Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee

It’s not often that I enjoy long albums, especially those that span over two full hours of runtime. With the prevalence of streaming, artists are somewhat incentivized to create more and more tracks in the hopes that something, anything, will stick. Lately that’s been taking the form of deluxe albums with remixes and additional tracks. This often compromises the artistic integrity of these projects, they aren’t fully fleshed out.

It’s even less often that a new album is not available on streaming whatsoever. It feels like if your album is not on streaming, the chance of success is incredibly low. But with the low or even nonexistent payouts from these services, many have begun to wonder if it’s even worth it. For new artists, the discoverability that comes with streaming services is likely pretty important. But if you’ve established yourself a bit and have a dedicated fanbase, the option to distribute your music however you want becomes available. For this meticulously crafted double album, Patrick Flegel has decided to post the full project on YouTube, and sell the audio files through a basic geocities website.

Once you overcome the 1-inch tall barrier of having to download files and play them locally like we did before streaming services took over, you’re rewarded with an incredible listening experience. It doesn’t demand much from you, you can come and go as you please. It’s filled to the brim with various textures, feelings, sounds, and it never gets boring. It doesn’t try to be some grand epic piece, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Confident, but not conceited. There’s so many different styles explored here, but everything still feels unified around a central identity. There’s a lot of ways to interpret it, some compare it to listening to a radio station, or “an examination of pop music” partially due to its inspiration from 50s/60s music.

Regardless of your interpretation, this is a fully fleshed out 32-track 2-hour long album. It’s got character, and Flegel managed to take various different inspirations and mold them into something new and beautiful.

Still House Plants - If I don’t make it, I love you

I heard buzz about this album for weeks before it was released. Reviewers who got early access to it were talking about how good it was, considering it one of the best releases of the year. I didn’t listen to the singles because the release was approaching anyways, and I have to say, they definitely were not wrong.

The band consists of three members, David Kennedy on drums, Finlay Clark on guitar, and Jessica Hickie-Kallenbach on vocals. They’ve managed to put together something really special and unique with this record. There’s elements of punk, pop rock, math rock, jazz, and perhaps even a bit of hip-hop.

The songs are constantly undulating, rhythms stumbling around, speeding up and down unpredictably. Moments of minimal instrumentation are suddenly followed by rich layers of sound. Short segments are repeated almost like the track has been chopped and screwed.
It feels like the band members are each working independently, taking cues from each other but filling in the blanks themselves. The end result is an organized chaos, you never know which direction a song is headed in, notes don’t hit exactly when you think they will, the melodies don’t land where you want them to. But it all slots into each other so well, every puzzle piece finds a place.

claire rousay - sentiment

Vulnerable, soft, fuzzy and warm. I only started going through Rousay’s catalog right before the release of sentiment. I was impressed by the incredible amount of range across her music. So much versatility, and all of it comes together here alongside some entirely new elements.

Auto-tuned robotic vocals from Never Stop Texting Me on “head”, ambient strings from Sigh In My Ear on “iii”, and her signature field recordings throughout. This project takes on a more indie-rock flavor than before, but combined with the rest of the ingredients that make up her sound, sentiment is far greater than the sum of its parts. It’s like if you took several photobooks apart, shuffled up the pages, added in some new photos, and created a completely different book.

[Ahmed] - Wood Blues

Going into this blind, I didn’t know what to expect. As I mentioned a couple months ago, I’m making an effort to learn more about Jazz. I have a lot of homework to do before I feel that I can speak about the genre coherently, but what I do know is that this record, or this performance rather, immediately grabbed a hold of me.

This is a recording of a performance put on by the quartet in 2022. It begins with a straightforward rendition of Ahmed Abdul-Malik’s “Oud Blues”, which then gets built upon and torn down in a frenzy of unstoppable energy for nearly an hour. The soothing original track gets transformed into an fervor, a brilliant tribute to the ensemble’s namesake.

The four members forge ahead independently, never stepping aside for each other, but responding to one another’s movements. Individual players may repeat themselves, but the context of their phrases is always evolving.

By the end of this recording, I felt like I was at the performance myself. I felt exhausted, as I imagine the players were that night, but incredibly inspired. One of my favorite releases of the year so far, and one that feels like it’s exposed many paths for me to explore.