I want to write about Julien Baker’s new album, Little Oblivions, without bringing up the singer-songwriter’s bandmates in boygenius. It’s so hard, though. Just like her cohorts, Baker spun away from that indie dream group with a readiness to expand … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Little Oblivions
The world shutting down brought out the productivity in Cloud Nothings. The Cleveland band have never been especially slack when it comes to recording new music. In the twelve years they’ve been banging out tuneful noise, they’ve only let more … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — The Shadow I Remember
Ignorance, the fifth and latest album from the Weather Station, is luxuriant and enveloping. Chiefly the handiwork of Tamara Lindeman, the album melds together tried-and-true folk rock with oblique pop trappings and splinters of jazz to create songs that sound … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Ignorance
The members of Big Thief have apparently forged a secret pact a couple years ago, agreeing that not too much time would ever pass without at least one of them putting new music out into the universe. They notably delivered … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Two Saviors
When I write about music, I rely on comparisons. After learning the mnemonic device that asserted that all well-behaved youths of the male persuasion merited a reward of a chocolatey dessert, every other bit of musical instruction that brave souls … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Live Forever
Blue Hearts, the new album from Bob Mould, opens with something of a fake out. “Heart on My Sleeve” is Mould with little more than his acoustic guitar, strumming a muscular but lean melody as he sings out a weary … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Blue Hearts
According to Lianne La Havas, she started writing songs for her latest album shortly after a breakup. That makes sense, because soul music is practically made for heartache. Or seduction, but the heartache brings out a sharper tang. The resulting … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Lianne La Havas
Well, the title is just about perfect, isn’t it? For their third full-length effort, Haim swing their broadswords straight at the identity shorthand that gets laid upon their music, defining their craft less by the sounds assembled and more by … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Women in Music Pt. III
If there’s a better pure songwriter than Phoebe Bridgers at this moment, I don’t know who it is. Punisher, Bridger’s sophomore release under her own name, comes after some productive moonlighting with pals in the groups boygenius and Better Oblivion … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Punisher
Realistically, only Bob Dylan could rhyme “Indiana Jones” with “those British bad boys the Rolling Stones” and make it sound profound. The unlikely lyrical couplet containing those pop culture references on “I Contain Multitudes,” the lead track of the new … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Rough and Rowdy Ways
