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theeverlastingshade · 1 year

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Favorite Albums of 2022

10. Ants from Up There- Black Country, New Road

After the klezmer-fueled rush of BCNR’s promising debut LP, For the First Time, it was hard to say where they were going to take their sound for LP 2. The initial excitement behind the Speedy Wunderground bands began to wane, and just days before the release of BC,NR’s seemingly make or break second LP, Ants from Up There, the frontman of the band, Isaac Wood, announced that he left the band due to mental health issues. If AfUT was even just a merely good record the surrounding circumstances could easily still have completely de-railed their momentum. But AfUT is an absolute triumph of a record, one that folds art rock, chamber pop, and post rock into an exhilarating whole that defies expectations at every turn. In melding the catharsis, sprawl, and ambition of these disparate stylings BC,NR have reshaped their sound into something grand and imposing that defies expectation at every turn, yet remains unfailingly human.

AfUT is an album gleefully overstuffed with ideas, but the band execute with a deft touch that gives each individual instrument plenty of space even as they’re colliding towards one another. “Chaos Space Marine” and “Mark’s Theme” retrofit their post-rock maximalism with relative concision while the last 3 songs continually expand from their roots into towering, chamber pop epics. The music throughout is consistently dense and adventurous, but never showy, and consistently imbued with sharp dynamics at every turn. The music unfolds patiently, with songs like “Bread Song” and “Haldern” continuously building momentum into new, soaring movements without ever releasing their respective bundles of tension. But as the closer “Basketball Shoes” reaches its colossal coda all of the pent up intensity from the preceding 9 songs erupts into a string and horn-laden curtain call that achieves that sense of sweeping, communal transcendence that only this sort of music can really pull off. Despite Isaac Wood’s abrupt exit, the future of BC,NR has never seemed more thrilling and full of possibility.

Essentials: “The Place Where He Inserted the Blade”, “Snow Globes”, “Basketball Shoes”

9. Natural Brown Prom Queen- Sudan Archives

Sudan Archives, aka Britney Parks, quickly became one of the most exciting new voices in r&b after the release of her 2019 debut LP, Athena, and while her follow-up, Natural Brown Prom Queen, doesn't drastically alter her approach it's a colossal leap forward by every conceivable metric. NBPQ decimates notions of conventional r&b, folding electronic music, art rock, trap, chamber pop, neo-soul, and psychedelia into her swirling, genre-agnostic compositions without ever sounding gimmicky or unfocused. Parks recorded NBPQ with a plethora of different musicians that include Ben Dickey, Simon on the Moon, and Nosaj Thing among many others in a home studio that she built with her boyfriend (who happens to be the rapper Nocando), and it exudes a communal feel through the idiosyncrasies of all those involved coupled with its themes of community, race, female identify, and self-love. But while NBPQ is an intensely collaborative affair, there's no mistaking the voice at the forefront belonging to anyone other than Britney. NBPQ is simultaneously one of the year's most accessible and forward-thinking records, and it cements Britney's status as one of the most compelling current voices in r&b.

Despite the sonic variety on display throughout NBPQ it's a remarkably cohesive record that's held together through tight mixing, and the strength of Sudan's voice and violin playing. The 18 songs on NBPQ unfold like a single suite due to the impeccable transitions and tight mixing. The glossy trap of "OMG BRITT" practically melts into the lush neo-soul of "ChevyS10", while the patient comedown of the 808 shuffle on “Freaklizer” segues seamlessly into the narcotic sway of “Homesick (Goregous & Arrogant)”. Each song carves out a distinct sonic identify, but Sudan’s voice and omnipresent violin playing provide a distinctive through line. Throughout NPBQ Britney addresses race and identify (“Selfish Soul”, “NPBQ”) the power of class dynamics in relationships (“ChevyS10”), what domestic roles say about who we are (“Homemaker”) and so much more with a sharp wit, and a sympathetic, but critical eye. On closer “#513” Sudan throws her hands up in their air and resolves to move back from L.A. to her hometown of Cinncinatti “I don’t really wanna follow/Tricky, trendy little things/Hollwood will make you hollow/I’m too rooted in my ways”. It’s a perfect cap to a record that’s steeped in confronting uncomfortable truths, and it, along with the rest of NBPQ, represents some of the most forward-thinking pop music that I’ve heard this year.

Essentials: “Homemaker”, “NBPQ”, “Selfish Soul”

8. Labyrinthitis- Destroyer

Dan Bejar has released many great records as Destroyer throughout the 21st century thus far, but everything that he’s released following his 2011 lounge-pop opus, Kaputt, has lived under the shadow of that record to varying degrees. Bejar’s latest LP, Labyrinthitis, is his first post-Kaputt record to escape that distinction. On Labyrinthitis, Bejar continues to keep the listener at an arm's length with his proclivity for for obscure references, cryptic allusions, and some of the dryest jokes this side of the Ben Shapiro WAP discourse, but his music soars with a newfound sense of scale. This time around, Bejar's lush art pop was spiked with the frenetic pulse of disco and synth pop, rendering the music more lively and dynamic without shattering the spell that Bejar so carefully casts. This fresh backdrop seemed to loosen Bejar, inspiring some of the strangest, and most striking writing of his career to date. Despite having released albums as Destroyer for nearly 30 years, Labyrinthitis still somehow sounds like a fresh start.

Labyrinthitis was recorded by Bejar's usual band with John Collins returning to his executive producer role. The songs were shaped from demos that Bejar and Collins traded back and forth with one another, and then subsequently fleshed out by the band. A few of the songs here, like singles "June" and "Tinteretto, It's For You" are bigger, and bolder than anything that Bejar has ever done while others like "Eat the Wine, Drink the Bread" and "Suffer" luxuriate in tight grooves while a variety of different textures weave in and out of the mix. There's a nice balance between ambitious, dramatic strokes and understated acoustic reveries, with great pacing and tight mixing that helps sustain the initial momentum through to the end. The title track is a borderline ambient reprieve that provides a much needed breather after the synth breakdowns that erupt throughout "Tinteretto, It’s For You", while the succinct lullaby closer "The Last Thing" snaps things back into focus following right on the heels of the faded disco centerpiece, "The States". The actual music on a Destroyer record hasn't done this kind of consistent heavy lifting since Bejar’s sublime 2006 LP, Destroyer's Rubies, and it's thrilling to hear him begin to really let loose without breaking form.

And, as with all Destroyer albums, the writing throughout Labyrinthitis is relentlessly thorny and obtuse, but never less than engaging. The disco breakdown of “June” alone has more than its fair share of some of his most iconic lines to date “But I do radiate a certain glow/It flutters and fades, a Ferris wheel on the run from the the snow/You have to look at it from all angles/Says the cubist judge from cubist jail” each subsequent line more daring and bizarre than the last. “Eat the Wine, Drink the Bread” finds Bejar surprisingly direct “I don’t know/Where I’m going/It’s insane in here, it’s lunacy out there/And everything you just said/Was better left unsaid” while on “Tinteretto, It’s For You” he’s at his most impressionistic “The celling’s on fire and the contract is binding/Your little one’s sick at the sight (insert three syllables here) at night/They drop you from a great height/Into a war that you were born to lose”. The thrill of Bejar’s writing throughout Labyrinthitis is in how he stitches provocative non-sequiturs into a deeply affecting whole. It's unlikely that Dan Bejar will become any less inscrutable as he continues to age, and that, coupled with an increasingly adventurous interest in arrangement, bodes extremely well for the future of the Destroyer project.

Essentials: “June”, “The States”, “Suffer”

7. Endure- Special Interest

Special Interest differentiated themselves from the thralls of disco punk rockers with their terrific 2020 LP, The Passion Of, which highlighted the intensity and raw magnetism of front person Alli Logout, and the band’s seamless fusion of punk, disco, techno, and glam. On the band’s 3rd LP, Endure, they’ve gotten nastier and more tuneful, as their blistering rage began to calcify into bracing rhythms, seething arrangements, and dynamic hooks. The band have only gotten tighter, and have continued to hone their sharp chemistry with each subsequent release from their scrappy 2018 debut, Spiraling, to the present. Their commitment to craft has resulted in songs on Endure that ripple with confident, calamitous energy, further accentuated by each of Alli Logout’s stunning vocal performances. Their pointed writing takes on a heightened level of poignancy on the club tribute “Midnight Legend”, a fresh coating of venom on call to arms standout “Concerning Peace”, and an anthemic tilt on early 4 on the floor stomper “(Herman’s) House”. On Endure, Special Interest have struck a newfound immediacy that's amplified the impact of their blistering resolve.

The songs on Endure find the band continuing to distill the thrills of their influences into idiosyncratic shapes that defy easy categorization at every turn. Opener “Cherry Blue Intention” instantly tear into a tight, infectious disco groove as Logout sets the stage with an instantly iconic line “Enigmatic super psycho/I can be whoever you want, just for the night though”. The music seamlessly spills into the siren call of the aforementioned “(Herman’s) House”, which quickly ignites with the band’s nastiest bassline to date set against a thunderous 4 on the floor rhythm, resulting in one of the band’s most iconic hooks to date. “Love Scene” finds Logout delivering a series of creeping verses that spill over into an ignited, multi-tracked hook over a thunderous floor tom rhythm laced with sinister sounding synths, while “My Displeasure” utilizes a chugging, industrial low-end backdrop as a springboard for Logout’s musings on what scans like perfectionism “As I walk through the valley of a mirage of sanction/I confess I won’t mind if I die/I come undone the more I try”. The band self-produced Endure, and it’s remarkable to hear how much bigger and richer sounding they were able to render these songs beyond their past work while still amplifying the chaotic spirit imbedded within.

While the music throughout Endure seethes with an unbridled intensity the writing only amplifies the hardened resolve that the instrumentation exudes. “LA Blues” (And if you don't like it you can fuck right off/Them boys in blue don’t come around this block, ha-ha-ha-ha-oh/Streets and seas stay winding, they don’t stop/And if you don’t like it you can fuck right off”) and “Foul” (“Dirty money (Dirty boss)/End is nigh (U.T.I)/Pissed and drained (Much disdain)/How to measure (What you’ve lost)/Time is ticking (Rich stay sittin’)/Tedious chat (Eek, a rat)/Call it in (Off the clock)/Much to prove, more to rot”) make their contempt for power structures crystal clear through visceral imagery and an incendiary tone. The record’s most bracing moment arrives on late album highlight “Concerning Peace” as Logout unleashes a barrage of scorched earth sentiments with remarkable poise “Who gets offered the American dream?/To O.D. on fent in a fascist regime/Who can’t afford shit/’Cause the price is fucking gouged/Don’t even have a house/The landlord kicked us out”. These songs pull no punches and state their intentions without any pretense of irony, but the overt rage seething just beneath the surface never prevents the band from delivering strong hooks and infectious rhythms. On Endure, Special Interest’s mission comes into focus with a heightened level of clarity and thrilling execution.

Essentials: “Concerning Peace”, “My Displeasure”, “Midnight Legend” ft. Mykki Blanco

6. Blue Rev- Alvvays

Ever since Alvvays became an indie household name with their iconic 2014 single, "Archie, Marry Me" they've cultivated a very specific jangly indie pop sound that's proven easy to imitate, but difficult to pull off with any real ingenuity or personality. It's hard to think of many indie bands that have been ripped off more than Alvvays throughout the 10s. And while Alvvays have never made a bad record, they've historically come off like more of a singles band that had yet to make the leap. Their 2014 self-titled debut and 2017 follow-up Antisocialites both hung together more like a collection of strong singles with some filler than front to back engrossing album experiences. On the band's 3rd LP, Blue Rev, Alvvays have made the leap. BR consists of 14 tight, multi-faceted pop songs that seamlessly span jangle pop, dream pop, and power pop within the course of 38 minutes without breaking a sweat. The band's scope and ambition throughout BR exceed everything that they've done previously by several orders of magnitude, but thankfully they retained the infectious melodic sensibility at their core. Like the best pop music, the songs on BR have a simplicity that belies their ingenuity and an undeniable immediacy.

The songs on BR are still snappy, 3 minute pop songs, but they're among the tightest, most well-crafted songs that I've heard all year. The grand production comes courtesy of Shawn Everett (who was responsible for similarly blowing open the sound of records by The War on Drugs, Kim Gordon, The Killers, etc), and he infused these songs with an abundance of rich detail that helps allow them to pop even at their most subdued and understated. Structurally speaking, there isn't much of a shift on BR, but the verses, bridges, and hooks on these songs are more dynamic and fleshed out. Opener "Pharmacist" and early cut "Tom Verlaine" imbue shoegaze guitar textures into driving power pop, coming off like Flying Nun’s answer to My Bloody Valentine. There are songs like "Pressed" and late album highlight "Pomeranian Spinster" that actually rip in the mold of classic alt-rock, and late album anthems like "Lottery Noise" and "Belinda Says" that erupt into dazzling coda's bursting with catharsis. And then there are the little details, like the keyboard riff on "Very Online Guy", the way the guitars roar back into action after frontwoman Molly Rankin sings "It's only wind outside" on "Easy on Your Own", or the way that Molly adopts a more affected delivery on the last hook of "Many Mirrors", that elevate these songs beyond just great songwriting. Alvvays are the tightest that they've ever sounded on BR, and their personalities bleed through the music at every turn.

While Alvvays have made the most substantial leaps forward musically on BR, Rankin's songwriting is also at its sharpest and most direct. The much buzzed about single "Very Online Guy" isn't so much a commentary on reply guy culture so much as a psychedelic observation of a specific online guy sitting around, shifting his identity with each passing trend "He's incredible animal/Front of the wedding trains/He laps up all the domains/And he loves a patio" draped in glistening, effects-laden keys. On the spectacularly titled late album ripper "Pomeranian Spinster" Rankin lays into what she perceives as society's perception of her with gleefully rendered venom "I don't wanna be nice/I don't want your advice/On the run in my tights" while early cut "After the Earthquake" explores the sensation of an unnamed conflict between lovers hanging in the air after one of them endures a potentially fatal accident "Those days, I'd never let you fall apart/But things fade like the scent of a brand new car/Why would I ever fall in love again/When every detail is over the guard rail?". These songs are some of the richest yet nuanced vignettes that Rankin has ever penned. Everything comes into focus on the cathartic centerpiece "Belinda Says", as Rankin riffs on Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven is a Place on Earth" while she acknowledges that both heaven and hell can be simulated on earth through the love (or hatred) of other people "And I find myself paralyzed/Knowing all too well terrified/But I'll find my way". BR is the sound of Alvvays figuring out how to carve out a slice of paradise for themselves on earth.

Essentials: “Lottery Noises”, “Pharmacist”, “Belinda Says”

5. Time Skiffs- Animal Collective

Animal Collective spent the better part of the 2010s engaged in various solo albums and side projects, many of which were beginning to completely overshadow their main releases. But the collective’s 2020 EP, Bridge to Quiet, signaled something new on the horizon. Murky, jazz-tinged, and even dubbier than usual, BtQ was a relatively understated full band record that teased some of what was to come with their 11th LP, Time Skiffs. On TS, the band strip things back, and indulge in some of their lushest and languid tendencies while still keeping things relatively tight. In a welcome change of pace from the chaotic zeal of their last two LPs, TS is imbued with the free-flowing spirit of jam bands, and comes off like the band’s approximation of dad rock distilled through their own idiosyncrasies. The band’s singular characteristics (giddy harmonies, dense soundscapes of samples, sparse, tribal percussion) are all in steep supply, but they’re in service of some of the most immediate music that they’ve ever made. TS isn’t as adventurous or daring as their best work, but it’s an infectious course correction that highlights the strongest elements of the band while still managing to push their sound forward in a few exciting new directions.

On TS, Animal Collective are at their most restrained since Campfire Songs, but the album packs far more sonic character. Panda Bear returns to the drum kit, delivering tight, dub-flecked rhythms that establish a sturdy foundation for each of these colorful compositions. Deakin swapped out his guitar for keys, Avey took up bass, and Geologist, naturally, is still locking it down on keys, synths, and samples. The different instrumental setup breathes new life into these songs, which are easily among the prettiest and most patient sounding that the band have ever released. Aside from the vocal eruptions in “Strung with Everything” and the keys/hook in “Car Keys” the music on TS consistently basks in tranquility. The songs on TS are tighter and more focused this time around than anything that the band has done since their great 2009 EP Fall Be Kind, but thankfully they move at a more relaxed pace and are each packed with plenty of space. One of the more notable shifts is the greater presence of Deakin, who wrote the lush closer “Royal and Desire”, and contributes vocals to several more of these songs. His voice has a more nuanced edge that splits the difference between Panda’s glowing frequency and Avey’s animated yelps. There are songs like “Dragon Slayer” and “Walker” that distill their manic energy into snappy pop songs while songs like “We Go Back”, “Passer-by”, and the aforementioned “Royal and Desire” bring back the drone in service of spacious lounge pop.

The thematic concerns expressed throughout TS take adopt a more macro view than usual as references to an unstainable climate and unmitigated greed begin to seep into their typically idyllic surrealism. The desperation of the current moment is unmistakably woven into these songs, but the band remain resolute in their optimism in the face of impending destruction. The vibrant early single “Strung With Everything” erupts into a cacophony of glee that shrouds Avey’s increasingly exasperated suggestions “Let’s say tonight you and me/We’ll watch the sky fall into pieces/And for a moment imagine strings/Holding the trees from falling down“ before reaching the triumphant realization “And even though all hearts are strange/We’re all strung with everything”. “We Go Back” puts a premium on learning from the mistakes of history to work towards a better future while “Walker” folds a lovely tribute to the late avant-garde musician Scott Walker into a reminder of the importance of living in the moment. The album’s graceful centerpiece, “Cherokee”, evokes privilege, colonialism history, commercialism, and self-growth, in its rollicking dub sprawl as Tare depicts being mistaken for a foreigner, traversing in a Jeep over stolen land, and pondering the meaning of identify “Out there in Black Mountain sprouts education, see/But you can learn a lot, just take a walk above my tree/They gathered round the easel and spelled community”. These songs are much less insular than usual, and while far from imbued with simple Hallmark platitudes, they don’t shy away from the band’s tried and true wholesome demeanor either. Even after over 2 decades of recording and playing music with one another Animal Collective are still challenging themselves and keeping their audience guessing. Here’s to the next 20.

Essentials: “Cherokee”, “Car Keys”, “Strung With Everything”

4. God Save the Animals- Alex G

Alex G has managed to cultivate an incredibly impressive discography on Bandcamp before he was ever signed, and while he's had access to far more resources than your typical bedroom pop act since his first Domino record, Beach Music, his music has only continued to revel more thoroughly in his idiosyncrasies. Like the work of Cocteau Twins or Gang Gang Dance before him, the more polished and clear sounding that Alex G's music becomes the stranger and more difficult to pin down it continuously reveals itself to be. On Alex G's 9th LP, God Save the Animals, Alex leans furthest into pitch-shifted vocal manipulation and formal pop structures yet, revealing an album flush with faith in the existence of a higher power and the influence of hyperpop. There are still flecks of thorny dissonance scattered throughout GStA, but this is by and large one of his most approachable records; one imbued with a renewed melodic warmth that animates its every moment. Alex is still generally keeping the listener at an arm’s length with his cryptic character studies, but the songwriting on the whole feels more personal this time around. With each subsequent record it's become increasingly clear that Alex is a peerless producer who continues to write some of the most striking songs of his generation. GStA isn't necessarily the best Alex G record, but it's one of the best pure distillations of his sound yet, and an easy entry point into his peculiar universe.

Alex G's music has always split the difference between sour, stripped down, lo-fi indie rock and queasy, experimental electronic music, but GStA strikes the strongest balance between those impulses yet. Songs like the immediate singles "Miracles" and "Runner" stick to tried and true acoustic guitar pop, allowing his increasingly idiosyncratic songwriting to shine through, while deep cuts like "No Bitterness" and "Immunity" filter hyperpop textures through the sort of auto-tune balladry that's become a staple of his latest few records. The incorporation of hyperpop is the most notable shift in Alex's sound this time around, but unlike a typical gimmicky shift towards the zeitgeist these occasional pivots to hyperpop feel like inspired, and logical extensions of the electronic detours that he's slowly been perfecting for years. The sharp sequencing accentuates just how much range there is on this record, and it's thrilling to hear the fried synths on "Cross the Sea" bleed into those that open "Blessing", or to hear the scattered piano notes that close "Immunity" seamlessly transition into late album instrumental stomper "Headroom Piano". The vocal manipulation is more pronounced throughout GStA than on any of his prior records, and while the pitch-shifted melodies can feel borderline excessive at times (like on S.D.O.S.), it generally remains a tasteful choice that works in service of the individual songs themselves. Even as Alex's sound becomes increasingly defined he's still throwing inspired curve balls in every direction.

The songs on GStA continue in the vein of Alex's usual character sketches, but he seems to have let more of himself into the music here than on any past records. This time around the writing was informed by the heightened presence of religion in the lives of people close to him, and while the songs aren't necessarily about them, per se, they seem very much informed by those experiences and conversations. References to faith and a higher power abound in songs like "After All", "S.D.O.S." and "Forgive", but the desolation that marks his best work continues to lurk around every corner. "Runner" paints a sympathetic portrait of a drug runner from the vantage of their boss "I laugh when you say the wrong thing/Mouthing off to everyone but me/They hit you with the rolled up magazine" while "Early Morning Waiting" finds its narrator lying around waiting for judgement day questioning whether they've made the right decisions up to the end "Haven't I given enough/When will I run out of love?/Was I wrong to call his bluff?". On late album centerpiece and show-stopping single, "Miracles", Alex seems to get unusually personal "How many more songs do I have to write/Before I can turn it off and say good night" offering a peak behind the veil over softly strummed acoustic guitar, pedal steel, and one of his warmest vocal melodies to date. GStA is the most personal that he's ever allowed himself to be on record, but thankfully his music still exudes its surreal, singular sheen.

Essentials: “Miracles”, “Blessing”, “No Bitterness”

3. A Light for Attracting Attention- The Smile

While Radiohead never formally broke up, their last LP, the austere, and insular A Moon Shaped Pool, suggested a sense of finality to their 3 decades long art rock journey. It was loaded with several fan favorite live staples from various eras, and its string-laden chamber pop sound, seemingly informed by guitarist Jonny Greenwood's film scoring side gigs, achieved a dour sense of cohesion befitting a legacy band closing a chapter of their lives. Since wrapping up the tour for AMSP each member of Radiohead was seemingly working within the confines of solo work, until it a new band called The Smile debuted material for a concert video produced by the Glastonbury Festival. The Smile consists of Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead, and the drummer Tom Skinner from the recently defunct avant-garde jazz group, Sons of Kemet. The Smile's debut LP, A Light for Attracting Attention (which was produced by Nigel Godrich, the longtime producer of Radiohead) exudes the striking, singular qualities of Radiohead's music along with plenty of fresh new wrinkles that render The Smile far more than just another Radiohead side project.

Eschewing the grandiose expectations that arrive alongside a new Radiohead album seems to have revitalized Yorke and Greenwood's chemistry. The music feels urgent even at its most sedate, and the presence of Skinner behind the kit loosened up the pair to indulge in their most far-flung impulses. Skinner's delicate touch provides a superb counterpoint to the arrangements and Yorke's vocal melodies while imparting a slight improvisatory feel to the proceedings. On ALfAA The Smile navigate art rock, post punk, afrobeats, ambient, and light shades of jazz with ease. Having Godrich behind the boards ensures that the comparisons to Radiohead go far beyond just Yorke's voice, but it also allows for an accentuation of the fine details in the music of The Smile in the same way that it did for the music of Radiohead. The music unfolds on a much smaller, more intimate scale then Radiohead's work, allowing for a more raw, personal touch that lends itself particularly well to Yorke's voice.

As expected with any album that has songs written by Thom Yorke, ALfAA is a bleak, foreboding record that deals primarily in disillusionment. Opener “The Same” sets the tone for the album with Yorke pleading for peace in the face of rising fascism across the globe “People in the streets/Please/We all want the same“ as synths erupt around him. “There are songs like “You Will Never Work in Television Again” and “A Hairdryer” that take jabs at Harvey Weinstein “Curtain calling for the kiss/From the nursey rhyme/Behind some rocks, underneath some bridge/Some gangster troll promising the moon” and Donald Trump “Shame on you/Blue-eyed fox/A slipping shroud/Way up loud” respectively while acknowledging the broader social failings that allowed men like them to come to power. “Thin Thing” addresses the narcotic pull of social media “First she’ll pull your fingers off/And then she’ll pull your toes/And then she’ll steal the photos from your phone” while “Open the Floodgates” laments the disposable nature directed at everything that’s branded as content “With no tricks and/No struggling/Then no one gets hurt/We absorb you/We absolve you/Throw your rubbish away”. These songs inhibit familiar thematic territory for Yorke without lapsing into tired retreads.

The songs on ALfAA run the gamut from scorched earth post-punk rippers to gorgeous ambient ballads, and everything in between with a disarming level of assurance. Early single ,"You Will Never Work in Television Again" and late album highlight "We Don't Know What Tomorrow Brings" are the most propulsive tracks from the band members sans Skinner since In Rainbows, with the former taking on gnarled post-punk while the latter brings driving krautrock into the fold for an anthemic jolt of energy just before curtain call. "The Smoke" gets a ridiculous amount of mileage out of a slinky bassline, finding the sweet spot between funk and afrobeat without letting the stiches show while "A Hairdryer" showcases some nimble drumming over jangly chords that build to a fervent, multi-tracked Yorke wail. The album's strongest songs arrive back to back in the middle of the record in the form of "Open the Floodgates" and "Free in the Knowledge", two songs so achingly beautiful that if they were arranged with less ingenuity they could almost pass for Coldplay ballads circa Viva la Vida. On ALfAA, The Smile escape the common fate of offshoots and super groups, cultivating an aesthetic informed by their prior bands but distinctly their own.

Essentials: “Open the Floodgates”, “Free in the Knowledge”, “The Smoke”

2. Diaspora Problems- Soul Glo

Hardcore is a genre that thrives on constant motion. There's that cliche about the energy of the music played live being impossible to capture on record, and the difficulty of sustaining that kind of unrelenting propulsion for longer than 15 minutes before it begins to wear thin. And that's not to say that there aren't plenty of great hardcore records, but they tend to get canonized like secondary items with respect to the live show. On the hardcore Philly band Soul Glo's 4th LP, Diaspora Problems, the band expand the possibilities of where hardcore can go with massive, positively seething swings at the police, fake alias, and capitalism at large. Soul Glo's first 3 LPs had plenty of promise, but on DP their songwriting hit a dramatic new peak as they cultivated an idiosyncratic sound that seamlessly blends hardcore, hip hop, and industrial music, and is now theirs alone. There's a refreshing bluntness about their approach, both sonically and lyrically, that makes it all go down that much sweeter even at their most incendiary. On DP, Soul Glo break apart from the pack of their peers through talent, guts, ingenuity, and sheer force of will.

Soul Glo consists of frontman Pierce Jordan, guitarist, bassist, and programmer GG Guerra, and drummer TJ Stevenson (they had a second guitarist named Ruben Polo who played on DP but was kicked out shortly afterwards due to sexual misconduct allegations). They play loose and fast with a whiplash inducing intensity, but the music has far more sonic character than your typical hardcore record. With 12 songs spread across an almost 40 minute runtime DP is an unusually robust record, but it justifies its length through smart pacing, strong mixing, and a remarkable level of range. Programmed beats, horn sections, and guest rappers all coalesce into a dynamic sound that seems to gleefully flip the bird at purists and gatekeepers. DP doesn't have peaks and valleys so much as it just has one continuous sprint that dispenses the occasional breather through vocal samples that emerge at the beginning of ending of various songs, like the clear standout that closes "John J" "Them n***** are trying to kill all of us/I will never let anyone convince me otherwise/Especially not white liberals" before the intensity of the music ignites once more.

On DP Soul Glo channel their righteous energy into songs that are far more than the sum of their disparate elements. DP opens with arguably the band's strongest moment to date in the form of the bristling "Gold Chain Punk (whogonbeatmyass?)", which folds increasingly unhinged shrieks, several breakdowns, and a strutting rhythm into a statement of purpose that almost collapses under the weight of its conviction. It's the sonic equivalent of a shot of adrenaline, and a good litmus test for whether or not you can endure the rest of DP. "Driponomics" injects an industrial thrust into their chameleonic hardcore and features a show-stopping verse from Mother Mayrose "Fuck being good, I'm a bad bitch/If he buying bags/I'ma fuck him like a savage/I be popping tags/Cause a bitch livin' lavish/Bitches gon' hate cause they know they can't have this, ya" while "GODBLESSYALLREALGOOD" finds the band shuffling through funk and nu-metal with equal conviction. Closer "Spiritual Level of Gang Shit" begins with Jordan rapping over a simmering guitar progression and builds into a horn-laden, rollicking anthem with Jordan screaming "It's a spiritual level of gang shit" at the top of his lungs as the music swells with urgency around him. The songs on DP are some of the nastiest that I've had the pleasure of listening to in years, and are rendered all the more potent by the band's provocative poise.

Soul Glo's outlook is unmistakably anti-capitalist, and throughout DP they thoroughly peel back the band-aid of reform to reveal the festering wound of a system seemingly broken beyond repair. "Jump!!" rails against state sanctioned violence against black people and the parasitic nature of the music industry (especially with respect to black people) "Livin' on Juice Wrld, Pop Smoke time/I'll be in my future, come try to remove it" while "The Thangs I Carry" bemoans the delusion of liberals in the face of encroaching fascism "I'm so bored by the left, protests, and reluctance to militarize/No one's left blind by an eye for an eye unless you make the same mistake twice". The scathing sentiments come to a head on the dense centerpiece "John J" which starts with Jordan rapping about a suicide attempt before switching gears towards an examination of the 2020 protests and the futility of trying to reform something that's fundamentally exploitative regardless of how you dress it "Anyone who's on reform is really an informant/I take the bullet, you take the ballot, peaceful protest is fucking boring/Between torching PD's and taking knees, oh my god I take the former/You can eat this dick and swallow the whole clip, that's on God and Chris Dorner". Soul Glo's unrelenting vitriol is a balm for a world that's grown too complacent to confront its shortcomings.

Essentials: “Gold Chain Punk (whogonbeatmyass?)”, “Driponomics” ft. Mary Motherrose, “Spiritual Level of Gang Shit” ft. McKinley Dixon & lojii

1. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You- Big Thief

No other band throughout the last half decade has released records as uniformly strong as Big Thief. From their sparse, 2016 folk rock debut Masterpiece to their visceral, second 2019 LP Two Hands, Big Thief have matured into the sort of ambitious, creatively relentless act that comes around maybe once in a generation. On the band’s fifth LP and first double album, Dragon New Mountain I Believe In You, Big Thief stretch the parameters of their sound in several new directions without reaching diminishing returns or exceeding their depth. DNWMIBIY is the platonic ideal of a double album; there’s too many good ideas to settle for a single disc, and the band are at a point in their career where they’ve reached the confidence and ability to perpetually shift the idea of what Big Thief are supposed to sound like without sacrificing their essence. DNWMIBIY is the sound of this generation’s most creatively vital band at the peak of their powers and figuring out what they’re capable of.

Big Thief are a 4 piece folk rock band that consists of guitarist Buck Meek, bassist Max Oleartchik, drummer James Krivchenia, and singer/songwriter and guitarist Adrianne Lenker. Their first four albums found them thawing out from an insular, homespun indie folk act into a versatile indie rock band, with tighter playing, stronger imagery, and sharper chemistry emerging throughout each subsequent release. DNWMIBIY is the most stylistically far-flung record of Big Thief’s to date, and incorporates country music, trip-hop, jaw harp, and the sound of Max playing icicles into their dynamic wheelhouse. DNWMIBIY packs 20 songs into 80 minutes, and nothing overstays its welcome, sounds slight, or feels forced. The sequencing is impeccable for an album with such bold sonic shifts, flowing seamlessly from song to song while succeeding as both an exhaustive mood board to showcase the band’s range as well as a cohesive listening experience. While it’s understandable that some longtime fans might lament the loss of the band’s more understated halcyon days, the music here is the most thrilling that they’ve ever recorded. The band’s scope on DNWMIBIY is remarkable, and the album towers over the sum of its parts.

Opener “Change” is a low-key folk song in the vein of where they left off on TH, with the band rising softly with lush strokes around Lenker’s quiet rumination, but the following song “Time Escaping” takes us somewhere totally unexpected for them. Here, a looped percussive tone barrels through the mix as the foundation for sprightly indie rock as Lenker sings about the passage of time. The sharp contrast between those songs sets the stage for where the rest of the album goes. DNWMIBIY was the first album of theirs to have been produced by James, and his keen ear allows songs like the aforementioned “Time Escaping” and the distortion-laced sensual highlight “Flower of Blood” to blossom with vibrant urgency. The largest outliers here are the strutting trip-hop of “Blurred View”, the sleepy folktronica of “Heavy Bend”, and the drum-machine propelled jog “Wake Me Up to Drive”, all of which would have seemed completely out of place on prior records but work perfectly within the context of the record’s sprawling framework. And while the band have always had a twangy element to their sound, songs like “Spud Infinity”, “Blue Lightning”, and “Red Moon” find the band trying their hand at full-blown country rock and it’s the most inspired pivot that they've pulled of yet.

While there are plenty of attention demanding standouts and impressive experiments littered throughout DNWIBIY the record is often at its most arresting in its quieter moments. Early single and highlight “Sparrow” builds from several minutes of sparse acoustic guitar centered around Adam and Eve imagery into an increasingly cathartic vocal performance from Lenker as the music softly swells with feedback around her. The mesmerizing title track and “The Only Place” call back to the dream-folk of U.F.O.F. with their use of space and the emphasis on nimble finger picked guitar set against Lenker’s soft croon, while songs like “Certainty” and “No Reason” are understated true to form transitional songs that highlight the tight interplay between Lenker and the rest of the band. Even the most conventional sounding Big Thief songs like “Promise is a Pendulum” and “12,000 Lines” hardly feel like retreads, with the former showcasing some of Lenker’s most striking imagery “I could never build the ether or the grass overgrown/I could never build the river with a mouth full of foam/I could never build the winter with her cold tears of glitter”, and the latter taking the shape of an unusually urgent camp fire sing along “Some nights, barely breathing at all/Waiting for my woman to call”.

The greatest draw of Big Thief’s music is still the infectious interplay between each member of the band and the way that they all operate as equally creative forces working in perfect harmony with one another, but there’s no denying that Lenker’s voice is the most dynamic element of their sound. Her versatility allows the band to tear through upbeat cuts like “Little Things” with as much conviction as the hushed whisper of songs like “The Only Place”, while her writing casts a sympathetic gaze over everything from the beauty of nature and human connection to heartbreak and death. She’s at her most warm and rousing on “Red Moon” and “Spud Infinity with iconic lines that reference her grandma and potatoes respectively, her most gripping on “Sparrow” “She talks to snakes and they guide her/She has the poison inside her”, and “her most contemplative on the title track “When the topsoil/Is kicking up into the storm/And the dust goes dancing/And a billion planets are born”. The sincerity and depth of her writing coupled with her consistently magnetic performances are what elevate the band’s music from consistently great to something far more idiosyncratic altogether. DNWMIBIY is the full-realization of the sound that Big Thief have been cultivating since MP; the perfect encapsulation of ambition for ambitions sake coupled with inspiration so potent that it can barely be contained. Listening to DNWMIBIY you get the sense that Big Thief could go anywhere with their music, and while it’s hard to say what that might look like it’s pretty clear that they’re still far from saying everything that they have to say.

Essentials: “Red Moon”, “Flower of Blood”, “Spud Infinity”

#big thief #soul glo #the smile #alex g #animal collective #alvvays #special interest #destroyer #sudan archives #black country new road

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