ENDON "Boy Meets Girl (Thrill Jockey)"
If you love Thrill Jockey because they aren’t afraid to release scream filled metal strangeness, then you are here for this ENDON record Boy Meets Girl. Impossibly fuzzed guitars, screeching art-noise, and more screaming than you can… I dunno… shake a screaming stick at? That makes no sense. Sorry. But if you too like “disparate influences such as horrorcore, Dick Dale, Joe Meek and the Dead Kennedys” then get ready to add an ENDON t-shirt to the drawer of t-shirts that spark joy. Check out the Mr. Bungle-esque syncopation and quick changes of “Doubts As A Source.”
Yann Tiersen "All (Mute)"
If you’ve somehow made it to 2019 without knowing what to expect from a new Yann Tiersen album, then shame on you. All (Mute) is the latest collection of unbelievably beautiful pieces. That’s right, I called them pieces, not songs. So you know it’s serious. Somewhere between classical music and more artistic electronic releases, this record continues along the path of his last release, writing songs about our connection to nature. Also, this is the first time he recorded an album at his newly built studio The Eskal, “built in an abandoned discotheque on the island of Ushant.” And that, friends, is the most Yann Tiersen sentence ever written. Check out the piano beauty of “Tempelhof.”
Bob Mould "Sunshine Rock (Merge)"
Check out the name of the new Bob Mould record! Does that mean Bob Mould is “happy”? Is he ever happy? Wait, is this a HAPPY ALBUM? With the title SUNSHINE ROCK you can start to think maybe, JUST MAYBE Bob has gone all Partridge Family on us. But alas, under the wall of churning guitars and power choruses is BOB MOULD. How does the guy do it? Album after album, song after song, the man has written more good words then Karl Ove Knausgård and more songs then Aleksander Vinter better known as Savant (yeah google it). Dig in to the title track, ”Sunshine Rock” and get ready for the next one!
Charlie Faye & The Fayettes "The Whole Shebang"
Hailing from Austin, Charlie Faye and the Fayettes return for The Whole Shebang. No second album syndrome here – The Whole Shebang is actually a step up in production, songwriting and–of course–back-up vocals. Are The Fayettes the new Pips? Will they take that midnight train to Georgia (Austin to Georgia? That probably isn’t a thing, maybe they should just Uber)? Well as Charlie proudly declares in “The Cream Rises To The Top” – “They can’t deny me now I’m blowing up, I’m never gonna stop”. Charlie and her “ettes” are at the top of the (I don’t always love using genre names but there’s no denying the sound) retro girl group thing. Check out “I Don’t Need No Baby” and the title track because Charlie Faye & The Fayettes have the whole shebang in the bag!