Q1 Favorites, or On New Music and Burnout
A few years back, I decided that I would try to listen to three new albums every week as my attempt to say up-to-date on what's new and vibrant in music. I pretty quickly gave that up as an impossible goal. After all, if you're putting that much time into new music, you're never able to fully settle in with anything that resonated with you.
Now I find myself in the same situation again. I've built a thing around overwhelming myself with new music and I rarely get to settle in and truly fall in love with anything because every new album has a one week half-life before I have to make room for everything new that's come out all over again.
It's frustrating. I love listening to the new music that comes out each week. I love compiling the most interesting stuff and sharing it with you. I love hearing y'all tell me what I missed, what you found interesting, and occasionally getting to listen to these playlists in person with some of you. This is my favorite new hobby that I've picked up in a long time.
But on the other hand, I know that I'll never have time to give Latto or Nigo the time that their new albums deserve. Fuck, Pedro The Lion is one of my favorite artists ever and I've probably given their new record less than ten listens since it came out a couple months ago, cause I just don't have time. It sucks. I hate having to pick between the new music that I love and getting to develop a relationship with existing music that I've already heard.
However, something cool is coming out of this, which is that I've found that when an album does get its hooks in me to the point where I'm constantly replaying it, I know it's got to be really good. So, I'd like to share a few albums with you that have defined the first three months of 2022 for me.
This one is by far the most infectious record that I've heard this year. Their own website describes them as "Blues, Gospel and Soul meet harsher music." It's amazing how clearly this comes through on their self-titled record. There are moments that make me think of Hozier in how soulful they are and how the band's mastermind Manuel Gagneux delivers his vocal performances. Of course, as soon as I settle into how awed I am by their ability to deliver soulful, thoughtful musicality on songs like Death To The Holy, I get hit by something like the chorus of Götterdämmerung, which is so overwhelmingly heavy that it makes me want to brave COVID and to go a live venue to get fucked up in a pit.
This one came out last year and I kinda missed it. I probably gave it a single spin before moving on, largely thanks to the same problem that I opened this post with. However, when they went on NPR's Tiny Desk my attention immediately spiked again. How often, after all, do hardcore bands play the Tiny Desk? So, I watched that performance and immediately fell in love, putting that performance on multiple times a day for weeks before finally just admitting that I needed to spend some time with this genre-defying hardcore record. Yes, it's hardcore in that it's full of riffs, shouted lyrics, and an undying urge to stage dive, but it's moved beyond just resting on genre conventions by allowing for diverse instrumentation - especially alternative percussion - and a hard focus on hooks that will stick in your head for days.
Written in the wake of George Floyd's murder by the Minneapolis police department, this debut melodic hardcore release from a Minneapolis based supergroup of local heavy music artists has infected me since it came out. Hearing vocalist Gabe Reasoner open the record with the venomous "You've made the wrong kind of history" sets the tone for a full record of righteous rage at how we've built a society that can only ever serve those on top. It's punk music for people who can remember that punk music is inherently political.
Okay, that's all I've got for today. Thanks for coming along as I get to write about some of my favorite music that's cut through the tidal wave of new music that I bombard you with every Friday. I'm grateful to all of you who read. I'll be back with another round-up in three months, if I remember to do one.