I see that Ought have announced they're packing it in. Feels like the right decision, that last record wasn't great. Two belters before that though, really loved them between the debut and the follow up.
New Music Releases Thread
- Thread starter James
- Start date
Both good. The Jonsi album is probably the first thing he's done outside of Sigur Ros that's been worthy of being tagged with "by him from Sigur Ros". That probably grabbed me more than Lunar Vacation on first listen.
Agreed. Birefly, they were exceptional.
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New albums this week from ABBA, Aimee Mann, Brian Fallon, Connan Mockasin, Curtis Harding, Diana Ross, Hana Vu, Hanson, Hard Feelings (Joe Goddard of Hot Chip plus Amy Douglas), Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Neal Francis, Penelope Isles, Portico Quartet (according to Metacritic but I think it's been put back a week), Snail Mail, Terrace Martin, Doran, Springtime, Radiohead (Kid A Mnesia), New Age Doom & Lee "Scratch" Perry, Margo Cilker, Ben Chasny, The Brkn Record and Fur.
Mickdundee
Winger
Aimee Mann, Brian Fallon and Nathaniel Rateliff for me I think.
"best" being a subjective term, how do you achieve that?
Snail Mail for me. Might try Fallon - quite liked Gaslight and Worriers are supporting him on tour, so I'm tempted to go but honestly know nothing about his solo work.
Shepard Fairey had a couple of singles out last week with his "band" NOISE. One is a synth cover of a Discharge song, State Violence State Control - like it.
Don'tListenToTheHat
Winger
Oooooo Snail Mail for me
Old Prestonian
Striker
Abba and Diana Ross. Is it the 1970s?
Marty Moose
Striker
The Fallon record is classic hymns, not really representative of his solo work at all
That makes me a lot more likely to listen to it. His solo stuff always makes me think of The Gaslight Anthem with all their energy removed.
What album would you recommend I give a go? I want to see Worriers and I'd probably go even half liking Fallon's stuff to be honest (though Worriers just canned the back end of their Menzingers support tour because she's got COVID)
Oh, great, The 25 Sound!
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Marty Moose
Striker
I would just work chronologically tbh, as @Arkle has pointed out it's gaslight anthem lite, but the tunes are still strong IMO, especially the first two records. I've seen him live a few times solo and he's always been good value and a decent raconteur. Worriers were great when i saw them as well so it's a win win.
The Great MES
Striker
Don't Idles have an album out tomorrow?
Next week, I believe.
Grimes
Winger
Supposedly not until the 11th
I’ll give Connan Mockasin a look. Haven’t listened to him since Caramel.
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FlyingLotus
Midfield
Nice to be reminded of what a truly great band Radiohead are. I didn’t fully appreciate Kid A or Amnesiac for years.
Loads of new stuff this week. Quite the bumper time! My listening has included:
Nation of Language: I remember their debut getting a lot of praise on this thread. This is a fine follow up. Very early 80s synth pop influenced and highly enjoyable.
Parcels: they're a young band (two albums in) so making a double at this stage could be seen as over ambitious. However, this is bleeding magnificent! Kind of orchestrated disco pop, really well judged and wide ranging. Never overstays its welcome.
Hard Feelings: It's Joe Goddard from Hot Chip with DFA alumnus singing Amy Douglas singing. What you get is basically the dancier end of Hot Chip with strong female vocals. It's very good.
Nora Brown: the first of a few more folk based releases this week. She's a 16 year old banjo and ukelele prodigy. This is quite lo-fi but very good bluegrass/Americana.
Springtime: an Aussie supergroup containing Gareth Liddiard (of The Drones and Tropical Fuck Storm), Jim White (of The Dirty Three, Xylouris White and countless other projects) and Chris Abrahams (of the Necks). This is excellent. Seven slow burning tracks with Liddiard's lyrics no less angry than they are with TFS but with quieter but equally intense music. It's tremendous from start to finish.
Radiohead: a timely reappraisal of Kid A and Amnesiac. Both, to me, sound better now than they did on release. I guess the main attraction here for fans is the new material. There are two previously unreleased songs, "If You Say The Word" didn't make the cut at the time and "Follow Me Around", which is just Thom Yorke and an acoustic guitar. Both are excellent. Beyond that, we get alternate versions, demos and sketches. Well worth a listen.
Joan As Police Woman, Tony Allen and Dave Okumu: JAPW moving a bit away from her soul/folk crossover stuff to a more adventurous, maybe jazz based arrangement thanks to the late Tony Allen. Excellent!
Theon Cross: it's got to be difficult putting the tuba front and centre and making the record sound interesting but this works. Up there at the more danceable end of British jazz, as you'd expect given that he's a key member of Sons of Kemet.
FUR: they're young, British (specifically from Brighton) and sound a little American (largely the vocals). This is a good debut of 60s influenced indie rock. They're on Nice Swan, which seems to be an up and coming label, Rough Trade shops rate them and they did Challenge Lawro at the weekend (always a sign a young band are going places).
Penelope Isles: psych/fuzz/indiepop, also from Brighton and, again, sounding a little American. Their second album. The key members are brother and sister. There's a lot to like here. A good listen. They're on Bella Union, who rarely sign bad bands.
Fire Draw Near (compilation): old Irish folk field recordings. I'm enjoying this a fair bit, although it may be a tad niche. Some of it is moving and some is very funny.
The Brkn Record: the debut album from this project centred around Heliocentrics multi-instrumentalist Jake Ferguson, this meshes poetry, jazz and psychedelic soul. Lyrically/poetically, it's highly politicised. Reminds me a little of Sault's albums, although not quite as infectious. Still very good!
Ben Chasny: the Six Organs of Admittance/Comets on Fire man has made a relatively simple but very pretty album of solo guitar pieces. Good.
Margo Cilker: a very good country rock debut from a singer-songwriter to watch for. She's got some excellent songs, derived from travelling aroubd the Basque country to some degree and a high quality band playing with her. Very good! Possibly one for @Mickdundee I guess.
Neal Francis: I like this a lot. Piano driven rock/pop which zips along. Very good songs and a good vibe to it. His second album. The previous one was a bit more Bew Orleans blues influenced.
Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats: another uproarious album of folk, Americana and vintage R&B. As usual, really enjoyable. More upbeat than his last couple of releases.
New Age Doom and Lee "Scratch" Perry: a posthumous release from Scratch, of course. New Age Doom are, loosely, a drone metal band and this is basically them doing their thing while Perry rants over the top. A fun, experimental album.
Curtis Harding: really, really good. Lush psychedelic soul. Top notch songs, a great voice. He should be better known than he is.
Snail Mail: for me, given the ecstatic reviews its had from some places, this is a slight disappointment. It's fairly standard indie-folk rock with a few more synths than her debut. The songs are good but there's a lack of something that her debut, Lush, had. Still pretty good just not as good as I'd hoped.
Doran: they're a US based psych folk collective. This is a strong set of songs recorded in an attic over winter. Properly interesting.
Brian Fallon: discussed a bit earlier in the thread. This is Brian Fallon Fallonising traditional Christian songs (3 or 4 Christmas songs amongst them). I like it a lot, his blue collar rock style is ideal for most of the material.
Album of the Week: there's a lot that could win the title in a normal week. I'm not going to include Radiohead, as it's not, strictly, a new album. With that in mind, I'm going to say Parcels as their album is a bit more "woah, what's this?" than anything else. Probably 5 or 6 others would get the nod in many other weeks.
Nation of Language: I remember their debut getting a lot of praise on this thread. This is a fine follow up. Very early 80s synth pop influenced and highly enjoyable.
Parcels: they're a young band (two albums in) so making a double at this stage could be seen as over ambitious. However, this is bleeding magnificent! Kind of orchestrated disco pop, really well judged and wide ranging. Never overstays its welcome.
Hard Feelings: It's Joe Goddard from Hot Chip with DFA alumnus singing Amy Douglas singing. What you get is basically the dancier end of Hot Chip with strong female vocals. It's very good.
Nora Brown: the first of a few more folk based releases this week. She's a 16 year old banjo and ukelele prodigy. This is quite lo-fi but very good bluegrass/Americana.
Springtime: an Aussie supergroup containing Gareth Liddiard (of The Drones and Tropical Fuck Storm), Jim White (of The Dirty Three, Xylouris White and countless other projects) and Chris Abrahams (of the Necks). This is excellent. Seven slow burning tracks with Liddiard's lyrics no less angry than they are with TFS but with quieter but equally intense music. It's tremendous from start to finish.
Radiohead: a timely reappraisal of Kid A and Amnesiac. Both, to me, sound better now than they did on release. I guess the main attraction here for fans is the new material. There are two previously unreleased songs, "If You Say The Word" didn't make the cut at the time and "Follow Me Around", which is just Thom Yorke and an acoustic guitar. Both are excellent. Beyond that, we get alternate versions, demos and sketches. Well worth a listen.
Joan As Police Woman, Tony Allen and Dave Okumu: JAPW moving a bit away from her soul/folk crossover stuff to a more adventurous, maybe jazz based arrangement thanks to the late Tony Allen. Excellent!
Theon Cross: it's got to be difficult putting the tuba front and centre and making the record sound interesting but this works. Up there at the more danceable end of British jazz, as you'd expect given that he's a key member of Sons of Kemet.
FUR: they're young, British (specifically from Brighton) and sound a little American (largely the vocals). This is a good debut of 60s influenced indie rock. They're on Nice Swan, which seems to be an up and coming label, Rough Trade shops rate them and they did Challenge Lawro at the weekend (always a sign a young band are going places).
Penelope Isles: psych/fuzz/indiepop, also from Brighton and, again, sounding a little American. Their second album. The key members are brother and sister. There's a lot to like here. A good listen. They're on Bella Union, who rarely sign bad bands.
Fire Draw Near (compilation): old Irish folk field recordings. I'm enjoying this a fair bit, although it may be a tad niche. Some of it is moving and some is very funny.
The Brkn Record: the debut album from this project centred around Heliocentrics multi-instrumentalist Jake Ferguson, this meshes poetry, jazz and psychedelic soul. Lyrically/poetically, it's highly politicised. Reminds me a little of Sault's albums, although not quite as infectious. Still very good!
Ben Chasny: the Six Organs of Admittance/Comets on Fire man has made a relatively simple but very pretty album of solo guitar pieces. Good.
Margo Cilker: a very good country rock debut from a singer-songwriter to watch for. She's got some excellent songs, derived from travelling aroubd the Basque country to some degree and a high quality band playing with her. Very good! Possibly one for @Mickdundee I guess.
Neal Francis: I like this a lot. Piano driven rock/pop which zips along. Very good songs and a good vibe to it. His second album. The previous one was a bit more Bew Orleans blues influenced.
Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats: another uproarious album of folk, Americana and vintage R&B. As usual, really enjoyable. More upbeat than his last couple of releases.
New Age Doom and Lee "Scratch" Perry: a posthumous release from Scratch, of course. New Age Doom are, loosely, a drone metal band and this is basically them doing their thing while Perry rants over the top. A fun, experimental album.
Curtis Harding: really, really good. Lush psychedelic soul. Top notch songs, a great voice. He should be better known than he is.
Snail Mail: for me, given the ecstatic reviews its had from some places, this is a slight disappointment. It's fairly standard indie-folk rock with a few more synths than her debut. The songs are good but there's a lack of something that her debut, Lush, had. Still pretty good just not as good as I'd hoped.
Doran: they're a US based psych folk collective. This is a strong set of songs recorded in an attic over winter. Properly interesting.
Brian Fallon: discussed a bit earlier in the thread. This is Brian Fallon Fallonising traditional Christian songs (3 or 4 Christmas songs amongst them). I like it a lot, his blue collar rock style is ideal for most of the material.
Album of the Week: there's a lot that could win the title in a normal week. I'm not going to include Radiohead, as it's not, strictly, a new album. With that in mind, I'm going to say Parcels as their album is a bit more "woah, what's this?" than anything else. Probably 5 or 6 others would get the nod in many other weeks.
