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Have a Nice Life

Sea of Worry
Flenser (2019)

Time changes us all. As people we are bound to the rules of time and how it moves regardless of whether we want it to or not. Music changes us. However, the rules surrounding how music moves us is on a different scale to that of time - one piece of music will affect ten people differently. Have a Nice … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Fleshies

Introducing The Fleshies
Dirt Cult (2019)

Sure, I know of Fleshies but I don’t really know them. I’ve heard the hits over the years, but I’m coming at Introducing The Fleshies from a relatively clean slate. And it’s a rager. It’s got the aggression, a little bit of slop, and lyrics that are both biting and intelligent. It works on both levels: something to shout along … Read more

Tool

Fear Inoculum
RCA (2019)

hype - Informal.nounexaggerated publicity; hoopla.an ingenious or questionable claim, method, etc., used in advertising, promotion, or publicity to intensify the effect.Let’s be real. 13 years is a long goddamn time between albums. Particularly for a band that didn’t even break up. There’s just no way on earth ANY band could hope to return to whatever glory cradled them in their … Read more

Various Artists

Desert Sessions, Vol. 11 And 12
Matador (2019)

It’s been 16 long years since Josh Homme sent out invitations to a group of musicians to join him out in the high desert for a few days.The last time it happened was in 2003 and a whole lot has happened for Homme in that time. Queens of the Stone Age has been the cornerstone, but there’s been time served … Read more

DIÄT

Positive Disintegration
Iron Lung (2019)

Positive Disintegration is an ideal name for this album, the follow-up to Positive Energy, which DIÄT released in 2015. The record is dreary post-punk with a lot of repetition and monotone vocals that carry a beaten-down-by-the-world-but-the-show-must-go-on vibe. “We,” starts things on this path, but as the record progresses that exasperation turns to a call for action at times.The very next … Read more

Thom Yorke

Anima
XL Recordings (2019)

There’s a kind of anxious immediacy that bleeds through every song on Anima, Thom Yorke’s latest solo album. Normally this would signal a lack of cohesion or at the very least an uneven listening experience, but somehow Yorke manages to pack all his troubles in his old kit bag and smile, giving us his strongest solo album to date.The whirring, … Read more

Mamiffer

The Brilliant Tabernacle
Sige (2019)

Mamiffer was born in a field of darkness, a trajectory between the areas of dark ambient, downtempo and minimal music. The first days of Faith Coloccia and Aaron Turner reveled in a drone aesthetic, vividly apparent in their self-titled debut and Mare Decendrii. But then something changed for Mamiffer. Following a series of fantastic collaborations with the likes of Circle, … Read more

Ceremony

In the Spirit World Now
Relapse (2019)

It’s fun to introduce old Ceremony to their new fans and hear comments like, “Wow, that guy must’ve worked out his anger issues”. It’s true that Ross Farrar’s lyrics have recently favored elegant introspection over spiteful threats to fight society with hate-packed fists, or to strangle it, or to curb stomp it, or to watch it burn to the fucking … Read more

Loud Love

Self Titled EP
White Russian Records (2019)

Loud Love is a Belgian five piece that released their debut EP on White Russian Records. Everyone in this record has past experience in other bands and you can hear that. If only because this sounds really tight and professional. Loud Love plays the kind of hardcore that reminds me of the melodic hardcore that Reflections Records released in the … Read more

Alcest

Spiritual Instinct
Nuclear Blast (2019)

Spirituality is one of the more personal topics that an artist can speak about within their music and it’s something that is coloured by experiences and by life as it happens around them. Where many find comfort, some find fear and where some find fear, many find comfort. For Alcest’s Neige (Stéphane Paut), that comfort comes from childhood experiences that … Read more

Foxhall Stacks

The Coming Collapse
Snappy Little Numbers Quality Audio Recordings (2019)

The best part of a super group is hearing talented musicians working in a comfortable space. A diligent review of Foxhall Stacks is obliged to mention Jawbox, Government Issue, Velocity Girl and Minor Threat, with whom this band shares members. I hear similarities to many of these groups because of the unmistakable players participating. The powerpop formula on this record … Read more

Full Sun

Thinkin’ About It
Lets Pretend (2019)

There are certain musical styles where I struggle as a reviewer to offer you my deep thoughts beyond yay or nay. Power-pop is definitely one of those areas, and that’s the label I’d slap on Full Sun. Thinkin’ About It is a 10-song blast of high energy, upbeat jams.Over the course of the record, every band member shines. The bass … Read more

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Ghosteen
Bad Seed LTD. (2019)

There’s nothing more personal than grief. It affects us all in different ways, but the one commonality often tends to be the insular. We retreat into ourselves, finding little comfort in the company of others. It’s selfish, in a way. But it’s also a necessary part of the grieving process.It’s this truism that makes Ghosteen such a remarkable and selfless … Read more

Dark Oz

Alligators
Independent (2018)

A few years removed from 2015's ¡Piratas!, a record I found singularly outstanding, Portland, Oregon band Dark Oz returned with a second EP entitled Alligators. Unsurprisingly given circumstances affecting the Dark Oz project around the time of Piratas' release, namely, the death of drummer Lorien Bourne (a.k.a. Styx) while on tour, Alligators has quite a different sound from that heard … Read more

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