Hear more about the brand new albums our Music Department has enjoyed the most. This week, Co-Music Director Carter Moore goes on a journey and investigates psychedelic music in all its forms. Let’s hear it!
IDLES – TANGK (Partisan)
These rockers from Bristol (the one across the pond, not down the road) are back with their fifth(!) album. Their evolution continues here, as they deliver music that’s more focused and refined than ever. Listen if you liked Over Mono more than Joy as an Act of Resistance; the sound is just as heavy but the songs plod more than drive. Idles plays at Rabbit Rabbit in Asheville Saturday, Sept. 14.
Levitation Room – Strange Weather (Greenway/ONErpm)
Psychedelic rock comes home to SoCal! This LA group has run with the exact sound that Australia has nurtured for the past decade+ (through bands like Gizzard, Babe Rainbow, and The Lazy Eyes). This isn’t melt your face acid rock, this is a walking daydream. Listen for a lush soundscape to take you from everything.
Frances Chang – Psychedelic Anxiety (Ramp Local)
Digging deep here, there was an album last year that I really dug by a band called @ (as in like the “at” sign on your keyboard). If you liked that, you’ll love this, as long as you don’t mind every once in a while everything getting super loud. Or if you’re a weirdo freak like me who really enjoyed the strangeness of Smiley Smile. Otherwise, listen to experience the Ultimate Chaos of a drug trip, complete with haunting, discordant melodies.
Jordan Mackampa – Welcome Home, Kid! (AWAL)
Words fall short of explaining this album (a quip you could make about everything I write about in this column, which begs the question of why even have this series, but let’s not dig into that thought). All I can think is the word “liminal.” Listen to find a hearty mix of R&B, rap, and almost-rock that drips with soul.
Daniel Ellsworth and the Great Lakes – High Life (Deer Head)
Start curating your summer playlist now, and make sure you include a cut from this LP when you do. Ellsworth’s vocals are infectious, they’ll hook in anyone and everyone. Simply terrific indie pop. Listen if you need to hear something bouncy, light and silly.
Royel Otis – PRATTS & PAIN (Ourness)
Normally, I get very particular about albums as a cohesive artistic experience, and I make people sit through the whole thing, in order, in one go. You don’t have to do that here, but the music isn’t any worse for it. Google will tell you these Australians make guitar-pop, and I suppose you could call it that. I just think it’s fun and youthful. Listen for some energy whiplash between tracks, but a constant groove with some beautiful basslines. Royel Otis is playing at Shaky Knees May 2024.
Friko – Where we’ve been, Where we go from here (ATO)
Listen to the opening track, “Where we’ve been.” Don’t skip forward, don’t space out, don’t think about anything else, don’t wonder where you’ve heard this voice before, don’t worry about the fact that it’s five minutes and fifteen seconds, don’t do anything. Press play, listen to the song, then stop. Nothing else in the album will be like that, but it all sounds like that song feels. Now go listen to the rest of it.
Check back next week for the latest exciting new releases!