progginess. Much like Joy Departed, Currents does a fantastic job of segueing long-time fans into the band’s new sound. Opening track “Let It Happen” begins as a classic Tame Impala psychedelic rock song before glitching out into a prolonged electronic section marked by a dancey explosion of sound and light. Mid-album cuts like “Eventually” all bear the same clean production and showcase the specific type of beauty to be found at the intersection between these two seemingly-disparate genres. 

Japandroids - Post-Nothing

Comprised of only two Canadian men, a guitar, and a drum set, Japandroids pack a gigantic, anthemic, and cathartic punch into a small package. While 2012’s Celebration Rock is arguably the rock album of the decade, Post-Nothing will always hold a special place in my heart as that record’s fuzzier, more nostalgic older brother. Beginning with the Thin Lizzy-referencing “The Boys Are Leaving Town” Post-Nothing immediately casts a late-summer spell upon its listener, hurling them into a suspended animation of their own memories. Mid-album cuts like “Heart Sweats” and “Crazy/Forever” find the duo settling into well-crafted melodies and lulling the listener into a sense of trust and inner-peace. Finally, album closer “I Quit Girls” is a soul-rending adult lullaby that builds to a climactic groove which eventually ferries the listener off to the end of the record.

May 2018: Album Review Roundup

June is almost upon us, and that can only mean one thing… it’s time for another roundup of the month’s best new music! May was a stellar month with some big names dropping long-awaited records, and as usual, there were some surprises along the way. Let’s waste no time and jump straight into it.

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Parquet Courts - Wide Awake! 

The lead-up to Parquet Courts’ sixth album appeared to be a series of increasingly-questionable decisions, each of which seemed more worrisome than the last. The first strike came when the band announced that production on their new record was to be helmed entirely by Danger Mouse, a known-homogenizer of rock music. By the time the band made a daytime appearance on Ellen, most fans cautiously waded into Wide Awake! with tempered expectations. While I’ll admit I’m a relatively new fan of Parquet Courts, Wide Awake! seems to be the most thoughtful, polished, and complete offering the band has put out to date. Perhaps thanks to that unified sound brought to the table by Danger Mouse, it feels like the band was finally unencumbered enough to get as freaky, groovy, and political as they have always wanted to, all while sounding as clear and raw as they ever have. Still oscillating between thrashy punk and long-winded indie, after hearing the record it now feels silly that we ever doubted them in the first place. 

Rae Sremmurd - SR3MM

By now everyone knows the story of Rae Sremmurd. Two brothers from Mississippi who broke their way onto the scene with “No Flex Zone” in 2014 and continued to solidify their place in hip-hop with a stream of undeniable singles, killer features, and inescapable cultural moments. For their third record, the duo decided to embrace the theme of threes and release a triple album; one traditional Rae Sremmurd release, plus one solo record from each of the two brothers. I ended up enjoying SR3MM far more than I ever expected (in fact, I wrote a full review for it here) but aside from exceeding my expectations, I think the Brothers Sremm handled every facet impeccably. Triple albums are rare, but when we do get them they’re notoriously bloated, overly-long, and just plain bad, but here the two approached it with a unique perspective and were able to deliver the exact level of fun that fans have come to expect from them. Plus watching Swae Lee and Slimm Jximmi flourish in their respective styles is wonderful to see. From bangers to ballads, SR3MM has it all and excels on every front. 

Beach House - 7

I’ve always been a pretty passive fan of Beach House. I like what they do, but rarely ever seek it out on my own. When the group released Depression Cherry in 2015 something finally clicked for me, and I fell in love. Wonderfully-dark, beautifully-pensive, and just the right amount of distorted, Depression Cherry was the record I’d always wanted the band to make. Despite turning me into a fan with that record, the duo squandered that goodwill almost immediately when they released Thank Your Lucky Stars the very same year and gave us a second album that sounded exactly like everything else they’ve ever done. Now in 2018, the group seems to have stared down these two divergent paths and leaned even harder into that darker side that I enjoyed so much on Depression Cherry. Forecasted by a plethora of increasingly-dark singles and a detailed public announcement/explanation of their sonic change-up, 7 represents the fulfillment and embrace of the band’s darker side. The full evolution of this distorted, borderline-shoegazey sound, which (from the outside) sounds like quite the pivot for a dream pop act, yet Beach House manage to make it look effortless. 7 finds the band plunging headfirst into midnight and emerging with some of their best work to date. 

Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino 

For their sixth album as a band, the Arctic Monkeys decided to curve every sonic, historical, and fan expectation in favor of something completely left field. A far pivot from the dark deserty sounds of their last album, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino sees Alex Turner taking center stage (quite literally) as a sort of smoky lounge-singer in search of the soul. On some level, this record is just as “dark” as AM, but ends up being much more laid-back, conversational, and perhaps most importantly: funny. Tranquility Base a Hotel & Casino takes a similar approach to all of its songs, embracing a dynamic of hyper-verbose lyricism sung over subdued instrumentals. It’s a far cry from any of their previous work, but it’s a combination that works for me. There are still enough musical moments for the other band members to show their chops, but as a whole Tranquility Base reads like a late-night exploration of Turner’s brain over the course of one dark night of the soul. A lounge album recorded in the void of space. A stream-of-consciousness outpouring in the aftermath of a post-Bowie world. A near-future disaster recorded directly to music. A wonder. 

Pusha T - Daytona

Ever since releasing one of the best records of his career in 2015, the hip-hop public has long-anticipated Pusha T’s next move, waiting with bated breath to see how he could possibly follow it up. On his first full-length in three years, he reveals the answer was to make things shorter, tighter, and even more cohesive. The first of four Kanye-produced albums we’re receiving over the next 30 days, Daytona is the best non-poop-related indicator of what to expect from these upcoming projects. Bearing Ye’s classic chopped-up soul-sampled beats, an intentionally-short tracklist, and songs that bleed into one other flawlessly, Pusha’s latest output is a sharp, soulful, and compact update on the rapper’s mindstate. “Santeria” is a slowly-mounting guitar-based track that climaxes in an explosion of organ and a moody Spanish refrain. Oppositely, “Infrared” is a barebones track that finds Pusha T spitting realness on everything from politics to race relation and ends on a few subliminal shots at Drake… Speaking of which, the benefit of writing these at the end of the month is that we now seem to find ourselves in the midst of a beef between the two. On the 25th Drake dropped “Duppy Freestyle” to which Push responded with “The Story of Adidon.” While Drake’s freestyle centers around Pusha’s credibility in the drug game, Pusha T went straight for the jugular attacking Drake, his family, and his best friend, all within three minutes. The story is still developing, but as a fan of each artist, it’s exciting to hear new, sharp, and mean music from each as they go back and forth in what may be the defining hip-hop beef of the decade. 

Courtney Barnett - Tell Me How You Really Feel

For someone whose music typically gets placed under the “Slacker” sub-genre of indie, Courtney Barnett seems to work really fucking hard. I know that name is just a silly label meant to describe her music, but I can’t help but feel like that title is a disservice to her art. There are certainly still moments of slack-fueled hopelessness throughout Barnett’s sophomore effort (most notably “Crippling Self Doubt and a General Lack of Self-Confidence”), but there are moments of strength too. Perhaps spiritually-bolstered by last year’s collaboration with Kurt Vile, Barnett seems more pointed, bombastic, and personable than ever before. Opting for less-narrative songs than her breakthrough record, Tell Me How You Really Feel finds Barnett shredding, grooving, and narrating her way through ten stories of personal growth. Sometimes psychological, sometimes agonizingly-real, this album feels like Courtney Barnett engraved a piece of herself onto each record and passed them out to people on the street. A wondrous (and sometimes rambling) journey of the self. 

Ministry of Interior Spaces - Life, Death and the Perpetual Wound

I’m not a sad person. I don’t have many regrets in life, nor a wealth of personal tragedies to draw from. Earlier this year I attended a This Will Destroy You concert, and it was one of the most powerful experiences I’ve had in recent memory. I knew their songs like the back of my hand and midway through the instrumental set, my mind began to wander into long-forgotten thoughts. It was meditative. I began thinking about people, places, and events I hadn’t considered in years, as if the music was helping my brain re-establish these broken connections in order to feel these things I hadn’t in decades. At its best, I feel music offers listeners a canvas on which to project their own feelings and anxieties. An avenue to interact with deep-seated traumas and unheard thoughts, and that’s exactly what Ministry of Interior Spaces offers on Life, Death and the Perpetual Wound. Half concept album, half whatever you want it to be, Perpetual Wound is an ambient release that recounts the tale of a “mystical road trip through a magic-realist American West.” It’s a document of its creator’s struggle with drugs, depression and, friendship in the face of natural beauty. The record tells a timeless tale that simultaneously acts as a canvas for the listener to venture through and draw upon. A beautiful self-exploration. 

We interviewed Ministry of Interior Spaces here.

Illuminati Hotties - Kiss Your Frenemies

When I first discovered The Wonder Years the band felt like a revelation to me. The group’s hyper-realist approach to lyricism was something I’d never heard before in my life, and something I desperately needed at that time. When I first discovered Illuminati Hotties, their single “(You’re Better) Than Ever” immediately evoked the same feeling I first got when I discovered The Wonder Years so long ago. Punchy, powerful, and disarmingly self-aware, Illuminati Hotties is a “tenderpunk” group fronted by Sarah Tudzin that finds the band grasping at the straws of adulthood. It’s both heartbreaking and reassuring to hear music from someone in such a similar situation as myself. It’s an album about fucking up, growing up, and moving on. Tudzin takes a similar approach to The Wonder Years using specific vignettes and imagery from her own life to let the listener into her existence on a level that’s almost too close for comfort. From working three jobs to pay off college debt to doughnut dates and ceilings covered in glow in the dark stars, everything connects in a way that’s just eerily real. Filled with cute lines, catchy choruses, and poetic barbs, Kiss Your Frenemies fumbles its way through adulthood in an intimate, anthemic, and beautiful way.

Quick Hits

• BlocBoy JB - Simi: After making waves with the Drake-assisted “Look Alive” in February, Memphis rapper BlocBoy JB funneled his newfound-attention into a well-polished and banger-filled mixtape. Additional fun fact: I crunched the numbers and Mr. JB ad libs “that’s on my mama” a total of 32 times throughout.

• Royce 5'9" - Book of Ryan: Hyper-lyrical, incredibly-dense, and heartbreakingly-personal hip-hop that demystifies the history of Ryan Daniel Montgomery. Told from a first-person perspective, Royce remains as technical as ever while also taking an incredibly-compelling storytelling approach.

• Desiigner - L.O.D.: A perfectly-punctual and wonderfully-ad libbed EP from the goofy dude that brought us “Panda.”

• Iceage - Beyondless: Moody and anxiety-riddled post-rock from Copenhagen.

• Parkway Drive - Reverence: Well-crafted metalcore that bubbles up from the diaphragm and explodes into a perfectly-honed point. Chuggy, angry, and filled with growls, Parkway Drive continues to kill it.

• DJ Koze - Knock Knock: Natural electronic music that’s been warped, shifted, and delivered it to us from another universe. Simply Transportive.

• Shakey Graves - Can’t Wake Up: Slow-moving psychedelic Americana that twists and writhes in the evening light.

• Cut Worms - Hollow Ground: Jangly throwback rock with just enough personality and weirdness to be a pleasant oddity.

• The Word Alive - Violent Noise: Sinewy and mostly-generic metalcore with an electronic tinge.

• Jon Hopkins - Singularity: (Mostly-)electronic music that crests with emotion and pulsates with mood until eventually frittering out into slowly-unwinding heartbreak.

• Mark Kozelek - Mark Kozelek: Long-winded as ever, Mark Kozelek gets personable and folksy for 90 minutes as he expels every verbose thought in his head.

• Ty Dolla $ign - Beach House 3 Deluxe Edition: Noted crooner/rapper hybrid Ty Dolla $ign tops off last year’s installment of the acclaimed Beach House Series with an additional six summery songs.

• Lady Legs - Holy Heatwave: Celebratory indie rock with a ceaseless groove and unkillable joy.

• Playboi Carti - Die Lit: 19 smoky bangers filled with incredulous ad-libs and not a lot else.

• La Luz - Floating Features: Dreamy, sun-kissed surf rock that reverberates with passion and strength.

• Wajatta - Casual High Technology: Reggie Watts and John Tejada combine forces to form a delightful portmanteau and equally-delightful electro-pop.

• NAV - Reckless: I don’t understand Nav.

• James Bay - Electric Light: Pop music that’s simultaneously soulful and sterile.

• KYLE - Light of Mine: 2017 XXL Freshman, joyous rapper, and possible industry plant KYLE returns with a 15-track tape of feel-good hip-hop.

• Now, Now - Saved: Polished and simplistic indie pop that mixes heartfelt emo with electronic sensibilities.

• Remember Sports - Slow Buzz: After changing their name, the vivacious pop-punk band is back proving (once again) that Philly is the eternal hotbed of upcoming emo rock.

• Lil Baby - Harder Than Ever: Street rap assisted by a high-profile Drake feature.

• Clairo - diary 001: Since half the tracklist consists of revisiting the viral hits that have brought her thus far, diary 001 ends up being a scattershot history of Clairo’s rapidly-ascending career and musical phases up to this point.

• A$AP Rocky - Testing: Immaculate flows, booming bass, and dark production. A million drugged-out lines spit in zero gravity while coming down from acid.

• Hatchie - Sugar & Spice: Lovelorn dream pop that captures relationship dynamics with as much color as a middle school trapper keeper.

• Chvrches - Love is Dead: Glossy and bright indie pop that practices what its title preaches.

• Shawn Mendes - Shawn Mendes: Pretty-boy pop music that I wouldn’t know about if it weren’t for Kevin Abstract.

• American Pleasure Club - Tour Tape: Following-up their fantastic a whole fucking lifetime of this, Sam Ray offers up a free download of twelve tracks that were previously exclusive to the band’s merch booth.

• Lil Aaron - ROCK$TAR FAMOU$: After discovering his jaw-dropping emo remixes last summer, Aaron is back with a sophomore album that continues to blend his unique combination of hip-hop, rock, and humor.

We also saw singles from Travis Scott, Snail Mail, Childish Gambino, Sufjan Stevens, Dance Gavin Dance, Andre 3000, Future Islands, Jimmy Eat World, Dirty Projectors, Protomartyr, The Flaming Lips, Sia, Attila, White Denim, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Lil Uzi Vert, Shortly, Denzel Curry, Weezer, Tyler, The Creator, The Devil Wears Prada, Melody’s Echo Chamber, Get Up Kids, Jorja Smith, Drake, Anderson .Paak, Weezer (again), Jay Rock, James Blake, Lil Peep, Fleet Foxes, Idles, Mac Miller, Charli XCX, and Mitski.

Rewind

In other news, we’re now far enough into the year that I’m beginning to make discoveries that I wish I had included in previous month’s write-ups. To amend this, I’m adding a new section to these monthly roundups: A “Rewind” section that goes back in time to highlight albums I missed but wish I hadn’t.

• Bambara - Shadow on Everything: Dark, hard-drinking post-punk with a southern narration-like drawl. Music for a midnight drive through the desert.

• Nanaki - Decline & Dislocation: Brooding spiritual post-rock that drips with distortion and head-bobbing riffs.

• The World Extinct - Theodicy: A powerful bite-sized metalcore offering from a (mostly) new lineup of band members.

• Bewilder - Everything Up To Now: Heart-rending and soul-binding emo-flavored math rock. An incredibly-apt band name.

April 2018: Album Review Roundup

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.

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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

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.

March 2018: Album Review Roundup

This is getting out of hand.

As I do my best to stay up on “the culture,” my monthly lists of notable releases seem to be growing longer and longer. While I’m trying to limit these roundups to fewer than ten albums per post, roughly thirty albums came out this month that grabbed my attention in one way or another. There’s so much new stuff I almost don’t know where to start, yet I must.

Here are some of the best/most notable releases from March of 2018.

Previous Roundups: January, February.

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Soccer Mommy - Clean

While she made some waves in 2017 with her career-spanning Collection, Soccer Mommy (whose real name is Sophie Allison) has arrived in full-force this year with her debut album Clean. This 2018 release finds Allison moving away from the solo bedroom recording of her previous work and into full-band indie rock territory. With sparkling guitars, a rumbling rhythm section, and of course Sophie’s passionately-delivered vocals, Clean is the raw emotion you’ve been waiting for. Sometimes spiteful and vitriolic (“Your Dog”), other times writhing in insecurity (“Last Girl”), and occasionally wholly-triumphant (“Scorpio Rising”), the tunes off this record have cemented Soccer Mommy as a well-deserved star of the indie circuit, and the voice of a million awkward people fumbling through their own relationships.

Camp Cope - How to Socialize and Make Friends

Fists clenched and voices raised, the outspoken Melbourne trio has returned with the follow-up to their much slept-on 2016 full-length. Striking while the iron’s hot, How to Socialize is an album for right now. Fraught with political commentary and much-needed callouts, this is less of an album and more of an open defiance. The catalyst for change and the soundtrack to a long-overdue rebalance, this record is a blunt and open dialogue giving words to a group that’s needed them most. The music itself is beautifully-goosebump-inducing. Exploding with unrestrained vocal takes, cresting guitar strums, bouncy basslines, and rocksteady drum patterns, Camp Cope is the exact type of band that the music industry needs right now.

Sorority Noise - YNAAYT

YNAAYT is a full-album reimagining of You’re Not As _____ As You Think that casts new light on last year’s landmark emo record. Not content to merely swap electric instruments out for acoustic ones, YNAAYT indeed is best described as a “reimagining.” With loving acoustic arrangements, beautiful orchestral flourishes, and a remixed tracklist, Sorority Noise transformed what could have been a one-off gimmick into a gorgeously-composed piece of art. The songs are reworked, shifted, and changed just enough that it’s almost unrecognizable from the LP upon which it’s based, making for a compelling back-to-back listen. Released alongside a hiatus announcement, this would be a graceful note for the band to go out on (as much as I hate to think about it). This album is concrete proof that there’s beauty, serenity, and eventual recovery in grief.

Jack White - Boarding House Reach

I’d describe myself as a “begrudging Jack White Stan.” For better or worse, White has played the single biggest role in the formation of my musical taste. The foundation for everything I like, and an artist that has loomed large in my library for a majority of my life. In spite of (or perhaps because of) his importance to me, his work post-White Stripes has been hit or miss for me. While I eventually came around to Blunderbuss, Lazaretto came across as the musical equivalent of jerking off while staring into a mirror. Perhaps feeling the need for a pivot himself, White described his 2018 album as “a bizarre one” that sounded like “good gardening music or roofing music or… back-alley stabbing music.” The craziest thing is he isn’t wrong.

It seems that in between unearthing old music, sounding like an old man, and being hopelessly conceptual, Mr. White actually had time to cook up a decent record. I’ll admit that (of the two sides of Jack) I’m a bigger fan of his more thrashy garage rock half, so the fact that this album takes that distorted riffage and cranks it up to 11 makes me a very happy stan. There’s still a decent amount of jangly country Nashville sound, but “Rock” (with a capital R) is this record’s primary language. There are moments of unbridled weirdness, which are to be expected (ironically), but at its heart, Boarding House Reach is the best album that I can expect from Jack White in 2018.

Earthless - Black Heaven

Speculate what you will about where music is “headed,” but there will always be room in my heart for a great rock album. On Black Heaven, the typically-instrumental Earthless gives us a collection of sprawling and hard-charging metal tracks. Their fifth album as a band, Black Heaven is a psychedelic heavy metal odyssey. 39 minutes of forward momentum and chest-inflating riffs that fire on all cylinders up until the final notes. An album for driving through the desert as fast as your car will allow while the sun is at its highest point.

Yo La Tengo - There’s A Riot Going On

While Yo La Tengo may not be the biggest band in the world, their influence can be felt all over the indie rock sphere. Over the course of their thirty-plus-year career, they’ve hardly ever made a misstep, and There’s A Riot Going On only adds another layer of greatness to their legacy. Half ambient, half traditional Velvet-Underground-Esque slow jams that they’re known for, Riot is best described as a pleasant album. A record you can devote yourself to entirely, or let run in the background, both to equally-enjoyable ends. A calm, relaxing, and chilled out hour of new material that will provide the soundscape for years of creativity to come.

Haley Heynderickx - I Need To Start a Garden

On I Need To Start a Garden we witness as Haley Hendrickx attempts to balance the cultivation of her soul with the well-being of those around her. With deeply-cutting lyricism, haunting, fragile vocals, and wonderfully-arranged instrumentals, Garden is a carefully-crafted record. At its best moments, the album’s minimalism serves Hendrickx’s style well as the songs crest from held-back whispers into full-blown explosions of sound and emotion.

Easily my biggest surprise of the month, and an early frontrunner for album of the year, Haley Hendrickx is a person to watch, with a record to love. For my full review of I Need To Start a Garden, click here.

Quick Hits

Two Dozen albums from the past month. All summarized in one sentence.

• Donovan Wolfington - Waves: Released posthumously following the band’s untimely demise, Waves is a textbook shredder of an album. Proof that it’s better to go out on top than not at all.

• Disco Inc. - The Boredom Keeps me up at Night: Five forthright and punchy punk rock tracks stretched across 15 electrifying minutes. Equal to or greater than the energy received from a cup of coffee.

• Titus Andronicus - A Productive Cough: Eschewing all previous conceptual frameworks and punk-leanings, A Productive Cough finds frontman Patrick Stickles embracing, emulating, and achieving a pitch-perfect version of the singer-songwriter music that he was brought up on.

• The Breeders - All Nerve: As if the last two decades never happened, the Deal sisters are back alongside their primo ‘93 line-up. Together they deliver a collection of 11 beautifully-grungy tracks that prove the 90’s aren’t dead yet.

• Superorganism - Superorganism: Eight pseudonym-clad bandmembers deep, this synth-laden indie pop group formed, and turned this record around within the space of a calendar year. Bright, vivacious, and charming as all get out, Superorganism have already made a name for themselves with this bubbly debut.

• Lucy Dacus - Historian: Slow-moving and heavy-minded singer-songwriter moodiness for a rainy day or a broken heart.

• Gulfer - Dog Bless: Tappin’ guitars, screamin’ vox, bombastic drummin’, Gulfer deliver emo revival goodness on their gleaming sophomore album.

• Lil Yachty - Lil Boat 2: Coasting off the recognition of his breakthrough mixtape, Lil Yachty offers up 17 sleepy and unfocused tracks that only occasionally meander into genuine entertainment. Overall, it seems like Yachty has lost the plot.

• Logic - Bobby Tarintino II: Rick and Morty skits aside, the latest Logic mixtape isn’t as cringy as the internet would have you believe. Packed with dense lyricism and hyper-technical bars, this release cuts out all the fat and gets straight to the rapping.

• Young Father - Cocoa Sugar: Electronic, unpredictable, and utterly new, Cocoa Sugar is future music.

• Vile Creature - Cast of Static and Smoke: Optimistic queer black metal from the fantastical Canadian duo.

• Remo Drive - Pop Music EP: A trio of fresh tracks from the breakthrough pop-punk band. Aptly-titled, this 8-minute release is catchy, bright, and colorful. Essentially the musical equivalent to fructose-laden soda.

• Of Montreal - White Is Relic/Irrealis Mood: A groovy, dancy, funkwave inferno of radiant two-sided indie tracks.

• Nap Eyes - I’m Bad Now: Indie rock with Lou-Reed-esque vocals that display resolve, even while in the calamitous eye of the hurricane.

• Mooseblood- I Don’t Think I Can Do This Anymore: The UK pop-punks offer up a vague and uniform 36-minutes of relationship strife on this blue follow-up to Blush.

• Mount Eerie - Now Only: Another long-form meditation on the death of a loved one. Heartwrenching and spell-binding.

• The Decemberists - I’ll Be Your Girl: The Portland, Oregon five-piece return with a mixed bag of brightly-colored election reaction tracks.

• Preoccupations - New Material: sharp and bombastic post-punk from a future that almost didn’t exist.

• Citizen - Live at Studio 4: Live in-studio versions of three of the best cuts off 2017’s As You Please.

• Hot Mulligan - Pilot: Chicken soup for the modern emo’s soul.

• Blessthefall - Hard Feelings: Neon-lit metalcore with a hyper-clean and poppy approach.

• The Sword - Used Future: Equal parts jammy, psychedelic, stoner, and riffy. This is a chill and laid-back album that’s perfect for the outdoorsy metalhead.

• Trace Mountains - A Partner to Lean On: Chilled-out Alex G-esque Americana with an electronic slant.

• The Voidz - Virtue: An hour of political indie rock from the outspoken and leather-clad Julian Casablancas.

• Frankie Cosmos - Vessel: Verbose (professional) bedroom folk from the Princess of Bandcamp.

• Czarface x MF DOOM - Czarface Meets Metal Face: Bars. Just. Bars.

• Casey Musgraves - Golden Hour: Lovely, lovesick, loveless country music made for sun-drenched valleys and porch-lit beers.

• The Weeknd - My Dear Melancholy,: Six smutty, spacy breakup songs from the void of heartbreak.

Plus singles from The Voidz, Gucci Mane, The Wonder Years, Snail Mail, Jack White, DJ Khaled, Royce Da 5’9”, God Is An Astronaut, Parkway Drive, ZHU, Half Waif, Anderson .Paak, Beach House, Dj Khaled, Vince Staples, The Decemberists, A$AP Rocky, Grouper, Dr. Dog, Parquet Courts, Courtney Barnett, Weird Al, Panic! At The Disco, Underoath, Flatbush Zombies, Miguel, Jens Lekman, MØ, Our Last Night, Iceage, Cardi B, Migos, Manchester Orchestra, Alvvays, Lil Pump, CHVRCHES, Rae Sremmurd, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Hop Along, and N.E.R.D.