You Tell Me – You Tell Me

★★★

(January 11th, 2019 on Memphis Industries)

Field Music and Admiral Fallow, together at last, or something. Like chocolate and peanut butter for people who think Eighties post-Genesis pop was fuckin’ keen.

The Delines – The Imperial

★★★☆

(January 11th, 2019 on Decor Records)

Pros: It’s good Boomer soul

Cons: It’s Boomer soul.

Angelo De Augustine – Tomb

★★

(January 11th, 2019 on Asthmatic Kitty Records)

De Augustine is 24, which means that his formative years came after all of Sufjan’s best albums were already out (ok, yes, except for Carrie & Lowell) and so that means that kids who grew up listening to Sufjan and who sound pretty much like Sufjan are now recording albums for Asthmatic Kitty. That’s where we’re at, that’s what we’re doing, here we are in 2019.

Tallies – Tallies

★★★

(January 11th on Kanine Records)

Just as derivative as the De Augustine record but the key difference here is in sound. If you sound just like Sufjan Stevens, it’s annoying because Sufjan is a very individualist identity and it sounds odd. When you instead decide you’re going to sound just like The Sundays or Cocteau Twins then that’s different, shoegaze is all about subsuming identity.

CHOICE

Billie Eilish – “WHEN I WAS OLDER”

Lana Del Rey – “hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – but i have it”