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Fresh Album Fridays: Slowdive, Jeff Rosenstock, Royal Blood and more
Good morning ~ This is a thread to discuss new album releases that have arrived on our doorstep this week. Feel free to share albums and EPs that have caught your eye and interest!
Discussion Points
What are you looking forward to listen to?
Have you listened to any of these releases?
What are your thoughts?
What have you enjoyed from these artists in the past?
Why Friday?
Most (but not all) new LPs release on a Friday, as labels want to give the release a full week of sales before entering the charts.
~~ Feedback on the format welcome!
Jeff Rosenstock - HELLMODE
Genre(s): Power Pop, Indie Rock
Country: United States
Bandcamp
Spotify
RYM
https://album.link/i/1690678548
Slowdive - Everything Is Alive
Genre(s): Dream Pop
Country: United Kingdom
Bandcamp
Spotify
RYM
This is lovely, thanks for the pointer. I feel it's a little bit mellower than their previous, self-titled album from 2017. Really loving this today.
https://album.link/i/1688456129
NOTE: Today is Bandcamp Friday. For 24 hours, bandcamp waives the percentage they normally charge on artists' sales. No matter when the albums release- today is the perfect day to buy some music and merch from artists you want to support. Consider even tossing a couple of bucks on any name-your-price downloads you might have been looking to buy. That's still far more money than they'll make from you on streaming services.
A bit of a light week for me, though this may be updated if I find more that I missed. Some good stuff though. Onto the music, in no particular order:
Everything Is Alive - Slowdive
bc / a.l
I second the Slowdive mention! Longstanding UK synthy-shoegaze band's first record in six years. Dreamy as expected but with some synths to give a bit of edge to cut through the wash of guitars.
Imperial Crystalline Entombment - Ancient Glacial Resurgence
bc / a.l
Frigid black metal by I.C.E. - A bit of tongue-in-cheek cheesiness when it comes to the aesthetic and lyrical content, but in a way that's enjoyable IMO. Doesn't come across as strained or overdone- it's still an absolute blast (pun intended) of black metal goodness.
Weald & Woe - For The Good Of The Realm
bc / a.l
Great castle/medieval black metal. FFO Obsequiae. Lovely harmonized guitarwork. Huge aesthetic upgrade visually, though their bandcamp and merch still have plenty instances of their old logo, which left a lot to be desired. Don't let some aesthetic missteps in the past fool you. This is top quality stuff.
Gendo Ikari - Rokubungi
bc / a.l
Grindcore(?) from the UK. Some definite avant-garde influence. Plenty of other genres can be heard here. Extremely varied sounds on this. From typical grind vocals and tempos, to slower breakdown parts and some lower-register growls and even nearly-pig-squeal moments- but all in the proper amounts. Guitar sounds are all over the place too. Nothing stays in place for long at all! This isn't boring one-note grind- this will keep your attention.
Sick to see gendo mentioned since they part of the local grind/powerviolence scene here. This new album is killer and they are phenomenal live.
Royal Blood - Back to the Water Below
Genre(s): Alt Rock
Country: United Kingdom
Spotify
RYM
https://album.link/i/1687698518
Icona Pop - Club Romantech
Genre(s): Dance-pop, Electropop, House
Country: Sweden
Links
Apple Music (the above link doesn't include it for some reason)
Wikipedia
RYM
This is their third studio album and the first album release in ten years. I've heard more than half of the songs as they've been releasing them as singles over the past few years, but I'm looking forward to listening to the full album. My favorite singles were "I Want You", "You're Free" (the Dub Mix is even better), and "Off Of My Mind".
Music videos that can be found via Tildes: