Best Ever Albums

Re: Release Day Eve

musicoed — Fri, 9 Oct 2026 18:04:54 GMT

Author: musicoed

Posted: 10/09/2026 22:04

MadhattanJack wrote:

musicoed wrote:

For this week's "Album of the Week" pick, I’ve chosen an act that truly fits the description. Up until the very last minute, there wasn't a single fan listed on their Bandcamp page, and there are songs on YouTube that haven't been listened to even once. Most importantly, the band doesn't seem to mind this at all; while they did release a couple of videos, they did so in a pretty laid-back, casual way. Stylistically—oddly enough—it sometimes reminds me of an artist like Hemlocke Springs.
It is noteworthy that the first track seems to deliberately mislead with its unpromising sound.
The Love.Craft Band - We Are The LCB (9/X-2026/41) (Album)

Why would they call it that? It's a group that's directly associated with a nonprofit for developmentally-disabled people, and four of the six band-members are developmentally disabled, and they give it a name that's a direct reference to a 20th-century horror author who wrote about impossibly-ancient space monsters and was also a complete racist though most of us are willing to overlook the racism to some extent for the sake of getting to read about impossibly-ancient space monsters.

Lots of people are going to see this and think it's a practical joke, and not even a funny one. In particular, fans of H.P. Lovecraft are going to see this and think it's not just a practical joke, but an attempt to exploit Lovecraft's name and "legacy" for unrelated purposes and waste their time in the process, since everyone knows that Lovecraft fans are all into black metal and would never listen to a band like this in a million billion years.

At one point, I was hooked on the space and economic strategy game *Elite*, but *StarCraft* just didn't click with me—unlike with a close friend of mine, who is actually a metalhead, by the way! ))
And yes, I agree that it’s actually somewhere on the level of a prank. But I really like the album, and fortunately, I did manage to mention that the music reminds me of Hemlocke Springs, so the metalheads shouldn't have any beef with me... though I’m not so sure about Hemlocke Springs.

MadhattanJack wrote:

That said, I think I like the first track better than the rest of it.

I never doubted it!))

MadhattanJack wrote:

(Also, you should put the band name and album title above the description, not below it, to reduce the confusion potential.)

By the way, regarding the confusion.

musicoed wrote:

... I have to admit that, initially, the advantage lay with this album, largely due to the superior quality of the promotional clips released beforehand. To the album's credit, despite the common practice of front-loading all the singles onto the first side, the publishers were creative enough to reserve the final slot for an obvious hit—and likely the next video.
Danielle Ponder - Everything Has Changed (9/X-2026/41) (Album)

I need to offer a brief clarification.
When I was preparing this post, the new video was actually already finished—something I only found out later.
My initial reaction was, of course, disappointment, because my guess had been wrong.
Then I discovered that the Bandcamp version of the album has two fewer tracks than the versions on some other platforms. To be honest, I had been almost certain that my prediction would come true this time and that the video would be for the final song of the 14-track version.
But once again, the joke was on me—though the 14th track is similar to the 10th, so there wasn't a huge difference; in fact, I didn't notice one at all. Still, the stars decided to keep playing games right to the end—what can you do?
Anyway, the song I’d like to see the next video for is the final one on the Bandcamp version—track number 12, titled "Made My Bed." I hope that this time, things will happen for real, without any more pranks. At the very least, that’s certainly what I’m counting on!))

Re: Release Day Eve

MadhattanJack — Fri, 9 Oct 2026 17:09:54 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 10/09/2026 21:09

musicoed wrote:

Re: Release Day Eve

musicoed — Fri, 9 Oct 2026 11:30:22 GMT

Author: musicoed

Posted: 10/09/2026 15:30

It’s amazing, really—it seems Hayden makes it a point not to listen to albums unless they have stylish covers! ))
MadhattanJack—as always, a really cool musical stand-up set! ))

It seems I had another run-in with the Prince of Darkness yesterday—and he unexpectedly loosened his grip. ))
Today involved a fair amount of work exploring a vastly larger volume of new content that had suddenly become available.

It’s time for me to open a department for obscure bands—one that could be called the ExBats Department!))

For this week's "Album of the Week" pick, I’ve chosen an act that truly fits the description. Up until the very last minute, there wasn't a single fan listed on their Bandcamp page, and there are songs on YouTube that haven't been listened to even once. Most importantly, the band doesn't seem to mind this at all; while they did release a couple of videos, they did so in a pretty laid-back, casual way. Stylistically—oddly enough—it sometimes reminds me of an artist like Hemlocke Springs.
It is noteworthy that the first track seems to deliberately mislead with its unpromising sound.
The Love.Craft Band - We Are The LCB (9/X-2026/41) (Album)

I have to admit that, initially, the advantage lay with this album, largely due to the superior quality of the promotional clips released beforehand. To the album's credit, despite the common practice of front-loading all the singles onto the first side, the publishers were creative enough to reserve the final slot for an obvious hit—and likely the next video.
Danielle Ponder - Everything Has Changed (9/X-2026/41) (Album)

This artist has already taken part in my year-end recap tournaments, so I suppose I’m not entirely impartial in this instance. Still, I did manage to single out a couple of songs.
Mol Sullivan - Say Less (9/X-2026/41) (EP)

Re: Release Day Eve

Hayden — Fri, 9 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 10/09/2026 04:00

the albums hitting my ears this weekend—

Edge Conditions (2026) by Jeremiah Chiu

From Such A Blue Sky (2026) by Jakob Bro & Midori Takada

Live At Carnegie Hall (2026) by Cameron Winter

the new Carly b-sides, Girl Ultra, maybe Tallest Man On Earth—
& there's a new archival comp by Dutch Caribbean artists via Soundway Records—

next week, there's new releases by Cesária Évora, Matt Carmichael, The Avalanches, and this release out of Uganda—

Luo Sound Of The Alur (2026) by Kucwiny Theatre Industry
—that I'm hoping everyone gives a spin
(preview track has a great vibe)

Re: Release Day Eve

MadhattanJack — Thu, 8 Oct 2026 22:47:52 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 10/09/2026 02:47

What October 9, 2026 releases are YOU planning to make mincemeat out of, even though nobody actually eats mincemeat anymore?

You'll recall that last week, I opened with the line, "Not a lot of big names this week." Well, last week was a Star-Studded Celebrity Spectacular compared to this week. The music media, given almost nothing else to work with, is treating the new Sheryl Crow album, Pick You Up, like it's some sort of Major Global Event (though to be fair, it does have a fairly cool album cover). The Pet Shop Boys are also getting more ink than usual (just not as much) from their new one, A Man From The Future, a concept album about the life (and trial, and eventual death) of British Computational Sciences pioneer Alan Turing. No advance single(s), and no preview tracks that I could find, but apparently they played the whole thing on BBC Radio last Sunday. (If you missed it you can always blame me, since that will prove utterly fruitless.)

And since many BEA denizens like the band Geese, I might as well mention that their lead singer Cameron Winter has a live LP out tomorrow that was recorded at Carnegie Hall last December, appropriately titled Live at Carnegie Hall. Apparently it's just him and a piano, and three of the songs are previously unreleased, so technically I can't just ignore it. I've never been a big fan of his, and I'm also on record as saying Geese is overrated, but it does take some real guts to go onstage at a big and highly-respected venue like that with no backing band and do a full hour-long set of material. (I'm guessing he probably practiced it first?)

Other Folks You Might Have Heard Of Dept.

Matt Pond PA has a new LP, Permanent Change Part 1. It's a nice album, but I'm pretty sure the title does not refer to his general approach to music-making, which is almost exactly the same as before. The same goes for modern-day prog-rockers Greta Van Fleet, whose new album Palace For The People sounds a lot like their usual stuff too, and no, they still don't sound like Led Zeppelin to me, no matter what their PR people say. The Kiszka twins (Jacob and Joshua) are still there though, so that's good news for "twinophiles," but there's still no evidence of them owning a fleet of vans, or any sort of vehicles at all really, much less one called "Greta." (Maybe someday.) Meanwhile, fellow modern-day prog-rockers The Pineapple Thief are back with Far and Wide, which isn't bad — they're saying it's harder and tougher than their usual stuff, and while I'm not calling them liars, it just doesn't sound all that hard and tough to me. Besides, I'm not going to believe anything they say regardless, not until that guy returns my stolen pineapples.

Finally, everybody got excited that a new Carly Rae Jepsen album was coming out until they learned it's just one of her usual "recent b-sides" collections, this time entitled Day and Night (Continued). She does this a lot, so I guess nobody can stop her.

She Probably Won't Go On a Date With Me But a Guy Can Still Dream Dept.

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

I'm going to go out on a really unstable limb here and say the most interesting record coming out tomorrow, and therefore my pick-of-the-week FWIW, is probably Laura Hickli's Stranger To Myself. (Sorry, no BC link available yet.) She's from Calgary (that's in Canada, so you know it's good), and this is her second LP, the first one being 2017's Flowstate. (She's also released a few EPs in the meantime.) Lyrically, the album has a scary backstory/concept involving a 2023 accident in which Hickli's tour van slid on some black ice, spun 180 degrees, and then rolled three times over a 50-foot hillside. Obviously that's just a typical trip to Walmart for me, but for her and her bandmates it was pretty traumatic (luckily, nobody in the van was severely injured). And to be honest, the lyrics are a little hard to make out anyway, so maybe most folks don't need to know about all that. As for everyone else, fans of Kate Bush or Kristeen Young might like this album — it's mostly piano-driven chamber pop, sometimes big and orchestral but more often just quite lovely and melancholy and pretty and angelic and occasionally soft and soothing, which are not things I normally like in an album. But it's all so well-done here, and her voice is so remarkable, I guess I can't help it. It's like the musical equivalent of kettle corn — sweet and salty at the same time, and not overwhelming, but hard to stop consuming once you get started.

But Wait There's More Dept.

Aphir, Averena
Aphir is a sort of ambient-experimental waifish-sounding dreampop singer from Melbourne, Australia. I hadn't heard of her before, but this is actually her 7th album, full of melancholy, almost darkwave electronica numbers, mostly with non-human-playable rhythm tracks. I detect the use of autotune on some of the trickier backing-vocal bits, but most of the main vocals are unaltered. It's a cool record, but it would really benefit from a stylistic or tonal break or two in there so that the whole thing doesn't sound so "samey." It also loses quite a bit of steam in the middle with tracks like "Messengers" and "Hand on Your Heart," and doesn't really get going again. I still like it, but she needs more songs that have hooks and other catchy bits, though I realize those things may not be fashionable anymore.
Twin Temple, Doomed Lovers
Here's a fairly short (25 minutes) 8-song album from everyone's favorite "Satanic doo-wop" duo. Lately they've really been taking their role as leaders of this particular microgenre seriously (since they may be the only ones in it), which is to say that musically they sound more like Patsy Cline with each successive release. But lyrically, they're as transgressive as ever, right from the jump — leadoff track "Doomed Lovers" amounts to a woman telling her significant other that if she were ever to die, she'd want him to die too rather than move on. (I mean, sure, every woman probably feels that way, they just don't tell you explicitly until after they're already dead and have started appearing in spectral form over your bed whenever you're with your new girlfriend or whatever. Guy-ghosts do that too, of course... they're just more weepy-whiny about it.)
Teenage Fanclub, Do Not Dare to Dream
It's been a long time since Bandwagonesque, and indeed, you'd never know this was the same band. But this almost feels like a sudden change in direction, as It's noticeably quieter than their last album, 2023's Nothing Lasts Forever. Presumably this is due to their decision to record on an island called Great Bernera, off the coast of Scotland, where I guess electric guitars are illegal? I know they're getting older, heck we all are, but this sounds like too big of a departure to me. It's almost twee-sounding, only twee tends to be more energetic than this. Having said all that, the songs are nice, and the whole thing is rather pleasant if that's what you're looking for.
Held, Star Falling
Held is a (self-described) "heavygaze" band (with male vocals, even!) from Oakland, California. This 6-track mini-album does feature occasional riffage, so I guess that's where the "heavy" comes from, but if it were me I'd probably lose the riffage and go full-on shoegaze, because it just sounds like they're "unwilling to commit." They're okay, though. We'll see where they go from here...
Tramhaus, Blister
Tramhaus is a mostly post-punk band from Rotterdam with occasional pop tendencies and less-occasional shoegaze tendencies. I really liked their first album, 2024's The First Exit, but the follow-up here might not be up to the same standard, at least based on the advance singles ("Plovdiv" and "Swarm"), which suggest they're making an effort to "punk it up" a little bit. Should still be good, though.
Andy Bell & Masal, Common Primitives
This is the second album Andy Bell has made with Masal, a male-female psychedelic-jazz/neo-classical duo from Essex. Bell, of course, was (and technically may still be) in both Ride and Oasis (and is therefore not the guy from Erasure), so he's the known-quantity here, but don't go in thinking this is some sort of Britpopgazepsychejazzical experiment — it's mostly instrumental, almost-ambient pieces with a few harps and Middle-Eastern bits thrown in, you know, for fun! It's nice, but by no means essential.
Imperial Teen, All Over You
This is Imperial Teen's 7th album, and it's actually one of their best yet (at least in my opinion), but I don't think it's going to a breakout hit for them or anything like that. It's just good ol' 2000s-style rock 'n' roll, basically, fun but not hugely original. They also have a real name problem now, since they've reached the age where the name "Imperial Teen" seems a bit cringey, but they've made too many records at this point to change it to something more appropriate like "Imperial Middle-Aged Person."

Masked Band Dept.

This week's masked band is Punktuals, from Seattle, with their new "sophomore" LP Hourly Rage. I don't hate the masks, but they're really just balaclavas. I'd give them extra points for wearing black balaclavas, as opposed to, say, green or purple balaclavas, but they're supposed to be a pop-punk band so why would they wear non-black balaclavas? That makes no sense.

Next Week...

Once again, there are about ten more albums that I could, and perhaps should, at least mention, including new ones from Glenn Richards and the Venus Lakes, Indonesian shoegazers Lightcraft, and Everyone Says Hi, which I guess is a jazzy-pop side-project for Nick Hodgson of the Kaiser Chiefs. I might not have time for reviews, though... Right now, it's looking like Oct. 30 will be the last really good week of this year, but next week it's Fontaines DC, the Eels, RIchard Thompson, and my own prohibitively-likely pick-of-the-week, Japanese shoegazers Sphere. Until then!

Re: Release Day Eve

musicoed — Sat, 3 Oct 2026 05:37:38 GMT

Author: musicoed

Posted: 10/03/2026 09:37

MadhattanJack wrote:

musicoed wrote:

The first artist is someone who has long held a firm place on my list of the best albums of all time.
I also consider this year's album—at this point—to be at least the album of the week. Unfortunately, there is a link only for the lead single.
Deep Forest - Soul (2/X-2026/40) (Album)

Amazon Music has the whole album:
https://www.amazon.com/music/player/artists/B000RSDJS0/deep-forest

I see that their debut LP is 38/75 on your all-time chart, but it looks like they're at least a duo, it's not just the French guy who looks like Rick Wakeman.

Thanks, the album appeared on Apple Music yesterday evening as well.
Deep Forest are among the few artists whose concert I was lucky enough to attend back in 2011.
Naturally, with every new album, I look for something comparable to what made me fall in love with the band in 1992. I wouldn't say I know their entire discography inside out, but—regrettably—their albums usually contain no more than two or three interesting tracks. The 2008 release is perhaps the only exception, or so my still-evolving rankings suggest.
The two singles released prior to this year's album indicated that the popular themes from their 1992 masterpiece would be revisited yet again. And yet, my expectations were amply rewarded this time; the album actually features tracks superior to the singles that preceded it. It is a shame, however, that in terms of structure, the album puts all its energy into the first half, while the second half feels more like an optional add-on.

Lately, I’ve found myself frequently referencing my "all-time" list. This calls for a bit of explanation. You see, back in 2008, I set out to compile a ranking of the best albums of all time based on a rigorous mathematical model. At the same time, I became interested in conducting annual public year-end recaps.
That mathematical model has grown increasingly complex over the years. Initially, I wouldn't start compiling the all-time best albums list until I had lists for every individual year. Now, I can't even begin work on the master list of all-time albums until I have a list of the best tracks for every single week. Which means I will never actually have a finished all-time list. ))

So, the list presented on BEA represents a snapshot of a specific situation in my life at that moment. Back in 2018, when I first joined the forum, I had to compile this list in a rush; otherwise, I wouldn't have gained access to the current 2018 list—which was what I was primarily interested in.
Naturally, I hastily consolidated my scattered spreadsheets to create it, but now it serves more as an archival record than an up-to-date list. I agree with Romanelli on this point: time changes a great deal, and passing interests inevitably fade into the background. However, having comprehensive information is essential—it gives you something to compare against and a basis for making choices.

Re: Release Day Eve

MadhattanJack — Fri, 2 Oct 2026 21:54:13 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 10/03/2026 01:54

musicoed wrote:

Re: Release Day Eve

musicoed — Fri, 2 Oct 2026 13:31:04 GMT

Author: musicoed

Posted: 10/02/2026 17:31

Romanelli wrote:

musicoed wrote:

I don’t think Todd Rundgren has anything against women in music. He opposes the mediocrity that gets hidden behind attractive female faces—using them like masks. I am well aware of the current state of women's rights globally. Yet, no matter how hard the world tries, women remain the physically weaker sex. This means they are still easier to manipulate. So, in my view, there are usually men behind all these masks—whether the face is a woman’s or an AI’s. And these men have found a way to monopolize the music industry. This didn't happen overnight; today, we are seeing the consequences that inevitably arise when competition is absent.

So many questions...

Um...yes, Todd Rundgren obviously DOES have a problem with women in music. Female singers are wearing masks to hide their mediocrity? Women are the weaker sex...the same women who handle the pain of childbirth? Women are easier than men to manipulate? Men are the reason for the success of women in music? Men monopolizing the music industry didn't happen overnight? The competition is absent?

Really?

REALLY??

Romanelli wrote:

musicoed wrote:

Romanelli wrote:

... The competition is absent?
Really?...

I could be mistaken, but it seems you refuse to spend time looking for new music. I believe you even mentioned a five-year timeframe. Is that the amount of time needed to take rankings seriously? Incidentally, your experience would be extremely valuable in discussions specifically about new music—because the absence of such discussion is precisely what makes it possible to manipulate not just women, but the entire world!))

You have no idea about my exposure to new music. I listen to albums in my collection when I am home. When I am out, I listen to a ton of new music. I simply don't feel the need to post about it here. BEA for me is about my collection. I do thank you, though, for taking the time to talk a whole lot about every new album you can get your ears on, 90% of which will be long gone and forgotten as bad releases (like every year) by the time I get around to adding 2026 albums to my collection. I don't talk about the new music I listen to because I simply don't feel like it.

I add albums to my collection in my own time, which you should realize and accept that everyone does this in their own way. New music is obviously a priority for you. Good for you. That doesn't make me wrong for prioritizing differently than you...and it doesn't mean that me not talking about albums that came out this week is the cause for the women being spoken about and treated badly. Your comments are a perfect example of that not being true.

But we're not really talking about new music here...I posted here because I saw some pretty questionable comments about women. Odd that you turned my pointing that out into "why don't you talk about new music?"...

I suspect my lack of English proficiency might be the root of the misunderstanding.
I was under the impression that you had asked six questions, all of which were related—in one way or another—to new music. I started with the last question and suggested that, given your vast experience, you might want to join the discussion on new music to help foster some competition, as I feel there isn't enough of it right now.
From your reply, I gathered that you likely believe there is already sufficient diversity of opinion regarding new music, and that, in time, 90% of the unsuccessful releases will simply fade away. It turns out our assessments differ on this point. I believe that, eventually, only the unsuccessful releases will remain, while no one will even know that successful ones ever existed.
On the other hand, there is no point in this argument, since our tastes may differ; what counts as a successful release for me might be a failure for you, and vice versa.

If my comments about women offended you, I apologize, as that was not my intention. I was simply expressing my point of view.

Re: Release Day Eve

Romanelli — Fri, 2 Oct 2026 11:38:46 GMT

Author: Romanelli

Posted: 10/02/2026 15:38

musicoed wrote:

Romanelli wrote:

... The competition is absent?
Really?...

Re: Release Day Eve

musicoed — Fri, 2 Oct 2026 08:39:30 GMT

Author: musicoed

Posted: 10/02/2026 12:39

Romanelli wrote:

... The competition is absent?
Really?...

Re: Release Day Eve

Romanelli — Fri, 2 Oct 2026 08:04:59 GMT

Author: Romanelli

Posted: 10/02/2026 12:04

musicoed wrote:

Re: Release Day Eve

musicoed — Fri, 2 Oct 2026 06:40:59 GMT

Author: musicoed

Posted: 10/02/2026 10:40

I was anticipating three releases this week.

The first artist is someone who has long held a firm place on my list of the best albums of all time.
I also consider this year's album—at this point—to be at least the album of the week. Unfortunately, there is a link only for the lead single.
Deep Forest - Soul (2/X-2026/40) (Album)

An album by an artist relatively unknown to me. However, the album's lead single could easily have been my "release of the week" had I continued filling out those hypothetical charts this year. Unfortunately, based on my initial listen, the only tracks that stand out are the two singles and the song that had a video released on launch day.
Sycco - Look Up (2/X-2026/40) (Album)

I was already familiar with this band thanks to their interesting videos and quite successful singles from previous years. However, almost all of this year's singles turned out to be rather uninspired. After a quick listen, the only track that stuck with me was the first one—which hadn't even been released as a single. In my view, the band is facing something of a creative slump.
walt disco - walt disco (2/X-2026/40) (Album)

MadhattanJack wrote:

musicoed wrote:

Yet, no matter how hard the world tries, women remain the physically weaker sex. This means they are still easier to manipulate.

You've never been married?

My close interactions with women have been sufficient for me to draw certain conclusions—ones I am by no means trying to impose on anyone else. It is a very simplified explanation, operating at the level of basic instincts. Unlike a man, a woman still finds it harder to survive in complete solitude, which is why she has to make compromises more often.

Re: Release Day Eve

MadhattanJack — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 19:46:40 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 10/01/2026 23:46

musicoed wrote:

Yet, no matter how hard the world tries, women remain the physically weaker sex. This means they are still easier to manipulate.

You've never been married?

Re: Release Day Eve

MadhattanJack — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 19:35:57 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 10/01/2026 23:35

What October 2, 2026 releases are YOU, you, YOU! It's always about YOU!

Not a lot of big names this week.

Ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr has a new album out called The Age of Everything, which is said to be a good album, and similar to his previous four as far as style and approach are concerned. Okay... Meanwhile, experimental art-punks Deerhoof aren't really a big name (more medium-sized if we're being honest), but at least they've been around for a while, and now they've got a new one called Divine Schism — it's like their 30th album or something. But this time, if you want a physical copy (despite the not-so-good cover art), it seems you have to buy it at one of their shows —their label, Joyful Noise Records, is letting them release this themselves, and apparently that's just how they want to do it. Why, we don't know. It's Deerhoof, so you can't really question it, I guess...

Swans have a new LP called Newly Sentient Being — it's a live album, but three of the five tracks are new and unreleased, and the whole thing is 160 minutes long, despite only being five tracks. They've declined to provide preview tracks (I guess since each one would be almost an entire album's worth of material in itself), but I expect it'll sound pretty similar to 2024's Live Rope, which was even longer. And back in the UK, a former member (Ding Archer) and a former manager (Ed Blaney) of The Fall got their hands on some "unused vocal recordings" of Mark E. Smith and are issuing a so-called "final studio album" called Post Script, I guess because the title "Crass Posthumous Exploitation" had already been used. Some folks are calling the album "illegitimate," and they may just have a point. No preview tracks for that either, but still, how bad could it be, right? Don't answer that.

Renowned soul/jazz/funk/etc. bassist/singer Meshell Ndegeocello has a new album out called Synonym, on which every track is a collaboration with a different recording artist. Among the collaborators are Cat Power, Brandi Carlile, Chaka Khan, and Ink... It just happens to be coming out on the same day as the new album by LA-based electropop guy The Album Leaf, aka Jimmy LaValle, entitled A Body of Voices, on which every track is a collaboration with a different recording artist. Among the collaborators are Twin Shadow, Warpaint's Theresa Wayman, Black Mountain, and Spencer Zahn. Was Frank Sinatra the first to do this, with Duets? Seems like there must have been people doing this before that...

As for this week's scheduling issues, the new LP from Queens of the Stone Age, Perfecth, has been moved back to October 30, so that should be helpful. Lily Seabird's new LP, Lightspheres On Their Way, which was supposed to have come out back on Sept. 4, got moved back to this week — so we get to hear that now, at least. Thank goodness!

Women Who Synthesize Dept.

In another interesting coincidence, the new album from experimental modular-synth person Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, entitled Ruin: It’s Not Just Music, is coming out on the exact same day as Cyano, the new one from experimental modular-synth person Emily A. Sprague. Sprague used to be in Florist (the American one, not the Japanese one). Smith's work is more accessible and pop-like, whereas Sprague's is closer to Kraftwerk-style pure synthesis, so you can tell them apart... but the whole thing still seems really "fishy" to me.

The Swedes Win Again Dept.

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

My personal pick-of-the-week this time around is the new LP from Swedish shoegaze/dreampop band Kallsup, entitled Alldeles För Nära — which in Swedish means "Far Too Close." Unfortunately, the name "Kallsup," which is also Swedish, means "cold soup." Their lyrics are also in Swedish, but despite all this, the band claims not to be entirely Swedish because their members come from all over Northern Europe and Scandinavia. The album is great, their singer is great, they remind me of Sad Day For Puppets (also from Sweden!)... it's everything a shoegaze-type guy like myself could want! (Admittedly, the competition this week was... a little thin, perhaps.)

Little Thinners Dept.

The Sewing Club, Sew
The debut album from a grungegaze, slightly-pop-like band from Nashville, this one starts out with a great track called "Complicated," but then falls off a bit into more standard indie-rock fare — otherwise this might have gotten the nod from me over the better-assembled Kallsup album. (FWIW.) The album also doesn't seem to make any lyrical references to sewing, but that's... fine. Oddly enough, they cite the band Wishy (see immediately below) as a principal influence, which seems to be another interesting coincidence since they don't sound anything like Wishy at all...
Wishy, Nature's Pill
As I mentioned in a recent post, the term "twee" is now being deprecated (i.e., replaced) by the term "jangle-pop." So this group is therefore a jangle-pop band from Indianapolis, Indiana — not the sort of place you expect a "twee" band to come from, since it's not in Northern England or Scotland. (Also, it looks like the alternate genre-name "C86" is being deprecated too, since it tends to "lock in" the genre to a specific date that's 40 years in the past, and a lot of the people who invented and popularized it aren't even alive anymore.) This is Wishy's second full-length LP, in addition to three EPs that have at least 5 songs each, and it's pretty good, though to be honest I might have already "maxed out" on this particular subgenre, for this year at least.
The U.S. Rip Van Winkle, ST
Here's a new side project from longtime Guided by Voices bandleader Robert Pollard and three other guys. It's very loose and lo-fi (as you'd expect) with occasional psychedelic bits. Pollard's voice is getting progressively weaker with age, and his continued insistence on low-tech production doesn't help with that, but if you're a GbV fan then I guess you should check it out.
The Black Watch, The Fuzzy End Of The Lollipop
Here's the 27th album of fuzzy lo-fi psychedelia, Beatle-pop, and proto-punk from this Los Angeles-based band led by John Andrew Fredrick, who are famous mostly for not being as famous as some people think they should be (note that BEA only has three of their albums listed). I've never been a huge fan myself, but this is actually a pretty good record — maybe the best one of theirs I've heard, though I've heard very few of them — and there's always a chance it might be their last.

There were a lot of other releases this week that I just didn't think were all that good, or if they were, just not the sort of thing I would ever listen to (unless forced to while detained in some sort of CIA black-site torture facility, or maybe just my bathroom). Still, some of them were interesting, like the ones from Revenge Wife, Sidewave, Whippets, Dev Lemons, TV Buddha, and of course Bombstrap. I'll try to give them another listen, but next week the gradual falloff continues despite new albums from Teenage Fanclub, the Pet Shop Boys, Sheryl Crow, Matt Pond PA, the Pineapple Thief, Tramhaus, Imperial Teen, and everyone's favorite terrible band, Animal Piss It's Everywhere. (Seriously, that album is completely unlistenable.)

Until then! 😄

Re: Release Day Eve

musicoed — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 04:48:50 GMT

Author: musicoed

Posted: 10/01/2026 08:48

MadhattanJack wrote:

... But maybe it could also indicate that aging male pop musicians like Todd Rundgren are just hearing more women in a field where there used to be relatively few, and they're having some sort of male-ego panic reaction whereby they think women are "taking over, OMG!!!" when they're really just bringing things into the kind of balance that should have been the norm in the first place.

I agree—balance is the key word in this whole story.
Men need women and vice versa; it is a condition for the survival of the species. I have no doubt that I enjoy female voices just as much as male ones.
I don’t think Todd Rundgren has anything against women in music. He opposes the mediocrity that gets hidden behind attractive female faces—using them like masks. I am well aware of the current state of women's rights globally. Yet, no matter how hard the world tries, women remain the physically weaker sex. This means they are still easier to manipulate. So, in my view, there are usually men behind all these masks—whether the face is a woman’s or an AI’s. And these men have found a way to monopolize the music industry. This didn't happen overnight; today, we are seeing the consequences that inevitably arise when competition is absent.

Re: Release Day Eve

MadhattanJack — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 17:52:48 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 09/30/2026 21:52

musicoed wrote:

I realize this is a trick question.)) Of course, I’d like to believe I can spot those who speak the language of the stars. But the rules of the game dictate that no one is supposed to know that.

I actually didn't intend it to be a trick question, I was just worried that you meant "men, specifically" instead of "people in general" or (ideally) "living creatures as opposed to machines."

There are actually lots of other reasons why there are (ostensibly) more women recording and selling music now than there were 30 years ago... we could go into them if you like, though it probably wouldn't be appropriate for this particular thread, other than to explain my apparent preference (recently at least) for female singers.

I will say though, even though it's excessively self-congratulatory, I was looking at my 2026 album chart just now and out of the Top 20, there's an even gender split — ten of the artists have male singers and ten have female singers. (Admittedly one of them has both, but I don't really like the male singer so much in their case so I counted that one with the females). Obviously it's a tiny sample size, my musical tastes are somewhat unusual, and it amounts to completely anecdotal "evidence" regardless. But maybe it could also indicate that aging male pop musicians like Todd Rundgren are just hearing more women in a field where there used to be relatively few, and they're having some sort of male-ego panic reaction whereby they think women are "taking over, OMG!!!" when they're really just bringing things into the kind of balance that should have been the norm in the first place.

By the way, the next Death From Above 1979 album album doesn't come out until January 29. I used to confuse them with Death In June because they're kind of similar-sounding, though less punky. Death From Above 1979 sounds more like Green Day... also, starting in about 2000 or so, which is when Death From Above 1979 initially formed, the lead singer for Death in June started wearing this mask most of the time, at least in public:

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Re: Release Day Eve

musicoed — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 06:51:14 GMT

Author: musicoed

Posted: 09/30/2026 10:51

Here is an example of how the stars might speak to you—or, more accurately, mock you. After posting the comment above, I set out—as usual—to track down that "voice from the heavens" in the form of new music releases. On one of the channels, the very first post I encountered was the brand-new music video for a song titled "Private Lives" by a band I hadn't heard of before: Death From Above 1979.
For me, that figure—1979—was like a red rag to a bull. I immediately set out to find a translation and an explanation.

Quote:

The name of the Canadian dance-punk duo Death From Above 1979 conceals a story involving a legal dispute, military slogans, and the birth year of one of the members.
Initially, the band was simply called Death From Above. Musicians Sebastien Grainger and Jesse F. Keeler adopted the phrase from pop culture; "Death From Above" is the official motto of the US 82nd Airborne Division and frequently appears in films (for instance, on a helicopter in *Apocalypse Now*).
However, shortly after the band's formation, issues arose that led to a name change:
• Conflict with James Murphy: Immediately following the release of their successful debut EP in 2004, the New York indie label DFA Records—co-founded by James Murphy (frontman of LCD Soundsystem)—sued the band. Murphy’s label originally stood for "Death From Above Records," and they demanded the Canadians change their name to avoid confusion.
• The addition of "1979": To avoid a complete name change and protect themselves from lawsuits, the duo simply appended "1979" to the end. This is the birth year of the band's drummer and vocalist, Sebastien Grainger.
Fun fact: In 2017, the band officially dropped the numbers, deeming them "too long and silly," and performed as Death From Above for a time. However, to the delight of longtime fans, the musicians later returned to their full, iconic name including the numerical suffix.

Let me remind you that just recently I mentioned once again that...

Quote:

I have always believed that music reached its peak in 1979, when the album *The Wall* was recorded.

I also believe that it is no accident that this album is regressive in its structure.

Once again, it’s as if I’m being given to understand that time isn’t what we think it is.
This band has existed for over twenty years with a name I couldn't possibly have missed, yet it only catches my eye at this specific moment. It’s as if they never existed at all and only appeared retroactively—just so someone could have a laugh at my expense.))
Now, I hope it has become even clearer to everyone that my musings shouldn't be taken too seriously.))

Re: Release Day Eve

musicoed — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 04:23:32 GMT

Author: musicoed

Posted: 09/30/2026 08:23

MadhattanJack wrote:

musicoed wrote:

What will become of humanity when people finally lose the need for music composed by the chosen of the heavens? In my view, the answer is easily found in news feeds.

Who (or what) are the chosen of the heavens?

I realize this is a trick question.)) Of course, I’d like to believe I can spot those who speak the language of the stars. But the rules of the game dictate that no one is supposed to know that.
And when those rules are artificially broken, the whole point is lost—the motivation vanishes.
I once saw a child—born around the turn of the millennium—watching *Teletubbies*. It took me just two minutes to realize how dangerous such characters are—completely devoid of any motivation. I nearly threw up right there in front of the TV. It came as a shock to me to learn that it was a British production.
Music—much like human health and safety—has been turned into an ordinary commodity, with attempts made to extract maximum profit from it. All of this inevitably affects people's psyches and their motivation.
But we live in a closed space; there is nowhere for us to escape from this planet. And it is round, as we know, so all sellers will inevitably meet their buyers someday.

Re: Release Day Eve

Repo — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 03:42:35 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 09/30/2026 07:42

MadhattanJack wrote:

SUPPLEMENTAL

Apparently Todd Rundgren is in some hot water these days for having said, in an interview with Vulture, that "there’s an argument to be made that [Taylor Swift] ruined music," and that to him, she's the "apotheosis of mediocrity." This seems harsh to me, but I was actually more interested in what he said next — that we're in the “'era of female artists,' and that the biggest artists in the world are all women 'because boys in the ‘90s started spending money on video games instead of music.'" Todd seems to have forgotten that boys in the 90s didn't spend money on video games either, they were actually pirating pretty much everything, including movies, music, and games, that could be distributed electronically. But that still doesn't explain why so many more female artists have become prominent lately. Looking at the list below, for example, only four of the twelve artists are, or have, male singers. My theory is simply that men finally realized that women are more attracted to guitarists and drummers, so they started handing the microphones over to women, who don't care as much about who among their fans is attracted to them and have nicer-sounding voices anyway. Another advantage to having women in your band is that they have friends, many of whom are also women. Of course, this is just a theory. Meanwhile, Todd Rundgren once produced an XTC album, so I can't say anything too mean about him... let's just say that I've heard he can sometimes be "a little difficult to work with."

Hmmm.... I guess video [games] did kill the radio star. I blame Lana.

Re: Release Day Eve

MadhattanJack — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 19:37:26 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 09/29/2026 23:37

musicoed wrote:

What will become of humanity when people finally lose the need for music composed by the chosen of the heavens? In my view, the answer is easily found in news feeds.

Who (or what) are the chosen of the heavens?