If It's Too Loud...

Artist : Ride Album : Interplay Quick Thoughts : Ride, the legendary shoegaze band, offers a new album, their second since coming back from an extended hiatus. As wrestling fans say, "they still got it," because this is just a glorious reverb-heavy spectacle that makes you realize that shoegaze is generally always good, but when it's great it's almost transcendant. Don't miss this. Songs of Note : "Light in a Quiet Room," "Stay Free," "Portland Rocks" Artist : gglum Album : The Garden Dream Quick Thoughts : "SPLAT!" hit my playlists a while back and I really (and still) fell for it, so the debut album from gglum is more fuzzy buzzy indie rock that just works well. It's drenched in the sort of distortion that we love here, and they're a band that deserves to be better known than they are. Songs of Note : "Easy Fun," "SPLAT!," "Glue," "He Laid His 97's Neatly By the Doo...

A slower week, but one with some pretty impactful releases. Album of the Week : Artist : V. V. Lightbody Album : Bathing Peach Quick Description : Debut solo project from a Chicago-area singer-songwriter. Why You Should Listen : You wish Lucy Dacus would tone it down a bit? Overall Thoughts : This is an album that is a little hard to describe. It's kind of folky, but has some edge to it? The project of Vivian McConnell, she clearly has some great songwriting chops that make you pay attention from the first few notes, and this kind of came out of nowhere for me in terms of how much I liked it. If you like the folky stuff, or even the more contemplative singer-songwriter efforts of late, you should give this a listen. Recommendation : Best release of the week. Artist : The Carters Album : Everything is Love Quick Description : Surprise-yet-anticipated collaboration between Beyonce and Jay-Z. Why You Should Listen : Love it or hate it, this is what people will be tal...