THE DEATH OF RANDY FITZSIMMONS
THE HIVES
When bands take big swings in the name of sonic evolution the results can often be tricky. Even if they nail the fresh sound that brings in new fans, they'll probably shed some old fans who like the old stuff. The Hives have a novel solution to skirt this issue: Never change. While this tactic might seem like complacency, when your brand is unrelentingly energetic and wild garage rock, there's really no need to shake things up. Coming 11 years after the Swedish band's last LP, The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons still buzzes thanks to singer Pelle Almqvist's howls, blasts of catchy power chords and thumping drums. Don't fix what ain't broken.
GIRL WITH FISH
FEEBLE LITTLE HORSE
You know that disoriented childhood feeling of being spun around rapidly with a blindfold on before being set free to flail a stick at a piñata? That's kinda how Girl with Fish feels. Take a few good whacks at the latest LP from Pittsburgh band Feeble Little Horse, and the treats that gravity causes to tumble out taste vaguely of sweet vocal melodicism, salty indie rock and nutty shoegaze noise. The guitar-driven soundscape of songs like "Sweet" seem to spin around one's head until everything feels like a dizzy, fuzzy bash that you might not remember in the morning. Girl with Fish gently knocks listeners off their feet, but keeps them wanting to get back up to make sure the party doesn't die.
GODDESS ENERGY
WHO IS SHE?
It can sometimes be frustrating the way people treat humorous music. If artists have the gall to be silly, most of the time folks just dismiss the music entirely as frivolous little ditties. But excluding laughter from your musical diet seems like a minimizing of the potential musical emotional spectrum. Seattle's Who Is She? and the group's new album Goddess Energy showcase the sonic warmth that silly music can provide. The Seattle scene supergroup featuring members of Chastity Belt, TacocaT and Lisa Prank started as a joke band writing songs based on the Missed Connections section of The Stranger, and while the cheekiness of this friendship band is still present, Who is She? is hardly a joke. This LP packs in cheery pop punk songs about figuring out what would impress Shania Twain, how people are unfair to Anne Hathaway, the unsustainable business model of MoviePass and even a Seattle-focused revision of Le Tigre's "My My Metrocard" ("My My Orca Card") that got the ladies fired as the Kraken's house band for being critical of Jeff Bezos. Who is She? manages to be both goofier and more punk than just about every other band out there.
MICHAEL
KILLER MIKE
There might be no MC in hip-hop who casually conveys as much aggressive force on the mic as Killer Mike. After a decade of taking no prisoners as one half of Run the Jewels, the Atlanta rapper returns to his solo roots on Michael. (Not that it's entirely solo as he enlists a cavalcade of ultra-talented pals including Andre 3000, 2 Chainz and his RtJ brother El-P.) And for all of Mike's bombast, the element that sticks out most on the new LP is his compassion. He's unafraid to get emotionally vulnerable when lyrically navigating some of the more unseemly corners of his youth growing up in the ATL. Whether sorting through maternal grief ("Motherless"), treating his junkie aunt with humanity ("Something for the Junkies") or a teenage love gone messily that turned into a supportive bond ("Slummer"), Killer Mike uplifts the women in his life with a touching reverence.
RABBIT RABBIT
SPEEDY ORTIZ
Sadie Dupuis isn't skittish about brandishing her scars. The frontdemon of Speedy Ortiz still bears the hurt and vulnerability of the marks, but won't let them rule her, instead spitting mouthfuls of bardic blood back at those who created them. That giddy combativeness permeates Rabbit Rabbit. A shredder at heart, Dupuis guitar work on the new album is her best yet. While much love is often paid to her lyrical dexterity, she writes her guitar parts with poetic flair, dazzling with the precise placements of notes to accent rhythms, add tonal color and sonically emote. All the frenetic indie rock tracks buzz along with aplomb ("You S02," "Ranch vs. Ranch," "Ghostwriter"), while downshifts to more contemplative numbers ("Brace Thee," "Cry Cry Cry," "Who's Afraid of the Bath") showcase the wounds without giving them power.
RAT SAW GOD
WEDNESDAY
It's probably all Lynyrd Skynyrd's fault, but it's weird that the term "Southern rock" has become synonymous with good ol' boys and the type of stuff one might hear blaring from a pickup with overcompensating tires and a flag-draped bald eagle decal in the back window. Really, rock is a Southern creation at heart thanks to the Black blues players who invented the genre, and then most of the greatest Southern rock since the genre's origins was made by endearing outsiders like R.E.M. and the B-52s. North Carolina's Wednesday certainly fits in the latter category. Rat Saw God finds frontperson Karly Hartzman exploring sometimes unsavory autobiographical snapshots of her Carolinian youth in a blast of dirty, noisy Southern indie rock. You can practically hear the humidity as Hartzman recounts aimless days that sometimes end up in trouble. She sings not with her chest puffed out in hollow patriotic bluster, but lets her words barely escape her lips after letting them hibernate in her empathetic innards.
SPEAK NOW (TAYLOR'S VERSION)
TAYLOR SWIFT
Is it slightly cheating to put Taylor's redux album on here? Kinda. But it seems right since this is the Summer of Swift, with her Eras Tour dominating the musical discussion. More importantly — hot take incoming — Speak Now is easily her best album. It's Swift at her still country-tinged pop rock peak. It's the album that best marries her wonderful dreamy hopeless romantic side ("Sparks Fly," "Speak Now," "Mine") with her delightfully venomous spite targeted at the men who've wronged her ("Mean," "Dear John," "Better Than Revenge"). Is Taylor's Version of Speak Now way, way too long? Of course! (Jeez, Seth, why you gotta be so mean?) Tay Tay needs an editor to shorten all of her albums more than she needs an unproblematic, stable boyfriend, but when everybody's lapping it up and the songs are mostly bangers, it's hard to argue with her formula.
STRUGGLER
GENESIS OWUSU
STRUGGLER is an album of aggressive resilience. Genre-blurring Ghanaian-Australian rapper Genesis Owusu's 2021 debut album Smiling with No Teeth was a revelatory bomb dropped on the Aussie music scene. They say roaches might be the only things that survive nuclear war, so fittingly Owusu's follow-up centers on a character named "The Roach" trying to deal mentally and emotionally with the fallout of the traumas we've all gone through the past few years. Owusu further proves that he actually does have teeth, and they bite sharp on tracks like the punkish opener "Leaving the Light," the smoothly soulful "See Ya There," the funky pop of "That's Life (A Swamp)" or "The Old Man," where he curses the "old man waiting in the sky just to f— my life up." Musically, Genesis Owusu seems unkillable.
SUN ARCS
BLUE LAKE
I know what you're thinking... *another* gorgeously layered instrumental album by a Texas-born Dane that's structured around his unique 48-string zither? You might as well change the name of the Inlander to Zither Aficionado with how much space we devote to it! In all seriousness though, Sun Arcs by Blue Lake (aka Jason Dungan) is a stunningly inviting and enveloping exploration of ambient environs. Blue Lake has a knack for both minimalism and clustering his zither notes, so the album becomes partially an exploration of how space functions within music. Adding layers that mix jazz drum beats with dashes of drone make it all so serene. The music on Sun Arcs feels like water calmly running down stream to occasionally cascade over falls into a sort of misty bliss.
WITH A HAMMER
YAEJI
After making waves as a house music DJ and producer, Yaeji shows off an even deeper bag on With a Hammer. Her bilingual singing (English and Korean) rests delicately on top of the twitchy and engrossing electronic creations she infuses with hints of synth pop and jazz. While songs like "For Granted" might call to mind Grimes, the way Yaeji expresses her rage outwardly has a much more subtle and almost calming meditative touch. Considering this is Yaeji's first LP after prior EPs and a mixtape, this will hopefully be only the first of many full-lengths forged with her potent heat and hammering. We welcome the pummeling. ♦
ALSO DON’T MISS…
The Answer Is Always Yes - Alex LaheyBarbie: The Album - Various Artists
Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? - McKinley Dixon
Eye on the Bat - Palehound
The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte - Sparks
GENESIS - Whyte Fang
HELLMODE - Jeff Rosenstock
Homo Anxietaem - Shamir
Maps - Billy Woods & Kenny Segal
Sundial - Noname
