Tag Archives for new music March 2024

The Rundown: March/April, Pt. 2

No I am NOT behind in posting these, why would you even suggest that?

As stated in my previous post, I decided to consolidate my 2024 album blasts because I did not have a lot of time in March to actually spin new music. And then, I had too much time in April. So I consolidated the two months into two posts. Make sense? No? My bad. Here’s thirteen more quick album reviews and a couple of local recs!

January | February | March

Vampire Weekend – Only God Was Above Us

Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut will always be one of my favorite albums, but the aura of “rich (mostly) white boys repurpose African music” aged like milk almost immediately. In the years since, the band has taken different approaches to incorporate maturity. Their fourth album, Father Of The Bride, is easily their worst, a set of adult-alternative yawners only one step above CVS radio. For their fifth album, they overcorrected, releasing what is actually their most manic and experimental set to date. Every song on this album has crafted, unpredictable elements, and many of them are absurdly high-energy. It feels like their record that builds upon their debut the most – even going so far as to sample “Mansard Roof.” The lyrics remain a mix of serious and tongue-in-cheek. Even though I really dug the singles I heard in advance, I didn’t expect something this remarkably engaged from them. One of the highlights of the year so far.

Grade: 8.5/10   Initial release date: 4/5/24

Pouty – Forgot About Me

I’m starting to slack on these reviews pretty badly, so credit to the album title because I did forget about Pouty. But I really dug this, it’s grungy guitar-pop with a youthful attitude. It’s like a less-immaculately produced version of Blondshell, which is a compliment. Catchy, emotional and equal parts noisy and smooth. Who doesn’t like their pop with some rough around the edges?

Grade: 7/10   Initial release date: 2/9/24

METZ – Up On Gravity Hill

When I heard the first METZ album, I thought two things. 1) This is insane and the exact kind of music I want to make, 2) The band has nowhere to go from here. Ever since their debut, the band has sought ways to grow their metrical, diabolically heavy post-hardcore sound so it doesn’t get repetitive, while still keeping the formula there. This album, their fifth, separates those two ideas into distinct ones. There’s brain-poundingly heavy songs, and there’s ones that aren’t so abrasive but have a midtempo denseness to them. While the band excels at both, the album definitely feels disjointed because of this dichotomy. I don’t know if there’s a way for METZ to truly escape repetition, especially at this stage. But, the album still has a bunch of quality tracks, and it’ll still knock you straight to the floor of the bar.

Grade: 7.5/10 Initial release date: 4/12/24

Static-X – Project Regeneration, Vol. 2

To put it first: I don’t think this album should exist. Neither Wayne Static nor his wife are still with us to preserve his original unreleased recordings. No one is really around to properly give the thumbs-up for his old bandmates to use his name and legacy as a continuation. That said, it is also nice to see the original band decide to truck on for his legacy, especially in the face of the nu-metal revival. Also, even though half of the songs here actually feature a new singer, they’re just good. Not fantastic, this is ultimately pretty normal industrial-metal, but for a band that was always disjointed and only had one hit 25 years ago, these tracks are very well-developed. It’s a fun and heavy metal album, a welcome addition to their underrated catalog. But I also hope it’s the last one – the band seems to have depleted Wayne’s vault material anyways. 

Grade: 7.5/10   Initial release date: 1/26/24

GUHTS – Regeneration

Ok I feel bad here, because one of the purposes of doing these blast reviews is pitting lesser-known acts against bigger ones; I keep sleeping on writing the ones for the lesser-known acts though! I listened to this album weeks ago and it simply is not fresh in my memory, which does not speak on the quality at all. A decade removed from Deafheaven’s tectonic plate-shifting black metal album Sunbather, another band is going the pink cover route. While the book cover-judging comparison can be made, this album packs a different punch. Sludgy, unpredictable post-metal dominates this release, hitting all points between smooth and sinister. It’s abrasive, but not to the point of, say, Full Of Hell or anything. It’s one of the most well-rounded metal albums of the year so far – and one of the best of the genre in any capacity. Don’t sleep on this one, if it’s your tune. 

Grade: 8/10   Initial release date: 1/26/24

Jennifer Lopez – This Is Me … Now

This is conversely an album that demands a renewed spotlight on a former pop music queen, and an album with practically nothing to say. However, the latter fact is fine because it’s really an ode to love. As the title says, it’s just about how happy Lopez is with Ben. This is by no means a great album, but it’s never boring. The songs are all collectively interesting enough, and her voice is easily great enough, so each tune holds value. This won’t be an album that’s in the public eye very long – despite best efforts from the artist – but it’s a nice and easy listen for a somber day. And, we get a whole album about how great Ben Affleck is. He’s doing our city proud. Crushing blow to Alex Rodriguez. 

Grade: 6/10   Initial release date: 2/16/24

Prize Horse – Under Sound

I listened to this one a while back and it didn’t really leave much of an impression on me, so this is quick – this is pleasant if not template midtempo indie. I’ve mentioned in a few other reviews that midtempo indie hasn’t been grabbing me lately, and this record doesn’t completely fall victim to it, but it still didn’t resonate much with me unfortunately. The tunes are pleasant, and some of them have some cool shoegaze influence. This album will find a good home, and these tracks probably sound great live. It just didn’t do enough to retain my love, unfortunately.

Grade: 6/10 Initial release date: 2/16/24

St. Vincent – All Born Screaming

St. Vincent’s now ten-year-old self-titled will always be my favorite release of hers; it’s a top 10 favorite of mine in general. For me, she’ll never top it – but this comes damn close. I was really not into her last album, Daddy’s Home, a set of mostly tepid ballads centered around a tone-deaf concept, and her trajectory into duller rock was a familiar one across the indie landscape. So shocking, then, when she dropped a record of heavy, industrial-inspired tunes instead. While the album fluctuates between crushing songs like “Flea” and softer ones like “Reckless,” the influence of heavier, offbeat alternative is clear throughout. Cate Le Bon steps in for a crucial assistance on the lengthy, flowing final track, and it’s a fitting welcome. I could write and probably will write something about how Jack Antonoff is ruining pop music – this record proves that artists can shake the stink of him off and still be alright. 

Grade: 8.5/10   Initial release date: 4/26/24

ScHoolboy Q – Blue Lips

2024 has been a year for form-returning albums. St. Vincent and Vampire Weekend improved on their respective weakest releases, and the same goes for ScHoolboy. His previous album, 2019’s Crash Talk, was a change of pace, as the rapper opted for much shorter tracks. Rather than his normal 5+ minute journeys, the album was full of 2-minute bursts. It was also a change of pace in quality, as everything felt incomplete or off-hand. Blue Lips is a welcome return, technically “more of the same” for a rapper who always wears his heart on his sleeve, but the formula still pays dividends. Emotional, funny, raw and absolute banging: this is what you want from a ScHoolboy album. And there aren’t even any 5+ minute songs – there’s just a lot more energy and effort put in here. 

Grade: 8/10   Initial release date: 3/1/24

GRRL – Side By Side

Dance and electronic music is not really my thing just in the sense that I never really seek it out – when something like GRRL falls into my lap, I usually enjoy it. I saw GRRL open for dance-adjacent indie group Sylvan Esso last year, spinning a 30-minute opening jam. This new release is just plain old, hyped-up dance music, and I’m really into it. While I’m usually in the mood for offbeat indie or dismal metal, something like this strikes my fancy sometimes. I don’t know how to write about dance music, so I’ll just say – if you like it, you’ll like this.

Grade: 7.5/10 Initial release date: 2/16/24

Ducks Ltd. – Harm’s Way

I’ve been hearing lead single “Train Full Of Gasoline” on the radio pretty regularly, a rollicking, fun guitar tune. But with all guitar indie, I approached the album with a little apprehension, as singles are often livelier than the album. Not so! I know next to nothing of this duo, but this is a collection of fast-paced, clean indie-punk. At only 27 minutes, it doesn’t overstay the welcome, honestly could use a little more. While “Train” is one of the more rambunctious tunes, the whole release is just unfiltered fun. Think the song “Money” by The Drums – born of the surf-punk movement of the 2010s, but distinctly indie. Wide appeal on this one I think. 

Grade: 8/10   Initial release date: 2/9/24

Judas Priest – Invincible Shield

Okay first off it’s so funny that Judas Priest have adopted full power metal aesthetics – even taking Sabaton on tour with them – without actually being power metal. And thank god because I do not like power metal. Anyways, these guys are old enough to be put in a home and do not need to be making albums this great. This won’t go down as one of the metal albums of the year or anything, but it’s genuinely very good. I’ve talked about not giving brownie points to legacy bands on this blog – they earn the grade here. The band rips through a couple heaters before taking on a number of midtempo but very heavy cuts. Rob Halford sounds as good as he always has. And, most importantly, there’s something interesting going on in every song. These aren’t cut-and-paste Judas Priest songs, even if they do follow familiar structures. This album isn’t a reminder of existence or a contract fulfillment – it’s a statement from a band that’s still got a lot to say. Rock on, kings. 

Grade: 7/10   Initial release date: 3/8/24

The Black Keys – Ohio Players

This album isn’t bad, but it is just kind of sad. When the Black Keys broke through all those years ago, they were already beginning their creative decline. Brothers was a great album, but it was arguably the last great BK album. Since then they’ve mostly spiraled down into the land of diminishing returns. On this release, they’ve retooled, opting for a poppier, broader style of songwriting than their normal alt-blues-rock. Optimistically, it shows a band in their later years not afraid to try new things. Pessimistically, and more realistically, it’s a former-arena band desperately trying to secure more radio hits. There’s some good songs here, but the ones really being pushed by the band are all big swings and misses. Two songs feature guest verses by rappers – Lil Noid and Juicy J (!) respectively – and neither song knows how to work. Both guest verses are tacked on to the end of the song, at different tempos from what came before it. They’re Frankenstein pop songs, designed for crossover appeal but destined to be forgotten. The album’s highlight – “Beautiful People (Stay High)” – is a miserable example of sanitized Kohls-core rock geared towards the radio, any radio. 

And yet, the album really isn’t bad, overall. The album tracks bolster it. “Don’t Let Me Go” is fun. So is “Read Em And Weep.” The album’s best song is the penultimate track, “Fever Tree,” an unassuming tune that’s just the old style of blues-rock circa 2008 Black Keys. It’s odd, and almost fun, that it takes an album of misses to appreciate what a throwback can bring. I appreciate what the band went for here, cynicism included, but it’s a very mixed bag.

Grade: 6.5/10   Initial release date: 4/5/24

LOCAL NOOK: If you’ve just stumbled on this and have for some self-flagellating reason decided to read the whole post, then you should know that I am born and bred Boston and am heavily involved in the New England music scene. It feels a little weird to me to include local bands in these posts, because I often know them or know people who do. But it would be contradictory to not include them in posts highlighting international underground artists, too! So here’s a couple local records I’ve loved lately.

Wooll – Unwind. I was lucky enough to get to cover this wonderful debut over at my primary home, Allston Pudding. This is an indie record that takes hearty inspiration from shoegaze, resulting in something that sounds like Beach House by way of The Beths. I really, really dug this one and I think you will too.

bark, dog – i’ll eat you, i love you. I know nothing of this artist, it was a random stumble on Bandcamp. Again, it’s a pleasant and fuzz-inspired indie record, authentic from start to finish. This artist has a wide catalog already, something I’ll be digging into soon. Very fun and original stuff here.

Edward Glen – Loss, Angeles. This is a quick indie 4-track and, given that the band has released a few singles since, I might be jumping the gun on a review. But! these songs are great and each pulls inspiration from something vastly different. It gets a thumbs-up from me.

And with that, this giant block is done. I am already growing tired of this project, I can’t guarantee I’ll keep it up all year. My list of new albums that I *have not* listened to yet sits at 155 entries, and still includes names like Waxahatchee, Kacey Musgraves, and (sigh) Justin Timberlake. I can already tell you that the next month’s post will include Knocked Loose, Middle Kids, Dua Lipa, Salt Cathedral and Jlin. What else will it cover? Who knows! I pick my listens on a whim. See you next month!

The Rundown: March/April 2024, Pt. 1

Okay what happened here? I didn’t do a post in March. I got stuck on a project at work that saw me working on a restricted laptop that did NOT have access to any music streaming sites, so I really didn’t have anything to update. I figured I’d do a two month consolidation post. But….then I listened to 29 new releases in April, and I don’t want to crash your web browser (or mine). So, here’s half of those, in no real order. There’s some indie heavy-hitters, a couple offbeat gems, possibly the only true jazz album I review all year, and cowbey.

January | February

The Smile – Wall Of Eyes

I finally listened to it! I mean, what’s there to say about this one that hasn’t already been said? Radiohead have always been a band to have productive recording sessions, often crafting entire second albums and shelving them for later. The offshoot of Radiohead feels the same. This album comes shortly after their debut, but it feels incredibly separate from it. While the debut was mostly just lighter, looser Radiohead, this one has songs that are longer, more drawn-out, and more complex. It’s jazzy and mathy, with occasional fits of noise. They’re appealing more to the prog-side, a crossover opportunity Radiohead has always had but never explored. These songs aren’t for those who like strictly 4/4 v-c-v-c-b-c or 12 bar blues, these are songs for the critics and analysts. Oddly enough, I found some stretches of it worked better than others. But it’s an album that demands more listens, and I’ve only given it one. So consider this review to be a placeholder.

Grade: 7.5/10  Initial release date: 1/26/24

Adrianne Lenker – Bright Future

The hot streak continues. You may know Lenker best as the singer of Big Thief, a band seemingly incapable of writing a song even slightly mediocre. Well, she’s racked up more than enough songs to make a runoff solo album. Donned with just an acoustic guitar, Lenker delivers another set of heart-wrenching ditties, as well as a solo version of Big Thief’s “Vampire Empire,” one of my favorite tunes from 2023. Simple and devastating, it’s what you expect from indie’s best songwriter. Also, she released a Bandcamp-only accompany EP with all proceeds going to Gazan relief efforts, which is a nice 180 from what I had heard about her previous politics (possibly hearsay!). 

Grade: 8/10   Initial release date: 3/22/24

Boeckner – Boeckner!

Wolf Parade is one of the dozen or so legacy indie bands that I’ve just never really spent any time with, so I can’t really compare and/or contrast the band’s music with the debut album from its singer, Dan Bockner. The album is as playful as its title, owing more to low-stakes classic rock than anything else. This is just a collection of fun, little rock songs; some big, some small, none trying to change the world. It’s the true definition of a side project. Musically and vocally, he sounds like Bob Mould, but a little less abrasive. It’s an album for the cool dads in your life. 

Grade: 7/10   Initial release date: 3/15/24

The Jesus & Mary Chain – Glasgow Eyes

Similarly, this is a legacy group that I don’t know well beyond the hits. I was immediately taken aback by how accessible this sounds, as if I was expecting the band to still be doing “Just Like Honey” forty years later. It’s much more rock-oriented, even by recent standards. It’s very inconsistent. “Venal Joy” and “jamcod” are urgent tunes, complex and heavy. “Pure Poor” and “The Eagles and The Beatles” meanwhile are just…sad. Lyrically they have nothing to say and they seem like obligatory spot-fillers. The tone of this album varies wildly from industrial into hokey rock-n-roll. Some good elements, but not really for me. 

Grade: 6/10   Initial release date: 3/22/24

PACKS – Melt the Honey

Due to the aforementioned work project, I’m writing this review probably a full month after I listened to this album, which never does any artist any favors. That said, this is great, but it also wasn’t really for me. This set of songs is punchy indie, guitar-driven alt-rock that could reasonably crossover into the punk threshold. It’s authentic, and walks the line between vulnerable and intense. It is entirely midtempo, though, which is a bit of a death knell for me personally. It all starts to sound pretty similar partway through, and never really recovers. Again – this comes down to personal taste. With the exception of the recently-departed group Dilly Dally, I’ve never been much for albums that are entirely midtempo. It comes off to me as sluggish, a few high-energy jaunts or true ballads could’ve broken this up more. Still though, this is great. 

Grade: 6.5/10   Initial release date: 1/19/24

Real Estate – Daniel

I’ve never been particularly keen on this band, they’ve always seemed to me like the most diluted, template indie band possible. So imagine my surprise when I immediately fell in love with the lead single “Water Underground.” I’m not sure if the long-running band really hit it out of the park, or my tastes have matured, or both. I think it’s both. Either way, the subsequent album was predictably not as great as the song, but is chock full of sweet and melodic indie tunes for you. Released in the dead of winter, this could become a pleasant summer album. 

Grade: 6.5/10    Initial release date: 2/23/24

Gouge Away – Deep Sage

I love Gouge Away, some good ferocious hardcore with melodic punk woven in. There’s tons of bands that sound like Gouge Away, and yet they’ve always had something distinct I can never put my finger on. It might be Christina Michelle’s profoundly intense vocals, or the fact that the band always seems to straddle the hardcore and post-hardcore line – two genres similar in name only. Their newest release takes a slightly softer approach, with more patient songwriting and more downtime across the record. It’s still mighty, it’s just more vulnerable, too. I’m not sure if the enhanced formula works quite as well as the original one, but I think further listens will truly determine that. It might just be that this album is more of a grower than previous ones. Either way, it’s still one of my favorites of the year. The grading curve is high. 

Grade: 8/10 Initial release date: 3/15/24

Dissimulator – Lower Form Resistance

Based on the album cover, which looks ripped from Tetsuo: The Iron Man, I was definitely expecting something more along the lines of industrial metal. Consider it a minor letdown that it was closer to standard death metal. Their debut album still rips, though, and takes a lot of unpredictable turns. There’s a lot of thrash elements here to counteract any death metal monotony. I listened to this one a while ago so it isn’t fresh in my brain, but it really is a solid, enjoyable metal album – especially for a debut. 

Grade: 7/10  Initial release date: 1/24/24

Molly Lewis – On The Lips

This one nearly slipped through the cracks – I listened to it many weeks ago and forgot to do a flash review. So, it also isn’t still in my memory lobes, unfortunately. But this album is certainly unique! I put it on knowing nothing about the artist, and it took until about halfway into the second song that I realized exactly what I had gotten into. There are no sung vocals on this album – every song is centered around whistling. The music is distinctly indie, but it has a necessary 50’s throwback country sound too. The music is cheerful but dense, which is key, so that the whistling doesn’t always have to bolster the album. I don’t really know what else to say about this! This is ultimately a bit repetitive in concept, and inconsistent, but it’s really something you should experience, too. 

Grade: 7/10   Initial release date: 2/16/24

Omni – Souvenir

I touched on this in the first round of reviews when I wrote about Cheekface, but, my tastes have absolutely shifted. I spent a long time appreciating but not really liking new wave and post-punk music. There isn’t really anything that jolted me into loving it, it just kind of happened, but it’s super apparent with Omni. I didn’t care for this band’s first couple albums, and when I saw them as an opening band, I was bored. But this was super fun, I really dug it. These are robotic but carefree post-punk songs, like a smoothed down and mellowed out Gang of Four. High-energy but good, clean fun. This is really making me want to go back and reconsider their earlier albums; this one really might be better, but maybe I’ve changed, too.

Grade: 7.5/10   Initial release date: 2/16/24

The Last Dinner Party – Prelude to Ecstasy

It’s been a long time since an indie debut was this hotly anticipated, the fervor was nearly at ’08 Vampire Weekend levels. What I’m saying is, if you’re interested in this type of thing, then you’ve probably heard it already. But! It so lives up to the hype. This is a set of well-balanced, bombastic indie tunes with a lot of spunk and even more intelligence. These ladies have a tinge of chamber pop in their songs, with a lot of raucous elements. It’s a unique blend that calls back to the early riotous live shows – but not recorded material – of Arcade Fire. In fashion, this band allegedly has wild and destructive shows themselves. Also a small tic, I love when a band doesn’t just chuck the singles at the front of the album but places them in where they make sense sequentially. The second single and my favorite track, “Sinner,” comes near the end!

Grade: 8.5/10   Initial release date: 2/2/24

The Messthetics/James Brandon Lewis – The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis

I love jazz, but I simply never keep up with any new jazz. The description for this hooked me, though, due to who the Messthetics are – they’re the rhythm section of goddamned Fugazi. And this album is exactly what you get when you take a bunch of punk veterans who have transitioned into jazz. It’s hot, often very free-form and improvised but never so much so that the songs lose structure. Most of the tracks are uptempo, aided by the full-album collaboration with saxophonist James Brandon Lewis. This album is, just to put it simply, hot and undiluted fun. A hearty recommendation to anyone, even folks who don’t spin jazz. 

Grade: 8/10   Initial release date: 3/15/24

Torres – What an enormous room

Ok so I actually spun this one twice back in January in preparation of (finally!) seeing her live, but I gave it a proper headphones whirl in April. The indie singer has been bubbling under the radar for a good decade now, and I’m hoping this propels her forward. It might be her best album yet, a culmination of all the ideas she’s put forward till now. It’s got threatening guitar jams, tender ballads and poppy synth tunes. She continues to blend sexual and religious references like a more deranged Sufjan Stevens. There’s more individual ideas here than on previous Torres records, but she makes them all coalesce. Something for everyone, at least in the indie world. The third spin of this will certainly not be my last. 

Grade: 8.5/10   Initial release date: 1/26/24

Beyoncé – Cowboy Carter

Right, so. The point of these are to do quick blasts for practice & fun, and, no one needs to hear me go long about what will almost certainly be the biggest album of the year. But! I have thoughts. So much of this album is about dual identities – Bey explores country for the first time (outside of the excellent 2016 cut “Daddy Lessons”), while still infusing it with some toss-in R&B and hip-hop. The resulting combination feels experimental, and when it works, it works. But it sometimes doesn’t. 

There’s a whiplash across different ideas, sometimes. The opener “Ameriican Requiem” is country-fied, before launching into a song that entirely samples The Beatles’ “Blackbird.” The album never feels grounded, which can sometimes be fun. “Spaghettii” is closer to straight hip-hop, and it’s fun as hell. There’s samples from the Beach Boys, Underworld and Fleetwood Mac. There’s a lot of respect paying directed at the elders, and not just in the world of country.

But the album remains befuddling all the same. There’s the already too-heavily-discussed cover of “Jolene,” which changes the lyrics. It’s divisive, and for me it just serves no purpose. It tries to update the song for modern girlboss era, which shows an inherent lack of understanding towards what makes old country so great. Also, there’s a glaring editing issue. The album is 88 minutes long, and there’s a lot of filler tracks. Some early songs have a lot of aimless noodling, and there’s a Post Malone-featured song that’s dead on arrival. In an album centered on experimentation, there’s too much of the old. 

And this is where dual identity comes into play. Beyoncé posits herself as a Texan here – and she is, and the positive impact that this is having on country music is already palpable. She’s improving it, immediately, from the outside. But she’s also an R&B artist, married to one of the most New York men alive. She’s also a billionaire, and as revolutionary as her music can sometimes be, it’s still corporate pop. This dual identity is a treacherous one, and while her fame and goodwill will probably keep it intact, there’s a potential for it to cave disastrously. The pairing could work, if Bey embraces it fully. But details like the head-scratching “Jolene,” the Post Malone feature, and the seemingly AI-generated album cover, don’t give me a lot of hope.

Sorry – the album’s solid. I had fun. It’s too long though.

Grade: 7.5/10   Initial release date: 3/29/24

Are we having fun yet? I’ll be putting another post up hopefully next weekend, with another 14 flash reviews and a couple local recommendations, too. Thanks for laboring through this!