WuW is a French band of two brothers playing progressive post-metal, somewhere in the third angle of the Alcest-White Ward triangle. Quite post-metal and dramatic, with songs spanning 12 minutes, but also modern with a touch of saxophone and melancholy. Rich, fulfilling and relaxing metal, a product of brotherly love.
Guardian calls it "the best album of the year so far" with songs "genuinely good enough to be compared with peak Dylan" (gave it 5 of 5 stars. Pitchfork tagged it Best new music because "'Saint Cloud' is all lilacs and creek beds, Memphis skylines and Manhattan subways, love and sobriety, the sound of a cherished songwriter thawing out under the sun" (grade 8,7). Consequence of Sound calls it "incredibly authentic" (gives it A-).
"'3.15.20' is visionary, funny, confounding, complex and simple, super easy on the ears, full of bangers, without once seeming brattish or self-obsessed or, ever, stupid. It weaves a hyper-potent magic spell, as Glover lazes around like a goon, then casually unwraps proverbial, sensual and social truth-bombs for the ages" - the Quietus says in a review of Childish Gambino's new album.
London band Sorry took several years to define their sound and made it - quite undefinable. "Their official debut, '925', bears all the characteristics of hungry, wandering minds not tied to pre-established structures" - Stereogum writes in a review, and adds - "in approach and nature, '925' could only come from kids raised on the internet: run-on sentences, half-thoughts, a tendency to take a bit of everything and throw it together in unexpected and idiosyncratic ways". Generally, Sorry are "still a rock band, it’s just that they make a rock music that doesn’t follow contemporary context or logic. Theirs is an artier strain that is broken down and rebuilt over and over, constantly bristling against the confines of the form... This is the sound of rifling through debris, and the strange new things you can build with what’s worth saving".
Lyra Praum is a classically trained musician who recorded her debut album 'Fountain' using only her voice - the rhythms, the melodies, the textures, it’s all her, heavily processed. Pitchfork is deeply impressed by the concept calling it a "technological excavation of her own body’s resonant possibilities inside a tender vision of a post-human future", and "an oh-so-timely reminder that the body is a site of infinite possibility".
"Drymala's cello and DiPietro's guitar and hammered lap steel borrow elements of instrumental folk with a slight classical influence. But they never seem to tip their hand. The music is warm and inviting" - PopMatters writes about the new album by the Brooklyn duo. With 18 minutes in total, this is the shortest record recommended here, and one coming in at just the right moment - "social distancing is on everyone's mind as people all over the world are looking for ways to find peace and hope. This gorgeous new album may be able to offer some of the calm many of us are seeking".
Despite its dark mood, explicit sexual themes, and tense mood, 'Less is Moor' by Zebra Katz is still pop music, well, at least how great pop music in 2020 should sound like. It's the debut album by Jamaican-American artist and producer, spanning territories from smooth r'n'b do drum'n'bass, with a tendency towards clubs (small, dark, in basements, sexually fluid) and dancing. So, at the edges od pop music, then.
"Like garage rock or traditionalist country, jazz in the 21st century is retro by default, a bygone sound echoing into the present from a different era. Yet this band charges its decades-old discipline with a distinctly modern perspective. They tap directly into the cacophony of these times and connect it to the tumult that has been percolating since before people were making records" - Stereogum says about 'Who Sent You?', the new album by nu-jazzers Irreversible Entanglements. The US band is fronted by poet Camae Ayewa who "spouts revolutionary rhetoric over harrowing electronic soundscapes, resulting in deeply challenging protest music that prioritizes unfiltered expression over conventional notions of accessibility".
"The skillset of Jay Electronica as both an MC and a producer is on full display... 'A Written Testimony' gives us a peek into the immense, singular possibilities of Jay Electronica" - Consequence of Sound writes in a review o New Orleans rapper's debut album (gives it A-). Plenty of Jay-Z on the album - 50-year-old billionaire still rapping with the hunger and poignancy that he did in the ’90s. Pitchfork tagged it Best new music calling it "mystical, distinctive work", coming from a "well of deep faith, he summons rap performances that seem to defy space-time".
"As with most rock music that sounds truly youthful, 'Melee' doesn’t invent new forms so much as connect bands once separated by subtle genre classification" - Pitchfork writes in a review of the debut album by Dogleg, and compares them to At the Drive-In, ...Trail of Dead, Cloud Nothings and Japandroids. Dogleg are video-games fans, which transforms into their music as an interest "in sheer, rejuvenating physical pleasure of controlling a lifelike version of yourself capable of jumping higher, punching faster, and sustaining more damage than any human could".
Irish singer-songwriter made her album 'Birthmarks' while heavily pregnant, using field recordings, synths, cello, and saxophone to create "an eerie, crackling record" with "substance", Brooklyn Vegan says. The Irish Times hears Woods venturing "further down the rabbit hole of experimentation, resulting in challenging but thought-provoking sonic soundscapes". Treble likes it the most: "Woods has fleshed out her ghostly, gothic folk into something bigger and heavier, informed as much by noise and industrial music as darkwave or neofolk... At times these feel less like songs, more like visceral, primal experiences".
"Their music contains elements of math rock, krautrock, free jazz, minimalism" - PopMatters introduces Horse Lords, a "infinitely curious" band who "found a way to make these intricate, puzzle-like compositions soar with an electrified intensity that's uniquely engaging". 'The Common Task' is, PM says, "meticulous and complex, but also undeniably joyous and celebratory... For all of the cacophony, odd tunings, and unusually chosen paths, the way that the band gets into such an airtight groove is a pure joy to hear".
"What 'Every Bad' really sounds like is the sea, churning then soothing, a constant battle between birth and destruction" - Stereogum says, poetically, about their latest Album of the week choice. Sonically, the Brighton band leans "in a bunch of different directions - straight-up indie, dream-pop, heaving ’90s alt-rock, the moodier edges of Britpop", but what it comes down to is a portrait of "the condition of being young and trying to locate something stable inside, some clarity about your own identity and dreams".
"For much of her career, U.S. Girls has been an exploration of female violence and rage. 'Heavy Light' lives in that period of emptiness that comes after" - Pitchfork says about their latest Best new music choice. "So much of being alive is an exercise in denying the existence of personal trauma. Collective trauma, Remy seems to suggest, is the reason for the fracturing of our society" the P concludes about the experimental pop record.
"UK hip-hop and albums bemoaning the current state of things are two crowded markets: 'The Long Goodbye' is potent, original and timely enough to stand out in both" - Alexis Petridis argues in favor of his latest album of the week choice, a great record lyrically. Telegraph declares Riz Ahmed a "master rapper" for his "angry, funny, clever and, at times, swaggeringly brutal examination of a national identity crisis", whereas the NME likes the sonic side of the album - "the high-tempo, energetic sounds throughout match Ahmed’s razor-sharp lyrics and fast-paced rhymes".
"One of the richer, more abstract, more discursive rap albums in recent memory" - Stereogum says about their newest choice for Album of the week, R.A.P. Ferreira's debut under his real name (Rory Allen Philip), co-produced by The Jefferson Park Boys. The beats are slightly leftfield - full of live instrumentation with murmuring bass, idle guitar flutters, occasional bursts of horn, and jazz as an obvious inspiration. His raps are more "slam poetry than straight-up rap. The songs unfurl on their own schedule. They’re never too long, but you’re also never quite sure which direction they’ll twist in next". In lyrics, R.A.P. is interested in playing games with language, like - “preaching the rhyming word is absurd as pledging allegiance before reading terms of service agreement”. So, an unusual album, but not too much.
English singer-songwriter lost the electro feel on his third album, borrowing this time "from English folksong, baroque pop, and piano balladry", Pitchfork says in a review. The P describes the album as "more dream than recollection", and "his richest, a loose tapestry of memories both painful and cherished". DIY magazine hears "a stunningly-harmonious musical journey filled with nostalgia".
Danish musician Amalie Bruun chose Myrkur (Icelandic for "darkness") as her stage name, and the color persists on her new album 'Folkesange' where she reworked traditional Scandinavian songs. It's "modern versions" of songs played, all by her, on mandolas, lyres and a nyckelharpa, resulting in "dense, intense folk".
Violet Cold are so rich in sound on 'Kid Noir' it seems there is an orchestra behind the music, whereas it's a one-man-show - by Emin Guliyev. It's big, it's dramatic, it's rich, it's - great!!! Invisible Oranges likes the "spaced-out vocals and monstrously thick atmospherics to literally drown your ears in wet noise". On a lighter note - Guliyev charges his album $6,66 at Bandcamp :-).
"'Suddenly' is drenched in wonderful melodies – behind the bedroom-bound sonic boffin image, Snaith is a really good songwriter – and packed with moments more obviously pop-facing than anything previously released" - Guardian's Alexis Petridis writes about Caribou's new album (gave it 5 of 5 stars). He especially likes the way Dan Snaith sings - "You don’t realise how accustomed your ears have become to Auto-Tuned perfection until you hear someone who actually sounds like a human being rather than a cyborg programmed to perform vocal calisthenics: it hits you emotionally in a way that melismatic feats of strength and endurance simply don’t". Listen to the album in full at Bandcamp.
The Cabo Verdean popular music genre of funaná was outlawed by the Portuguese colonial government in the 1950s as too proud an expression of identity, and it emerged only in the 1990s as a symbol of political activism. A new compilation 'Pour Me a Grog: The Funaná Revolt in the 1990s' is driven by the gaita (the type of accordion), an instrument materially linked to colonial influences even as it necessarily revolts against them. It's accompanied by passionate vocals and plentiful drums and synths, with remarkable speed on instruments. PopMatters says the album is worth a listen if only to make the acquaintance of a wholly unique musical style.
British guitarist Rob Marshall invited "a long list of extraordinary vocalists [Dave Gahan, Mark Lanegan, Carl Hancock Rux] to bring grace, philosophical wisdom, and their unique artistic perspective to the songs" on his debut album as Humanist. PopMatters says the album's "high-minded ideals of birth, death, morality, and one's place in an unrelenting world are articulated by a perfectly curated list of singers who have all flown as close to the sun as anyone. Musically it's rich in scope with Marshall pulling in all of his influences from post-punk to breakbeat to indie and krautrock and fitting them together like parts of a puzzle".
Canadian cellist and eco-activist Rebecca Foon released her first solo album 'Waxing Moon', with a little help from members of Arcade Fire and Godspeed You Black Emperor. The album is about "our beautiful world... facing mass extinction", but "full of hope, beauty, and perseverance", PopMatters writes in a review. All royalties from 'Waxing Moon' will go to Pathway to Paris, the non-profit climate action organization Foon co-founded.
"The uncomplicated nature of the music gives his voice the space it needs to shine. His emotive, glowing vocals are the heart of every song, and the production stays true to that ideal" - PopMatters says in a review of 'No Future', new album by Irish singer EDEN. Pop really does matter, in this case: "The album is full of subtle adornments and alterations. Similarly, how he builds rich textures from multiple vocal tracks is often jaw-droppingly effective - at one point slowly shifting until it resembles a full gospel choir... 'No Future' is an understated, soulful pop gem that seems to exist in its own time and place".
Brooklyn Indian dhol player, drummer, and composer Sunny Jain mixes jazz, a multitude of Indian folk and classical traditions, cinema sounds, and surf rock on his new anti-xenophobia album 'Wild Wild East', presenting "stories that speak to the importance of human rights", PopMatters says. The music here is "phenomenal", PH says, adding that an "understanding of the stories he tells here with such musical brilliance is liable to change hearts and minds for the better".
Gdinya quartet Lonker See play jazzy/spacey post-rock on their new album 'Hamza', a one "that leaps straight into the action... The band gets to the heart of the matter in much shorter time" than on their previous album, the Quietus says in a review. 'Massive Oscillations' is the second album by the Forest Swords and James Holden collaborator Waclaw Zimpel - "an undisputed career highlight that finds Zimpel scaling new heights. While his debut picked up the baton from minimalist influences... here he goes for full maximalism and the results are staggering... A beautifully bold and powerful album" - the Q.
"'Storm Damage' is an album by a man in his late 50s, musing on his life, lost love, changing surroundings, and mortality. By some incredible sleight of hand, he's managed to make that unpalatable dish, delicious"- PopMatters says in a review of Ben Watt's new album. Here, "he's backed by a cohort of musicians who embellish his music beautifully", but "the star of the show is his lyrics".
'Miss_Anthrop0cene' is Grimes' darkest and most ambitious work, with each of its "10 tracks an embodiment of mortality and how humankind is inching ever closer to extinction", Consequence of Sound says in a review (grade B+). Speaking of the concept of the album, its title is a play on words - a combination of “misanthrope” and “Anthropocene” - with songs speaking of mortality and how humankind is inching ever closer to extinction. Sonically, there's a lot there - Bollywood-inspired melodies, drum and bass, folk, Britpop, dance, nu-metal, indie rock...
'Dark Matter' is debut solo LP by UK jazz drummer Moses Boyd, a modern, groovy-jazz album, rich with sound and easy to listen to. Brooklyn Vegan likes how it overcomes boundaries: "'Dark Matter' completely breaks down lines between genres. It’s jazz, it’s hip hop, it’s soul, it’s psychedelia - it’s a lot of things, and whatever subgenre you wanna call it, it’s a grooving, entrancing record that hooks you in from the start and ends way too soon". Guardian praises Boyd as "a skilled producer, artfully splicing warm acoustic tones with tempestuous electronic samples".
'Loom' wasn't supposed to sound like this - Kate Gately was already making her second album when her mother got ill and died, and the electronic musician scrapped those, and made 'Loom' during the process of her mother going away. And you can hear it - there's darkness, aggression, climax, coldness. Exclaim hears it as "a swirling mix of eerie atmosphere, devastating emotion and brilliant sonic abstraction", and Paste Magazine says "her bleak soundscapes eschew linear, melodic structures in favor of atmosphere, sound design and samples". MusicOMH writes that 'Loom' "is an intense record, full of feelings of loss, confusion and angst. It’s also an early contender for best electronic album of the year".
