Slow Pulp introduce deeply sentimental themes of personal reflection and a new sound on their most recent album, Yard. The album is a further evolution of their sound as it brings together synth sounds from prior releases while continuing to lean towards more acoustics, which suits the nostalgic energy of the album’s entirety.
With I Killed Your Dog, L’Rain are clearly seeking to further push the envelope, with an even broader theatrical scope, spine-chilling lyrics, and absolutely mesmerizing musicality and production. What makes it so special in the landscape of 2023 is that it implements hallmarks from the late 80’s and 90’s all the way up to our current moment.
Over its 41 minutes, Exit Simulation is an insistent listen, pervading and reverberating the walls of whatever space it can attain. The album is brilliantly paced to function as a transitory performance that assumes the song itself is only a part of a larger tapestry, requesting the full respect of its space to unfurl.
With her new EP, Celestial Mirror, Chicago’s own soothing heartbreaker, Mia Joy, makes her way back into our fragile hearts and our busted carousels of self-actualization. Recorded directly to tape and mostly in one take, Celestial Mirror is a homey flavor of dream pop and vocal sensations that portrays a welcoming pair of open arms.
The Giant’s Lawn is something spectacular, a record with a natural feeling of awe, like the sun shinning from deep within in the forest woods. Their third album is ambitious, but it never feels like they set out with ambitious intentions, the songs are following a path, treading space and time with a steady atmosphere of wondrous permanence.
Viji’s So Vanilla is anything but. The London-based singer’s LP summons neuroticism and turmoil over hypnotic dance tracks. After releasing her first album on Dirty Hit, she graduated to cult favorite Speedy Wunderground. Her partnership with producer Dan Carey illuminates her deeply introspective and often tongue-in-cheek lyrics.
The TFUL282 discography ranged from full-lengths released by Matador to rare singles on obscure labels shared around by hand. There was a litany of covers and b-sides that were only accessible to listeners through tape trading or Youtube. These Things Remain Unassigned digs deep into the archives to assemble these miscellaneous tracks.
bar italia operates in the wonderful space between art-rock pretension and slacker affability. Their music is too layered, rich, and dynamic to be considered carefree and, at the same time, features too many riffs, hooks, and melodies to be over-analyzed. The Twits feels like their definitive sonic statement.
Tomorrow’s Fire, the new album from Chicago artist Squirrel Flower is a potent record with self-effacing folk songwriting backed by a loud shoegaze-tinged band. This is their third album for Polyvinyl, and their most varied yet, equally full of loud, head-banging moments, and intricate, transcendent vocal arrangements.
If there’s an art form to deconstructing art-punk syllable by syllable, Leeds trio Beige Palace stand at the vanguard. There music seems to look at the bigger picture in scope, just before it’s shattered into drawn out shards, dangerously crafted with sharp edges and puzzle pieces that delight in never quite fitting the way they should.
So Long Before Now by The Woods is a charming artifact of 1980s underground culture and music. Only fully seeing the light of day just this year, the record feels remarkably contemporary. There’s something to be said about culture and styles repeating themselves, but there’s a special air to this record.
On Attachment Figure, the Florida based Sarah Morrison works all the angles of the ever changing moods in her music to near perfection. She drenches her songs in layers and layers of sound that bounces from jazzy classicism to ominous and somber synth driven laments, reaching into the furthest depths of desire and memory.
Brooklyn-based trio, Sister. have released their full-length debut, Abundance. Three years in the making, Abundance was largely self-recorded in a cabin up in Woodstock and overdubbed in Hannah Pruzinsky’s apartment closet, proving that Sister. capitalizes on the intimacy of home recording when in good company.
“Cannonball” became NME’s Single of the Year and, even thirty years later, has one of the most recognizable bass lines in indie rock history. What’s more iconic is the album it’s from. Last Splash celebrates its 30th anniversary with a new reissue that includes remastered versions of its original fifteen tracks and two previously unreleased songs.
We Buy Diabetic Test Strips is an intense listen at 53 minutes with psychedelic rewards. Most of the production puts the listener into a daze—instrumental transitions jump to and fro alongside snippets of telephone calls. If you’re dialed into the album enough, you may wonder how soon the apocalypse is arriving.
Marnie Stern's name remained stuck in the minds of modern rock fans. With a mention of Stern comes her always incredible guitar technique, never showing off, but always played with purpose. She’s back with another incredible offering, aptly titled The Comeback Kid, pushing forward without sacrificing her musical sense.
