Last Friday was the first of 2024, but the list of new albums was very thin — I managed to find Letter to Self by Sprints and Heavy on the Vine by Hannah Kaminer. Today, there are more new albums to listen to, though for some reason NPR Music delayed the release of their New Music Friday podcast until this afternoon. In any case, my focus was on three albums released today:
Marika Hackman — Big Sigh. After only one listen, this feels like my first favorite album of 2024. Some really good songs here and her sound has shifted a bit since her last original album, Any Human Friend from 2019. High hopes for this.
Bill Ryder-Jones — Iechyd Da. I can’t say I love his voice, but his songwriting is solid and this feels like one that I’ll appreciate more after a few listens.
The Vaccines — Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations. There’s always room for up-tempo music in my book and this was an enjoyable listen. I’ll have to see how it stands up over time, but the title is definitely amusing.
Album Spotlight
I had only two 2024 albums to listen to until today — I expect to have more to say about Sprints and Hannah Kaminer next week. Without much new music, I spent much of the past week mulling over great early 90s shoegaze albums, focusing on the best of Ride, Lush, and My Bloody Valentine.
Ride — Nowhere (1990). To me, this is the epitome of what shoegaze should be: vocals obscured in a haze of guitar distortion and feedback but with enough melodic hooks to grab onto. The first song “Seagull” feels like all of shoegaze as a musical genre packed into a six minutes of music. The rest of the album is so good, especially the quartet of songs in the middle with very shoegazy titles: “Dreams Burn Down”, “Decay”, “Paralysed”, and “Vapour Trail”.
Lush — Gala (1990). This one is arguably not technically an album — it’s a compilation of UK-only EPs that were packaged together for the US and Japan before the band released their first proper album, 1992’s Spooky. But no matter what you call it, it’s an impressive collection of songs that lean strongly into catchy pop with a constant background that dances on the edge of guitar feedback. Every listen I pick a new favorite song — this most recent listen I found myself marveling at “Baby Talk” with its beautiful swirling guitar riff. Almost every song here is a banger.
My Bloody Valentine — Loveless (1991). This has been for 30 years the overwhelming music critics’ consensus pick as best shoegaze album of all time. My take on this one has long been “I respect it more than I love it,” though listening to it several times this week renewed my appreciation of it. While Lush put an emphasis on catchy pop hooks, My Bloody Valentine bury their pop hooks in layers and layers and still more layers of noise and distortion. This album definitely rewards multiple listens, but the 1-2 punch of “Touched” and “To Here Knows When” in the first half of the album is likely pretty challenging to someone new to it. Even their poppier songs like “When You Sleep”, “Come In Alone” and “What You Want” still utterly bury their vocals under amazingly intricate layers of glorious musical noise.
There’s space for all three of these albums, though they each have their time and place. I think Ride can work almost anytime, but My Bloody Valentine is best when you can really focus on it. And Lush? When you want something light and frothy, they’re perfect.
Enjoyed listening this week to
Eleanor Friedberger — Personal Record (2013)
Koop — Waltz for Koop (2001)
Laetitia Sadier — Silencio (2012)
Neutral Milk Hotel — In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998)
Oasis — (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995)
Quilt — Held in Splendor (2014)
Next week
I’m a little underwhelmed by the list next week. Sleater-Kinney will release Little Rope, which should thrill the many fans of that band. I’ve long since concluded that I really dislike Carrie Brownstein’s singing voice, but I will try again with this album. Green Day will also be releasing Saviors next Friday.
Further down the road, here’s the current list of albums I’m looking forward to hearing in the weeks ahead:
Katy Kirby — Blue Raspberry (1/26)
Sarah Jarosz — Polaroid Lovers (1/26)
The Smile — Wall of Eyes (1/26)
Torres — What an Enormous Room (1/26)
Future Islands — People Who Aren't There Anymore (1/26)
Brittany Howard — What Now (2/2)
Helado Negro — Phasor (2/9)
Chelsea Wolfe — She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She (2/9)
Sam Fermin — Arms (2/16)
Gaby Moreno — Dusk (2/16)
Hurray For The Riff Raff — The Past Is Still Alive (2/23)
Laetitia Sadier — Rooting for Love (2/23)
Real Estate — Daniel (2/23)
Julia Holter — Something in the Room She Moves (3/22)
Waxahatchee — Tigers Blood (3/22)