ALWAYS BEEN - CRAIG FINN
While rock musician might be his day job, anyone who's listened to songs penned by The Hold Steady's Craig Finn knows he's a writer at his core. His latest solo album, Always Been, almost feels closer to a scored novella than an album. Over 11 tracks, he tells the tale of a fallen reverend and plenty of downtrodden characters that occupy and flesh out his world. There are crises of faith, a down-on-her-luck sister with a daughter, bathtub overdoses, pseudo-transient job hopping, young love faded, robberies and Spokane transit stations (no, really). Finn's solo sound instrumentally strips back The Hold Steady's alternative bar band aggression to a lighter, airier palette (with a dose of '80s Springsteen pop rock), allowing more space for his lyrics to paint the scenery and add layers to the characters. All the while, Finn is questioning how we can outlive our past mistakes... or if that's even possible.
BILLBOARD HEART - DEEP SEA DIVER
Deep Sea Diver is not a pickup truck. But when heaping praise on the band, it's weird how much the descriptors for truck commercials come to mind. When throwing on a Deep Sea Diver tune you can basically guarantee it'll be dependable, reliable, powerful and get the job done. Led by singer/guitar ace Jessica Dobson, DSD excels at precise complexity — showcasing technical chops without ever doing it in an overly showy manner. That operating principle continues on the Seattle band's Sub Pop debut Billboard Heart. There are plenty of moments of soaring sound while the band rocks out ("What Do I Know"), but it's always in service of the song. Dobson's vocals have the slightest touch of smokey lounge singer allure and are at their best when powerfully blending with Madison Cunningham's guest vox on the standout track "Let Me Go." While Dobson often lyrically operates thematically from a place of unsteady uncertainty, Billboard Heart finds a band at the peak of its confidence.
BUNKY BECKY BIRTHDAY BOY - SLEIGH BELLS
Go with me on this one: You know how satisfying and fun it can be to watch a massive and kinda dumb over-the-top action movie on the big screen if you've been mainly watching depressing cerebral dramas at home? That's kinda how throwing on the Bunky Becky Birthday Boy felt. I'd just been subconsciously missing the hyper-kinetic explosiveness of Sleigh Bells, and the band's new LP scratched that itch. Singer Alexis Krauss still radiates riot pop energy, while the shredding metal guitars, heavy drum machine beats, and soaring synths from Derek E. Miller still effectively hold back just enough to be more rad than cheesy. While the new album doesn't match the heights of the band's fantastic first two albums (Treats and Reign of Terror), Sleigh Bells is still the best at what they do. So just grab a tub of popcorn, turn off your brain for a bit, and enjoy it.
FOREVER IS A FEELING - LUCY DACUS
While singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus hits the hardest when crafting wistful tunes about slightly sour nostalgia (see: 2021's stunning Home Video), nobody wants their favorite artists to forever be going through it in the heaviest ways. Forever is a Feeling still wallows in longing, but it's also Dacus at her most musically hopeful to date. Listeners can feel the warmth of someone who was searching for and found love (with her Boygenius bandmate Julien Baker), even if the road to get there could feel messy. A track like "Limerence" feels timelessly composed like a lost '50s fem crooner classic (that just happens to have a Grand Theft Auto reference), while the majority of the album locks into mid-tempo explorations queer love and trying to be present when your brain always wants to be focused on past mistakes and future what-ifs. Forever may be a feeling, but feelings only truly exist in the moment.
FOR MELANCHOLY BRUNETTES (& SAD WOMEN) - JAPANESE BREAKFAST
The past few years have been a whirlwind for Japanese Breakfast's Michelle Zauner. In 2021, she released both her band's breakthrough jubilant indie pop album Jubilee and published Crying in H Mart, her debut memoir which stayed on the New York Times Best Seller list for over a year. In a way, her follow-up album, For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women), feels like her taking a graceful pause to catch her breath. The soft-handed LP takes songs that would hold up in their basic forms and blows them out into theatrically lush indie pop ruminations on love, trying to find contentment and comfort, and anxieties about when to strive for more. Even as Zauner's lyrics may sketch out uncertainty, she basks in the beauty of the moments with the poise of an artist who's free from the struggle of trying to make it. Zauner's world may have changed, but her tender heart remains.
FROM THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF SABA & NO ID - SABA & NO ID
The Chicago duo of rapper Saba and producer No ID collaborate for one of the best musical hangs of the year with From the Private Collection.... No ID's beats and arrangements tap into old school hip-hop's soul and funk sampling roots, while Saba's melodically energetic, yet overall tranquil, delivery give the proceeding a light R&B feel. It's not to say there's not some fire in the words the Saba delivers, but even when spitting venom the vibe still remains one closer to sprawling out on the couch and talking smack with your buddies over taking to the streets for confrontation. There's an unquantifiable ease to the pair's chemistry, allowing for the LP to serenely flow and further make the case that Saba is one of the more underrated MC's in the game.
LONELY PEOPLE WITH POWER - DEAFHEAVEN
Deafheaven went out on a limb with its 2021 album Infinite Granite, which saw the acclaimed black metal band trade in the heaviness for a more atmospheric post-rock sound. While the backlash for that album was unwarranted (it's good, just different!), Deafheaven returns to its thunderously aggressive comfort zone on Lonely People with Power. The band has long stood out for slyly inserting melodic undercurrents within its pummeling wall of harsh noise with the violent hiss of George Clarke's screamed vocals acting sonically closer to a fifth shredding instrument than traditional singing, and that formula remains on point on the new LP. Those able to decipher Clarke's cries will discover some beautifully poetic lyricism focusing on masculine fear, grief, discomfort and emotional exhaustion, as well as the sense of helplessness that being introspective about those issues can breed. Deafheaven provides a constant musical reminder that the harshness of the darkness and beauty's relief are intertwined.
PHONETICS ON AND ON - HORSEGIRL
After making one of the most effortlessly cool shoegaze albums in their teens with 2022's Versions of Modern Performance, the members of Horsegirl take their sound in a new — but still great — direction on the band's second LP Phonetics On and On. The sleekly detached wall of shoegaze noise gets traded for jangly alternative twee pop that's much more Kimya Dawson than My Bloody Valentine. The stripped-back environs allow for much more space for emotional vulnerability from singer Nora Cheng and the expanded instrumental palate gives the band more playful colors with which to paint. Rarely does such a vast sonic overhaul work so seamlessly, but so far both sides of the Horsegirl coin are winning ones.
TUNNEL VISION - BEACH BUNNY
Beach Bunny frontwoman Lili Trifilio is elite when it comes to crafting poppy indie rock songs that instrumentally sound super upbeat while actually lyrically being extremely anxiety-ridden. On Tunnel Vision, Trifilio finds herself hitting the point in one's late 20s where their life suddenly needs sorting out after things haven't exactly gone as envisioned. Self-reflections and a rejiggering of one's perspective don't typically sound this relentlessly sunny and catchy, but that's long been the wheelhouse where Beach Bunny excels. If you throw on those summery shades, no one can see the anxiety in your eyes.
WHO LET THE DOGS OUT - LAMBRINI GIRLS
You know the antiquated concept of "the type of girl you want to bring home to mom?" Lambrini Girls are doing absolutely everything in their power to be the opposite of that. The queer English noisepunk band's debut album has caustic molotov cocktail energy as frontwoman Phoebe Lunny and bassist Lilly Macieira-Bosgelmez explode with anarchistic fury and look to burn it all to the ground. Lunny sonically swings her lyrical fists at the patriarchy, corporate office culture, societal body standards for women, gentrification, nepo babies and more. Those who enjoy unrelentingly pissed off British rabble-rousers like Sleaford Mods can find an even more aggressive version of that rage by giving Who Let the Dogs Out a spin. ♦
ALSO DON'T MISS...
Astrovan: The Love Song Vignettes - Humbird
Dead Channel Sky - Clipping.
Glory - Perfume Genius
The Human Fear - Franz Ferdinand
Lonesome Drifter - Charley Crockett
Mary And The Hyenas (Original Soundtrack) - Billy Nomates
Patience, Moonbeam - Great Grandpa
Send a Prayer My Way - Julien Baker & Torres
Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory - Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory
Viagr Aboys - Viagra Boys
