Let’s talk music!
Beach House is in, and they delivered as usual. Depression Cherry is a fantastic dream pop album full of some great lyricism and fabulous synth textures. It really only gets better with more listens. It’s already been getting a good amount of play around the station, especially in the New Spins program, but let’s make it email official, shall we?
We also got a new output from Wilco, titled Star Wars, and much like the deep space exploration of the film series, Wilco is exploring many new great sounds and ideas, all culminating to what has been generally critiqued as their best release since their immaculate Yankee Foxtrot Hotel in 2002. Jeff Tweedy, lead singer of Wilco, has put together a great release here and if you’re into some sensible, grunge-tinged indie rock, then this is for you.
Along with that album, we have some great releases from Ben Folds, Silicon, and Destruction Unit that are worth a listen, along with all the other single-asterisk, “recommend” CDs in the chart below. There’s always good stuff brewing over here at WHUS!
I have to leave to enjoy the wonderful pleasures that all my professors and collegues have to offer, and I hope you all do the same! Enjoy life, be yourself, live laugh love! Run around campus with Soak Up the Sun by Sheryl Crow playing in the background! Or Evanescence, whatever you need! Smooth by Santana feat. Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty if nothing else! Stay golden everyone.
-Jordan
| ARTIST | ALBUM | DESCRIPTION | LABEL |
| Beach House** | Depression Cherry | Everybody’s favorite dream pop duo is back and boy oh boy do they deliver. This is just as fuzzy and dreamy as ever. There’s some great growth in terms of songwriting and melody as well. This is so great. RIYL: Cocteau Twins Try: 1,2,3,5,6 FCC Clean | Sub-Pop |
| Wilco** | Star Wars | Wiry, fuzzy, almost grunge-tinged indie rock. This band keeps getting better. Some solid exploration of new sounds while still remaining consistent and great! Try: 2,3,5,7 RIYL: My Morning Jacket | Anti-Records |
| Silicon* | Personal Computer | Brother of guy from UMO, formerly in the Mint Chicks. It’s groovy and funky and mostly electronic. Some serious nu-disco vibes on here too. Con definitely tell he’s worked on UMO stuff. Try: 2,4,5 FCC Clean | Weird World Record Co. |
| Ben Folds* | So There | “Chamber rock” is right. A whole lot of symphonic instrumentation all over this: piano, strings, horns, flutes. However, Folds’ vocals and clever lyricism remain at the forefront and stick out. Try: 1,3,4 | New West Records |
| Donovan Wolfington* | How to Treat the Ones You Love | Fuzzed-out, 90’s influenced punk jams. Poppy and catchy with some seriously sick riffs. It has a dark tinge to it underneath the hooks. It rips! Try: 1,8,5 FCC: 2,3,4,7,11 | Topshelf |
| Yo La Tengo* | Stuff Like That There | Mostly covers and newer versions of older songs. 2+10 are new though! Regardless, it’s all great, very pleasant listening. Calming, mostly acoustic instrumentation. 6 is a The Cure cover! Try: 2,10,6,1,3 | Matador |
| Lou Barlow* | brace the wave | Dude from Dino Jr! This is real cool. Mostly acoustic centric w/pounding, heavy songs. It’s sad and haunting. Some cool complementary instrumentation that worls well w/ song flow. Try: 1,5,7 FCC:2 | Joyful Noise |
| Potty Mouth* | Potty Mouth | Killer female-fronted punk/power-pop jams. Wish this was a full album instead of an EP! Sick riffs, good melodies. RIYL: Bully Try: 2,5 | Planet Whatever |
| Destruction Unit* | Negative Feedback Resistor | Incredibly aggressive, incredibly noisy psych-punk. These dudes play w/ 4 guitarists + 2 drummers. It’s loud and in your face and real hazy. This rules!! Try: 3,5,6 RIYL: Thee Oh Sees | Sacred Bones Records |
| Tobias The Owl* | Painting Zeroes By Your Name | Sounds like a more Southern John Mayer…but I don’t hate it? He has a very soothing voice, and the instrumentation and withheld very tastefully. A pleasant surprise! Try: 1,2 | London Tone Music |
| Mike Krol* | Turkey | Fuzzy garage-pop w/ whiny vocals. Not a bad thing though! The songs are well-written, the lyrics are witty but done well. Catchy hooks. Try: 1,2,3 RIYL: Ty Segall FCC: 9 | Merge Records |
| Steven A. Clark* | The Lonely Roller | Oh man, this is groovy as hell. Sort of “maximized”, 80’s influenced R&B. Lots of disco influence. Sounds like it belongs on the Drive or Hotline Miami soundtrack. Some great female vocal accompaniment on some tracks. Try: 1,3,7 FCC: 2,4,6 | |
| Soda Shop* | Soda Shop | Dreamy. Cool Stuff. Waving all the time. Really nice and simple indie-rock with great vocals. Try: 1,2,4 | Velvet Blue Music |
| Empress of* | Me | Starts out cheesy, but it gets better with the passing of tracks. Decent vocals and cool beats. Try: 8 | S/R |
| Meat Wave | Delusion Moon | Energetic, aggressive garage-punk. Sloppy, but in a good way. Gets kinda droney at points, lots of pounding, repetitive rhythms. RIYL: Fidlar Try: 5,2,1 | SideOneDummy |
| Briana Marela | All Around Us | Very ethereal, vocal-centric “pop” songs. Lots of vocal looping and very ambient and atmospheric. Produced by the guy from Sigur Ros and you can definitely tell. Try: 5,4 | Jagjaguwar |
| Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats | Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats | Southern Tinged folk-rock w/ some attitude. Some gospel and bluegrass vibes to it as well. Sounds like this dude drinks lots of bourbon. It’s decent. Dude has a cool voice. Try: 1,2,5 | Stax |
| Reatards | Grown Up, Fucked Up | Reissue of an old Reatards album. Great, scuzzy, punk anthems with catchy pop sensibilities. Hectic and noisy. Love me some Jay Reatard. Try: 2,4,11,9 FCC: 1,3,5,6,8,10,12 | Goner Records |
| The Good Life | Everybody’s Coming Down | Dude from Cursive’s other band. It’s good! Much more of a rock record than their previous work. The songwriting is solid and the lyricism is great. Try: 2,3 FCC: 4,11 | Saddle Creek Records |
| Tunde Olaniran | Transgressor | There’s a whole lot going on here, most of it good. Miguel-esque R&B vocals over weird, glitchy, looping instrumentation. It’s definitely interesting. Try: 1,3 RIYL: Young Fathers | Quite Scientific |
| Radkey | Dark Black Makeup | Opening line of this album is “kids these days”… This is bar punk fronted by a wanna-be Danzig. Typical song structure and anthemic punk chord progressions. | Strange Loop |
| SWIMM | Anthems for Doomed Youth | Folk-rock with some “west-coast” vibes, meaning it’s a little slacker-rock-esqe or slacker folk I guess. It’s fine, but it’s not too exciting or interesting. | Roll Call |
| The Bohicas | The Making Of | Pretty straight-forward rock tunes. Nothing too experimental or genre-bending. Big choruses, edgy vocals w/ some attitude. “Bad-boy” guitar riffs. RIYL: Buckcherry | Domino |
| Gospel Machine | Your Holy Ghost | 1st song sounds like Jet, but it quickly devolves into a solid, soulful, R&B jam. Lots of 60’s/70’s soul influence on here. She has a great voice, but the instrumentation falls flat. Try: 1,2 | S/R |
| Foals | What Went Down | Pretty straight-forward, dark, big-rock album. Some cool reverb/delay stuff going on, but other than that it’s fairly middle of the road. RIYL: Failure Try: 1 | Transgressive |
| Dan Sultan | Blackbird | Typical rock. Nothing extraordinary. Sounds fine. Kind of boring and predictable. Try: 4,6 | Liberation |
| Painted Palms | Horizons | 80’s influenced synth-pop/new wave. However, these guys wrote these songs spread across the country via email, and you can tell at times. Songs don’t quite meld as well as they could. RIYL: The Juan Maclean Try:1,6,2 | Polyvinyl |
| Monokle | Rings | Some solid electronic tunes from Russia. Elements of Trance, IDM, and Glitch throughout. It’s pretty cool, pretty mellow. Lots of interesting sounds going on. RIYL: 2,1,4 | Ki Records |