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New Album: Luther Russell || Happiness For Beginners

Winsome melodies powered by a 12-string Rickenbacker

Luther Russell has been churning out reliably excellent college rock since the ’80s—mostly solo, but sometimes with Those Pretty Wrongs (his outfit with Jody Stephens of Big Star). For his new album, Happiness For Beginners, he partnered with the LA based Curation Records, home of Beachwood Sparks and the Uni Boys. Certainly, Happiness For Beginners is consistent with the Curation Records modus operandi: sparkling pop gems with smatterings of sepia-tinted country and languorous psychedelia. This album stands out from the pack, though, because all 10 songs are powered by a 12 string Rickenbacker, giving the LP a jangly foundation for Russell’s rich baritone and winsome melodies.

It’s a strong record all the way through, but the best songs highlight Russell’s varied interests. Single Downtown Girls is driven by a propulsive, highly syncopated drum performance, recalling cult heroes The dB’s and The Windbreakers; elsewhere, the drone of And Ever, filled with lurid images of “blood on the ground,” evokes the post-hippy haze of Love’s Forever Changes. Ostensibly a loose concept album about “the folly of young romance” (according to Russell), the lyrics on Happiness For Beginners are more kaleidoscopic and foreboding than even that description would imply. A key line from Right Way: “It’s the death of a dream that startles your heart in the night, and the breath of a scream will fill you as you wake in fright.”

If you’re already familiar with Russell’s work, then you can enjoy another wonderful set of songs with Happiness For Beginners. If not, this serves as a wonderful entry point to the catalog of an underrated songwriter.

Happiness For Beginners is out now on Curation Records.


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New Album: Ex-Vöid || In Love Again

UK indie band sounds more expansive and more fragile on impressive sophomore outing

In Love Again, the new album by London-based power pop outfit Ex-Vöid, is simultaneously more expansive and fragile-sounding than its predecessor, 2022’s Bigger Than Before. The rhythms are more ragged, the melodies more frayed, and the guitars more mangled, suggesting a group that’s been brought to the brink and hasn’t quite fully recovered from the journey. The vocals, perpetually sung in unison by former Joanna Gruesomes Lan McArdle and Owen Williams, are less audible this time, almost-but-not-quite suffocated by a fuzzy mix that can barely contain the morass of guitars presented here.

The blown out recording quality makes the quiet moments on the record, like devastating closer Outline, stand out even more. Ex-Vöid’s range is more apparent, too. Aside from the upending of Lucinda Williams’ Lonely Girls and the aforementioned acoustic-heavy Outline, there’s the Americana-isms of Nightmare and the ebullient, C86 indebted July, featuring a swell of jangling guitars cresting and curling around one of the album’s most arresting melodies.

If you hadn’t gleaned from the title, McArdle and Williams write about love—mostly lost, sometimes found. For them, heartbreak is neverending, immutable, and occasionally prosaic: “It’s always the same old story/it’s like you do it just to bore me” they sing on album lead-off Swansea. Try as we might to move on, we can only expect “all those feelings” to crop up again and again, and submit ourselves to love’s vicissitudes once more. So, when they tell us we’ll “fall in love again” on the title track, we should take that as both consolation and a warning.

In Love Again is out now on Tapete Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Tapete

New album: Peter Perrett || The Cleansing

Sonic depth meets lyrical despair in the master’s third act

The Cleansing, the fourth album by ex-The Only Ones singer Peter Perrett, is a sprawling, enrapturing work from one of the punk-era’s master songwriters. This time around, Perrett sets the lens to his third act, an intention he makes explicit with songs Do Not Resuscitate and Crystal Clear. While there is a whiff of nostalgia on songs like All That Time, a tune about his delusional, drug-filled early days, his focus is primarily how the debris of the past affects the present. That said, don’t expect any soulful epiphanies or sage observations about life. He regards himself with the same contempt and caustic humor that’s been a trademark of his career, and seems to conclude that nothing he does particularly matters anyway. “It’s happened before and it’ll happen again // Everybody suffers in the end,” he opines on Less Than Nothing.

The double LP lives up to its name and functions as a purging of sorts for Perrett, in both length and content. Perrett’s backing band, featuring his sons and a bevy of high-profile guests (Johnny Marr and Bobby Gillespie, among others), trades in some of The Only Ones’ muscularity for a more textural, experimental, and sonically varied sound. Featured here are swaths of feedback, growly fuzz bass, twangy guitars, plaintive strings, and the occasional drum machine for good measure.

At 20 songs, this array of sounds becomes necessary to prevent the album from seeming overlong. Perrett’s voice, somewhat frayed by age, is still arresting: he drawls, coos, and croons his way through songs like he always has. His voice remains a focal point throughout the album but occasionally threatens to fade into the background and cede space to his collaborators, particularly on the title track. Perhaps this is his way of bowing out and not overstaying his welcome.


The Cleansing, produced by Jamie Perrett, is out now digitally, on CD and 2LP, trough Domino.

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New album: Alvilda II C'est D​é​jà L'heure

Parisian quartet let their guitars and melodies do the talking

The new album by Parisian quartet Alvilda delivers on the promise of their 2021 EP Négatif. Carried over from the EP are twitchy riffs, sticky harmonies, and caffeinated tempos, but Alvilda’s debut LP represents a melodic leap forward. Alvilda is often compared to ‘60s girl group-inspired acts Les Calamites and Dolly Mixture; while those influences are certainly present, they don’t quite paint a full picture. For one, they aren’t as clanky and clangorous as those groups sometimes got. Instead, Alvilda’s affinity for fuzzy guitars and big hooks places them firmly in the vicinity of classic power pop.

All of Alvilda’s lyrics are in French and, while I can’t understand them, that’s OK because Alvilda frequently let their guitars do the talking anyway. Both Angoisse (translation: anguish) and Mélanie feature extended instrumental sections where you typically might expect an anthemic coda or a double chorus, and the band show they’re not afraid to channel Chuck Berry on Vortex. But groups like Alvilda are judged by the merit of their melodies, and I’m happy to say the songs on C’est Déjà L’heure are uniformly fun and uplifting. Overall, C’est Déjà L’heure is an exciting document of a band showcasing their ample songwriting talent. It’s also a celebration of punk as a vehicle for harmony-not just Angoisse.

C’est Déjà L’heure is out now on Static Shock Records.

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New album: Amy Rigby || Hang In There With Me

Amy Rigby’s new album is a reflective journey of mortality, aging and youthful missteps

“Is it better to burn out or fall apart?” asks veteran New York songwriter Amy Rigby on her new album, Hang In There With Me. Rigby, in typical wry fashion, is drawing a false dichotomy with this question: the option of combusting spectacularly, of going out with a bang, doesn’t exist for a singer in the twilight of her career. The album’s central conceit is that Rigby is too entrenched in her music making ways, too deep in the muck, to fully give up making records, despite her better self-preservation instincts. So, she pulls up her sleeves, gets to work, and produces Hang In There With Me – a sometimes bleak, yet ultimately life-affirming record.

Hang In There With Me, the eighth album credited solely to Rigby, continues building on the strengths established over the course of Rigby’s storied career. Here, you’ll find heartfelt folk songs juxtaposed with wisecracking garage rock, gallows humor brushing against unfettered optimism. As a whole, the album is fairly stripped-down, with only minor production flourishes – a bit of fuzz guitar here, a bubbling synth there – giving way to Rigby’s presence. Still, the songs that stick out the most, like the revenge fantasy Bricks and the plaintive, psychedelic-tinged The Farewell Tour, center Rigby’s voice and guitar from the beginning. To paraphrase musician Jon Brion, these are real songs, not just performance pieces; if you removed all the auxiliary parts, they would be just as devastating.

In one of the album’s most affecting moments, Rigby questions why life must “be so hard” on O Anjali, her voice cracking slightly under the weight of her words. While there’s obviously no answer to this query, Hang In There With Me provides reason enough to keep pushing on.

Hang In There With Me is out now on Tapete Records.


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New EP: The Gabys II The Gabys II

Beautiful, spare, slow-moving music from the U.K.

UK duo The Gabys return to the Fruits & Flowers label to deliver more feather-light, homespun recordings in the form of a four song EP. The Gabys create what has been characterized in the Bay Area as “fog pop”—beautiful, spare, slow-moving music, exemplified by the groups Cindy and April Magazine—and add an unexpected brevity to the formula. In addition to short run times, multiple songs feature fade-ins and -outs, suggesting the listener is hearing them in media res; overall, the music has a blink-and-you-miss-it effect, like you’re witnessing the fleeting moments of twilight on an autumn day.

In true fog pop fashion, the elements here are subdued: soft-spoken vocals, barely audible through tape hiss, and instrumentation that can only be described as austere. The melodies waft by, as if the singer is drifting in and out of consciousness. Fragmentary narratives, only occasionally heard, are punctuated by probing questions (“Is this a dream?” and “Do you feel the same?” on Cursed) that remind you to stay engaged, preventing you from fully entering a dream state. The Gabys may have a roundabout way of commanding your attention, but you won’t easily forget these songs once they have it.

The Gabys’ second self-titled EP is out now on Fruits & Flowers.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: New Starts || More Break-Up Songs

Darren Hayman wanted a band again, and that works out really well

New Starts is a new band formed by ex-Hefner frontman Darren Hayman plus members of Tigercats and Adults. The project has been touted by Hayman as a return to the group format, which he all but disowned after the dissolution of Hefner. The premise is simple: he writes the songs, the band arranges them. As a result, the songs zig in directions they may not otherwise if this were a strictly a Hayman solo affair. The prominent anti-guitar hero playing of Joely Smith provides a welcome occasional dissonance, jolting you awake after you’ve been lulled into a state of relaxation by Hayman’s dulcet melodies. The rhythm section of Giles Barrett and Will Connor is unobtrusive but sure-footed, allowing the disparate elements to congeal.

New Starts’ default mode is Doug Yule-era Velvet Underground, chugging and lilting along these 12 songs. Theoretically, the album is split into rockers and ballads, but there is little that separates the two in terms of tempo or approach. The songs, by and large, are of the tender kind, amiably yet portentously delivered. Hayman’s characters are hopeless romantics with caveats. On Pumpkins, he urges the object of his desire to “treat every night like the last/treat every kiss like the first,” before comparing their connection to a “crippled bird” on morphine, suggesting their relationship is in a sort of palliative care. A Little Stone tells the story of young, frenzied love, where our protagonist will do anything for his beloved, degrading himself as a “doormat, a satchel” despite misgivings.

The title More Break-Up Songs, in addition to being a direct rebuttal of this band’s name, is perhaps a nod to The Undertones’ More Songs About Chocolate and Girls: if everyone’s got you pegged, you may as well throw your hands up and give the people what they want. But if songs of this quality are the expectation of Darren Hayman at this point in his career, that’s a very good thing.


More Break-Up Songs is out today, digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Fika Recordings.

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New album: Quivers || Oyster Cuts

Quivers' fourth album and Merge Records debut is unmistakably the work of a group with its own identity

On their new album Oyster Cuts, Melbourne’s Quivers diverge further from the jangle pop pack, incorporating smooth synth textures, syrupy slide guitar, and Stonesian riffs. This time, though, the music never overtakes the words — thoughtful and considered as they are. The music itself occasionally feels vaporous as a consequence of this newfound approach, but the added emphasis on lyrics ultimately lends the album its heft. The result is a series of subtle details transmuted into a cohesive and significant work by a band hitting their songwriting stride.

While not musically derivative, Quivers’ primary language is nostalgia.The lyrics are marked by a yearning for past misadventures and expired relationships — both real and imagined. Images of ghosts, smoke, and faded radio signals pervade the album, suggesting our narrator is trapped in a sort of romantic subterfuge. In these ten songs, the object of affection is always just out of reach: “Will you turn into an apparition?” guitarist Sam Nicholson asks adversarially on Apparition, expecting the worst; elsewhere, drummer Holly Thomas has a “suspicion” her dream partner is someone she “dreamt up” on the title track.

Some genre signifiers remain from earlier work (like the arpeggiated leads of If Only and the tuneful harmonies of Pink Smoke), but Oyster Cuts is unmistakably the work of a group with its own identity. Choruses are frequently chanted in unison by the band, sometimes with only a solitary guitar accompanying them, evoking a hymn rather than a radio anthem. And despite the backward looking subject matter, the group never sounds less than grounded, never fully escaping into reverie. To quote Quivers, “nostalgia will kill you” if you let it; the key is to keep a foot in the present.

Oyster Cuts is out August 9th on Merge Records.

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New single: Mighty Clouds || Anagram / Just Friends

Melodically twee but emotionally resonant rock by Fred Thomas and longtime collaborator Betty Marie Barnes

Michigan indie rock hero Fred Thomas and longtime collaborator Betty Marie Barnes have revived the Mighty Clouds moniker for an archival release and a new single on Antiquated Future Records. Melodically twee but emotionally resonant rock is the order du jour – spidery, tremolo-laden guitar heroics feature heavily on Anagram and Wall of Sound production helps add definition to the spare Just Friends.

Although Barnes’ weightless vocals and Thomas’ overall pop bent would typically indicate a more upbeat mood, feelings of paranoia and distrust permeate the recordings. Lyrical topics include social invisibility, the uncertainty of memory, and the erasure of identity: the subject of Anagram is a person who “want[s] to be someone no one could forget” but is instead a bland “anagram” of others they’ve met, while Barnes’ lover on Just Friends is someone she is “ashamed” to be involved with but whom she will disintegrate without. The best moments are when the honeyed melodies and the somber lyrics intersect, like the slight detour into dissonance on Anagram.

The Anagram / Just Friends single is now available on 7″ vinyl on Antiquated Future Records.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Redd Kross || Redd Kross

Redd Kross refortifies their legacy with expansive eighth album

On their eighth album in 45 years, Redd Kross offers more of the same (specifically, two LPs’ worth) to winning results. The eponymous title and ruby red cover serve as self-referential nods to their first EP as Red Cross, decisions that would typically signal a rebirth or a return to form. Instead, Redd Kross refortifies what brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald have been doing for decades: churning out wild and wily bubblegum rock.

Throughout the album, the McDonalds lean heavily on the ‘60s — both as a sonic identity and as a unifying concept for the long-form format they’ve chosen. This would not be a Redd Kross record without tongue-in-cheek cultural allusions, and here they pay tribute to the pseudo-psychedelia of yesteryear, from the Pictures of Matchstick Men-esque opener (and Paul Stanley jab?) Candy Coated Catastrophe, to the meta, Beatles-referencing Good Times Propaganda Band. Nonetheless, Redd Kross never completely embraces pastiche, keeping an arch detachment from their influences, while also squeezing in a few unironically heartfelt moments — like single and album highlight I’ll Take Your Word For It.

Ultimately, the gamble to release a late-career double album pays off; the band sounds nimble and fresh, and the expansive nature of the album gives each brother the opportunity to display their full writerly range. Even if Redd Kross doesn’t deviate much from established formula, the group have refined their strengths enough to produce perhaps their best album yet.

Redd Kross is out now on In The Red Records.

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