Newer Music
Songs by Adrianne Lenker is a visceral, poetic capsule of feelings of heartbreak and isolation. In “Ingydar,” Lenker sings, “his eyes are blueberries, video screens, Minneapolis schemes and the dried flowers from books half-read… the juice of dark cherries cover his chin, the dog walks in and the crow lies in his jaw like lead… everything eats and is eaten, time is fed.” Lenker captures the hidden, buried, real, and vulnerable. Her music feels like familiarity and home. It’s difficult writing about music sometimes because nothing can exactly capture the music except itself–there’s a mystery and nuance to Adrianne Lenker’s music that that sentiment certainly applies to. Songs will undoubtedly be in my (and many people’s) heads, hearts and playlists for a long time.
Soccer Mommy's 2018 album Clean was a transformative discovery in the realm of modern indie and bedroom rock for me. Sophie Allison's smooth guitar work and catchy riffs on "Cool" and "Your Dog" are novel and badass. Her softer songs, such as "Still Clean," "Flaw," and "Blossom (Wasting All My Time)," form the emotional core of the album with their raw, confessional tones and lasting resonance. Clean transports you to a summer filled with isolation, heartbreak, and the giddy excitement of new love, capturing those feelings with an authenticity that lingers.
Bnny's 2021 album Everything was written following the death of her partner and is an album that explores grief beautifully–in a dreamy, playful way at times–rapidly accepting the absurdity of it and exploring the feelings of numbness and denial. "Everyone says life goes on / Don't they know they're wrong?" (Thaw) – You can feel Viscius's pain and longing throughout the whole thing, gnawing at your heart gently, allowing acceptance of every feeling.
Taylor Swift’s pandemic albums Folklore and Evermore brought all of us into refreshing territory, showing a deeply sad, poetic Taylor that felt even rawer in some ways than Red Taylor. The Tortured Poets Department was a highly anticipated and overwhelmingly disappointing album, using the same Jack Antonoff synths and chords that were used on Midnights, Reputation and Lover. There’s hardly anything novel to her body of work in this album, and it feels less like an album and more like a purge of feelings that could’ve been executed really beautifully if she had put in another year working on it. That’s not to say there aren’t great moments – the bridges in “So Long, London” and “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” are intoxicating and songs on the bonus album like “How Did It End?” and “Peter” are beautiful… but not quite enough to bring solace to the analytic listener about the lack of novelty in this album. I’d like to hear Taylor write a soft acoustic album or a rock album – There is a piece missing in her music as she appeals to the crowd interested in lyrical complexity, but continues to lack in musical complexity. Nonetheless, I will listen and bop out to this album.
I was excited to hear Eliza McLamb’s new album Going Through It after loving her 2022 song Pulp. Her lyrics are sophisticated and self-aware in this album as she reflects the past and present moments of her life: “Losing is so long/All my love stuck in a time that will always be gone” – from Before, a song which reminds me of Sufjan Stevens’ work. Glitter, Mythologize Me and Modern Woman undoubtedly feel like the bops of the album. Glitter is a song about caring for a friend in an unhealthy relationship, containing the blunt and compelling lyrics “I wanna kill your boyfriend” and “Everytime/that you say he loves me/I say that’s not what love means.” Mythologize Me is a fun, sarcastic song about wanting boys to, for lack of a better term, mythologize you – This song feels like a self-aware anthem that most young girls can probably relate to, with the amazing lyric “All I can do is fantasize/About how you fantasize about me.” To be honest, it does feel like “What would I ever do without men?” is sort of the wrong conclusion to this song that I think is, at heart, more about how we view ourselves as women. But the knowingly toxic, funny energy of this song is great and something that I’m not sure has been done before–It feels like something Soccer Mommy would write in an alternate universe where she’s a bit more unhinged. As much as I love the upbeat songs on this album, I think the song 16 is my favorite–The lo-fi, telephone vocal and dark synth of this one song brings the vibe of the entire album into new territory, and I’d love to hear more songs like that. What really stands out to me about McLamb is her ability to write cryptic, beautiful lyrics like “I’ll come later with a hammer and break open my burden” (16) and “Fake omnipotence so I can crawl back into bed” (Pulp).
Recently discovered Fog Lake’s Inference 3 (2017) and his other project farewell, alaska piano songs (2022), both of which are dreamy, nostalgic collections. piano songs makes me feel reminiscent of Aphex Twin’s piano instrumentals, and Inference 3 reminds me of Teen Suicide’s 2015 music, with its vocals buried underneath ambient, grainy guitar and piano sounds. Both collections feel comfortingly and endearingly sad and at times a bit dark and menacing like in “gladness / drone #3..” but dark and menacing in a way that makes you want to curl up with a soft blanket and watch life outside your window; grateful and curious in the discontentment.
Sit Down for Dinner, Blonde Redhead’s newest album, is definitely a change in temperament from their previous albums–a collection of songs that conjure up words like ambient or synth pop and at times psychedelic folk / rock. This album feels like a breath of fresh air and a mark of growth, at times having sort of a Jesus and Mary Chain-like sound, relaxed and unhurried, somewhat surrendering to truths of life and death. If Misery is a Butterfly is an album you listen to when you want to be deep in your feelings, Sit Down for Dinner is the album you'd listen to in the aftermath, returning to routines, appreciating the small things that make life interesting and special.
The duo Waveform’s 2023 album Antarctica slides into genres of electronic, indie / math rock, post punk and synthpop. The lo-fi vocal effects give the album sort of an early Death Cab For Cutie feel, especially in songs like “Firework,” “Antarctica,” and “Ocean” (a song which reminds me a bit of Mac DeMarco). The album feels emo in a way that is grounded in adulthood; Self-deprecating and lonely at times in a way that most people would understand. With catchy, crunchy riffs and elements that catch you off guard in the best way throughout, I found that every single song on the album hit something in me that fell deep into it.
Greg Mendez’s 2023 self-titled album was one I had on repeat for months after it came out – Mendez’s vocals are comparable to Elliott Smith’s.. vulnerable yet controlled. His lyrics are brilliant: “Fuck, I’m paranoid/like my mom/And I wished she would say ‘sweetie I’m going away cause I don’t love you.’” (Sweetie)... “You’ve got the radio playing and all I can think is to change it to something I hate/It’s better than something that you like” (Best Behavior). “If you wanna be caught in some shark’s mouth/Spill a bucket of blood in the water” (Shark’s Mouth)... He sings about addiction, loss and complicated relationships, things that sting but are necessary to feel, necessary to be honest with yourself about. The guitar part in Shark’s Mouth is beautiful, as well as in all of the other songs, often evolving from happy strumming to soft postlude-like moments. While Maria is the song which I think initially sticks out to many (understandably), Goodbye/Trouble feels to me like the heart of the album. Such a heartbreaking and resilient album – There is so much pain and vulnerability in his words and music, but beneath the surface, you can feel his strength, and you can feel your own.
Listening to German Error Message feels like being transported to a rainy plot of land somewhere in Scandinavia or a train station in the middle of a snowstorm to wait for your long lost love. Paul Kintzing's lyrics are honest, fearful and sometimes cryptic in a way that makes them feel like parts of a poem, grabbing at feelings and phenomena that fell under the surface long ago: "Everything withers/Before it comes again... Hibernation/Caving in." The contrast of light and dark in the album cover feels like a reflection of the hiding and the uncovered, the "now" and the "before," the "two voices" of "want and need." This is both a sonically and lyrically beautiful album which makes me feel comfort in knowing that others are similarly worried and isolated in their own little worlds.
Thanks So Much, an EP from the Chicago indie band Cusp, was something I highly anticipated after stumbling upon their debut album You Can Do It All, whose beautifully melodic yet darkly dense riffs made me want to cry myself to sleep while moshing. And it does not disappoint whatsoever; Jen Bender's Frankie Cosmos-esque vocals are heartbreaking and bittersweet as she sings about navigating the world of difficult people in "The Alternative," loss of childhood innocence in "Thanks So Much," and knowledge of the privacy and comfort that exists in isolation in "You Can't See Me." Cusp continues to amaze with their ability to stylishly capture feelings of nostalgia, anger, love, and impermanence.