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New Music Fridays: Adrianne Lenker, Julia Holter, Waxahatchee and more
This is a thread to discuss 2024 releases that have recently arrived on our doorstep, or been announced for the future. Feel free to share albums, singles, EPs or reissues that have caught your eye and interest, or share your thoughts about any new music that you've had the chance to listen to this week.
Discussion Points
Is there anything you've been looking forward to listening to?
Any releases that have surprised you?
Have you listened to any new music recently? What are your thoughts?
What have you enjoyed from these artists in the past? How does their latest work compare?
Links:
Pitchfork - Out This Week
AllMusic - All New Releases
Stereogum - New Music
An exciting week this week, 2024 is starting to really kick off. Here's what caught my eye ~
A big week for indie, with three indie heavyweights to listen to
Adrianne Lenker of Big Thief has released a solo album 'Bright Future'. This is probably the 'must-hear' of the week. A much more stripped back sound than Big Thief as we've come to expect, but Lenker really leans into Americana with this one, and I think that really opens up her songwriting. Absolutely gorgeous. Will be unpacking this over the year.
Julia Holter is also on six, releasing 'Something in the Room She Moves'. Tragically I could never get into Julia Holter, but admire her work. This one wasn't an exception - but it seems to be recieving very position first impressions from fans. Recommend for anyone who would enjoy very effortless thinky ambient pop.
Waxahatchee's sixth studio album 'Tigers Blood' also released today. I really enjoyed this one! I've been obsessed with the single 'Right Back To It', but wasn't so captured by the other single choices, but the good news is almost every other song here rises above them. This is a really mature effort from Crutchfield, she's really honed in her sound, rather than reinventing the wheel. A very thoughtful record, Waxahatchee fans should love it.
I was gushing about the singles from Matt Champion a couple weeks back, who's released his first studio album since the breakup of Brockhampton, 'Mika's Laundry'. It's a brisk album, with a lot of the songs feeling like interludes to the singles themselves, but there's some really cool production and playing throughout (thanks to Dijon). Hopefully Matt can really develop something interesting in his next one. If nothing else I really recommend folks listen to 'Slug', one of the best singles of the year so far, imo.
Porter Robinson revealed his lead single for his follow up to 'Nurture' called 'Cheerleader'. A step away from EDM, this is much more electropop. He's leaning into a kind of deliberately cringe aesthetic. The lead synth is insane. It's a pretty cool track, check it out.
Also, I probably won't be spinning it, but Elbow have a new album out today 'Audio Vertigo', so check that out if you're into them.
As a huge Porter Robinson fan Cheerleader is veering really close to the parts of 00's emo/punk/scene pop I didn't like, but it's still absurdly catchy. A whole album of that is going to drag me off the fence one way or the other... Pretty sure to the side that involves wearing eyeliner.
Yeah I'm very on the fence about Cheerleader, although it has grown on me. I dismissed 'Look At The Sky' when I first heard it too, but it's now my most played song since of the last five years. But 'Nurture' was dripping with sincerity, and relatable sincerity at that. Cheerleader is pretty much all camp - I guess its about the fan-artist dynamic, but that isn't exactly a universal theme. I can totally get why he wouldn't/couldn't make another 'Nurture'. Guess we'll see where he takes it.
My thoughts are very similar, as a fellow big fan of Porter. I went on a huge pop-punk kick a few weeks ago and have been much more into pop in general in the past few years so it felt like this track was made for me, though! The high bit in the last 15 seconds or so of the song is my favorite in particular. I'm excited to see how the rest of the album shapes up!
It's "Owl City" in a way I can't vibe with anymore. I had a phase, but I'm way out of that now.
I listened to the Waxahatchee album on repeat basically all day. I think I might prefer Saint Cloud but it's still a very good record
Been really enjoying Bilmuri's (pronounced Bill Murray) recent single "BLINDSIDED".
If you don't know, Bilmuri is the solo project of Johnny Franck, the original clean vocalist and guitarist for the metalcore band Attack Attack! Bilmuri is kind of hard to place, currently it's like tongue in cheek, country pop-core. Thick chuggy riffs, pop vocals, the odd death growl, country licks, some saxophone and maybe even an eagle screech or explosion sound effect.
Glass Beams just released their new EP, Mahal, and it's great. Such silky smooth psychedelic vibes!
https://album.link/i/1727145709
Bonus video:
Glass Beams - 'Mahal EP' (Full Live Performance)
(I really recommend watching the live version. The set and their costumes match the music perfectly.)
Rickshaw Billie's Burger Patrol just released their new album Big Dumb Riffs (appropriately titled, I might add)
RIYL Torche, Kowloon Walled City, Sludge anything, Stoner anything
Bandcamp
Spotify
Other Links (taplink.cc) - First link there has all the streaming site URLs
Hozier's new EP is pretty catchy I must admit, particularly Too Sweet.
Lots of great stuff!
Non-metal
The Jesus And Mary Chain - Glasgow Eyes
This release marks 40 years for this Scottish rock band. You've probably already heard of them, but if not, they're a huge band in the post-punk / shoegaze / noise pop scene. Nice whispery haunting melodies and ringing synths.
Good Morning - Good Morning Seven
Solid Australian indie pop from a great label (Polyvinyl). Crisp production, great synths and vocals. Plenty of layers. The record is swimming sound. Only a touch of hesitation about the album art as at least a couple of parts of it look AI-generated, even though it appears to have some photos / human-placed designs as well. Lack info on the artist or artwork, and it's not fully AI, so I'm just ever so barely giving it a pass for now.
Metal (primarily clean-ish / non-scream vocals or instrumental)
Keygen Church - Nel Nome Del Codice
Latest release from instrumental Italian artist Keygen Church. I describe this as "industral retro-synth Castlevania metal". You've got pipe organs, choral chants, retro-style synths, driving industrial beats, and heavy synthesized guitar riffs.
Metal (primarily harsh vocals)
Dödsrit - Nocturnal Will
One of the best modern melodic black metal acts these days. Sick merch too. My favorite metal record of the week. Name your price on bandcamp, so if you love it, buy it! Tons of great dual lead melodies. Vocals are somewhat minimal on the record, depending on the track. Very majestic, without leaning too bright for their sound.
Critical Defiance - The Search Won't Fall...
Chilean thrash with a pretty aggressive vocal- but still firmly in thrash territory. Blazing fast riffs and drums, some older school, analog-sounding production that shines for this. Nice and warm and natural. Some nice bends and tremolos in the leads and plenty of energy.
Civerous - Maze Envy
My other favorite of the week. Heavy as fuck death/doom that simply builds and improves on their already great work on the prior release. Some progressive atmosphere, but stays heavy. Occasional time signature chaos. Gritty, raspy death growls. Occasional blasts of speed. Juicy solos.
Apparition - Disgraced Emanations From A Tranquil State
More death/doom. This time plodding, stomping, and blasting. Cavernous and deep growls. Riffs drenched in sludge and grime. Dissonant guitar solos and harmonics that slither around the rest of the instruments working in and out of the movements of the songs. Occasional slow, almost funeral-doom-level trudging with a few keyboard licks for good measure.
Aberration - Refracture
Avant-garde/dissonant death metal that is unrelenting. Constant blasts of tension and controlled chaos. Extremely tense chromatic scales. Absolute riff anhiliation. This is so fun to listen to as you can really get lost in what's going on.
THVN - ZGNIJ
Blackened death/sludge from Poland. Despairful, angry, hopeless riffs and screams. Aggressive and tense, yet melodic.
Mastiff - Deprecipice
Angry, crusty hardcore/sludge from the UK. HM2-like guitars with beefy production. Noisy, angry vocal yells.