Charli XCX and Oso Oso have new albums!
I don't know what I'm most excited for this week. Is it Charli XCX's 5th album? New singles from Andrew Bird or Arcade Fire? The surprise release of Oso Oso's new record? Maybe it's the collaboration between pop punk giants Magnolia Park and Action/Adventure. Oh, it's probably the track that was co-written with SOPHIE.
It's a really cool week, y'all.
The Playlist
Let's start at the top. We've got a new single from Andrew Bird, riffing off of essay collection Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion. And then we get to go into Weezer's new first track from their upcoming SZNS project, which seems to be promising one EP for each of the four seasons. I'm already seeing promising reviews of SZNS: Spring, which comes out in two days.
Ethan Gruska probably isn't a name that most of you know, but this dude co-produced both of Pheobe Bridgers' records. So, I was obviously going to be stoked when I saw that he's got a collaboration with Bon Iver out today in So Unimportant. It's a keyboard and strings (by Rob Moose!) driven track that slowly unhinges itself with electronics and baroque pop sensibilities.
Next we go into Converge's new EP, which is their half of a split record from 1999 that's been out of print for fucking forever. They've done a new mix and master on this split, with a vinyl pressing that is sure to delight fans of the band.
Something I've come to love about Spanish Love Songs is that they aren't content with leaving well enough alone. We see this again today as they revisit their brilliant Losers 2 and record a new version that's slower, more thoughtful, and that draws extra energy to their particular brand of desperation fueled social-commentary.
I love it when jazz artists bring in rappers to elevate their tracks and today we've got a great example of that as Cisco Swank and Luke Titus bring in Chicago rapper Saba for a great laid-back track that feels like an early ushering in of Summer.
One of my favorite metalcore/post-hardcore acts, Beartooth have a new deluxe version of their record Below out today, with a few new tracks and a live album tacked on for good measure. Garage-punk band The Bots have a new remix out, done by Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! and you know I'll never pass up an opportunity to spotlight LJG.
Stuck in the silence
I don't know what's real
All my letters stay
Permanently sealed.
Beartooth - Permanently Sealed
Action/Adventure and Magnolia Park are two of the hottest names in pop-punk right now, so get excited for their collaboration Deja Vu. I honestly never get tired of the trap influences that Magnolia Park pulls into their work and hope we get to see more of this cross-genre mentality in pop-punk in the coming years.
We've got an upbeat, jangly cover of Head On by The Jesus & Mary Chain performed by Ducks Ltd. and Sarah Tudzin of illuminati hotties. This is the first in a series of covers from Ducks Ltd., so I look forward to seeing what else is in the pipeline.
Okay, here's the hot shit. There's a new album from hyperpop sensation Charli XCX and you can stream it on your devices right fucking now. Seriously, it's the best thing you're gonna hear today, so just drop everything else.
Waking up has gotten really hard
Body has gotten so used to the dark
Y’know today, I won’t be moving much at all.
The Cutaways - Cheap Curtains
Afrofuturist jazz legend Sun Ra has a posthumous record out today in the form of an expanded edition of his 1979 record Omniverse. One of the new tracks we see on it is the piano solo cover of Over The Rainbow, which was recorded at a music festival in Germany in '79. This is a treat to have come across my radar today.
And now we've got another album that I'm over the moon excited for: Hot Water Music's Brian McTiernan (Turnstile, Converge, Bane) produced album Feel The Void. Reviews are calling this album, from a band that's nearly three decades into their career, nearly too good to be true, so I'm excited to sit down with it and let it consume me.
Two new songs from the world of Radiohead today: First, we've got Thom Yorke's new ballad 5.17, which is rumored to be associated with Peaky Blinders' new episode, as it's known that Thom has contributed music for this season of the show. We've also got yet another single from Radiohead side project The Smile, in the form of the hauntingly beautiful Skrting On The Surface.
Jesus, we're this far in and haven't even gotten to Arcade Fire yet.
I don't think it's possible to overplay how important ROSALÍA's new album is going to be towards influencing year-end lists. If you want a pop record that's going to force its way into the hearts of critics and fans alike, look no further. Fun (albeit slightly depressing) fact, while promoting this record, ROSALÍA became only the second ever Spanish language artist to appear on Saturday Night Live.
Another notable EP today is a collaboration between art-punk band Tropical Fuck Storm and genre chameleons King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. It's a three track EP coming in at nearly 20 minutes long and it's titled Satanic Slumber Party. I really enjoyed this, though I expect I'm the exact target audience.
In the interest of keeping these playlists a manageable length, I really need to stop including new singles from a record once an artist hits a certain number, but how could I resist a fourth single from Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway's upcoming record, especially when it features Old Crow Medicine Show? Honestly, I can't imagine being more excited for a bluegrass record this year.
God, I didn't even talk about how Molly Tuttle's Big Backyard features lyrical themes that have increasingly been meaningful to me. It reminds me a lot of The Highwomen's song Crowded Table, with the theme of just wanting a life where you can invite friends, family, and found family all together to enjoy a life of abundance together. This should be the goal, folks. This should be what we're fighting for.
Lustmord, a dark ambient artist that I first became aware of thanks to his score for A24's First Reformed, has a new track with art-pop artist Zola Jesus. Yeah, this is dark ambient shit. Idk, it doesn't really feel like it needs much more description than that. You'll love this if that's your vibe. Honestly, I'm bookmarking this for future Halloween playlists.
Okay, okay. I promised you Arcade Fire and I won't leave you waiting any longer. They've announced a new record and given us two singles to kick it off: The Lightning I and The Lightning II. I'm really excited for this one, since it feels like it's been forever since we got a proper record from them (it was 2017, if you don't count the score for Her (no, not that Her) that they did in 2021). The jangly guitars are back. Win Butler's voice is exactly as you've remembered it. The harmonies are flawless. Fucking fuck, I'm stoked. This actually reminds me of 2007's Neon Bible in a lot of good ways.
Sudan Archives is an artist to know, if you don't already. It's the project of violinist and singer Brittney Parks, who creates this weird glitchy experimental pop that'd feel sloppy if it weren't so perfectly arranged. Home Maker is her first original music in three years, an R&B infused track that investigates the nature of being a home maker and what that means for the self, especially in regards to mental health. I'm hoping for a full record coming on the heels of this incredible single.
Loving me takes patience.
King Princess - For My Friends
One of the last artists I saw pre-pandemic was Holy Fawn, who were opening for Thrice. I fell in love instantly and bought their 2018 record Death Spells before leaving the show, so imagine my joy seeing them come across the table today. This track is a mixture of shoegaze, emo, post-rock, metal of some sort, and a few other genres, depending on how picky you are with calling things things. Really stoked on this.
Another new single from Saddest Factory's MUNA as they ramp up to June's release of their S/T third record. The lesbians can't wait. (It's me, I'm lesbians.)
The founder of Japanese fashion label Bape, Nigo has a new single with Lil Uzi Vert, which is pretty rad. Chino Moreno's (Deftones) dark-pop band ††† (Crosses) has a couple new singles today, ushering in a new era for the band who has been largely idle since 2014.
Deutsche Grammophon has done a great write-up of their posthumous release of Jóhann Jóhannsson's Drone Mass, which I highly recommend reading.
I gotta move fast through the rest of this digest, which is a shame, cause there's till so much I want to talk about.
So, to wrap up, don't miss Oso Oso's surprise release of a new album. Their last record was one of my favorites of the year it came out and I have high hopes here.
This week was wild, y'all. I loved this playlist and there's so much that deserves way more time than I was able to give it.