New Release Album Cycle for 11-1-2024
With the link to this weeks playlist
Happy The Cure week! Hope it treated you as well as it did me. HERE is this weeks playlist. A little short as I don’t think a lot of bands wanted to compete with The Cure, but some other good stuff out this week.
The Cure-Songs of a Lost World-oof…OK. I cannot remember waiting for something like this. The days of anticipating Prince albums with a mix of dread and excitement have long since passed. Honestly, when putting this one in, it was an emotion I had forgotten about. I (and many of you) needed this to be fucking amazing. Not just good, not just good for Robert and the band's age, but fucking amazing. I don’t know why I (and many of you) needed it to be that. We have gotten plenty out of the band. Maybe some of us just need it right now at this very point in time. I do believe that could be the case. When “Alone” came out, my fears subsided a bit. It’s the best The Cure song since I don’t know when. It is now in my top ten The Cure songs and ends up being my favorite song on SOALW. There is just something in the construction of that song that gets deep, deep inside me. I would say nothing has done that in a long time, but Nick Cave’s song “Joy” also did just a couple of months ago. Now, putting that song in context of the album actually changes a lot. The reason why is because it is followed by “And Nothing Is Forever,” this bloody epic soaring emotional gut punch of a song, and the one-two uppercut of the both of them is wonderfully cruel. The album continues with song after song of perfect dark Cure-ness. When “A Fragile Thing” was released as a single, I loved it, of course—not as much as "Alone,” but it is a much better song even when it falls into its rightful place on the album. It takes us out of the emotion of the first two songs and into a little bit of pop music (as much as we are going to go pop on this album) before throwing us back into another intense, albeit very different emotion with “War Song,” which feels like the darker sister of “Alone” to me. “Drone: Nodrone” is the album's rock song, and I can’t wait to hear Robert sing “something wicked this way comes” live from “I Can Never Say Goodbye." Whereas the album started off with a one two gut punch, it ends with reassurance with the light and airy strings of “All I Ever Am’ and the absolutely epic "Endsong." We pretty much knew exactly how that song was going to sound when we saw it listed, didn’t we? Just stunning. To say I am satisfied with his album would be an understatement. Now I just dread the debates that will happen comparing this to other albums and the inevitable edgy people who will lie and say “it’s just OK” or “not as good as people are saying." They are full of shit. It’s fucking amazing.
deary-Aurelia-I am going to make an exception to writing about or even listening to EP’s here. I just don’t deal with EP’s as it’s already hard enough to keep up with all of the albums coming out. Sure there have been some good EP’s throughout history, but I am just a full album person and always hope bands will just put all of their efforts into that. Get off my lawn. I was turned onto deary last year and hadn’t heard of them as they put out EP’s and I probably just skipped over them. This is a band you cannot skip over. They are about as good as a dream pop and shoegaze band that exists right now. They are doing what I think pretty much every other band and artist are trying for. This EP seems to be more of that, but I am also going to have to let it set in. I highly recommend going back and listening to everything they have done. My head might explode if they actually put out a full album.
Flower Face – Girl Prometheus - This is Flower Face’s fourth album, it seems. I had not heard of her until now. She is from Montreal, and I keep seeing “goth folk artist” in interviews. I don’t really get that when listening to her music. This is a very good album, pretty standard indie singer-songwriter songs. Very intimate and confessional lyrics, mostly kind of twee breathy vocals, and sometimes musically there will be some twang and even big swirling cacophonies out of nowhere, like on the opening track “Biblical Love." Check it out.
Loose Cattle – Someone’s Monster-New Orleans band that has been around awhile. Some good songs on here, Americana and alt-country, and a little all over the place with multiple vocalists and styles they try to cover. Some of it comes off a little too local, but songs like “Cheneyville” where the full band seems to be firing work. Patterson Hood from Drive By Truckers, and Lucinda Williams make guest appearances.
Paul Kelly-Never Longing Still-I can’t remember when or why I discovered Paul Kelly. It wouldn’t have been hard, as he is one of the best known Australian singer-songwriters, but it was only sometime in the past decade. I have been picking up his CDs and records in used racks around the country since then, and he has become a favorite songwriter of mine. I put him in the Graham Parker and Elvis Costello world of music. Not sure why this guy didn’t become bigger around the world, but whatever. He will be turning 70 in a couple of months, and this is his 29th album, and he still sounds fresh and vital. Don’t get me wrong, this is old guy pop rock music, but it’s good. Compared to some of his contemporaries his age, this is far above and beyond what any of them are doing except maybe the afore mentioned Graham Parker and Elvis Costello. Well crafted, varied, pure pop based singer-songwriter stuff that might even remind a little bit of late era Dylan in style, but not vocally. There are a couple of rough missteps here, like “Let’s Work It Out In Bed," but for the most part, it’s another solid release from Kelly.
Peter Perrett – The Cleansing-I loved the Only Ones. What a fantastic band. Only Ones’s front-man Peter Perrett has been putting out a few solo albums later in life and they are a lot of fun. He talk/sings in his aging British voice with a hint of attitude and snark and it’s actually appealing. His new album is 20 songs long though, and is it that appealing for over an hour? It kind of is. The 72 year old still has quite a bit of spark in him.
Willie Nelson – Last Leaf on the Tree- Our national treasure just released his 76th solo album at 91 years old. Produced by his kid Micha Nelson (also known as Particle Kid) and you can tell, because there is a definitely some odd Particle Kid production, instrumentation and things happening, which adds a lot to bringing the most out of what Willie still has to work with. This is Willie mostly doing other peoples songs like Nina Simone, Keith Richards Tom Waits, Warren Zevon and more. I dare you to keep a dry eye during his version of Beck’s “Lost Cause”, or Zevon’s “Keep Me In Your Heart”. Then he does the flippin’ Flaming Lip’s “Do You Realize”. Good luck with the emotions on this album.
Tuxedo-IV-this is the fourth project (obviously) form Mayor Hawthorne and Jake One. They do the pseudo disco/funk/soul thing and the first couple outings was a lot fun, but this has gotten pretty long in the tooth. There are still a few last gasps of fun though. I would hit up Jungle or Say She She if you need more of this style of music.
Autre Ne Veut – Love, Guess Who??
BABYMONSTER – DRIP
Beardfish – Songs For Beating Hearts
Cane Hill-A Piece Of Me I Never Let You Find
Charlie Kaplan – Eternal Repeater
Chase Atlantic – Lost in Heaven
Contour – Take Off from Mercy
The Cure – Songs of a Lost World
David Nail – A Campfire Christmas
Fionn Regan – O Avalanche
The Fleshtones – It’s Getting Late (…and More Songs About Werewolves)
Hayla – Dusk
Henrik Appel – Shadows
Haley Heynderickx-Seed of a Seed.
.idk – BRAVADO INTiMO
Illiterate Light – Arches
Jacquees – Baby Making
Jennifer Castle – Camelot
Jeremie Albino – Our Time in the Sun
Jeremy Zucker and Chelsea Cutler —brent iii
Jimmy Fallon – Holiday Seasoning
Johnny Delaware Para Llevar
Katrina Ford – H.E.A.R.T.
Leaving Time – Angel in the Sand
Lil Zay Osama – The Streets Calling My Name, Pt. 2
Marcus Drake – Save Point 1)
Military Genius – Scarred For Life
Mount Eerie – Night Palace
NACHTMYSTIUM – Bight Privilege he
Olivia O - No Bones, Sickly Sweet
OMBIIGIZI – SHAME
Paria-Venerate
Planes Mistaken For Stars – Do You Still Love Me?
POWERFLO – Gorilla Warfare
Red Ribbon – Red Ribbon
Richard Swift – 4 Hits & A Miss
Sam Barber – Restless Mind
Sam Gendel, Benny Bock, and Hans P. Kjorstad – Dream Trio
Sarah Blasko – I Just Need to Conquer This Mountain
Sarah Neufeld / Richard Reed Parry / Rebecca Foon – First Sounds
Scott Hedrick-Devotional Drift Vol. 1
Slower – Rage and Ruin
Thirdface – Ministerial Cafeteria
Thus Love – All Pleasure
Tomin – A Willed and Conscious Balance
Tribulation – Sub Rosa in Æternum
urika’s bedroom – Big Smile, Black Mire
Volume – Joy of Navigation
Warren Haynes – Million Voices Whisper