by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)

Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, our weekly recap of this week's new music. We're sharing our favorite releases of the week in the form of albums, singles, and music videos along with the "Further Listening" section of new and notable releases from around the web. It's generally written in the early hours of the morning and semi-unedited... but full of love and heart. The list is in alphabetical order and we sincerely recommend checking out all the music we've included. There's a lot of great new music being released. Support the bands you love. Spread the word and buy some new music.

*Disclaimer: We are making a conscious effort not to include any artist in our countdown on back-to-back weeks in order to diversify the feature, so be sure to check the "Further Listening" as well because it's often of top-notch quality too.

CHRIS COHEN | “Sunever”

There’s a lot of warmth to be found in Chris Cohen’s songs, the music is lush and intricate, his words gentle and comforting. Five years after his self-titled album, he returns with Paint A Room, his fourth solo album and first for Hardly Art (Youbet, Lala Lala, Shana Cleveland). Recorded together with his live band and a few special guests, the record continues to shape his brilliant art pop and folk sound in a way that’s both dazzling and subdued. Cohen has a gift for making soft pop tunes that are immaculately composed, music that’s both an easy listen and inherently interesting. “Sunever,” the record’s second single is a perfect example, a song that feels built on what could be describe as an Appalachian dub, as guitars sound plucked and triumphantly layered, creating a beam of inspiration for life’s many transitions.

GRUESOME | “Frailty”

Florida’s Gruesome are a rare breed of a band, their entire brand of death metal is modeled as a lovely, festering, and putrid homage to the late great genre pioneers Death. They’re not a cover band, Gruesome write all their own songs, but they’ve also set out to expand and explore the legacy of another band, the musical equivalent to “fan fiction”. Matt Harvey (Exhumed), who also fronts the Death touring band Left To Die (together with Death’s Leprosy era rhythm section), comes at the project with a profound reverence, and it can be heard in “Frailty,” the first new Gruesome single in four years. Out via Relapse Records, “Frailty” grinds with a progressive tilt and a stampede of drums and lacerating riffs. Chaos and carnage collide headfirst with shifting structures, volatile solos, and the howling winds of (joyous) evil.

JANA MILA | “Like Only Lovers Could”

Amsterdam’s Jana Mila is getting ready to release her debut album, Chameleon, on August 30th via New West Records (Color Green, Nada Surf, Drive-By Truckers), and the record’s title seems fitting. “Somebody New,” the album’s first single and our introduction to Mila’s music, offered up a modern spin on alt country tinged pop. That only seems to be part of the puzzle though, as “Like Only Lovers Could” finds itself rooted in the Laurel Canyon sound of West Coast psych folk, built on gorgeous vocal harmonies that really set the tone. With a soft acoustic arrangement of guitars and cello serving as the song’s dreamy backdrop, Mila’s vocals steal the show, her harmonies an ode to the days of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, capturing both the strength of her voice and a delicate sense of fragility in a beautiful tale of love lost and found.

MABE FRATTI | “Enfrente”

Mabe Fratti’s carries elements of Juana Molina, Björk, and Portishead in its DNA, which is to say it’s a distillation of the best experimental pop has to offer, and yet there’s nothing quiet like it. The Mexico City-via-Guatemala based songwriter and avant-garde cellist’s sound transcends easy descriptions, presenting an ever shifting kaleidoscope of wondrous melody and transfixed grooves. Sentir que no sabes, Fratti’s fourth solo album, due out June 28th via Unheard of Hope, is a record that feels compositionally focused, each stunning synth and cello movement wrought with intentionality in a way that’s often spellbinding. “Enfrente,” the album’s latest single has us absolutely hooked, a song with a powerful and mystifying presence provided by synths that shatter like glass, cascading drums, deep vocals, and a hypnotic bliss.

SHRAPKNEL | “Illusions of P”

The entire Backwoodz Studioz (Cavalier, Blockhead, Fatboi Sharif) catalog offers an embarrassment of riches for the true hip-hop heads, and the ShrapKnel albums are like raw uncut gems for the headiest among them. The duo of Curly Castro and PremRock return this coming Friday, June 7th, with their third full length, Nobody Planning To Leave, a record described as elementally earthly. Produced in full by Controller 7, “Illusions of P,” the album’s lead single shows a great chemistry between the MCs and an organic fit with the psychedelic boom-bap of the beat. With a hazy framework that knocks and drags in equal measure, Castro and PremRock run rampant in stream of conscious bars and hard nosed rhymes with sharp jabs and instantly quotable lines that are as primal as they are brilliant.

Further Listening:

Fuzzy Meadows: The Week's Best New Music (May 27th - June 2nd)