New Releases Bonanza!

Picked up a few interesting records over the past couple months, thought I'd share a few random thoughts.

Guided By Voices: Thick Rich And Delicious

Like every old-school Guided By Voices fanatic, I obsessively grabbed every album, EP, single, and stray fart from the comically prolific Robert Pollard during their initial 80s/90s/00s run, even as those records saw diminishing returns. And since he reformed GbV in 2012 after a brief sabbatical, I've continued to check out his now-twice-per-year-like-clockwork releases, more out of a sense of duty & loyalty than a genuine interest in the music. And in most cases, for about a day I'll think, hey, this one's pretty solid; and then never play it again, at most snagging a song or two for a mix.

So take it with a grain of salt when I say his latest, Thick Rich And Delicious, is surprisingly great. It's GbV in arena-rock mode, skipping the lo-fi half-assed blueprints in favor of fully realized pseudo-Who-styled rockers. By tomorrow, I may have moved on, but I actually think this one's got some staying power, Pollard putting in the extra time to concoct some genuine hooks and give them a little polish, making a case for the best GbV/Pollard-related release since the golden age.

Buy it on Bandcamp.

Great Lake Swimmers: Caught Light

As contemporary purveyors of freak folk & rustic Americana, Great Lake Swimmers seem never to have gotten quite the same adulation as, say, Fleet Foxes or Bon Iver. Which I guess I get, as their gentle, largely acoustic music is rarely flashy, better suited for quiet mornings as you brew a cup of coffee than cranking up on the stereo. But at least on first spin, Caught Light is a little more immediate than some of their earlier work. It's still the quietly pastoral background music they've long championed--they're not exactly stomping on the distortion pedal here--but there are some really lovely tracks that kinda wish you were sitting around the campfire watching the stars come out.

Buy it on Bandcamp.

The Lemonheads: Love Chant

In the years since the Lemonheads' 90s alt.rock peak, Evan Dando has seemingly gotten a lot more attention for his personal issues than his music. Which makes Love Chant a nice surprise. Like several of the old-timers who are still producing records (see also The Bats, below), Dando's vocals have coarsened with age, his lower register not quite suited for the power pop songs of his youth. But here, they give his thoughtful pop songs some extra gravitas without sacrificing the hooks, even if the songs sometimes sound more like, say, the Meat Puppets than the Lemonheads of yore. It's a little harder-rocking and more abrasive than I need in spots, but there are some truly catchy tracks, the work of a man who hasn't yet lost faith in the ability of a Big Star/Todd Rundgren-styled sophisticated pop song to carry the day.

Buy it on Bandcamp.

Lawn: God Made The Highway

This New Orleans-based duo make my kind of indie rock--intermittently jangly and jagged guitar rock that calls to mind Pavement and the 80s Flying Nun label records. The two co-leaders alternate songs, and while I prefer the more melodic tracks to the more abrasive post-punk, on the whole the record is great fun, with some fascinating twists and turns that conjure indie's past while feeling really fresh. Feels specifically designed for me to crank up in the car.

Buy it on Bandcamp.

The Bats: Corner Coming Up

Speaking of those old-school New Zealand Flying Nun bands, The Bats are back with another new one. As on 2020's Foothills, Robert Scott is in elder statesman mode, his weathered vocals no longer conveying the boyish charm which buoyed their earlier records; but he's still a master of the pleasant jangle. Corner starts a little slow, the ballads feeling a little more like somber background music than the compelling alt.pop of their glory days, but the record picks up with a few mid-tempo songs that feel like faithful old friends, sweet infectious jangle, and it's hard not to be entranced when Kaye Woodward adds harmonies.

Buy it on Bandcamp.

Weakened Friends: Feels Like Hell

When so many women-fronted postpunk indie bands seem to be toning it down a bit (see, e.g., Waxahatchee), Sonia Sturino & Annie Hoffman are still plugging in and cranking up, energetic rockers who are just a little bit pissed off and not holding back. Much more indebted to Courtney Love than the Lilith Fair stalwarts, Feels Like Hell still wields a few hooks amidst the crunch.

Buy it on Bandcamp.