A Whole Fucking Lifetime of This — American Pleasure Club
Don’t let the name fool you; you might be familiar with this band. Previously known as Teen Suicide, American Pleasure Club is a pioneer in lo-fi semi-acoustic sad boy indie, and their newest album sounds exactly like their other albums, albeit a bit more accessible and (thankfully) significantly shorter than their last album, It’s the Big Joyous Celebration. If you’re a fan of dreamy sounding, sad noise pop, this is probably for you. If you’d rather not cry right now, I’d suggest something else.
RIYL: Coma Cinema, Elvis Depressedly, Crying, Cloud Nothings, using only lowercase
Tracks: all the lonely night in your life, lets move to the desert, there was a time i needed it
Room Inside the World — Ought
In the past, Ought albums have combined heavy, complex lyrics with discordant, guitar-driven post-punk. Room Inside the World contains echoes of the band’s previous albums, but under a more mellow layer of sorta-synthy new-wavy sound that gives the album an added complexity that suits the introspective lyrics. In other words, this album is pretty sick, especially if you like 80s inspired post-punk bands but wish they’d include more nuances in their sound pallette.
RIYL: Iceage, Deerhunter, Preoccupations, Protomartyr, boys talking down to you about post-punk, The Smiths
Tracks: Disgraced in America, Disaffectation, These 3 Things
Twin Fantasy — Car Seat Headrest
8.6 on Pitchfork, Best New Music
RIYL: Car Seat Headrest, music bros, Neutral Milk Hotel, Pavement, Alex G
Tracks: My Boy Twin Fantasy, Sober To Death, Cute Thing
In A Poem Unlimited — U.S. Girls
About three years ago, I (Paco) was a young music director with only a term of music directing under my belt. I’d found a couple bands that I really liked, but overall my music pallete hadn’t change that much with my new job. One day, I came across Half Free by U.S. Girls, a sparse art-pop album that changed my life and I wrote a pretty mediocre review of it. I listened to that album on repeat for months, and while it’s stayed in the back of my head, it’s been a while since I thought of U.S. Girls, aka Meghan Remy. Then, about a week ago, I saw an instagram ad for the new U.S. Girls and immediately went to find it in the sacred music director email.
Anyway, onto the music review. Damn, this album is good. Like, really good. Those unfamiliar with U.S Girls should go make themselves familiar, particularly with this album, right now as you’re reading the review. Since her last foray, American expat Meghan Remy has expanded her experimental, art-pop musical project to incredible proportions, creating an album that’s not just lyrically and sonically complex, but that’s danceable as well. Layers of funky sounds melt together with sardonic lyrics about womanhood to create a fucking sick album. Go listen to it.
RIYL: Jenny Hval, Julia Holter, Weyes Blood, Ariel Pink
Tracks: Rages of Plastic, Mad as Hell, Pearly Gates, Poem
S/T by Young Jesus
In their third album, Young Jesus make a stripped down artsy indie rock album. Many of the lyrics and emotions are hard to decipher on the first listen. One of my big problems with this album is how slow it is at times with many of the longer tracks content to slowly build to get anywhere at all.
The album breaks down when the album doesn’t work the subtleties of the music to its advantage. Eddy is too soft and too disparate in its lyrics to communicate its message that part of the self can get swept away in the currents of the soul. However, on tracks such as River and Desert the balance between craft and songwriting comes together to create tracks that swell and make the listener think.
RIYL: Oso Oso, Sidney Grish, Yo La Tengo, Mogwai
Tracks: River, Under, Desert
Onion – Shannon and the Clams
Onion is an impressive project with a unique sound that borrows from a wide range of influences. The sound traces from as early as 1950’s doo-wop to 1980s puck rock. Amazingly, the album was recorded over a ten day period, which is reflected in the focused sound of the album. The Clams are known for their beautiful, swooning doo-wop sound that oddly meets the playing styles of Buddy Holly and. This album doesn’t diverge significantly from the previous three Clams releases, but the songs and instrumentation are tighter and better constructed. Some tracks land in an awkward middle ground between the grandiosity Onion wants to achieve and the characteristic charm that listeners know, but overall this is a fun album with a warm sound. Great for radio shows in the afternoon!
RIYL: Hunx, Nobunny, Guantanamo Baywatch
Tracks: It’s Gonna Go Away, Backstreets, Love Strike
Data – Strange Names
Data reflects the new wave, pop sound of Strange Names’ and explores a more rambunctious, rock-centered vision. This album has a weird but charming theme. Data surfaces principally as an album about perspective, boldly conceptualized from the viewpoint of aliens observing human behavior on earth in a methodical, scientific way. Overall a warm sound that would also be good for weekday afternoon shows.
RIYL: B-52s, Talking Heads and The Fixx
Tracks: UFO, People To Go, Circles