The Fat Angel Sings

Hailed by Stereogum as “the most important band in modern shoegaze,” They Are Gutting a Body of Water (TAGABOW) made their name approaching the genre with an experimental edge. “Lotto” captures the sound that made the band a prominent force in the American underground. Menacing riffs, soaring leads, wailing distortion, and in a world of automated robo-calls and pervasive AI content optimized to keep us scrolling, “Lotto” is an attempt to capture the sound of four human musicians in a room.

On “Lotto”, TAGABOW’s fourth studio album, the band pulls the plug on hyperreality and abandons electronic elements in favour of a more straightforward, live approach: finally letting the screens go black, pulling the blinds up. It’s their rawest album yet, both in subject matter and in sound.

Though Dulgarian has previously delved into themes of numbness and isolation, the lyrics have tended to be evasive, allowing his terse, imagistic motifs to slip quietly beneath the crashing riffs. “Lotto” strips his words bare from the jump. The album opens with “the chase,” a first-person account of suffering through fentanyl withdrawal. “Boosting Gillettes in a hopeful exchange for a sharp but tranqless synthetic isolate,” he mutters, “a substance that’ll make me sob pathetic to my girlfriend up high in miracle’s castle.” Even when the lyrics are fuzzier and sparser, Dulgarian’s voice comes through clearer than ever. On “rl stine,” dedicated to an unhoused friend, he allows certain phrases to come to the forefront of speaker-busting guitar swells: “I know that hurts/Greet the day with a sweet reserve.” “Lotto’s” vignettes become all the more gut-wrenching in their pointed swings toward clarity.

Still, “Lotto” is not a pessimistic album; it’s the band’s most hopeful work, in both its brutal honesty and its conscious pursuit of staying grounded. Dulgarian notes that the album is “rife with perceivable mistakes, ebbing and flowing with the most humanity [he] can place on one record.” This sentiment was always present in TAGABOW’s music (“Evolve, or die,” he sang on 2022’s “webmaster”), but it comes alive in these pared-back arrangements.

On the instrumental standout “slo crostic,” Dulgarian, bassist Emily Lofing, and guitarist PJ Carroll each take turns riffing off Ben Opatut’s walloping drums before coming together into a relatively simple yet undeniably hooky finish. It feels unrehearsed, or at least looser and more laid-back than ever.

Closer “herpim” explores the band’s new steadfast approach with lyrics that describe an airplane emergency over ambulance-like guitars and a looming, hoarse bassline. “We couldn’t land where we intended ‘cause there’s storms,” Dulgarian announces through loudspeaker fuzz, “but now we have to so I need you to buckle in.” The instruments fade out one by one, concluding the album with a few muted drums and the sound of a door opening.

It feels less like a happy ending than a steadfast commitment to finding new territory. That’s not to say that TAGABOW have abandoned the sounds that first made them connect; the guitars on instrumental “chrises head” adopt the band’s synth interlude skins for old time’s sake, and “baeside k” evokes the classic scuzz of 2019’s “destiny XL”.

But for the most part, “Lotto” gambles on TAGABOW’s ability to craft songs more compelling in their simplicity and vulnerability than their technical capabilities. By trading in their plastic sheen for a more ragged sense of real-life urgency, TAGABOW expose the tenderness at their music’s core: a refusal to anesthetize, an avowal to meet the bone where it breaks.

TAGABOW are the Pixies to the Nirvanas of TikTok-gaze – Stereogum

The indie-country boom (not surprisingly) tends to be very US-centric, but one of the genre’s best newer bands hails not from America but from Norwich, England: Brown Horse. They began their life gigging around their local pub scene as a folk group before adopting a more electrified country rock sound on their acclaimed 2024 debut album “Reservoir”, and now 15 months later they released the even better “All The Right Weaknesses”. 

Uncut‘s 9/10 review of the album points out that “Reservoir” gradually came together before the band had much of a following. After it came out, the band’s profile rose, relentless touring ensued, and the energy of the road resulted in a louder, looser, more collaborative follow up.

They’ve got three vocalists in Emma Tovell, Patrick Turner, and Phoebe Troup, and the album is powered by a fiery mix of rugged Crazy Horse-esque guitars, soaring pedal steel, and uplifting choruses. It only takes a couple listens to Brown Horse for them to feel like a band you’ve known your whole life, and even then, there’s something new and refreshing about them that stands out from every single artist they might remind you of.

Brown Horse rides again Not satisfied with a live review from March 2024, and a news item from last month, the six-piece Norwich-based country rock band has now muscled its way into today’s TOTW on the strength of new single ‘Dog Rose.’ It is the second single to be taken from Brown Horse’s new album All The Right Weaknesses, which came out earlier this year on the 4th of April via Loose Records.

The review makes comparisons to Crazy Horse, The Band, R.E.M., and David Berman, and points out that the album also makes a lyrical reference to indie-country pioneer Bill Callahan. Another 9/10 review from PopMatters also compares the band to Songs: Ohia, Adrianne Lenker, Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, and Richard Buckner. All of these comparisons should give you a very good idea of what to expect, and Brown Horse already stand tall next to established names like these.

Like its predecessor ‘Corduroy Couch’, the new single confirms the growing confidence of Brown Horse’s songwriting. ‘Dog Rose’ barely gets out of a canter but its initially slow, loping stride enables us to luxuriate in the warmth and self-possession of their clearly developing melodic craft. But as the song gathers momentum and the guitars start to crash in Brown Horse show they are also not afraid to dust things up.

Indie pop continues to inspire a high number of outfits to write songs and practice them, then record them and release them to a public that’s ever hungry for jangling and chiming guitar melodicism. It’s a genre with an unusually high percentage of success, likely because the bands are doing it out of love and not for fame. Jeanines are clearly smitten as they add some gorgeous ache to their sharp, ’60s-influenced songs. Repeated spins haven’t revealed a flaw in the construction. This here’s the indie pop record of the year.

Over the course of a decade playing together and making records as Jeanines, the duo of Alicia Jeanine and Jed Smith have charted a distinctive course through the history of pop, evoking influences as varied as the 60s folk of early Fairport Convention and Vashti Bunyan, the sunshine pop of Margo Guryan and Laura Nyro, and of course indie pop touchstones like Dear Nora, Marine Girls, Dolly Mixture, and the post-Black Tambourine projects of Pam Berry.

Their new album “How Long Can It Last” finds Jeanines grappling with serious themes of personal and professional upheaval, adding weight to their finest set of songs yet. With lyrics that look deeply at time and its reverberations, connections and ruptures, songs like “Coaxed A Storm,” “What’s Done Is Done” and “On and On” combine richly melodic tunes and crisp arrangements to stellar effect. While the themes might be heavy, the melodies and harmonies are simply heavenly, elevating these economical songs and giving each the feeling of a lost classic.

 Jeanines, “How Long Can It Last” released on Slumberland Records

Racing Mount Pleasant take their name from an exit off the highway on the way to Chicago. On the album cover of their self-titled debut LP, we’re far away from the city, looking in on two figures standing together on a frozen expanse; the sky is pale, and the entire frame is so muted it almost undermines the warmth of the crew’s music. How can such a vast space hold such emptiness? And what might the two people – one lifting a deer trophy, for some cruel reason – have to say about it all?

Racing Mount Pleasant release their eponymous debut album, via R&R (label home to Mk.gee, Dijon). The album’s opening track, “Your New Place”, sets the stage for an album brimming with intricate arrangements that swell and recede with the charged emotions of the songs themselves. The new song continues to show the band’s dynamism, following early offerings “Call It Easy” and eponymous track “Racing Mount Pleasant”, which Stereogum described as harnessing “the power of big band grandiosity with suspenseful drum builds and a blend of gritty garage rock that explodes with sublime tenderness”.

Racing Mount Pleasant began as a group of friends and like-minded musicians in Ann Arbor anchored at a single creative house that various members of the band have frequented and to this day, continue to live in near the University of Michigan. After an early album and smattering of songs under the Kingfisher, including one beguiling and ambitious album released in 2022, the band reimagined themselves as Racing Mount Pleasant. Now the band are gearing up to introduce themselves under this new moniker, with a beautiful, challenging debut album that draws on each member’s academic mastery of their instruments, but also a spirited defiance of conventional song structures, or even what a contemporary band looks or sounds like.

For fans of Neutral Milk Hotel, Tindersticks and Black Country New Road.

Multi Platinum singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Matt Maeson leans into a season of change on his 2025 third full-length album, “A Quiet and Harmless Living”. The Nashville-based troubadour explores the trials, tribulations, turbulence, and triumphs of marriage, fatherhood, and life on the road and at home.

Much of the material originated in the middle of the night long after his young family fell asleep. From this intimate headspace, he threads the kind of questions we usually ask ourselves in private into the fabric of alternative anthems like the piano-driven lead single “Everlasting.”

The world met Matt when he dropped his 2019 debut “Bank on the Funeral” making history with signature Platinum singles “Cringe” and “Hallucinogenics” [feat. Lana Del Rey]. Beyond jaunts with Zach Bryan and more, he has sold out headline tours and built a devout audience. He opens up more than ever on “A Quiet and Harmless Living” and invites everyone to do the same.

New Album ‘A Quiet and Harmless Living’ out 9/12

A classic forty-minute set of inquisitive pop songs, blessed with a lightness of touch and a sharp focus that can’t help but charm the listener. Angel Deradoorian wants her process to feel immediate, but unlike the meditative and jammy “Find the Sun, Ready for Heaven” took time. The singer-songwriter started writing music for the record by herself in a really small, uninhabited town in upstate New York, but ended up reworking and editing it tirelessly across various stages. In their recorded form, the songs remain fluid and kinetic while carrying a blazing, prickly intensity all the way through. Even at its most despairing and subconscious, “Ready for Heaven” feels like a wake-up call. 

It conjures up some last, faint afterglow of the old belief that an electronic, programmed beat can smash itself – and you – into another, more egalitarian consciousness It is a remarkable fact that this bold and open-hearted record is made by one person, working alone.

Repeatedly reworking the songs until they were complete is a painstaking process that generated an energy and space where Angel Deradoorian could indulge in the arcana of her artform.

“I love the production more than the songwriting. […] In fact, I don’t even feel like a songwriter at times, I feel like someone who is just inspired by so much music. And I want to try it all out! Like Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Mingus, or ESG and Silver Apples, or making weird krautrock and industrial music. I love dub, and Sly and Robbie. I love the productions of those records and the collective energies released by their creators in the studio. It’s just a weird thing to do it by yourself!”

Angel Deradoorian, the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist known mononymously as Deradoorian, grew up in Orangevale, California. After leaving school to pursue a career in music when she was 16, she moved to Brooklyn and joined Dirty Projectors, appearing on their 2009 album “Bitte Orca”, which came out the same year she released her first solo EP, “Mind Raft”, produced by the band’s leader David Longstreth. Before releasing her debut album, “The Expanding Flower Planet”, in 2015, she guested on records by acts including U2, Flying Lotus, Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks, and Discovery, and followed it up with the ambient folk collection “Eternal Recurrence” in 2017.

Mirroring her spiritual journey, her next album, the meditative and jammy “Find the Sun“, saw her working with Samer Ghadry and Dave Harrington in New York. Between that album and her latest one, “Ready for Heaven”, Deradoorian teamed up with Russian musician Kate Shilonosova (aka Kate NV) to release “Ticket to Fame“, their first album as Decisive Pink, via Fire in 2023.

She developed, reworked, and tinkered tirelessly with the new songs, which in their recorded form remain fluid and kinetic while carrying a blazing, prickly intensity all the way through. Even at its most despairing and subconscious, “Ready for Heaven” feels like a wake-up call.

This stellar third solo album, which offers Downtown NYC dance grooves, Krautrock-tinged art-pop, Silver Apples-flavoured electro-psych, a solemn neo-baroque processional, post-punky collage spillage, diva soul synth-pop, and more. Giving this the clear edge over similar albums in the same zone is that Deradoorian recorded the whole shebang herself.

Hailing from Manchester, Autocamper formed with the goal of dodging the city’s tired rock clichés. Fronted by Jack Harkins and Niamh Purtill—who split vocal duties and bring a natural contrast in tone—the band also features Harry Williams on bass and Arthur Robinson on drums. Starting in DIY spaces and home-recording setups, they’ve taken a big step forward with their full-length debut, “What Do You Do All Day?“

The record ditches the band’s earlier lo-fi aesthetic but keeps all the charm. Built around small moments—shared flats, fading friendships, awkward confessions—these songs are handled with care. The Harkins-Purtill vocal interplay adds a conversational push-and-pull that gives each track its own vibe. The album feels personal without being self-indulgent, and breezy without ever sounding lightweight. It’s the kind of record that quietly sneaks into your daily rotation—and stays there.

Autocamper leans into jangly pop textures—clean, chiming guitars, soft keyboard touches, and melodic basslines—all supported by rhythm patterns that borrow from ’60s sunshine pop and ’80s indie’s undercurrent. Their arrangements are understated, letting melody and mood breathe naturally. There’s a looseness to the playing that keeps things feeling lived-in and spontaneous—like a friend making you a mix with hand-drawn liner notes.

What began in bedrooms now blooms in full colour. “What Do You Do All Day?” marks a shift toward something more expansive, thanks in part to producer Chris McCory at Green Door Studio. The songwriting is sharper, the instrumentation fuller, and the pacing more assured. They’ve clearly grown, but haven’t lost the spark that got them here—the result is a tighter, richer version of themselves.

Autocamper’s sound will strike a chord with anyone drawn to the melodic looseness of The Pastels or the conversational delivery of Beat Happening. There’s a clear kinship with The Vaselines and The Ocean Blue, where pop simplicity meets subtle emotional weight. If you’re into the off-kilter charm of The Feelies or the bright-eyed jangle of early Orange Juice, you’ll hear echoes here too. Their use of keys and soft textures occasionally recalls The Proper Ornaments, while deeper listeners might catch a shimmer of The Field Mice or even a wink at sunshine pop greats like The Millennium and The Left Banke. What ties it all together is Autocamper’s ability to blend sincerity with breezy pop instincts—without ever sounding like they’re trying too hard.

“Red Flowers” is a standout—a hushed, melancholic reflection on feeling like an extra in someone else’s story. Purtill’s vocal lead and the delicate flute line give it a beautifully somber air. “Proper” flips the mood entirely with a breezy, sing-along hook and a dash of vintage bubblegum joy. “Map Like a Leaf” slows things down, adding subtle textures courtesy of guest Tom Crossley, while “Dogsitting” highlights Purtill’s offbeat keys and quiet introspection with just the right amount of quirk.

 Autocamper specializes in making the mundane feel meaningful. Their lyrics dig into minor emotional shifts—feeling out of place, overthinking a conversation, or holding onto fleeting joy—with a tone that’s conversational and unforced. Harkins and Purtill don’t try to over-explain; instead, they trust everyday phrasing to carry the weight, which makes the emotional punch land even harder.

“What Do You Do All Day?” doesn’t shout for attention—it earns it by being consistently thoughtful, tuneful, and quietly addictive. It captures the in-between spaces of life with warmth and honesty, all wrapped in melodies that stick without wearing out their welcome. Autocamper may be at the start of their story, but this debut shows they already know exactly who they are. If this is their first proper outing, we can’t wait to hear where they go next.

Out on Slumberland Records / Safe Suburban Home Records on the 11th July 2025

The Cords are a bright new indiepop band from Scotland. Comprising sisters Eva and Grace Tedeschi, they started playing drums when they were little kids. They found that they liked 80s and 90s indie music more than their peers did, and so formed a band, just the two of them, with Grace on drums and Eva on guitar – and the songs started to flow.

Their debut album out this year is a delight.‘Fabulist’ is a jangly hook-laden pop song that skips along with bittersweet melodies and brisk drumming, with echoes of The Shop Assistants, and The Primitives and the C86 era. It’s so upbeat and shiny with brisk drumming that you could miss the fact that it’s a wholehearted take-down of people who lie for a living.

With only a cassette and a flexi single released so far, both of which sold out in a matter of hours, The Cords (Eva and Grace Tedeschi) have honed their skills by playing a whole series of gigs with some of the biggest names in Scottish pop. Their first show was with The Vaselines, and since then they have played with Camera Obscura, Belle and Sebastian, BMX Bandits and others, while also sharing stages with the new generation of indiepop stars: the Umbrellas, Chime School, Lightheaded.

Like all great pop bands, The Cords have taken familiar ingredients and created something utterly fresh. Older indie fans may hear echoes of The Shop Assistants, The Primitives, Tiger Trap and Talulah Gosh, but they will hear something else too: a yearning, dreamy melodic power that takes the songs into darker, stranger places. Younger pop fans won’t care about these old reference points: what they will hear is the sound of two young women doing something utterly exciting: playing loud guitar and loud drums, taking analogue instruments and hitting them hard in the service of immediate and infectious pop tunes, and not giving a second thought about the digital world that wants to own everything we do. The Cords sound free: they remind us that pop music, played right, is expressive, liberating, joyful and deeply personal.

released September 26th, 2025

The Cords are Eva Tedeschi and
Grace Tedeschi. 

I love this! I think my favourites are “Just Don’t Know (How To Be You)”, “Vera”, “Yes It’s True”, and “Weird Feeling”.

Militarie Gun frontman Ian Shelton has never really sounded all that hinged, but on “God Save the Gun”, he practically revels in his own depravity. “Put me in the trash,” he sings proudly on “Throw Me Away,” the pummelling drums and wallop of a chorus seemingly there to beat the singer black and blue. It’s the most prevalent theme of the band’s second proper studio album, one that’s intent on looking inward with a ferocity both playful and almost unbearably intense.

Nowhere is this more evident than on “God Owes Me Money,” a song which might sound cheeky but is, with its depiction of childhood abuse, downright brutal in its bare-metal vulnerability. “I’ve been drunk every day for a month, I learned from you and mom,” Shelton sings later on the surprisingly restrained “Daydream,” unafraid to assign blame even among all the self-flagellation. Even so, “God Save the Gun” is a genuinely ecstatic record, a pure stank face of infectious hooks, call-and-response vocals, and wiry riffage. Even its dourest moments find an almost rapturous form of release. Like the open-handed shaman of its cover, Militarie Gun imagines a world where even the death cult of The Gun might put together a few fun group meals and a movie night or two.

Released June 23rd, 2023

2023, © 2023 Loma Vista Recordings.

The title of Planting by the Signs comes from southern Appalachian folkways, a custom of orienting life cycles by the moon that S.G. Goodman grew up with in Western Kentucky and rediscovered in the Foxfire books. The record is a rumination on that ritual reconnection to nature, and what to do when ritual itself seems futile. Marked by the deaths of her mentor Mike Harmon and her beloved pet dog, as well as the reconciliation with her former collaborator Matthew Rowan, Goodman navigates grief and renewal in her lyrics—and, like in nature, these seeds grow in wild and sometimes surprising shapes.

There’s a stroke of righteous fury on lead single “Snapping Turtle,” but a wistful serenity permeates the Bonnie “Prince” Billy duet “Nature’s Child,” written by Asheville songwriter Tyler Ladd.

Woven through it all is a sense of community: as a balm, as a shelter, and as a fortifying force. When Goodman cries “I have seen the light” on “Michael Told Me,” she’s not preaching—she’s witnessing the redemptive power of our connection to each other.