Notable Releases of the Week (6/6)

It’s officially June, the weather in New York is in the 80s, Governors Ball starts today–real “summer is here” vibes. The end of a month also means we ran down the best punk, rap, and indie (basement) of May. On top of that, it was a busy week in music, with album announcements from Big Thief, Pool Kids, Hot Mulligan, Superchunk, and more. Plus, Pavement members threw (and caught) the first pitch at a Cincinnati Reds game, My Bloody Valentine’s Instagram got hacked??, The Game made a list of the top 100 LA rappers of all time (in response to Complex‘s list), and more.

On to this week’s new albums. I highlight seven below, and Bill tackles more in Indie Basement, including Lifeguard, Brian Eno & Beatie Wolfe, Comet Gain, Activity, Lake Ruth, and Mythologen. For more, this week’s honorable mentions include Lil Wayne (ft. Bono, BigXthaPlug, 2 Chainz, Andrea Bocelli, Wyclef Jean, MGK, Jelly Roll, an interpolation of Weezer’s “Island in the Sun” & more), Addison Rae, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Finn Wolfhard, The Doobie Brothers, Katatonia, Gaahls Wyrd, Marina, Ben LaMar Gay, First Day Back, Kaonashi, Orthodox, Stateside, Frankie & the Witch Fingers, Hayden Pedigo, Career Woman, Carmen Perry (Remember Sports), The Knocks & Dragonette, Salem 66, Gruesome, Grief Club, Alien Nosejob, Born Ruffians, Options, Landlady, Attention Bird Utopia, Tracy Bonham, Phoebe Rings, Sabrina Claudio, Nadah El Shazly, Purelink, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Sada Baby, Chicken P, BigBabyGucci, Lucy Gooch, Nick Mulvey, Death In Vegas, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Smug Brothers, The Kentucky Gentlemen, North Mississippi Allstars, Caamp, Jon Bellion, Jools, The Ting Tings, Mother Mother, Volbeat, ENHYPHEN, Cynthia Erivo, Rascal Flatts, Dispatch, the posthumous Marianne Faithfull EP, the surprise Portugal. The Man EP, the Soccer Mommy “stripped” EP, the Gloria Gaynor EP, the Nympho (Empath, Perfect Pussy) EP, the Elbow EP, the Dear Hunter EP, the Wylderness EP, the Dog Race EP, the Gingerella EP, the Snow Wife EP, the expanded Kassie Krut EP, Cypress Hill and the London Symphony Orchestra’s live album, the Okkervil River & Antlers live album, Perennial’s Art History sessions, the deluxe edition of My Chemical Romance’s Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, Seth MacFarlane’s Frank Sinatra tribute album, Magnetic Eye Records’ Ramones tribute albums (ft. Napalm Death + Thurston Moore, Voivod + JG Thirlwell, Kay Dot & Ihsahn, and more), and the tribute to Broken Social Scene’s You Forgot It in People (ft. The Weather Station, Spirit of the Beehive, Maggie Rogers & Sylvan Esso, Toro y Moi, Mdou Moctar, serpentwithfeet & more).

Read on for my picks. What’s your favorite release of the week?

Little Simz – Lotus (AWAL)
The UK rapper’s new album is a kiss-off to her former producer and proof that her music is just as wide in scope without him.

Little Simz’s new album Lotus is a new beginning. Notably, it’s her first album since 2016’s Stillness in Wonderland not to be produced by Inflo, who she had a public falling out with after filing a lawsuit against him for allegedly failing to repay a 1.7 million pound loan, and that experience shows up in the lyrics of this album too. It was instead produced by frequent Kokoroko collaborator Miles Clinton James, who’s contributed to other recent Simz albums, and it’s a testament to Simz’s own creativity and vision that a break from her longtime producer did not mean a drastic change in style. She addresses the Inflo situation right away on the dark, ominous album opener “Thief,” which, along with the hard, raw sounds of “Lion” and the Afrobeats-infused “Flood” (both of which feature Obongjayar), is like an update of Simz’s gritty 2019 album Grey Area. On other songs, she brings back the sweeping orchestral arrangements of 2021’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, and she gets soulful assists from Sampha (“Blue”), Moses Sumney (“Peace”), and frequent Simz collaborator Michael Kiwanuka (“Lotus”). On that last one, she brings in jazz drummer/composer Yussef Dayes for a stirring jazz/soul/rap fusion. In classic Little Simz fashion, Lotus is grand and majestic and deeply serious, but Simz gets a little fun and irreverent with it too, like with the post-punky kick of “Enough” and “Young” (and the latter’s video). She’s such a naturally versatile rapper that you almost don’t notice when the music behind her hops from genre to genre, and it’s fitting that she’d do a little of everything on Lotus. Why not make a fresh start with a reminder of everything that you’re capable of?

Turnstile – Never Enough (Roadrunner)
The long-awaited followup to ‘Glow On’ feels like a crafty sequel, a deeper dive into that album’s world with knowingly familiar moments and daring new ones.

Turnstile introduce their anticipated followup to Glow On with its title track, a song whose similarity to the previous album’s opening track/lead single “Mystery” is so on the nose that it has be intentional. But if its placement as lead single and opening track made you think you’re in for a ride you’ve been on before, buckle up. After the comfortingly familiar album opener, Never Enough is loaded with musical fusions that even Turnstile’s day ones might be caught off guard by. Turnstile with Latin horns and a reggaeton beat? “Dreaming.” Turnstile with new age jazz flute from genre torch-carrier Shabaka Hutchings himself? “Sunshower.” Turnstile goes The Police? “Seein’ Stars.” Turnstile goes ambient pop? “Magic Man.” A song that asks what Black Sabbath’s “Sweet Leaf” riff would sound like in Turnstile’s hands? “Slowdive.” The most pop punk Turnstile song since “Blue By You”? “Time Is Happening.” Glitched-out Turnstile with help from A.G. Cook? “Dull.” (Maybe that’s related to the Charli XCX co-sign.) A nearly-seven-minute Turnstile song with an all-timer riff, a sample of The Wire, and an IDM break? “Look Out For Me.”

Read my full review for more and pick up Never Enough on vinyl in the BV shop.

Pulp – More (Rough Trade)
The first Pulp album in 24 years gives the people what they want, with a few new moves too.

Britpop legends Pulp are back with their first album in 24 years, which finds Jarvis Cocker & co working with producer James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Fontaines D.C., Beth Gibbons, etc). To quote Bill’s review: From disco bangers to wistful folk, More is loaded with classic Cocker-isms and a few new moves. There’s also a sense of fun here that’s been missing from Pulp albums since Different Class and Jarvis and the rest of the band are not afraid to give the people what they want this time.

Read Bill’s full review for more and pick up More on “blue sky thinking” and/or dark green vinyl in the BV shop.

More by Pulp

For Your Health – This Bitter Garden (3DOT)
The Ohio emo/screamo/post-hardcore band’s second album is their most cohesive statement yet, with both their heaviest material to date as well as their catchiest.

Across one album, an EP, and splits with Shin Guard and awakebutstillinbed, For Your Health spent the first few years of their existence exploring everything from raw, harsh ’90s-style screamo to brightly melodic 2000s-style emo-pop to a flamboyant chaos that positioned them as fixtures of the late ’10s/early ’20s sasscore revival. Now, four years and multiple lineup changes after their first LP, they’ve come out with their most complete statement yet: a cohesive, musically-varied album that touches on bits of everything For Your Health had ever done prior. The album is home to the band’s catchiest parts and their heaviest, and they weave those two extremes together in interesting, intricate ways–not just throughout the album but during individual songs. Made with Foxing’s guitarist and in-house producer E.M. Hudson, it’s also the most dense-sounding For Your Health release to date. (Also of note: Caden Clinton of Pool Kids handled drums on this album.) This Bitter Garden is said to be inspired by singer Hayden Rodriguez’s interest in film, and it does feel cinematic in scope, with two acts broken up by an atmospheric piano/spoken word interlude, all leading up to an emo piano ballad (“Hostel Elysia”) for the finale. As a lyricist, Hayden is also at their most theatrical, with vivid, melodramatic refrains like “this is 9mm to the chest of everyone that you love and everyone that you know” and lots of religious imagery inspired by Hayden reflecting on their relationship to their Catholic upbringing. Reckoning with faith is a topic that’s fueled some of emo’s most powerful albums, so This Bitter Garden finds itself in a sub-canon of towering records, and it stands tall next to the best of them.

McKinley Dixon – Magic, Alive! (City Slang)
The latest from McKinley Dixon is a genre-blurring jazz-rap concept album about three kids that lose their best friend, fleshed out by layers of instrumentation, a star-studded indie-rap cast, and more.

It’s no coincidence that many of the greatest works of art of all time are fueled by a sense of childlike wonder, something that you can appreciate from a young age, explore on an even deeper level over time, and share with your own children one day. It’s a sentiment that’s proven to be true from generation to generation, and it’s one that indie-rap fixture McKinley Dixon seems to agree with. In the press materials for Magic, Alive!–his new concept album that tells the story of three kids who lose their best friend at a young age–he said, “I believe that the way to live forever is to write stuff that is dedicated to children.” Dixon himself turns 30 this year, but the experience of grieving for someone your own age as a young person is one that you never forget, one that shapes your life irreversibly, and Magic, Alive! brings a sense of wisdom to that experience that you can learn from and grow with at any point in your life. The album began as a collaboration between the Maryland-born rapper and London producer Sam Yamaha, who brought beats to the table that were later fleshed out by a handful of live musicians, including trombonist Reggie Pace, harpist Eli Owens, guitarists Sarah Tuzdin (illuminati hotties) and El Kempner (Palehound), co-producer Sam Koff on trumpet, a string section, and more. The result is an album so lush and lively that it would be one of the year’s best hip hop-infused jazz albums even if it didn’t have any vocals, and Dixon meets the moment by telling Magic, Alive!‘s grief-stricken story with bars that fall perfectly into the pocket of these instrumentals. Adding to the communal affair of it all are verses from likeminded rappers Blu, ICECOLDBISHOP, Pink Siifu, Ghais Guevara, Quelle Chris, Teller Bank$, and Alfred., plus a melodic touch from indie guest singers Anjimile and Shamir. Multi-layered, genre-blurring rap albums have become the norm for McKinley Dixon, and Magic, Alive! is one of his tightest and sharpest yet.

Magic, Alive! by McKinley Dixon

Hailey Whitters – Corn Queen (Pigasus/Big Loud/Songs & Daughters)
The Iowa-born country singer picks up where her breakthrough album ‘Raised’ left off, with songs that apply her pop sensibilities to honky tonk rhythms, bluegrass, bluesy rock, and more.

Country music is coming at us from all directions lately: pop stars are going country, indie rock bands are going country, rappers are doing country songs, and country purists are hanging onto something a little more traditional than what all these recent fusions have to offer. For an artist who might appeal to every single one of those camps, there’s Hailey Whitters. Her last album Raised (2022) was a breakthrough that brought to mind Same Trailer Different Park/Pageant Material-era Kacey Musgraves, and her new album Corn Queen picks up where its predecessor left off, with pop sensibilites meeting honky tonk rhythms (“High On The Hog”), gritty bluegrass (“Prodigal Daughter” ft. Molly Tuttle), bluesy rock (“High On A Heartbreak”), gentle country-folk (“Casseroles”), horn-fueled soul (“Wholesome”), and more. The album’s full of familiar country themes (heartbreak, love, pulling yourself up by the bootstraps, getting a little dirt under your nails, drinking, having dirt under your nails while drinking), and Hailey breathes new life into these topics without relying on tired clichés. She knows her way around a hook as well as she knows how to tell a story, like when she recounts the way she came into this world (“Shotgun Wedding Baby”), and when she sings of a former small-town homecoming queen on the title track, “Corn Queen,” a nickname affectionately given to Hailey by fans because of her Iowa upbringing. If you wondered if the fame from Raised would make Hailey Whitters forget where she came from, Corn Queen seems to suggest that she’s doing the exact opposite.

Joey Purp & Thelonius Martin – Champagne Seats (Fake Shore Drive)
The longtime collaborators come together for a short but sweet offering of soul-infused Chicago rap.

Chicago rapper Joey Purp built up a reputation for bringing Chicago house into the world of modern hip hop, but he’s also long had a knack for rapping over lush, neck-snapping, soul-sample-infused production. A handful of those types of Joey Purp songs over the years have been produced by Thelonius Martin (who’s also worked with A$AP Rocky, Joey Bada$$, Curren$y, Mac Miller, and more over the years), and now those two have come together for a quick EP-length project, Champagne Seats. Thelonius favors soul-based production for the entire project, and Joey sounds great over these, with tight, tuneful bars and reflective lyricism on every song.

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Read Indie Basement for more new album reviews, including Lifeguard, Brian Eno & Beatie Wolfe, Comet Gain, Activity, Lake Ruth, and Mythologen.

Looking for more recent releases? Browse the Notable Releases archive.

Looking for a podcast to listen to? Check out our new episode with Pure Noise Records founder Jake Round about the label’s past, present, and future, and five albums that altered the label’s trajectory.

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