Illuminati Hotties – FREE I.H.: This is Not the One You’ve Been Waiting For [Tiny Engines/Self-Released 2020] The backstory, which is quite explicit in the lyrical content, is that her label wasn’t paying her and in order to release herself from her contract Sara Tudzin released these 12 songs in 23 minutes. Her voice now …
Continue reading “If You’re Reading This, You Should Watch Road House (1989)”
Benjamin Booker – POWER [Fire Next Time Records 2025] Eleven years after his debut as a garage/blues wunderkind backed by a Jack White co-sign, Booker sheds his traditionalist skin by consciously corrupting his sound with the aid of underground hip-hop architect Kenny Segal. It’s a move that obsessives might’ve read in the tea leaves – …
Previous industries – Service Merchandise [Merge 2024] In the age of Divorced Dad Rock’s return why not add Divorced Dad Rap too? Against a production backdrop of wheezy cold sweat loops the cast is three Chicagoans who’ve known each other for decades and who’ve both hit 40 and moved to the City of Angels in …
Continue reading “We Watched Dinner In America the Other Day, Good Shit”
Kendrick Lamar – GNX [PG Lang/Interscope 2024] In the age of the bro-cast having enough political weight to help determine elections it should be noted that despite how funny his A-minor line was, it’s the history lesson about Atlanta that actually held water. Now we’re left with a west coast victory lap where he’s never …
Illuminati Hotties – Power [Hopeless 2024] More difficult because it subverts expectations, Sarah Tudzin’s follow-up to her breakthrough is also much quieter and more ruminative. Her mother’s death, the subsequent workaholism that arose as a form of denial, and her (now) wife’s ability to change Tudzin’s life by slowing down and not putting up with …
JPEGMafia – I Lay Down My Life For You [AWAL 2024] Black Ben Carson, Black AOC, Black Marjorie Taylorie Greene…really he’s running out of comparisons. And with enough built in pop culture references to make Dan Harmon cream himself. Always the scarer of hoes and never the hoe, eh? 3.2/5 https://open.spotify.com/album/1ezs1QD5SYQ6LtxpC9y5I2?si=fh_YRZZBQB6H_EucuHtTwA Big Thief – Two …
Charli XCX – Brat [Atlantic 2024] I can’t even say there’s a secret to the aural heft these 15 lime green beat-pop tracks exude. Just lessons she learned along the way and a dedication to the work, not that she isn’t talented obviously. Owning neither a vagina nor a Grindr account myself, my familiarity with …
Continue reading “Focusing is hard but here’s my Charli XCX one tee hee”
Yard Act – Where’s My Utopia? [Universal 2024] While in America the default sound for rock bands post-Nirvana has been to filter all you can through an alternative lense and hope you’re catchy enough to have a hit, the Brits have had a clear lineage of post-punk fueling them after the Britpop bubble burst in …
Low Cut Connie – Art Dealers [Contender 2023] The line that every critic seems to have glommed onto is when Adam Weiner declares himself “a song and dance man”, probably because it’s accessible though it’d be an oversight to not note the Andy Kaufman parallel. More likely though it’s to serve as a branding reset …
Continue reading ““I still believe in the two party system. Friday and Saturday!””
Olivia Rodrigo – Guts [Geffen 2023] What she has that her heroes don’t is the skills that her time as a theater kid gave her – meaning she’s not just able to perfect her superlative comic and dramatic timing but also conceptualize scenarios as a writer that, whether or not autobiographical, come alive with the …
Continue reading “There’s too much Disney Food Blog on my TV at any given time.”
Cosmic Hero