Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of August 28, 2020. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
Four years. That’s how long it’s been since Gore dropped, and I can still remember the feeling of utter disappointment. Don’t get me wrong, Gore was good – great, even – but how dare Deftones not fucking obliterate and hypnotize me at the same time with an indisputable album of the year? The nerve.
Needless to say, what’s bad for Deftones is still a career achievement for most other bands – but yeah, Gore didn’t leave much of an impression on me and I get the feeling that a lot of other fans felt the same way. It all just seemed so Deftones-by-numbers that it lacked any oomph or charisma. The songs began and ended and every time I was like, “Yup, that’s Deftones for ya” but then after each was done playing, I no longer cared (except for “Acid Hologram”, which still rules).
That’s why the on my very first spin of “Ohms”, I was already doing figurative cartwheels. The production is leaps and bounds ahead of Gore, and the shoegazey coating that has always suited them so well makes a return. Even the lyrics are better, achieving their trademark blend of romantic and ominous imagery: “So we slip into our hopeless sea of regret as I stare / Through the haunted maze in your eyes / Right through where I’ll remain for all time.” “Ohms” sounds immaculate and possesses an intense, fuzzed-out groove that any…
“The Lakes” was highly anticipated, although by some more than others. A bonus track on Swift’s surprise album folklore, it was essentially a marketing ploy to get fans to pre-order a physical copy of the LP because it was being touted as “limited”. Even though the song would end up being released digitally before most fans received their CD/vinyl, the tactic worked. Swift now finds herself as the first artist to spend 40 weeks atop the Billboard Artist Chart thanks in large part to folklore‘s 3 week stretch – a streak that can be at least partially credited to continued intrigue over the delayed release of “The Lakes”.
So, marketing strategies aside, “The Lakes” is actually a very good song and arguably one of the best that Swift has ever penned (or half-penned, crediting Jack Antonoff’s omnipresence in nearly every pop production these days). Swift throws a lot of imagery at us in this string-swept ballad, which essentially boils down to a farewell: “Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die…I’m setting off, but not without my muse.” She seems disenchanted with society as a whole, from the controversy/cancel culture that tarnished her reputation circa her highly publicized conflict with Kanye West (“I’m not cut out for all these cynical clones / These hunters with cell phones”) to Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun, who dealed away Swift’s intellectual property giving her a chance to buy her…
Track Review: Carly Rae Jepsen – “Me And The Boys In The Band”
Carly Rae Jepsen has been very busy during quarantine. In May, she released a b-sides album from her acclaimed 2019 Dedicated LP, a piece that felt like a return to the upbeat, summery jams of Emotion. Now, she’s now gone on to release another absolute bop with “Me And The Boys In The Band.” It’s as if Jepsen knows exactly how to lift our spirits during these times, and she has a seemingly endless pool of optimism to tap into.
“Me And The Boys In The Band” is a funky, rhythmic ode to her bandmates and was created with the help of pop producer extraordinaire Jack Antonoff. The accompanying video features clips of each musician in their respective quarantines. Jepsen essentially sings about the good old days of live shows – driving to venues, exploring new cities, and partying afterwards. The longing nostalgia of the lyrics belie its upbeat, cheerful aura, especially when Carly sings, “So just take me to the stage / It’s been lit from the start / I need the summer fun.”
At least in the absence of actual summer fun, Jepsen has sent us all of the warm vibes that she possibly can. The ease with which she churns out these infectious, breezy, and carefree bangers is beginning to almost turn scary. Chalk another one up for the queen of pop music.
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of August 21, 2020. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: August 21, 2020
Ars Magna Umbrae: Apotheosis
Genre: Black Metal
Label: 1154692 Records DK
Atramentus: Stygian
Genre: Death/Doom Metal
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Blackbear: everything means nothing
Genre: Indie-Pop/Rock
Label: Beartrap/Alamo/Interscope Records
Blues Pills: Holy Moly!
Genre: Rock/Psychedelic/Blues
Label: Nuclear Blast
Bob Moses: Desire
Genre: Electronic/House
Label: Domino Recording Co
Bright Eyes: Down in the Weeds Where the World Once Was
Genre: Folk/Indie-Rock
Label: Dead Oceans
Brimstone Coven: Woes Of A Mortal Earth
Genre: Stoner Rock/Hard Rock
Label: Ripple Music
Bully: SUGAREGG
Genre: Alt-Rock/Grunge/Indie-Rock
Label: Sub Pop Records
Cold War Kids: New Age Norms 2
Genre: Indie-Rock//Pop/Folk
Label: CWKTWO Corp.
Cut Copy: Freeze, Melt
Genre: Electronic/Pop/Post-Punk
Label: Cutters Record
Cytotoxin: Nuklearth
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Unique Leaders Records
Dan Croll: Grand Plan
Genre: Indie-Pop/Electronic
Label: Caroline International (P&D)
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of August 14, 2020. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: August 14, 2020
Biffy Clyro: A Celebration Of Endings
Genre: Alternative Rock/Post-Hardcore
Label: Warner Records
Black Marble: I Must Be Living Twice
Genre: Post-Punk/Electronic
Label: Sacred Bones Records
Decoherence: Unitarity
Genre: Black Metal/Industrial
Label: Sentient Ruin Laboratories
Ingested: Where Only Gods May Tread
Genre: Death Metal/Metalcore
Label: Unique Leader Records
Jordin Sparks: Sounds Like Me
Genre: Pop
Label: Disrupt Group
Kathleen Edwards: Total Freedom
Genre: Folk/Country/Alt-Rock
Label: Dualtone Music
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of August 7, 2020. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: August 7, 2020
Avatar: Hunter Gatherer
Genre: Melodic Death Metal/Heavy Metal
Label: Century Media Int’L
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of July 31, 2020. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: July 31, 2020 –
Alanis Morissette: Such Pretty Forks In The Road
Genre: Pop-Rock
Label: Epiphany Music
Alcatrazz: Born Innocent
Genre: Heavy Metal/Hard Rock
Label: Silver Lining Music
Brandy: B7
Genre: Hip-Hop/Pop/R&B
Label: Entertainment One
Creeper: Sex, Death & The Infinite Void
Genre: Gothic/Pop-Punk/Emo
Label: Roadrunner
Disavowed: Revocation of the Fallen
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Brutal Mind
Fontaines D.C.: A Hero’s Death
Genre: Punk/Post-Punk
Label: PTKF
High Spirits: Hard to Stop
Genre: Rock/Heavy Metal
Label: High Roller
Hockey Dad: Brain Candy
Genre: Alternative/Indie Rock
Label: BMG
Imperial Triumphant: Alphaville
Genre: Black/Death Metal
Label: Century Media
Katalepsy: Terra Mortuus Est
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Unique Leader
Land of Talk: Indistinct Conversations
Genre: Alt/Indie Rock
Label: Saddle Creek
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of July 17, 2020. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: July 17, 2020 –
The Aces: Under My Influence
Genre: Indie-Pop/Rock
Label: Red Bull
Bing & Ruth: Species
Genre: Ambient/Classical
Label: 4AD
Blu & Exile: Miles
Genre: Hip-Hop
Label: Fat Beat
Dark Sarah: Grim
Genre: Metal/Gothic
Label: Napalm
The Chicks: Gaslighter
Genre: Country/Pop/Bluegrass
Label: Columbia
Ellie Goulding: Brightest Blue
Genre: Indie-Pop/Electronic
Label: Polydor
Eremit: Desert of Ghouls
Genre: Doom Metal/Drone
Label: Transcending Obscurity
Kansas: The Absence Of Presence
Genre: Progressive Rock
Label: InsideOutMusic
Khthoniik Cerviiks: Æequiizoiikum
Genre: Death/Black Metal
Label: Iron Bonehead
Kllo: Maybe We Could
Genre: Soul/Electronic/IDM
Label: Ghostly International
The Lawrence Arms: Skeleton Coast
Genre: Pop Punk
Label: Epitaph
Lianne La Havas: Lianne La Havas
Genre: Pop/Soul
Label: Warner
Lonely Robot: Feelings Are Good
Genre: Rock/Pop/Progressive
Label: InsideOutMusic
Mystras: Castles Conquered And Reclaimed
Genre: Black Metal/Folk
Label: Divine Element
Oliver Tree: UGLY IS BEAUTIFUL
Genre: Hip-Hop/Pop
Label: Atlantic
Pretenders: Hate for Sale
Genre: Punk/Rock
Label: BMG
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of July 10, 2020. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: July 10, 2020 –
Battle Dagorath: Abyss Horizons
Genre: Ambient/Black Metal
Label: Avantgarde Music
The Beths: Jump Rope Gazers
Genre: Indie/Alternative Rock
Label: Carpark Records
Dawn Of Ashes: The Antinomian
Genre: Industrial/Black Metal
Label: Artoffact Records
DMA’s: The Glow
Genre: Alt/Indie Rock
Label: Infectious Music
Ensiferum: Thalassic
Genre: Folk/Melodic Death Metal
Label: Metal Blade Records
Inter Arma: Garbers Days Revisited
Genre: Sludge/Black Metal
Label: Relapse Records
The Jayhawks: XOXO
Genre: Country/Americana/Alternative Rock
Label: SHAM
Julianna Barwick: Healing Is a Miracle
Genre: Ambient/Indie-Pop/Dream Pop
Label: Ninja Tune
July Talk: Pray For It
Genre: Rock/Blues
Label: BMG Rights Management
Kacy Hill: Is It Selfish If We Talk About Me Again
Genre: Dream Pop
Label: Kacy Hill
Margo Price: That’s How Rumors Get Started
Genre: Country/Americana
Label: Loma Vista
The Midnight: Monsters
Genre: Indie-Pop/Electronic
Label: Counter Records
Welcome to the second installment of our 2020 quarterly playlist/mixtape! Below you will find hand picked songs from April to June. Feel free to jam the playlist below while reading what our writers had to say about each selection. Tell us what your favorites are in the comments, as well as any new artists you may have discovered here – or, alternatively, tell us what we missed! Thanks for reading/listening.
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Tracklist:
Ad Infinitum – Marching on Versailles
Do a quick Google search for Melissa Bonny; she’s hot. Not just physically, but vocally. She seems to specialize in power metal, symphonic metal, and is also one of the more convincing female growlers out there. “Marching on Versailles” displays that ability with one of her many bands, Ad Infinitum. “Marching on Versailles” shares a lot in common with the proggy symphonic power metal of a modern Kamelot album execept heavier without nearly as much theatrics and cheese. — Willie
Andrew Judah – Hair of the Dog
If you’re into the theatrical, progressive rock of The Dear Hunter, then allow me to introduce you to
It’s easy to dismiss recent works by The Flaming Lips. 2017’s Oczy Mlody is insanely trippy, but not very memorable outside of small handful of sneaky hits. 2019’s King’s Mouth is overbearing in its ridiculous concept, which features a giant baby who grows up to become a king – who then swallows the universe in order to save its inhabitants from an avalanche. I mean, it’s The Flaming Lips – so these sort of out there stories are accepted as the norm – just as they were back in 2002 for their famed classic Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. They’ve always been easy to enjoy, but difficult to take seriously.
‘Flowers of Neptune 6’ strikes a slightly different tone. While the song still retains the band’s classic penchant for psychedelia and casual drug references (“doing acid and watching the lightbugs glow like tiny spaceships in a row“), the music itself feels much more accessible – rooted in acoustic guitars and soaring verses rather than impenetrable synths or exotic instrumentation. In the video, frontman Wayne Coyne can be seen adorned in an American flag, and also walking through a burning field in a bubble. The imagery isn’t lost on listeners in 2020, where COVID-19 has forced us to live in metaphorical bubbles while the world around us is seemingly in flames. While we do not yet know if there’s a central motif or theme surrounding the band’s upcoming September 11th release American Head, ‘Neptune…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of July 3, 2020. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: July 3, 2020 –
Boris: NO
Genre: Drone/Doom Metal
Label: Inoxia
Convocation: Ashes Coalesce
Genre: Death/Doom Metal
Label: Everlasting Spew Records
Dream Wife: So When You Gonna…
Genre: Punk/Electronic
Label: Lucky Number
Holy Wave: Interloper
Genre: Psychedelic/Rock
Label: The Reverberation Appreciation Society
Paul Weller: On Sunset
Genre: Pop/Alt-Rock
Label: Verve Forecast
The Rentals: Q36
Genre: Indie-Rock
Label: The Rentals
Willie Nelson: First Rose Of Spring
Genre: Country/Folk
Label: Legacy Recordings
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had a strange fascination with the end of the world. I know, I know – it’s practically a worn out cliche in 2020, when everything from SARS-CoV-2 to militarized police brutality casts an apocalyptic shadow over our lives…but I just can’t help myself. Part of it is a product of my religious upbringing – even if I’ve become a skeptic over time, certain things still temporarily give me pause. For example, I watched with fascination as mysterious trumpet-like sounds blasted out of the sky from every corner of the globe – knowing that there’s a scientific explanation (stealth aircrafts, the hum of a meteor, HAARP experiments), but also allowing myself to tumble down the rabbit hole enough to imagine that we’re actually hearing some sort of ominous preamble to Revelation‘s famed seven trumpets. Toss in the blood moon tetrad from 2014-2015 (“The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord”), rampant locust outbreaks, COVID-19, riots, and now a historic continent-spanning dust storm that is blotting out the sun in certain regions – and it’s enough for even a cynic to begin wondering.
From a musical perspective, mewithoutYou’s 2015 LP Pale Horses rekindled my obsession with “the end” via terrifying accounts of a nuclear holocaust which fused Biblical and secular imagery. Trump’s shocking election the very next year and…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of June 26, 2020. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: June 26, 2020 –
Ahab: Live Prey
Genre: Death/Doom Metal
Label: Napalm Records
Arca: KiCk i
Genre: Electronic/Experimental/IDM
Label: XL Recordings
Art Feynman: Half Price at 3:30
Genre: Psychedelic/Electronic
Label: Western Vinyl
Bad Moves: Untenable
Genre: Alt/Indie Rock
Label: Don Giovanni Records
Bell Witch And Aerial Ruin: Stygian Bough Volume I
Genre: Doom Metal
Label: Profound Lore
Carach Angren: Franckensteina Strataemontanus
Genre: Black Metal/Classical
Label: Season of Mist
Catafalque: We Will Always Suffer
Genre: Black Metal/Experimental
Label: Mom+Pop
Corb Lund: Agricultural Tragic
Genre: Country/Folk
Label: New West Records
Dirty Projectors: Flight Tower
Genre: Indie-Pop/Folk/Experimental
Label: Domino Recording Co
Evening Hymns: Heavy Nights
Genre: Alt-Rock
Label: Outside Music
Gordi: Our Two Skins
Genre: Indie-Pop/Folk/Electronic
Label: Jagjaguwar
Grey Daze: Amends
Genre: Grunge/Rock
Label: Loma Vista Recordings
HAIM: Women in Music Pt. III
Genre: Indie-Pop
Label:…
![Versions [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71kSqLUmXJL._SS500_.jpg)
![The Third Gleam [LP]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/6147uvey7uL._SX425_.jpg)
![ENERGY (Deluxe) [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91fMgMdR5dL._SS500_.jpg)
![Smile [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71MG81sMaTL._SS500_.jpg)
![everything means nothing [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81HoljYBi9L._SS500_.jpg)
![The Woes Of A Mortal Earth [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/814nT4HtbmL._SS500_.jpg)
![Zeros [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81NtDpOrxYL._SS500_.jpg)
![A Celebration Of Endings [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/910MrctHG9L._SS500_.jpg)
![Where Only Gods May Tread [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81H8YUyv+4L._SS500_.jpg)
![Immersion [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91c35LyF68L._SS500_.jpg)
![Open Up Your Head [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81luKMAIpwL._SS500_.jpg)
![Dreamland [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81vMxIyDZ9L._SS500_.jpg)
![New Truth [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61yFXd4RoyL._SS500_.jpg)
![Yōkai [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91ctQzJfv-L._SS500_.jpg)
![Sucker's Lunch [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81NO4vRDJfL._SS500_.jpg)
![Under My Influence [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71X0OP4BvuL._SS500_.jpg)
![Miles [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A1foMHfVTbL._SS500_.jpg)
![Gaslighter [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71-pO9-Rp6L._SS500_.jpg)
![Brightest Blue [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71nGbZyxRQL._SS500_.jpg)
![Skeleton Coast [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/712D1o2Ui3L._SS500_.jpg)
![Ugly is Beautiful [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81ZGkTNdZiL._SS500_.jpg)
![Pray For It [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81paYw4sBML._SS500_.jpg)
…
![So When You Gonna... [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71iEU5qVcqL._SS500_.jpg)
![Q36 [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/811Zwy1IcRL._SS500_.jpg)
![KiCk i [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81fOuS8eSTL._SS500_.jpg)
