May Review Roundup
Next month, next Roundup. Yada yada yada. Album links through the cover art. Let’s go!
Revengeseekerz
Jane Remover
Digicore
A surprising, fireworks-filled work of experimental beats and raw thought that pushes everything about Jane Remover’s artistry to the brink of destruction and invites us all to watch.
Highlights: “Psychoboost feat danny brown,” “Dancing with your eyes closed,” “Professional Vengeance”
SABLE, fABLE
Bon Iver
Pop Soul
Justin Vernon’s fifth album is significantly less lo-fi than his first two, and significantly less…all over the place, than his last two. So I guess that means I find it actually compelling and fun to listen to.
Highlights: “Everything Is Peaceful Love,” “If Only I Could Wait,” “There’s a Rhythm”
(P.S. Do you know how stupid it feels to download a “high quality” image file of this cover art…a fucking square)
Stochastic Drift
Barker
IDM
This sophomore effort from Barker highlights the infinite potential of the truly random. The lack of direction is purposeful, rather than an unfortunate consequence of ennui. Here the jarring changes in patterns and styles produce a beauty in electronic music I’ve not heard in some time.
Highlights: “Force of Habit,” “Reframing,” “Stochastic Drift”
Thee Black Boltz
Tunde Adebimpe
Indie Rock
It took me a couple listens to really get into it, but it was totally worth it. A great fix for that 2000’s alt-rock vibin’, TV On The Radio-shaped hole in your heart.
Highlights: “Magnetic,” “Ate the Moon,” “God Knows”
Viagr Aboys
Viagra Boys
Dance-Punk Revival
Did I listen to Josh Homme when he told me to check out Viagra Boys? No. Should I have? Hell fuckin’ yeah I should have. These boys rock! Like, legit, old-school, boogie down rock. The most fun I’ve had with a guitar-rock band in years, maybe a decade.
Highlights: “Man Made of Meat,” “Uno II,” “Dirty Boyz,” “You N33d Me”
Luster
Maria Somerville
Dream Pop
A willow whisp of an album that feels equally ethereal and very real. This is a gorgeous collection of wild soundscapes that sound as ancient as they do timeless. Somerville maintains a barely-there presence as the glorious music swirls around her.
Neon & Ghost Signs
Rialto
Synthpop
It’s marketed as synthpop, but it’s really more synth-rock, recalling the likes of The Cars or Devo. It’s an all-around speakers-blasting-in-the-neon-lit-hot-summer-night good time.
Highlights: “No One Leaves This Discotheque Alive,” “I Want You,” “Remembering to Forget,” “Sandpaper Kisses”
Time Indefinite
William Tyler
Ambient…folk?
I don’t know what this is, but I can’t stop trying to figure it out. This album has some of the most jarring clashes of sound I’ve ever experienced: blasting, overdriven, mechanical thrums under a finger-picked banjo; delicate folk guitar over field recordings with glitch electronics. This is some wild shit, that may not be for everybody, but definitely expresses the chaos of our current moment.
Highlights: “Concern,” “Anima Hotel,” “Held”
GOLLIWOG
billy woods
Experimental Hip Hop
woods is back with another brilliant collection of masterful, conscious, horrorcore rhymes over the most gnarled, twisting beats out there. What is this now, the fifth release in a row that’s utterly spectacular? The man cannot be stopped.
Highlights: “Corinthians,” “A Doll Fulla Pins,” “Lead Paint Test”
(P.S. …and I think we have a new leader for the GAH! award for most terrifying album artwork)
Cancionera
Natalia Lafourcade
Mexican Folk Music
I never know what to say about Natalia Lafourcade’s music other than to say she is a genius at making things beautiful, fun, and emotionally full. Her songs are stunning and transportive and you should drop what you’re doing and listen to them right now!
Highlights: “Cancionera,” “Luna Creciente,” “Lágrimas cancioneras”
Fancy That
PinkPantheress
Dance-Pop
This new mixtape is bangin’! I hate to give them any credit ever, but Pitchfork described it best: “a portal to an alternate universe where UK garage blew up in America and fashion froze in 2006.”
Highlights: “Girl Like Me,” “Nice to Know You,” “Romeo”
Iris Silver Mist
Jenny Hval
Art Pop
The Norwegian singer-songwriter is back with another collection of thought-provoking avant-garde pop tunes. Iris is significantly less experimental than, say, Apocalypse,girl, but Hval’s examinations into and ruminations on impermanence and nature will leave you breathless, and at peace.
Highlights: “Lay down,” “To be a rose,” “I don’t know what free is”
Face Down in the Garden
Tennis
Indie Pop
Love, love, love Tennis. The duo’s particular brand of 80’s nostalgia follows the same structure as that of Magdalena Bay, but adds to it the airiness of Enya, and the powerful vocals of Kate Bush. It’s quite the combination, and it’s one I just cannot get enough of.
Highlights: “Weight of Desire,” “At the Wedding,” “12 Blown Tires”
Ill at Ease
Preoccupations
Post-Punk
Calgary’s masters of doom and gloom return to give you another choice for “albums to play at my untimely funeral.” Ill at Ease returns to the more pop-ish songwriting of New Material, but now with a decidedly more unnerved feeling. Parts of the album are apocalyptically dour, especially in light of current events, but the tunes constantly wink-wink-nudge-nudge at something more like…could it be…hope? Humanity?
Highlights: “Focus,” “Bastards,” “Ill at Ease,” “Andromeda,” “Panic”
Happy listening!
