If It's Too Loud...

Artist : Olivia Rodrigo Album : SOUR Quick Thoughts : The running joke of the moment is that lot of us older folks are looking at this album and saying "crap, we're old." Because we are, and this is a young up-and-coming artist from the Disney starlet factory, and we all loved Billie Eilish and don't want to make it weird, I guess. But this album? Yeah, it's pretty good. I can forgive some questionable production choices (the album sounds somewhat hollow and light at times, and overly compressed at others), but the songwriting is tight and some of these are real bangers. It's a solid pop album from someone who is making music for our children's generation and that's okay. You might not relate to "drivers license," but so what? Songs of Note : "brutal," "drivers license," "good 4 u" Artist : Lord Huron Album : Long Lost Quick Thoughts : This is a really interesting album. It's rootsy folk stuff, b...

By my count, there were well over 30 new releases out this week. Add in a couple I missed, and I honestly bit off more than I could chew. So excuse the quick hits this week: Best of the Week : * Anamon - Purple, Green, and Yellow (great indie pop) * The Crystal Method - The Trip Home (for one of the second-level techno acts during the electronica explosion in the late 1990s, the fact is that they have put out a number of great albums in the last few years) * Kristin Hersh - Possible Dust Clouds (An all-time favorite here, this is a solid listen from someone with a catalog full of them.) * She Makes War - Brace for Impact (An act I’ve loved for a few years, this record has the urgency and interesting stuff I was hoping for) * Haerts - New Compassion (I loved their first album, and this long-awaited follow-up is exactly what I hoped for. Some evolution, lots of familiarity) * Cursive - Vitriola (Cursive was gone a while, but this might be their best effort since The Ugly...

I really don't know what to make of this week: Lagwagon - Hang : Our 90s-tastic release week begins with a new album from Lagwagon, their first in nearly a decade. My teen years had a ska phase, but I could never really embrace the punk side, and Lagwagon is firmly there. If you've been missing out, there might be a lot here for you to love, but for me, this wasn't quite it. The Twilight Sad - Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave : An album I queued up because I thought they were a different band (probably the Twilight Singers), this was actually a pretty high quality dour indie rock record. The vocals are really distinctive and the songs memorable as they sort of lodged themselves into my brain. I will definitely seek out more of their stuff, but for now, this new album deserves a listen in a somewhat thin week. Lily & Madeleine - Fumes : Lily & Madeleine are fairly prolific, with their third album they definitely expand their sound a little ...