Slayyyter – Wor$t Girl in America: This record is filled with so many things I hate—‘80s new wave, ‘90s industrial pop, ‘00s European big beat, the timeless insufferable attitudes of drunk twenty-somethings on the dance floor—that I almost turned it off a dozen times in the first six songs. But the deeper I got into the album, the more it asked me hard questions: Is she the mean girl or is she standing up to the mean girls? Is this vapid trashy pop or a shiny veneer over something deeply substantial? Slayyyter closed the album with back-to-back references to the Prayer of Saint Francis and her own suicidal ideation, and by doing so, she further challenges her listeners to face the whole messy mix of humanity, from the trashy to the divine.
Laufey – A Matter of Time: The Final Hour: On principal, I will not buy this, even though I own an embarrassingly large number of Laufey records. I have a few reasons:
- Deluxe versions are abusive to fans: The trend of releasing deluxe versions of successful albums a year after they come out needs to die. I am completely in favor of putting out special things for fans, but releases like this are blatant cash-grabs, and they cross a line that I refuse to support.
- An album is a snapshot: Albums capture a specific moment in time. Going back and editing snapshots doesn’t necessarily make them better, and it certainly changes the truth of what they are. If an artist feels compelled to edit their snapshot, at least wait for a major anniversary.
- A Matter of Time is a near-perfect snapshot: The album has a narrative arc and a musical theme that carries from the first song to the last, yet it never crosses into the pretentiousness of being a concept album. The fact that “Seems Like Old Times” was not officially included on the album (it was a “secret” 45 inside the front cover of the record) supports my argument, because it does not fit the narrative arc.
To be clear, I love A Matter of Time. I can make a compelling argument why it’s the best album of 2025. And I like these new songs! If Laufey and her label had released these extra four songs as an EP, I would’ve bought it on the day it came out, and I would be listening to it constantly. Instead, as with Bewitched, I will happily play my copy of the original album and sparingly stream the bonus tracks.
Cardinals – Masquerade | The Pogues – Rum, Sodomy & the Lash: I seem to be the only person who hears parallels between Masquerade and The Pogues, so I dug into that this week. As I listen to Rum, Sodomy & the Lash for the first time in 35 years, the parallel I hear is all about each bands’ energy. Both these albums are big and noisy and filled with piss and vinegar.
Donna Summer – Love to Love You Baby: Nearly 17 minutes on the title track?! Yes! And every one of those minutes is an absolute disco banger. Side two doesn’t live up to the drama of side 1, but in fairness, how could it?
Mitski – The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We: I listened on speakers at home for the first time, and during three songs—“Heaven,” “My Love Mine All Mine,” and “I’m Your Man”—the density and chaos of the production stopped me dead in my tracks and forced me to lean back and pay attention. The record has an intensity that gets lost on low-res streaming and crappy car stereo speakers, and that intensity is so, so good. “I’m Your Man” is still my favorite song on the album.
Ben Frost – Palestine 36: This is an orchestral film score that possesses the dark tension of Frost’s experimental electronic ambient work but highlights his more traditional influences by relying on an orchestra. The music conveys a mood of suffering and loss (which I assume matches the theme of the film), but I’m not sure it’s compelling enough to stand on its own the way records like The Centre Cannot Hold and Aurora do.
Holly Humbertsone – Cruel World: The opening two tracks set a high bar, with Humbertsone establishing a beautifully produced theme in “So It Starts,” carrying that theme through “Make It All Better,” and then devolving it into a delightfully manic chaos. The rest of the album never reaches that bar again, though. It’s a solid album by a young artist who is finding her way through the post-Taylor pop world, but the album is filled with moments that call Humbertsone to soar and instead she waddles. She picks the safe path over and over again, when these songs crave risk and fearlessness. I hope she finds the courage to push farther next time.
Old friends who made it into rotation this week: Interpol: Turn on the Bright Lights; Turnstile: Never Enough; Blackwater Holylight: Not Here Not Gone; HAAi: Humanise; DJ Tennis: Fabric Presents DJ Tennis; The National: The First Two Pages of Frankenstein
Record store finds this week: I behaved myself on Record Store Day but still indulged with copies of Jeff Buckley: Live À L’Olympia; John Coltrane: France 1965: The Complete Concerts; Laufey: A Matter of Time: Live at Madison Square Garden; and Robert Plant: Saving Grace: All That Glitters… with Suzi Dian