Cloud Nothings – Last Building Burning [Carpark/Witchita 2018]
Fury, fury, fury; doesn’t anybody fuck anymore? Taking less than a third of the time it took to write and release the last one, Baldi & Co. are focused on reclaiming the raging noize-toon stance of yesteryear. As a prole always on the hunt for such I was underwhelmed at its sense of being recycled sans the narrative of “Leave Him Now”. The sounds that would’ve been hooks previously are still there without any memorability that could’ve allowed them such a descriptor. One should prefer the previous indulgences that had more form and texture than “Dissolution,” and he’s long since outgrown “In Shame”. It’s at the finale that he finally regains his footing in another I’m Getting Better song epitomized by “I gotta let go of the pressure I feel to outdo”. Just enough for one to keep their ears open for the next chapter. 3.0/5
Billie Eilish – when we all fall asleep, where do we go? [Darkroom/Interscope 2019]
Candidly I was initially unimpressed, having been turned off by her reserved but flippant (call it apathy inextricable from teendom, my bad) attitude on Hot Ones and finding “bury a friend” less than revelatory the one time I played it. Since then I’ve been humbled. This album is nothing less than the greatest pop record this side of Nine Inch Nail’s subtle return to the collective unconscious. Congrats parents, it’s a Romantic! While close to zero instant gratification exists, small sounds prove not only memorable but durable on repeat listens. Crafted by her brother Finneas and inhabited by personae more vulnerable, resolute, and funny than she’d ever let herself be at the moment, this album-in-the-age-of-streaming manages to live up to the hype made manifest by her rabid fanbase of likeminded Redditheads and Tumblrs while in true rock star fashion bites back at the hype cynics by ignoring them completely. Gotta listen to the kids sometimes, it’ll open your eyes. 4.6/5
Alex Lahey – The Best of Luck Club [Dead Oceans 2019]
She’s gay, Australian, funny, and sings songs about how touring life strains friendships and mental health as is bound to happen (sound familiar?). Could also use a decent amount more seasoning to enhance the semi-blandness of this subversive telling of causal queer life in a post- gay marriage country. Such as it is, her subject matter is universal enough to have only been experienced by those darned creatures known as humans, balancing catharsis and self-care with a pep talk two-fifths of the way in for emphasis. Simultaneously her joy is the unseriousness of it all; aforementioned pep talk comes with a goddamn sax solo, “Isabella” is the catchiest song about a vibrator this side of Adamandeve.com and at all times is the surreality of Puberty 2 in which everything’s made up and the points don’t matter. 3.5/5
Weyes Blood – Titanic Rising [Sub Pop 2019]
Produce a person who claims they got [see: understood] this one immediately and watch that person’s pants promptly start the next four alarm fire in that area. Despite the consensus around who the young woman born Natalie Laura Mering sounds like (being mostly ostensible easy listening), the backhanded compliment “grower” most aptly fits this uneasy listen. And though her ambition, casual optimism, and wit are to be respected–because monogamy has never been under the threat of ending (skip to 13:58)–there is a shallowness so prevalent as to be disconcerting, blended with pacing so glacial that at its worst is to be outright boring. Which is not to say there aren’t highlights, the triumphant ba-ba-bas of “Everyday” and the cataclysmic climax of “Movies” (which I swear pulled its strings from The Leftovers) do well to establish the latter half of her self-anointed retro-futurist label. It’s got a real good chance of being Metacritic’s album of the year, just don’t expect it to top very many other lists. 3.5/5
Cosmic Hero 