The Go! Team – Get Up Sequences Part One

★★★☆

Released July 2nd, 2021 on Memphis Industries

18 years later the Brighton band is still doing their signature ‘cheerleader punk’ at a level other bands could only dream of. Pure psychedelic rave-up, like the band absorbed every peppy British Invasion novelty single they could find and made a sound out of it.

Snapped Ankles – Forest Of Your Problems

★★★★

Released July 2nd, 2021 on Leaf Records

Look, I hesitate to conjecture on what any of it means – or what the liner notes mean, anyway – but I can report that if you liked the poppier parts on Swell Maps records, you’ll like Forest Of Your Problems.

Desperate Journalist – Maximum Sorrow!

★★★★

Released July 2nd, 2021 on Fierce Panda Records

I’m not going to stand here and tell you that this isn’t a spin off of the kind of stuff Siouxsie Sioux was doing in the early 80s. I am going to tell you that Jo Bevan’s voice is less grating (Trevor!) and that on their fourth album the band has far outstripped anything Siouxsie’s ragtag group of post-punk pioneers was doing. Is it advancing technology or just better songwriting? I literally could not care less.

Laura Mvula – Pink Noise

★★★★

Released July 2nd, 2021 on Atlantic Records

The very first thing you hear on this album are gated drums. BIG gated drums, like “In The Air Tonight.” Then it comes to you rather quickly that this isn’t just an ironic affectation. It’s a harbinger of this album’s entire aesthetic, as though the last 35 years of musical history never happened. Just as quickly, you’ll realize that none of that matters; it’s 1987, you’re in the club, and there is no tomorrow.

Cub Scout Bowling Pins – Clang Clang Ho

★★★

Released July 2nd, 2021 on Guided By Voices, Inc.

Robert Pollard is so ridiculously, outlandishly, superhumanly prolific that his brand new side band from Guided By Voices is on its second album this year. It sounds uncommonly like Robert Pollard, with maybe a touch more, like, Elvis or surf music.

Izzy True – Our Beautiful Baby World

★★☆

Released July 2nd, 2021 on Don Giovanni Records

Standard-issue indie rock complete with reverb and 90s influence, saved from bargain bin ignominy by a smattering of brass here and there.

Tashaki Miyaki – Castaway

★★★

Released July 2nd, 2021 on Metropolis Records

Languid, almost lazy slowcore dream pop. It won’t get you up and going, but it will complement that loud if you like.

Clean Cut Kid – Mother’s Milk

★★★

Released July 2nd, 2021 on Babe Magnet Records

They cut it clean, offering up big old classic folk-rock gestures, but they play it entirely too peppy. The old masters got that laid-back delivery, that in-the-pocket groove, from doing prodigious amounts of drugs, and I’m just not convinced of Clean Cut Kid’s convictions.

Bigger Better Sun – Adjust To Wellness

★★

Released July 2nd, 2021 on Counter Intuitive Records

A midwest emo band that strips whatever edge might have still remained out of the instrumentation and layers vocals on that are strongly reminiscent of the worst of the singer from Simple Plan, or like a toned-down Wheatus. You know, all the whine with none of that weird twist that makes it kinda ok.

ABADIR – Pause/Stutter/Uh/Repeat

★★★

Released July 2nd, 2021 on Genot Centre

Glitched-out cut and paste that feels somewhat creepy even as it moves relentlessly.

Cosha – Mt. Pleasant

★★★☆

Released July 2nd, 2021 on Ashtown Lane

Her voice and delivery is too obviously reminiscent of Beyonce for me to give it anything higher but a special note should be made of the production on here, which is just superb.

Issa Gold – Tempus

★★☆

Released July 2nd, 2021 on Overland Hills Records

He only really has one flow and a lot of his lines tend to hang awkwardly on the bars. There’s also very little variation aside from the one central theme outlined on the album cover. While we’re at it, what the fuck is up with the album cover? The liner notes really detract from the image, which is in itself sort of interesting.

G Herbo – 25

★★

Released July 2nd, 2021 on Republic Records

Everything – from the album cover to the canned beats to the mediocre flow – points to something that will probably be on the charts next week.

MDMA – Peak of Molly

★★☆

Released July 2nd, 2021 on Create Music Group

Some of the synth work is kind of trippy but there’s nothing here that warrants naming yourself or your album after drugs.

Yungeen Ace – Life Of Betrayal 2X

★★

Released July 2nd, 2021 on Cinematic Music Group

Yungeen Ace ends off this lengthy record by talking about how he deserves Grammys but there’s nothing on here to distinguish him from a thousand other rappers doing the same thing with the same themes and the same delivery.

Year Of No Light – Consolamentum

★★★★

Released July 2nd, 2021 on Pelagic Records

One of the most exciting new bands from the last few years returns with another great collection of immaculately sculpted post-metal.

At The Gates – The Nightmare Of Being

★★★☆

Released July 2nd, 2021 on Century Records

If it doesn’t sound as awe-inspiring or world-shaking as it did on Slaughter Of The Soul, that’s only because the entire melodic death metal genre was made in its image and what was once miraculous just seems commonplace.

Bizarrekvlt – Vi Overlevde

★★★☆

Released July 2nd, 2021 on Petrichor Records

Meat and potatoes black metal, hard and in your face, with no pretensions.