Like it or not, there’s a little Midwest emo in everyone’s heart. Whether you embrace it is up to you. Chiptune icons Anamanaguchi have clearly embraced their inner-Illinois; their latest album Anyway was recorded at the iconic American Football House, which also features on the album’s cover. In succumbing to their inner emo, the band has shifted towards more conventional rock sounds that are shrouded in fuzz. But that 8-bit sound that made the group so lovable is still here, ... read more

Who’s your favorite musical trainwreck? Mine has to be Machine Gun Kelly, or mgk as he likes to be known as now. Whatever he wants us to call him, I cannot think of a single track of his I haven’t found profoundly annoying for multiple reasons. Be it the shameless genre-hopping with little appreciation for the new sounds he’s utilizing, the painfully shallow lyricism about hating yourself that just sounds phony, or most of all, the nails on a chalkboard-singing voice ... read more

When you speedrun to the top of the world, you don’t leave yourself much time for self-reflection. That need to look within seems to have caught up to Joey Valence & Brae, the explosive duo who’ve made quite the name for themselves combining late 90’s rap rock with as many zoomer meme references as possible. On HYPERYOUTH, their third record in as many years, they find themselves pondering the now and the future more than ever before; what if they don’t want to dance ... read more

On any given song from Water From Your Eyes’ new album, there’s a million things going on. Rachel Brown and Nate Amos squeeze more ideas and movements into single tracks than most other indie bands think to put into entire albums. It’s a far cry from how simplistic their synthpop sounded on earlier records yet no less captivating. It’s A Beautiful Place is being described as their guitar record, and it quickly introduces itself as such with an unexpected chord at the end ... read more

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and Ichiko Aoba has long the beholder. She’s always dabbled in orchestral folk music whose lushness transcends language, but she’s taken things to a new level on Luminescent Creatures. Inspired by diving trips and the fauna seen underneath the waves, Aoba submerges you into this world with not only some of her most gorgeous compositions yet, but her angelic voice. Take “mazamun” for example, where the instrumental hovers in the ... read more

A breakout star in the making, Tilly Louise provides the big pipes to back up her big power pop stylings. This quick EP gets loud fast and stays consistent, if a little samey. Continue to hone this style and Ms. Louise is an artists more blogs than just mine will be talking about in a few years.

In a year where Black Country, New Road took British post rock to enthralling new heights, the drawn-out tracks that caroline specialize in just don’t have the same sizzle they used to. No doubt there are some great songs here, including the caroline on Caroline Polachek violence committed on “Tell me I never knew that”, but this type of post rock leaves me yearning for something more dynamic.

Strong melodies are a steady through line across the latest from Hotline TNT. Through the chaos, the band finds plenty of grooves and riffs to ride as they swim through the seas of shoegaze and noise rock. It doesn’t build much off of what the band excelled at on 2023’s Cartwheel but it doesn’t need to; the group is still perfecting their style of music and getting better with each try.

The fleeting moments between love, heartbreak and passion are where Nilüfer Yanya has made her name in music. Her malleable voice has conveyed every emotion on the spectrum, matching alternative instrumentals both acoustic and unconventional in ways few of her peers have. She’s yet to release a bad project in my book, and on her new EP Dancing Shoes, you can hear elements of each of her past albums work their way into this quartet of tracks.

The overwhelming climax the percussion ... read more

With “Heartthrob”, the lead single for Indigo de Souza’s latest record Precipice, the ceiling is less an obstacle than an obvious target to smash right through. “I really put my back into it” is a rallying cry for Indigo De Souza to not just get over a failed relationship, but to fly past it. It leads into a soaring guitar solo that Adam Granduciel would adore, the kind of lick you hit when you’re riding a high higher than you’ve ever hit before. So why ... read more

Earlier this year, Sharon Van Etten added a backing band after years of solo albums, and the results were great. It’s a rare instance of an established artist finding new life by assembling a band and allowing others to flourish within their established sound. If Sharon’s new band was surprising, consider Ryan Davis coalescing with the Roadhouse Band a borderline miracle. He spent years fronting other groups (while also running his own label), but his fit with this group of ... read more

“None of that deep shit”. It’s an early declaration on the intentions of DON’T TAP THE GLASS, the surprise new release from music superstar Tyler, the Creator. Coming together less than a year after his 2024 LP Chromakopia, one could think this new project could simply be an attempt to capitalize on his high he’s been riding for a few years now. But that’s a oversimplification of who Tyler is: a diehard perfectionist who’s only going to drop something ... read more

In a recent feature with Pitchfork, Alex Giannascoli told the publication “I’m very boring. I don’t do anything”. Maybe so in his real life, but the Alex G we’ve grown to love through his music is anything but. The Bandcamp icon’s richly detailed indie rock has rightfully earned him a cult following, and now, a deal with a major label in RCA. Did the labels take him at his “boring” face value for all these years? Headlights is his tenth album, and ... read more

Wet Leg are cute in a Calamity Jane type of way. They say as much on “pillow talk”, a song that’s as gnarly as the band has yet sounded. Frontwoman Rhian Teasdale blasts her way through the gloriously aggressive instrumental, not asking to be folded like origami in bed but demanding it. Teasdale’s drug of choice is love of course; she’s just as likely to grow intimately attached to someone as she is beat the shit out of them for wronging her. It’s the kind of ... read more

It is no doubt good to have Clipse back. The way they rap on Let God Sort Em Out, a return 15 years in the making, makes it feel like the wait never happened. But doesn’t it all feel a bit too good? The lavish guest list, the frequent Pharrell Williams interjections, the reveal of certain songs at a Paris fashion show… it’s like every aspect of this return was carefully planned to maximize their return in the most corporate way. This is Pusha T and Malice we’re talking ... read more

It’s no coincidence that . (which I will henceforth call PERIOD because . is much too small to use) was released on American Independence Day. It’s a very Kesha way of celebrating her freedom from Dr. Luke and RCA Records, where she started her career and became embroiled in litigation and abuse that forever altered her career and personal life. On the nose has always been the name of Kesha’s game and it’s made for plenty of fun times before, so this newfound autonomy ... read more

When one makes an album so seminal it defines a generation, how do they escape it? The obvious answer is to make another classic, as if it's that easy. Yet it seemed like Lorde would make it look easy after what she did on Melodrama; instead she's spent much of the time since floating back to earth like a piece of loose leaf. She willingly let the beast of burden crush her with flimsy summer bummers on Solar Power, so you can at least say Virgin, her 4th LP, pushes back with a modicum ... read more

Love is a long road as Tom Petty once said, and that winding path is one Este, Alana and Danielle Haim have walked down their entire careers. We’ve gotten to see them age before our eyes and become wiser (and snarkier) in their romantic entanglements. But for as much as the desire to end things persists for the sisters on their new record, I quit spends a lot of time not quitting. Songs are titled like they’re late night texts, at times longing to return to past highs and at times ... read more

Brian Wilson, founder of The Beach Boys and pioneer of modern music, passed away two weeks ago at age 82. His long, storied career is impossible to sum up in one article. I could go on and on about my favorite Beach Boys songs, from their early period full of fun in the sun to turning the studio into an instrument to work from their later period following Wilson’s mental health issues. “God Only Knows” is in serious contention for the greatest song ever produced. The project I ... read more

Growing up is realizing the Beach Boys are so much more than dudes who made fun surf rock. That era of the band is wonderful too, no doubt, but the records the band made when Brian Wilson retreated from the limelight and broke out as a producer are some of the greatest ever made (Mike Love be damned). With Wilson’s passing earlier this month, many, including myself, revisited Pet Sounds, an album many consider to not only be the Beach Boys’ best, but one of the best albums of all ... read more