Okay, so in addition to not noticing that Dragonflies LP, I also missed this new thingy from Drake, called Fear of Missing Out — it's actually a short "surrealist" film accompanied by a short album, and while I'm not entirely clear on this yet (nor do I really intend to be), the album was originally going to be the "soundtrack" to the short film but he decided to include at least a few (maybe most of them?) that aren't used in the film. I'm sure it's fabulous.
Meanwhile, the Eurythmics' Dave Stewart has a new album called The Way It Was Back Then, except that the album doesn't have Annie Lennox on it, so it isn't really the way it was back then, is it? And in Nashville, also-fabulous "pop-noir" singer Nicole Atkins is back with her 7th really good LP, Drama — I think it might be her best one yet. Plus there's even a new collection of (mostly, I think) "lost," or maybe just "shelved," David Bowie tracks from 1965 entitled The Shel Talmy Recordings. There are 22 tracks on it, 10 of which are previously unreleased, supposedly comprising all known recordings of the act then known as Davie Jones & The Lower Third. My problem with it is that I consider Talmy to be one of the worst music producers of that era, as he practically ruined the early Kinks recordings with deliberately bad mixing and equalization (assuming he even knew what the latter even was). He got better eventually, and these tracks have been "fixed up" somewhat, but I can't really recommend this LP to anyone who isn't a Bowie completist (and good luck with that, by the way).
But there's more!
Roomer, Staircase Made of Rope
The second album by this trio from Berlin, it's kind of like sadgaze/slowcore post-rock with occasional bursts of heavy guitar noise and fewer crescendoes, but there are also vocals, mostly provided by a female singer (Ronja Schößler) who has that whispery, half-asleep, barely-present style I like so much. On their quieter songs, I wouldn't make a direct comparison to a band like Mazzy Star, but they can produce a very similar "vibe" when they want to. It's... kind of nice, actually.
Roger Joseph Manning Jr., Hopium
You'll remember Roger as a member of Jellyfish, one of my 40 (or so) favorite bands ever, and various other projects such as the Moog Cookbook and Imperial Drag. He's amassed a small-but-interesting discography over the years, but this album seems to be a "back to the start" record, almost like it's fan service for Jellyfish fans and other power-poppers. Great! I'm all for fan-service when it's done as well as this, but unfortunately there are only 5 new studio tracks here (along with 5 live tunes recorded at the International Pop Overthrow in Los Angeles, including two Jellyfish songs, "That Is Why" and "The King is Half-Undressed"). More would be better.
Carrousel, Memphis, Again
I loved the very first album by this Los Angeles husband-and-wife duo (aka Sharon & Joel Piedt), 2012's 27 Rue de Mi'chelle — I thought it was one of the best examples of American chamber-pop I'd heard up to that point — but they've gotten progressively more trip-hop-oriented, bigger-sounding, and psychedelia-tinged since then, and while there are still elements of the earlier sound that pop up now and again, I think I still just prefer the older stuff. Carrousel is hugely underrated in my opinion, as they write beautiful tunes, put enormous amounts of effort into their recordings, and spare no expense to hire large numbers of backing musicians, this time including the London Strings (at Abbey Road, no less) and even the Czech National Symphony to do real instruments and orchestra parts when they could easily settle for digital samplers and drum machines. I'm not sure how they manage all that, but the fact remains, hardly anyone else seems to have heard of them. Anyway, they're saying this is the fourth album in their four-part "Memphis cycle," which I guess means they've been mentioning Memphis a lot in their lyrics recently, and now maybe they'll... stop doing that? (That might be for the best. Memphis has been taken over by ICE, and there are other cities they could mention that haven't.)
The Bernadette Maries, Soft
Here's a nice-sounding debut LP by a "shoegaze-adjacent" post-punk sort of band, with occasional twee-ish overtones, from Brussels. Obviously that's in Belgium, so they have to be good, and they are, but the album cover on this thing is... let's just say "unimpressive." (I guess I've seen worse, though. Actually no, I don't think I have...)
Outer World, Home
I can't really tell how many people are in this band, but they're from Richmond, Virginia and they bill themselves as "retro-future, crate digger delights, French freakbeats, psychedelic garage-pop, Bond spy themes, space-age post-punk, and '80s NYC disco punk." That's a lot, and of course I still think "disco punk" is a contradiction in terms, but aside from that it's not an inaccurate description. I'm particularly fond of the "Bond spy themes," which they seem to throw in there at nearly every possible opportunity.
Machinery of the Human Heart, The Grand Scream
This surprisingly wacky and fun album comes from Marvin Allister, a trans cabaret singer from New Jersey with a real penchant for early 20th-century musical theatre. It also kind of reminds me of an old Amanda Palmer album — not one of the ukelele ones, I'm thinking of the ones she did that had decent production budgets. I never really liked Amanda Palmer's albums... I did sort of like Amanda Palmer herself, though!
ELM, The Midnight Zone
Maybe it's just the album title, or the singer's voice, or what-I-don't-know, but this post-punkish quartet from Cuneo, Italy reminds me a lot of Australia's Midnight Oil, though they're rougher around the edges. Most of the songs seem to be in the same key, which I think is E-flat, so that would mean they're probably tuning everything down a half-step... Minor quibble! There are elements of math rock, goth and post-hardcore here too, and overall it's not bad, just be aware that there's a fair amount of snarly aggression involved.
Roger Clark Miller, The Green Man
Miller used to be the singer/guitarist for Mission of Burma. More recently he's been in a lo-fi indie-rock band called Trinary System, but apparently when he records under just his own name, it's just him and a guitar (usually an acoustic or a clean electric), with some vocal overdubs and that's pretty much it. It's not folk music though, it's more like solo-acoustic post-punk, so I personally hear it as "unfinished." But that's just me, YMMV!
Thisquietarmy, Erosion
Thisquietarmy is basically the solo ambient-distorted-feedback drone guitar project of Eric Quach. He's made albums that were more musical and less droney than this, so maybe this isn't the ideal introduction to his work, but since he's also considered a shoegaze act I guess I had to mention it.
Winter (Samira Winter, originally from Brazil), Romantix Mixtape Adult Romantix was one of my favorite albums from last year, but I assumed this "mixtape" was just another one of those "reimagined" albums that people insist on making these days. It's a bit more interesting than that; there are two completely new tracks and four remixes, including one by Soccer Mommy and another by Peel Dream Magazine. And yes, I like at least two of the remixes better than the originals. Still, not a "new album" by most definitions.
The Bends, If You Insist
I'd have to call this group from Louisiana a "standard rock" band, meaning it would fit into the "modern rock" radio format and sounds like the typical sort of upbeat, major-key stuff they play when they go to commercial during football games. I'm just mentioning it in case you saw the band name and thought it might be some sort of Radiohead pastiche.
Post Sex Nachos, Big Bad
If you're a regular listener to The Tony Kornheiser Show, you'll have heard of these guys. They're kind of a multi-genre, but mostly alt-rock/alt-pop band from Missouri (though they're currently based in Nashville). They bill themselves as "your second-favorite boyband," so they must think you have a first-favorite boyband, which to me would be a grievous insult since I don't like any boybands whatsoever. (Unless you count the Beatles as a boyband, which most people don't.)
There are probably still more out there, but I guess I have to stop somewhere. Ciao!
For me, the standout album this week will likely be the release from a band that managed to put out three singles, all of which made my weekly lists. That’s a 100% success rate—something that happens quite rarely. Unfortunately, all these songs are sequenced back-to-back at the very end of the album's first half, which once again leaves almost no chance for a strong finish.
Both Hands - Be Like A Mountain In A Moonlit Way (18/IX-2026/38) (Album)
I didn't see that announced anywhere. Did you just accidentally see it somewhere, maybe just clicking around on Bandcamp? Pretty good record, actually! 😄 ...
This once again showed just how different our tastes are. What surprises me most is that one of my most revered bands—Cocteau Twins—might have played a part in this; they are the ones usually cited for actively championing shoegaze and dream pop.))
I don’t really like getting into genre distinctions, but here it’s unavoidable. After all, as attuned as I am to the sound of dream pop, I am equally far removed from everything labeled "shoegaze."
And the difference is quite simple: one genre is rooted in atmosphere, the other in melody.
In the case of this release, two other subgenres collide: synth-pop and ambient pop.
On one hand, for me, the music evokes the likes of Vince Clarke; on the other, it brings to mind Cassandra Jenkins.
All three singles certainly had ambient undertones, yet the focus remained on rhythm and melody. For me, the standout—and most melodic—track is "Lips Parted," which closes out the first side of the record. The entire second half, however, is pure ambient pop.
Still, the fact that the band chose the more melodic tracks as singles bodes well for the future!))
So, I recommend that fans of Vince Clarke listen to the album starting with Side B and finishing with Side A. By the way, that’s the second coincidence involving The Exbats’ album!))
The first coincidence is that The Exbats’ album also flew under the radar last week; at any rate, I didn’t come across any mentions of it on the forums I frequent.
This is a very sensitive topic that I’m really keen to discuss. On the other hand, it borders closely on the issue of information sources and immediately intertwines with the reasons behind popularity—reasons that, in my view, have become far too toxic these days.
I find all my music through singles and video clips, literally digging through musical junk heaps every day. That’s because shops where music is neatly arranged on shelves simply don’t exist anymore.
And they don’t exist because no one intends to pay for music—after all, for some time now, you haven't had to.
It seems to me that these contradictions could be resolved quite easily. But whether those in power have any interest in doing so is a big question. On the other hand, if this problem were solved, I wouldn't have the same drive to search and keep moving. At my age, that would practically mean losing my reason for living.))
The first coincidence is that The Exbats’ album also flew under the radar last week; at any rate, I didn’t come across any mentions of it on the forums I frequent.
This is a very sensitive topic that I’m really keen to discuss. On the other hand, it borders closely on the issue of information sources and immediately intertwines with the reasons behind popularity—reasons that, in my view, have become far too toxic these days.
I can really only speak in terms of English-speaking countries, and the USA in particular, but as far as the US/UK/etc. market is concerned, the Exbats really have three problems:
First, all their previous albums have a common musical approach, which they themselves have described as "a dystopian garage version of the Shangri-Las, or pre-Velvet Underground Lou Reed doo-wop." That's almost an anti-commercial approach here these days, but now they're moving away from that approach — and that might alienate their existing fan base.
Second, their marketing and visual image is not good. Their album covers are misleading and unattractive, making you think they're much more punk-ish than they actually are. Also, their band name contains the word "bats," and nobody likes bats, since they get into your house and then you're not supposed to kill them because they eat disease-spreading bugs, but if you capture them and release them outside they just fly back in and it can cost a fortune to finally get rid of them.
Third (and last), they're a father-daughter act. There's a reason why you don't see a lot of those around, and I won't go into it in detail, but it's a huge disadvantage for them in terms of breaking through into "mainstream" success, and that's before either of the aforementioned other two things are factored in.
So... while I totally agree that it's a good album, and the best one they've ever recorded, I just don't think they're going to overcome these issues to achieve general popularity. I'm happy to help you (or anyone else) discuss and promote them, of course (for whatever that's worth)... but that's another thing too, their last album was on Goner Records, and the new one is self-released. So maybe they're not used to doing their own marketing campaigns, which could easily become problem #4 for them.
..., the Exbats really have three problems:[list]
... but that's another thing too, their last album was on Goner Records, and the new one is self-released. So maybe they're not used to doing their own marketing campaigns, which could easily become problem #4 for them.
Thanks—as always, this was very informative; naturally, I knew none of this and never would have found out otherwise. But of all the obvious reasons that hindered the new album's promotion, the one that resonates most with me is the non-obvious one—number 4.
These days, any mention or discussion counts as promotion, regardless of the tone. So, in my view, we’ve actually done quite a bit for this band.))
Now I want to support the chapter too – Supplemental.
I am very familiar with the name Ratatat and would never normally miss a release from the group.
However, one of the members released an album under a different project name.
As a result, the album didn't make it onto my watchlist—even though a solid single and video, "Soursop," had come out back in early August and had also slipped under my radar.
This is a case where the atmosphere—or rather, the sound—matters most to me, specifically a sound with minimal vocals.
That’s not surprising, really, as I often hear echoes of Mike Oldfield’s guitar work in the music.
Kunzite - Secrets (18/IX-2026/38) (Album)
A second album bursting with energy, crafted according to all the rules of dance-punk.
The tracks are like short, stunning bursts of gunfire—albeit a bit repetitive.
I don't recall this band making my lists before, but the release is worth checking out.
Perennial - Modernism (18/IX-2026/38) (Album)
Look, things obviously got out of control this week, due to the unusual number of releases (which is to say, actual new albums from bands I like, not just reissues and... "other stuff"). Hopefully that won't happen again, because it definitely got well into the "TL;DR realm" there and that should be avoided.
Of course, that's just another way of saying... there's more!
There was some confusion this time around with the new Jesus Jones album, Twilight. That's an Apple Music link, because apparently there's some sort of partial exclusivity arrangement going on. The album is also on Spotify, but right now it looks like none of their records are streamable on Amazon Music, at least in the USA, and there are just two self-released live albums of theirs on Bandcamp. As it happens, the Apple Music/Spotify release date was Sept. 18, but I had it down as Sept. 21, and then that was moved to Sept. 25, the latter probably being the date you can buy the physical media online and in stores. Not well-handled at all by whoever is doing the business side for them, but if anything that's becoming more common... As for the album, it sounds pretty much like all their other stuff — good but not great, fun but not fascinating, and maybe a single or two.
Another case of release-date confusion: Dina Summer's new album, Children of the Night, was supposed to come out on Sept. 20, but at the last minute they moved it back to October 9. They're a "dark disco" electropop trio from Berlin; they must have thought they were being clever with the band name, but if they're not careful they could be accused of cultural misappropriation. Perhaps rightly so!
I missed the new debut LP from Daymoon, entitled Myriad, though I suspect there was just no pre-announcement. They're from Lancaster, PA, and the album is actually kind of hard to describe — it's almost too interesting, like they're trying too hard to be musically inventive (not to mention lyrically brilliant and highly psychedelic), and they're at least partially succeeding, but at the cost of accessibility, listenability, all that sort of thing. (The lyrics are, frankly, quite pretentious, so it's just as well that they use a lot of reverb on the vocals so you can't understand them easily.) I'm not saying it's Trout Mask Replica, it's still basically a rock/pop record, not to mention a good one as long as you ignore the lyrics. But it reminds me of my own years of "trying too hard" as an adult-film actor and "weirdotech" entrepreneur, and look where all that got me.
Finally, there's a new 5-song (all but one of which are instrumentals) EP released today from Bring Your Own Drugs, a solo act from Berlin, called Ants as a Unit of Effort. It's gauzy, dreamy, atmospheric, keyboard-driven fuzzy slowcore, basically. I noticed the guy earlier this year, kind of by accident, and I was hoping for a full-length non-bedroom production from him, but this isn't it. I guess we'll see what happens. And yes, it's easy to make a concept EP about ants if all the songs are instrumentals and you can just give them whatever titles you want. It's a bit of a "cheat," really. I just feel kind of sorry for all those ants.
Now that I've taken the trouble to check, this last week was definitely (and probably will remain) the biggest of the year — there were almost twice as many releases coming out as the next-biggest, which (for me at least) was three weeks ago on Sept. 4. Three more not-as-big weeks to go and then it's Christmas season, so hopefully no more TL;DR after this!
What Sept. 25, 2026 releases are YOU eating for lunch?
I'm running out of ideas for intro blurbs. I guess I just assumed there would be an infinite supply of them...
Famous Folks Who Make Records Dept.
Relatively few of these this week, for some reason. The media is abuzz about a new Taylor Swift single called "Patient Zero," which I guess is her ode to the first person the billionaires (she's one of them) plan to infect with the deadly global contagion that will ultimately kill us all. (At least we know she cares, though.) While everyone gushes over that, Brandi Carlile is the latest to join the "reimagined album" trend with a remix of last year's Returning to Myself. She's calling it the "Sad Gay Version," but she's been kind enough to include the original album too (which I guess will be the "Happy Straight Version" now) along with it. There's one new track called "And So It Goes," but apparently it's not a cover of the Nick Lowe song from 1978, nor is it a reference to a Kurt Vonnegut novel, so I'm just going to move on from that one... Another famous person with a new album this week is movie actress Cara Delevingne, perhaps best known for being personally blamed for the failure of 2017's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets at the box office (hint: it wasn't just her fault). The album is called Not Normal, and it's not bad, though I'm afraid it is relatively normal compared to... oh, about 90 percent of my own music collection. (I might add that she isn't a blonde anymore, so don't have a heart attack next time you see her, like I did.)
Robin Trower's new album, Shine, sounds like it's pretty good, one of his best "mature era" efforts, even — I think it's his 29th LP, not counting the albums he did with Procol Harum. Dude can definitely still play, but his voice is wearing out from age and has been for some time now (he's 81). Thankfully you don't have to be young to play blues-rock for the masses, you just need a good track-record, a decent amp, and a few bottles of bourbon. Meanwhile, there's former Van Der Graaf Generator founder Peter Hammill, practically a callow youth at age 77, with another solo LP called Tears In Time. I'm not sure if this qualifies as a proper new album though, because apparently he's been recording these tracks in various locations over the past 35 years. Not sure why he couldn't have released them before now, but maybe there was a technical problem, or he had a flat tire or something. Perhaps the dog ate it... You never know with Peter Hammill!
Sabrina Does it Again Dept.
I'm just going to call it right now and say that Violins, the new album from Blondshell (aka Sabrina Teitelbaum) is yet another Big Winner from her and, as predicted, my personal pick-of-the-week. This time around, the songs are more serious in terms of lyrical content, even political in some cases. Good for her! And maybe it's just me, it probably is, but I just find her voice very distinctive, so that when a song of hers comes on I almost know it's her right away, and to me that's worth something. I say "almost" because... as Yoda would say, "there is another." And it's...
Julia Jacklin, The Gem
What can I say, her voice sounds a lot like Sabrina's. Thankfully her songs are more folk-rock-oriented, and she's from Australia so I guess she has slightly less to be angry at society about, which means you can still tell when it's Sabrina and not Julia — assuming you're a "good listener."
M83, I Wrote You A Letter
I'm not so sure about this one. There's only one preview track — it's the leadoff, "Blister Sunrise," which is great — but all the reviews are saying the rest of the LP is all over the place, mostly instrumentals, more subdued, more atmospheric, and less bombastic than the last few M83 records. (An M83 album without bombast? That's just... wrong.) Bandleader Anthony Gonzalez seemingly wants us to believe this is a return to M83's more "punkish" roots, except that M83 were never really punkish. He's also saying it's "a product of his disillusionment in his perception of the world," so hey — join the club, Anthony, but it's easy to say things like that when the songs either have no lyrics at all or only unintelligible ones you can barely hear. And besides, if nobody is singing, that just increases the temptation to "fill the space" with saxophones, does it not? And we all know what happens then.
Penelope Isles, 3
The problem here is that this is the glamour-averse Brighton brother-sister duo's fourth album, so naming it "3" is a little confusing. This one was recorded in Scotland's Black Bay Studio (whereas all their previous stuff was recorded in their home studio), and it sounds more polished and, well, nice. Maybe a little too soft 'n' dreamy to have serious hit potential, but who knows — there are some good tunes here, and they've always gotten good reviews. Now if they could just get some better clothes.
Protomartyr, Hotel Usona
Produced by Dave Fridmann, this is their seventh album, and personally I think it may be their best one yet. Only, well, coming from me... let's just say I'm still not a big fan of their singer, Joe Casey, but he's been getting better at it, and overall they seem to be expanding their "sonic palette" here quite a bit, which I personally felt was what they needed all along. It's more subversive, still with plenty of oomph and bombast, but maybe not quite as anthemic as their last LP. I suspect Fridmann has something to do with all that, so hopefully they'll be smart and bring him on for the next one too.
Squanderers, Bright Madness
This is a new-ish trio consisting of Wendy Eisenberg, David Grubbs (from Gastr del Sol), and Kramer (not the Seinfeld sitcom character — his album got shelved years ago). It's an ambient-instrumental, not-quite-jazz record; possibly improvisational, and it's rather loose and meandering, though pleasant-sounding. (No word yet on what they've been squandering or how much has been squandered.)
The Late 20th Century Won't Go Away and Leave Us Alone Dept.
Soft Cell, Danceteria Dave Ball tragically died last October, but not before co-writing and producing most of the material on this album. So Marc Almond, the other half of Soft Cell, is calling it a "farewell" LP, dedicated to Dave Ball. He's also calling it "a love letter to New York in the early 80's," which is to say the album sounds like late-period disco music. So I'm not actually going to listen to it, but I will extend my (delayed) condolences to Dave Ball's family and suggest that diehard disco fans could do a lot worse than to check this one out.
Pete Fij, Up's the New Down
Early-90s shoegaze-pop fans will of course remember Adorable, one of the most accessible bands in the scene (you know, the one that "celebrated itself"). After they broke up, singer Piotr "Pete Fij" Fijalkowski went off to form Polak, who were just kind of okay, and then did some stuff with The House of Love's original guitarist Terry Bickers. I'm not 100% certain, but I think this may technically be the first album Fij has made all by himself! It's good, and he still writes cool tunes, but I'm afraid it does sort of answer the question of "why get Terry Bickers." Not a lot of virtuoso guitar-playing on this one, but thankfully you don't always need that to make a good record.
The Wolfgang Press, Asylum Variations (Boomkat link)
These guys were one of the original 4AD bands, and after a lengthy hiatus starting in 1995, they returned in 2024 with A 2nd Shape, though they were (and still are) without original keyboard player Mark Cox. This is now their 7th album (since I don't count Unremembered Remembered, their 2020 demos EP), but they're not on 4AD anymore, they're on a label called Downward (or possibly "Downwards") Records. Perhaps an aptly-named label too, because there's been almost zero fanfare about this LP, and quite a bit of confusion over the release date (apparently some CDs were pressed and made available as far back as July 14). But it's no big deal from my perspective, really — I still don't like them all that much, and this album isn't going to change that. But their fans should be happy enough with it, assuming they can actually get their hands on a copy at some point.
"OMG, It's the Tartan Horde Again" Dept.
Three bands from Scotland this week, and though I love Scottish bands as a general rule, I would consider all three of these to be "twee" to some extent (note that it's become increasingly clear as of late that the genre is now to be referred to as simply "jangle-pop"). I already mentioned The Proclaimers and their new LP, You May Offend, the release date for which was supposedly moved from Sept. 11 to Sept. 25. Well, that was a total lie, apparently. All the streamers are now saying it came out on Sept. 11 after all, and sure enough, thereitis, all tracks available. So that cheeses me off because it makes me look stupid, or at least lazy (which I am), so of course I refuse to apologize, etc., etc., because these days you can only win by being a sociopathic narcissist, and I'm going to keep calling them "twee," too, though it's a decent enough album if you like Charlie & Craig's Scottish accents. (Which I do, if I'm being honest.)
In addition to that, we've got The Yummy Fur with Everybody Talks About the Weather, which is really more "art punk" than "jangle-pop," but either way this is the best album of these three by far. By a wide margin! Great high-energy, hook-filled guitar album, though not as heavy on the Scottish accents as it could be. (Also, fur nearly always tastes terrible.)
I also have to at least mention the dubiously-named Catburgers and their very first LP, Galashiels, recorded 40 years ago and finally being released this week for the first time. It's twee for sure, so much so that if you look up the word "twee" in the dictionary, it doesn't even matter if it's an old-fashioned paper-printed dictionary, the dictionary will start playing this album. That's how twee it is. Also, they'd better not try to eat my cat, or there's gonna be HELL TO PAY.
(By the way, there's also a new LP from UK trad-folk-poppers Stornoway called Beyonder — they're somewhat twee too really, but the problem is they're not actually from Scotland. They just want you to believe they are, because I guess that's cooler than being from Oxford.)
Masked Band Dept.
Luckily I didn't have to look far down on the alphabetized list this week, as UK doom/death-metal guys Altera Doomonica are releasing their debut LP, Angelic Doomology. (All 10 tracks are already streamable on Bandcamp.) I think the title is a reference to the notion that all angels are doomed (perhaps because they are NOT REAL) rather than an attempt to convince us that "doomology" is an "angelic" pursuit. I looked it up, and found no evidence of it being a "pursuit" at all, but I did find that the Swedish metal band Candlemass released a 5-CD box set called Doomology back in 2010, so... maybe a little "homage" action going on there. That's nice! Regardless of all that, their masks look pretty scary, which is all anyone can reasonably ask for these days.
Also, The Residents have a new six-song 10-inch vinyl EP called Eskimo Folk Tales. They're saying these are "brand new recordings" based on a "set of handwritten Inuit folk tales" given to the band "in the 1970s." Of course, they say a lot of things... It doesn't matter! What matters is, those eyeballs they wore on their heads back then were the greatest masks in pop-music history! (In my opinion, anyway.)
Finally A Band That Truly Understands Me Dept.
This post has already gone on way longer than I'd promised, but I can't go without mentioning the new album from the band with my favorite band name, namely New Zealand's Same Name Confusion and their new LP, SNC. One might assume "SNC" is simply an abbreviation for "Same Name Confusion," making it a self-titled album, but they already made a self-titled album in 2016, just to confuse you later on. Great! (The new SNC album itself isn't so great, though — it's actually pretty bad.)
Next week, the gradual reduction in new-LP volume continues, but we still (assuming they're not all lying to us) have Johnny Marr, Deerhoof, analog synth-whiz Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Indianapolis-based twee — oops, sorry, jangle-popstersWishy, and the always-dreadful Queens of the Stone Age. There might also be enough for another Supplemental this week, but we'll see. 😄
Protomartyr is a band I’m quite familiar with; they’ve certainly released two memorable singles, but otherwise, the album hasn't really piqued my interest so far.
I don't recall Blondshell ever making it onto my year-end lists before. The pre-release singles from this year caught my attention, but overall, the album hasn't impressed me yet either. There are two tracks at the very beginning and two at the very end, but the bulk of the material in the middle falls flat.
All else being equal, I would single out another female artist who hadn't released any full-length albums prior to this year.
Susannah Joffe - Dust Settles and So Will I (25/IX-2026/39) (Album)
A pleasant surprise for me is an unusual album by a musician I’m particularly fond of. All his transformations and projects always spark my genuine interest. I’m not sure if this release will make it onto my "best of the year" list, but the Guinness Book of Records—well, why not?!))
Tōth - 111 Birthday Songs (24/IX-2026/39) (Album)
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."
Pearl Moth, Feverish Wild Things
This is a "soft-grunge" (whatever that means) band from Rome, Italy, with a very good female singer. This is their second LP, and while I doubt it will get much traction, I'd say it deserves some. I would've liked to hear more harmonies, because they seem to be good at those, but they probably held back on them since that would have made it harder to reproduce the songs live.
Palm Ghosts, Love Factions
Kind of an old-style new wave/post-punk band from Nashville with a male singer, who do songs that sort of lean in different directions — power-pop, goth, and psychedelia, among others. It's well-produced, though there's a bit too much of what seems to be auto-tune on the guy's vocals... aside from that, it's a good, interesting record with some cool ideas that should appeal very strongly to all you 60-year-old hipsters out there.
Sweetie, Dogtooth
I assume this band's name is ironic, and if they keep making records like this they'll regret choosing it, but Sweetie is an all-women post-punk trio with just a slight tinge of country/Americana (I guess they also have a guy who plays bass, he just isn't included in the band photos). They're from Sydney, Australia and this is their debut album — they describe themselves, somewhat accurately, as "tuff songs for sad girls." They're kind of sinuous and menacing, maybe like Warpaint, only louder, angrier, more guitar-oriented, and even more feminist. The centerpiece of the album is track 5, "Hanging Rock," a slow-burning epic homage to the "fictional true story" novel and film — it's probably worth the price of admission in itself, but the whole thing is worth a listen if you ask me.
Comet, Autopsy of Me
From what I gather, this is the debut LP by a band from NYC named after their lead singer, a somewhat scary-looking woman (exactly my type!) who simply goes by "Comet," which I'm sure won't confuse anyone, and they're basically a gothic/grungey darkgaze band with fairly overt metal tendencies. I guess you could call them "dark metalgaze"? Comet (the singer, that is) can do that not-quite-screamo strangled-growling vocal thing pretty well, so that's impressive. I hope they stick around — this is a really good album if you're into this kinda stuff. (I'm usually not, but... maybe this time.)
Dogs on Shady Lane, Knots
Everyone knows about Throwing Muses and Belly, but aside from them there haven't been many quality female-fronted alt-rock/post-punk/dreampop bands that have come out of the Providence, Rhode Island area. That changes now! This band, who have since moved to Brooklyn of course, has cool songs and a pleasant folk-rock vibe that's hard not to like. They could probably stand to include more rave-ups, but that only matters if you're driving at highway speeds and/or trying to get a party started. Anyway, it's their debut album, and hopefully not their last... but since this one apparently took them seven years to finish, I guess we shouldn't expect a follow-up any time soon.
Gurriers, Nobody's Coming to Save You
Here's a snarly/grungey post-punk, or maybe just-plain punk, band from Dublin with their second album. Apparently in Ireland, the word "gurrier" means "young anti-social hooligan," or something to that effect. So they might regret choosing that name once they're all millionaires with fancy cars and they inevitably decide to do their first "all-electronics" album.
Thunder Queens, Deep Below
An all-women pop-punk trio from London, Ontario, Canada, this album (their second) should also appeal to fans of the more Sleater-Kinneyesque side of the riot grrl genre. Just about all of the vocals are done in precise B-52's-style two-part harmony, which sounds cheesy at first but somehow gets better as it goes along. (Or maybe you just get used to it.) The whole album kind of does that too, it's bangers all the way through if you don't mind not getting a break from them until the last track, where they finally break out the acoustic. (Probably just so they could write it off on their taxes.) Good stuff!
The Wrecks, Outside
They're calling the five tracks on this release the "second half" of their third full-length album, the first half being, of course, last year's "Inside:" — but apparently nobody told them this was cheating, and that they're going to be credited with just having made two EPs and everyone will call their next album their "third album," assuming they don't try the same trick on that one. Anyway, they're a decent-sounding power-pop band from Thousand Oaks, California, but they usually just say they're from nearby Los Angeles, which is probably also cheating.
Flowers Must Die, Tystnad
Loose-sounding 60s-style psychedelia from Sweden; it's their sixth LP (I think; it depends on how you count 'em). I actually don't like stuff like this, it's too jam-oriented and meandering for my tastes, but they've been around for 20 years so I guess someone does.
Smidley, Murphy Horse
Some of you might remember Foxing, the 2010s emo-pop band from St. Louis. They went on "indefinite hiatus" last December, and lead singer/bass-player Conor Murphy, aka "Smidley," just went back to his already-existing 4-piece band that he started in 2016 and named after himself (or rather, his nickname). They're not an emo band, which is good because I mostly can't stand emo bands. I would describe them as a fairly commercial, (mostly) danceable, indie-pop/rock act with "very occasional undesirable emo tendencies."
7ebra, How to Land a Plane
7ebra are Inez and Ella Johansson, twin sisters from Malmo, Sweden who make subdued, lo-fi indie-pop records. This is their second LP, after 2023's Bird Hour. If I had to draw a comparison, I'd say they sound sort of like what you'd get if Boygenius recorded an Elliott Smith tribute album, only none of the songs are actually written by Elliott Smith, but rather by two girls from Sweden.
JanesWish, Colours Fade
I'm 99% sure this is AI (which claims to be from New South Wales, Australia, but releasing a full album every month is just a dead giveaway). If I'm wrong, well, sorry... but it's actually quite pleasant background music if you're one of those dreampop-with-airy-fairy-vocals fans who aren't yet in the "all AI entertainment product must be destroyed' camp.
...
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."
It’s yet another occasion to reiterate: if it weren’t for Taylor Swift and everyone behind her, I simply wouldn’t have anything to do. After all, it is so boring when, upon searching for "the best song of the week," you are instantly played the song that is actually the best.
No matter how much of an adventurer a man might be at times, for the most part, he is the pillar of the family. We shouldn't judge them for no longer believing that one can support one's loved ones through music.
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.
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.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
MadhattanJack
