Notable Releases of the Week (2/24)
It's been another busy week in the music world so let's get straight to the new music. I highlight nine new albums below, and Bill tackles even more in Bill's Indie Basement, including Gruff Rhys, shame, The Church, Model/Actriz, Dougie Poole, Field Music's David Brewis, The Raincoats' Gina Birch, En Attendant Ana, Death Valley Girls, Unloved, and more.
On top of those, this week's Notable Releases include Philip Selway (Radiohead), Logic, Tha God Fahim, Yeat, ALLBLACK, Venomous Concept, BIG|BRAVE, Key Glock, Don Toliver, Karol G, Iris DeMent, The Abruptors, Tink, Gracie Abrams, Insomnium, Icestorm, Host (Paradise Lost), Asian Doll, Blac Youngsta, The Necks, Going Off, Jenny O, Muscadine Bloodline, Hundred Reasons, Heinali, STÖNER (Kyuss, Fu Manchu), Carol, Sam Gendel, Swim Camp, Liars Academy, Faten Kanaan, Otay:onii, Katrina Krimsky, quinnie, John Bence, Whose Rules, the BabyTron EP, the Mattachine & Mikau EP, the Wanderer EP, the Dirty Bird EP, the $uicideboy$ & Shakewell EP, the KXNG Crooked & Joell Ortiz EP, the live Ty Segall & Emmett Kelly EP, and the Neutral Milk Hotel box set.
Read on for my picks. What's your favorite release of the week?
Algiers - Shook
Matador
Following up three albums of genre-defying protest music, Algiers deliver their grandest statement yet with Shook. The band--who formed in 2012 by Atlanta musicians Franklin James Fisher, Ryan Mahan, Lee Tesche, and later cemented their four-piece lineup with original Bloc Party drummer Matt Tong--opted for something more collaborative on Shook, roping in guest vocalists that range from some of the leaders in today's underground rap landscape (billy woods, Backxwash) to Rage Against the Machine's Zack de la Rocha to Atlanta rap veteran Big Rube to indie musicians like Future Islands' Samuel T. Herring, The Make-Up's Mark Cisneros, and Boy Harsher's Jae Matthews, along with a variety of others. The wide variety of guests makes perfect sense on Shook, a sprawling, 17-song album that can't easily be pigeonholed into any pre-existing style of music. If I had to compare it to something, it's a kindred spirit with War's 1972 classic The World Is A Ghetto. Like that album, it's rooted in psychedelic soul and socially/politically conscious lyrics, but instead of incorporating '70s-style rock and funk it incorporates modern punk and hip hop. The rhythms are electric, the arrangements are stunning, and the album is full of genuinely commanding vocal performances by both Algiers and their guests. So much is happening on Shook, but to sum it all up in one word: intense.
For more on this album, read the band's track-by-track breakdown.
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Miss Grit - Follow the Cyborg
Mute
Since 2019, the mixed-race, non-binary musician Margaret Sohn (they/she) has honed their sound across two increasingly impressive EPs, and now they unleash their debut full-length Follow the Cyborg, a focused, cohesive album by an artist who sounds wise beyond their years. The album recalls 2010s-era art pop like Strange Mercy-era St. Vincent and Puberty 2-era Mitski, and Miss Grit already has all the ambition, creativity, and professionalism that those artists had on their aforementioned classics. From the artwork to the album title to the lyrics, Miss Grit has a clear vision, and she knows how to make music that's both off-kilter and widely-appealing. Follow the Cyborg is full of experimental, envelope-pushing moments, and it's also full of so many choruses that stick in your head right away.
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Maxo - Even God Has A Sense of Humor
Def Jam
Four years on from his previous project Lil Big Man, LA rapper Maxo returns with Even God Has A Sense of Humor and he really sounds like he's coming into his own on this one. With appearances by Liv.e, keiyaA, and Pink Siifu, and production from Madlib, Karriem Riggins, LastNameDavid, Graymatter, Beat Butcha, Lance Skiiiwalker, and more, Even God Has A Sense of Humor finds Maxo leaning more heavily into the hazy, the abstract, and the jazzy. He's clearly an out-of-the-box thinker, an artist who's dead set on defying whatever's trendy at the moment, and he knows how to repurpose old sounds in ways that feel futuristic.
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Channel Tres - Real Cultural Shit
GODMODE
Channel Tres said last summer that he'd finally be following up his string of great EPs with his first full-length, Real Cultural Shit. Now that project is here, but it's actually another EP. We're still hoping to finally hear a full-length from him one of these days, but meanwhile, the five-song Real Cultural Shit is yet another example of why Channel Tres is such a remarkable artist. He calls his music "Compton house," and it's a style of hip-house that owes equally to the history of house music in Chicago (where Channel's father is from) and the history of hip hop in Compton (where Channel was raised). Channel has been making music like this since before hip-house's latest mainstream moment, and on Real Cultural Shit, he remains at the top of his game. This five songs are all bangers, with so many callbacks to hip hop and house music's pasts but in a way that feels entirely modern and forward-thinking.
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Gorillaz - Cracker Island
Parlophone/Warner
Since returning from hiatus in the late 2010s, Gorillaz have more or less stuck to the same formula with each new album. The tracklists are star-studded, and each new LP has at least a few clear standouts, but these newer records feel more like compilations or mixtapes and lack the cohesion of something like 2010's stunning Plastic Beach. Cracker Island is no different; it's not a revelatory album, but at times it's a very fun one. As you'd expect from Gorillaz, the production is phenomenal--powered by bold, modern synths and a mix that plenty of bands would die for--and the big-name guests do a lot of the heavy lifting. Moments like the thumping alt-funk of the Thundercat-assisted title track, Damon Albarn and Stevie Nicks harmonizing on "Oil," and the Gorillaz recruiting Bad Bunny for a full-on reggaetón song are undeniable, and moments like the Damon-sung ballad "Baby Queen" feel primed to emerge as sleeper faves.
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Lucero - Should’ve Learned By Now
Liberty & Lament/Thirty Tigers
As Ben Nichols tells it, the impetus for Should’ve Learned By Now was "One Last F.U.," a carefree rocker that he wrote back during the sessions for 2018's Among the Ghosts that didn't fit on that album or its 2021 followup When You Found Me. Ben decided to lead Lucero's new album with it, and it set the tone for the rest of Should’ve Learned By Now, which is the most carefree, rockin' Lucero album in recent memory. It's classic Lucero, and a reminder of why this is a band who have always been at home within country, punk, and heartland rock. It's also just a great, fun collection of songs that goes down very easy. For much more on this album, read Ben's track-by-track breakdown.
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Sideshow - 2MM DON'T JUST STAND THERE!
10k
Sideshow is a rising, already-very-prolific DC rapper who's closely affiliated with MIKE (he's signed to MIKE's 10k label and frequently collaborates with him), and like MIKE, he favors production that puts a hazy spin on vintage jazz and soul. Sideshow's raps are just as abstract as the beats he chooses to rap over, and the tracks on 2MM DON'T JUST STAND THERE! flow right into each other, making things extra hypnotic.
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mui zyu - Rotten Bun for an Eggless Century
Father/Daughter
Hong Kong British artist Eva Liu, who fronts UK trio Dama Scout, has released her first solo album as mui zyu, Rotten Bun for an Eggless Century, via Father/Daughter Records. It's a swirling dreamscape of collaged sounds sweetened with touches of pop that draws inspiration from fantasy video games, folklore, and her Chinese heritage. For even more on the album, mui spoke to us about some of the influences behind it.
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U.S. Girls - Bless This Mess
4AD
U.S. Girls' anticipated new LP Bless This Mess is Album of the Week over in Bill's Indie Basement, and to quote Bill, "Meg Remy finds inspiration and killer dance grooves in motherhood and the pandemic on another fantastic U.S. Girls album." Read his review.
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Read Bill's Indie Basement for more new album reviews, including Gruff Rhys, shame, The Church, Model/Actriz, Dougie Poole, Field Music's David Brewis, The Raincoats' Gina Birch, En Attendant Ana, Death Valley Girls, Unloved, and more.
Looking for more recent releases? Browse the Notable Releases archive or scroll down for previous weeks.
Looking for a podcast to listen to? Check out our new episode with Knapsack. We've also got exclusive vinyl variants of the new Knapsack reissues.