Claire Rosinkranz – My Lover
“City” starts off like a run-of-the-mill piano-based pop song. Then about 30 seconds in, the song just fills out over a bouncy bass line and from there the song is just a really fun ride. The album continues to surprise in this way and it changes its energy more by moving between subdued and bright, smooth and jumpy. This might be a great pop record, but it does lose a little steam over the backstretch. Nonetheless, Its often enough smart and fun (a rare combination) both musically and lyrically.
Listen: Yes
Buy: Yes
Charli XCX – Wuthering Heights
I was supposed to read Wuthering Heights in high school, but I didn’t (though I did write a paper about it). A year or so ago, in an effort to make up for past laziness, I finally read it. I should have stuck with being lazy. It’s an awful book so full of hopelessness and selfish cruelty that no ending could redeem it. I’m not going to see the movie either. But I was curious to hear how Charli XCX handled the soundtrack. She is at once both brilliant and vapid, one of the best pop songwriters in decades and yet a celebration of materialism and nihilism, two things I almost never like in music or anywhere else. From the opening track, she captures some of the mood of the novel, especially its isolation and oppressiveness, and throughout she makes a record that feels at home with 19th century rural England and 21st century technological globalism and the strange way both could leave one empty. In a way, Charli XCX’s persona and Wuthering Heights the novel are things I hate. but Wuthering Heights the album is more than the sum of those parts. If the novel has a reason to exist, this is it.
Listen: Yes
Buy: Yes
hemlocke springs – the apple tree under the sea
This is kind of like listening to various incarnations of Madonna, but a less confident Madonna. While that sounds like a dig, it really isn’t. There is a sense of discovery that makes this deeper and more relatable than its over-confident predecessor.
Listen: Yes
Buy: Maybe
Jill Scott – To Whom This May Concern
Out of the gate, To Whom It May Concern sounds fierce. It’s a really tight, funky soul record, but not in any unique way. Listening on the heals of Charli XCX’s Wuthering Heights might have have my sights set on something more challenging, something that transcends genre. But this transcends nothing. It’s the kind of record I enjoy while I listen and then never listen again. Plus, she talks almost as much as Isaac Hayes.
Listen: Maybe
Buy: No
PONY – Clearly Cursed
One of the bad things about getting older is having heard a lot of things before. I think PONY might like Julianna Hatfield. For someone 30 or 40 years younger, that would make them more interesting and maybe a gateway to what came before. For me, I might only like this because it is nostalgic. But as I listen, I like that PONY brings bigness to their 90’s garage pop. So, I like it even if it isn’t earth-shaking. Maybe they are doing enough to be new or maybe it is just nice to hear it again. Either way, I like it.
Listen: Yes
Buy: I might, but it’s not essential
Yellow Days – Rock and a Hard Place
I remember being kind of put off when Lenny Kravitz released “It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over” in 1991. It was a good song, but it wore its influence so obviously on its sleeve that it was hard to trust it. Rock and a Hard Place is similar. If you get past the 70’s funk/soul rehash and just appreciate how well it is done (and how good George van der Broek’s Van Morrison is when it sneaks through), this can be an enjoyable record.
Listen: Yes
Buy: No
Danny L Harle – Cerulean
Apple music says this album makes BRAT seem like classic rock. That is a gross overestimation of Cerulean. This is an accessible album that probably would not have sounded so accessible a few years ago. BRAT, on the other hand, changed what is accessible. It is the best of hyperpop without being as grating as that genre often is, but it does it by tempering itself. It does make the most of several of its guest appearances.
Listen: Yes
Buy: Maybe
Sarah Kinsley – Fleeting EP
Sarah Kinsley has a nice, rich voice. But the music is like something that would have been on VH1 in the 80’s. “Fleeting” tries to soar and almost succeeds, but its wings get clipped.
Listen: Probably not
Buy: No