May we start this month off strong? Yes, we can. Nevermind all the releases below are technically from April (it’s May 1 literally today, what the fuck do you expect from me?) — I still declare this month a roaring success already. Why? Because this article is packed with recommendations for those among us who are into that healing elixir called music, baby.
Our finalists include a fantastic new album from St. Vincent. I’ve always appreciated Ms. Clark’s absolute lack of give a fuck when it comes to her fans — she’s going to make the album she wants to make without any regard to anyone else. As it should be. But her last few albums were not for me. The new joint very much is, a combination of rock and weird pop, a Frankensteinian amalgamation of my favorite parts of her first four albums with some new, often aggressive tricks thrown into the mix. Her project is about perfecting the execution of her vision, and she continues to do that on All Born Screaming. And shit, while it’s for me, it’s still not the album I wanted her to make, which only makes me respect her more. Keep doing your own thing.
The other finalists include our winner, Moloch/Monolyth (duh), Mandy (an album for everyone), Irnini Mons (fun post-punk sort of noise-rock who also toured with Shellac, apparently?), Microwave (post-punk soul that seems to keep coming from Atlanta), Writhing Squares (loud, weird, awesome) and glaring orchid (shoegaze-adjacent quasi-emo that’s personally affecting and can get heavier/weirder than those genre titles may imply).
It was difficult picking through all of these. And obviously, it was difficult choosing the winner over an act I’ve loved for my entire adult life after I was waiting patiently for another album to love. But Coolest Album of The Week is earned — not just given away to my favorite legacy act, however amazing their newest album is. And let’s just say there were a few finalists here who were nudging closer toward that victory than the biggest name on this list.
So hey, maybe check it all out and not just the names ya know, yeah? That’s why I’m bringing you…
The Coolest Stuff of The Week | May 1st
Mandy – Lawn Girl
Genres: Alternative, punk, indie rock
Buster Head Racket – Go Go Go!
Genres: Punk, egg punk, garage pop
Harvestman – Triptych: Part One
Genres: Ambient, folk, psychedelic
Tough Cuffs – All Dogs Go To Heaven
Genres: Hardcore, post-hardcore, emo
Dumpcake – Provolone, Buford
Genres: Punk, emo, grunge
Wukir Suryadi – Siklus dan Doa
Genres: Avant-garde, sound art, experimental
Roving – Spindrift
Genres: Alternative, grunge, shoegaze
Put Purana/Tromblon – split
Genres: Noise rock, emo, punk
glaring orchid – i hope you’re okay
Genres: Shoegaze, alternative, emo
Irnini Mons – Une habitante touchée par une météorite
Genres: Post-punk, noise rock, indie pop
Leaving – Hidden View
Genres: Ambient, electronic, drone
Grumpster – S/T
Genres: Punk, emo, hardcore
Microwave – Let’s Start Degeneracy
Genres: Rock, post-hardcore, soul
Mister Goblin – Frog Poems
Genres: Post-punk, indie rock, folk
Valley Girls – The Antagonist
Genres: Punk, alternative, noise pop
Writhing Squares – Mythology
Genres: Space rock, noise rock, experimental
Glassing – From The Other Side of the Mirror
Genres: Post-hardcore, post-rock, screamo
St. Vincent – All Born Screaming
Genres: Alternative, rock, indie pop
Moloch/Monolyth – How Strange It Is To Miss You When You’re Right Here Next To Me
Genres: Post-punk, indie pop, indie rock
This is such a strange band to categorize, acknowledging, of course, that categorization in music is largely bullshit. At times, they fit neatly within that upbeat indie-pop that overtook everything in the early 2010s. Certainly, How Strange It Is To Miss You When You’re Right Here Next To Me has the persistent hooks, group-sing aesthetics, trading vocal lines and an often friendly strummed acoustic guitar of that genre, and it has it quite often. But that ignores the bursts of noise. That ignores an underlying weariness and sadness that lurks beneath these songs, stalks behind the happy moments.
The album starts with the main singer, who I’m going to guess is Michael Martin (based on the very little online information available — I could be wrong) backed by minimal bass accompaniment before quivering synth-strings blend in. The next song crashes between distortion and strummed guitar. Backing vocals come in play here. The rest of the band has shown up. And we’re off.
Most striking about How Strange It Is To Miss You When You’re Right Here Next To Me is how much lighter the album seems to get as it progresses.
Even when singing seemingly happy, lovely things in the first few songs, that sad weariness is constant. Samples of bandmates and singers Michael Martin and Ita Duclair’s child (assuming the sample of the crying baby is their actual child and not… some other child) sneaks its way into mix. Any newish parent can tell you that you can be overflowing with love and exhausted and going insane and also happy and a little sad all at the same time. Parenthood is weird. Parenthood is change, and not only did this band go through the adventure of parenthood during the process of making this album, but they overturned half their actual band (all this according to a heartfelt post about the album on their Facebook page).
Remarkably, whether on purpose or through the mere act of living through it, this album deftly recreates the feeling of coming through the other side of that early parenthood haze. When you finally start getting just barely enough sleep that the sleep deprivation isn’t making you want to literally die. When you can focus on the happy moments and maybe just only those. The feeling of that is all here.
By the end of the album, it’s as if Moloch/Monolyth have lifted all the darkness and only the happiness is left.
Most of the album’s poppiest moments occur in the second half. Most of its group-sing moments happen here. It’s like all the fog has scattered once and for all.
This is not before the one-two punch of the title track and The Best Life in the middle of the album, which form pivot tracks from the moodier first half to the poppier second half. These sparser tracks nearly erase the memory of the sadness that came before, allowing it to merely linger behind, chasing the happiness for the remainder of the album. Hell, the very first poppy song is a great example of this. Clothes, Shoes, Wigs, Make-Up, Nice Black Ties toggles between pure pop and sadness only to perk up again and again and again (a quasi-pivot track after the two full-on pivot track, I guess? poppy with shades of pivot?).
But if there’s one lesson in this album, it seems to be that happiness and energy always wins. Whatever the change is, if you keep going, you can outrace that weariness eventually.
Before I go, girl, one thing:
If you enjoyed Cool Stuff, please check out previous installments here.