Long Lost (both the song and the album) takes the best elements of folk and country, and then swirls them into this dizzying, antiquated faux-50’s show tune nostalgia setting. I’ve truly never heard anything sound so modern and so dated at the same time; it’s brilliant. The album’s title track is cut right from the album’s center and represents its core sound perfectly: pianos ring out in splendor, towering choruses sing about taking to the mountains, and saccharine yet incredibly smooth string sections serenade your ears. ‘Long Lost’ is one of the most organically beautiful folk songs I’ve heard in ages. — Sowing

Brandmale came at a time for me when I’d basically given up on seeing this year as a great black metal year. That was probably death metal’s fault, but I was more than glad to hear “Fremd”‘s visceral sentiment while the band name toyed with my ideas for Tolkien-lore. Also: Hi Fremds! — Nocte

If there is one band who can emulate Hawkwind’s energy and power is Monster Magnet. Dave Wyndorf has covered a handful of their tracks throughout his career and the latest is another banger. ‘Born to Go’ soars with sharp guitars and pounding drums as you’re being immersed in its universe. At the same time, if you haven’t listened to the original act’s music, you would never tell this isn’t a Monster Magnet song. — insomniac15

 

The teenage me would be smug as fuck over this track. Our Last Night have covered Masked Wolf’s “Astronaut in the Ocean,” a rap-track-turned-rock, and it’s gloriously fun to hear. This version ups the tempo, throws layer after layer of skill and precision at it, using a variety of vocal and genre styles, and says what it needs to in just over two minutes before dropping the mic. It’s one of those covers that brings a completely different feel to it, while staying completely faithful to the source material. In the days where I held a myopic view on music – rock being better than everything else – I’d have seen this as an obvious win for the team. — DrGonzo

This is embarrassing. After however many incarnations of disaster art, Poppy has finally made a banger; her early work catered to creeps, her more recent shit to nu-metal apologists, almost all of it was dreadful, and I insulted every wing of her audience (a lot). No longer intent on pedalling novelty cringe, she’s slammed together an absolute slapper of a metal song and made me feel a little bit silly, not to mention uncomfortable. “EAT” paints a manic portrait of anorexia, packing a genuinely unnerving edge behind its most infectious hooks; at the drop of a hat, Poppy has flipped from I get why this is very obviously meant to be fun[ny] to is it really okay for me to enjoy this so much? It’s horrible and it slaps. She also screams in 2021 and it sounds good: fire Chino, hire Poppy. –JohnnyoftheWell

 

Typoons is pretty forgettable as an album, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t whole-heartedly embrace Royal Blood’s QOTSA worship on “Boilermaker.” Those insanely compressed, fuzzy guitar tones, punctuated grooves and slinky-cool vocals are all hallmarks of a modern Queens tune, but the track pulls it off so effortlessly it becomes the glaring stand-out from the rest of Typoons’ tepid tracklisting. — DrGonzo

 

I didn’t know, listening to The Baby, that Samia was an industry pl– the daughter of celebrities. That’s a good thing; Samia’s music was and remains relatively unassuming–lacking depth, maybe, but certainly not resonance. ‘Show Up’ is certainly light, in sound and in subject matter; I’ve listened to it, like, a hundred times, though, so I don’t know, you explain that. — BlushfulHippocrene

It’s frankly ridiculous that it’s a) already Q2 of 2021, and b) that I’m writing about not one but two Springsteen-worshipping standalone singles. And while we expect a bit of E Street Band-ian bombast from Gang of Youths, hearing Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen bust out a pulse-pounding duet over the “Born to Run” riff is one of the most unexpected – but delightful – turns this year. Van Etten has been on a monster run since her comeback in 2019, dropping loosies for soundtracks here and there that would make most bands blush, but “Like I Used To” is something different – an absolute worldbeater, the kind you play in your head stepping up to the pitch to make the fateful swing in the last act of an inspirational movie. I don’t play sports, obviously, but I do bump “Like I Used To” on repeat, letting the spine-tingling singing of two of the best vocalists currently alive lift me up and take me far away. — Rowan

This Belgian quintet’s junior effort is a delightfully quirky record with a robust middle section (truly, the “Honu”-“Cumulus”-“Finding Mu” trio is sublime). Copious amounts of EWI from Andrew Claes augment the track’s celestial ethos, as “Cumulus”‘ funky cauldron sounds like it will boil over at any moment — especially as the rolling congas start to take hold in the song’s second half. — Jom

What’s better: woozy dream-pop or technicolour IDM? Who cares – Sweet Trip have always been at their best milking both styles for everything they’re worth in tandem, and “Chapters” is an electrifying, gorgeous, seamless, kinetic buzz-buzz case study of why this is so. It’s probably their best track since their 2003 opus Velocity : Design : Comfort and, coincidentally, the truest thing to that album’s palette that they’ve done since. Maximalist indietronica doesn’t get any better than this. — Johnnyofthewell