A Short Look at a Big Week
A Heads Up
I've been hit with a pretty intense wave of sadness this morning, possibly because of hormones, since tomorrow is shot day. Consequently, I won't be doing a full track by track breakdown today. I'll still point out the stuff that I'm personally most excited about, though. I recommend shuffling the playlist and giving each track at least 30 seconds of your time, just so you don't miss anything.
Albums Of Note
I could write a book about my love of Sufjan Stevens. I won't subject you to that today, but when I heard about his new record with Angelo De Augustine, I nearly died. It's a record where every track is based on a film that they watched together, including such hits as... Bring It On Again, Back To Oz, Fight Club, and the one that today's track is based on She's Gotta Have It. It's an acoustically driven album, hearkening back to Seven Swans era Sufjan, which is no doubt thanks to Angelo's influence, as none of this strays sonically far from his debut. I'll be listening to this obsessively for the rest of the year, as it is truly autumnal music. Join me and tell me what stands out for you.
I don't know if anyone has had more influence in music, regarding trans visibility, than Against Me! vocalist Laura Jane Grace. The 2014 record Transgender Dysphoria Blues was instrumental in getting people to think about the trans experience while staying within the punk rock expectations that the band had set prior to Laura Jane's transition. Since then, we've heard a lot of music from her, including more Against Me! records and a frankly intimidating amount of solo music. Today, we get a surprise solo EP that crams seven acoustic-punk songs into only 15 minutes. The lyrics are far less about the trans-specific experience than what we saw back in 2014, focusing instead on themes of missed love, day old coffee, and bitterness after a relationship has fractured. After all, being seven years into transition can put you in a position where you're able to start seeing yourself as yourself instead of as someone who's facing a horrifying and exciting new world of discrimination and possibility. If you like The Mountain Goats' acoustic shit, you'll dig this.
Single Songs Specifically Selected for Study
Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp
It'd be a shame to not talk about other notable tracks on here. She & Him are covering Madonna, which either works or doesn't, depending on how you feel about She & Him, tbh. For some reason Coldplay has teamed up with BTS, which is a hell of a choice. Damon Albarn (Blur, The Gorillaz) has a new single that I really dug. They Might Be Giants keeps dropping tracks from their new album, with today's being a short chill thing that's danceable while retaining that specific off-kilter TMBG thing that made Jonathan Coulton's Artificial Heart work so well.
MC Lars brings us a track about uh... blockchain and anti-vaxxers? Yeah, I like this but it's okay if you don't. He's a specific flavor. And then we've got Anberlin with their first new track since they broke up in 2014. With echoes of old-school 30 Seconds To Mars, Underoath, and even a little Nine Inch Nails, we get to hear vocalist Stephen Christian exclaim "if you want revenge / then you should dig two graves." If this is what reunion-era Anberlin sounds like, we're in for a treat beyond my wildest dreams.
I wasn't going to write about Tom Morello or Bring Me The Horizon again until one of them put out a full fucking album, but here we are and I'm writing about it for two reasons: 1. The music video made me horny for live shows in a way that few things have done recently. 2. It has a Bon Jovi reference that made me laugh out loud.
Lots of people on my Twitter feed are calling out Ada Lea's record as the album of the week, so make sure you don't miss that. I haven't had a chance to dig in too far yet, but I'm excited. It's out now on Saddle Creek and is a folk record in the vein of the Boygenius crew.
Okay, I'm only talking about two more, cause I'm fucking tired.
Underoath has dropped another single from their second record since they got back together and it's looking vastly different from 2018's Erase Me. While that record felt like an attempt to get thrown on modern rock radio and Sirius XM's Octane, this new shit feels like they've looked hard at what they loved about the band's early years and tried to get back in that headspace. Pneumonia is a seven minute long slow-burn of a track that features all the ambient instrumental vibes of They're Only Chasing Safety's The Blue Note or Some Will Seek Forgiveness..., while building into the giant wall of sound that they exhibited on Ø's In Completion. It's exciting to see them leaning back into the sounds that I came to love them for, without feeling like they're staying stagnant.
Finally, we've got SeeYouSpaceCowboy, a mathcore/scenecore/crabcore band that's fronted by a trans woman. You fucking bet I'm gonna force everyone I know to watch this music video, with maybe the best transfem outfit I've seen in heavy music ever?!? Someone give me Connie's vocal coach's number. I just wanna talk.
Wrapping Up
Did you like this format? I kinda liked it more than breaking down every song, though I did miss getting to learn about all the finer details as I researched each artist. Let me know.
Oh, I guess I should mention the Eels track for all you indie trash, huh? There. I've mentioned it. Go fuck yourself.
Tell me what you loved this week. Tell me what I missed. Tell me that you think I'm cute?