The Fat Angel Sings

Pip Blom are a band from Amsterdam, but it’s also the name of the band’s frontwoman and main songwriter.

Blom had this to say about “Get Back” in a press release: “One of the things I am most happy with on this album is the vocal sound. My voice sounds warm and intimate, but also punchy and fierce at other times. During the recording of the vocals in the chorus, we laughed a lot because it turned out to be quite difficult to say ‘Get Back’ so many times in a row.

I love how ‘Get Back’ is both a rock song but still sounds very produced. A recurring phenomenon on “Bobbie” is the vocals with a lot of autotune, which can also be heard in the bridge of this song. ‘Get Back’ may be one of the loudest songs on the album, yet Claudius managed to give it an even bigger lift in volume and intensity in the last chorus.

Pip Blom previously released the “Bobbie” song “Is This Love?,” which featured Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand

Amsterdam’s Pip Blom are releasing a new album, “Bobbie”, on October 20th via Heavenly.

New York based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jordan Lee and his band Mutual Benefit  is releasing a new album, “Growing at the Edges”, on October 6th via Transgressive. The album’s third single, “Untying a Knot,” Kai Macknight directed the video.

Lee had this to say about the song in a press release: “‘Untying a Knot’ was partially inspired by a tweet that said something like ‘normalize taking in new information and changing your perspective’ and got me thinking about how difficult it is to clearly look at your own system of beliefs and make substantive changes to cause less harm. While there is currently a lot of focus toward ‘self-growth,’ I wanted the song to instead reflect the process as an ongoing unlearning and untangling of myriad internal knots collected through time.”

Previously Mutual Benefit shared the album’s first two singles: “Little Ways” and “Wasteland Companions” “Growing at the Edges” was co-produced with Gabriel Birnbaum and features violinist Concetta Abatte. Other collaborators include guitarist Jonnie Baker (Florist), vocalist Eva Goodman (Nighttime), bassist Nick Jost (Wilder Maker, Baroness), and drummer Sean Mullins (Wilder Maker, Sam Evian).

Austin-based band Sun June are releasing a new album, “Bad Dream Jaguar”, on October 20th via Run for Cover. The band have two more new songs from it, “Easy Violence” and “John Prine,” both via music videos.

Of “John Prine” the band had this to say in a press release: “‘John Prine’ is about appreciating something for the first time after it’s already over, and struggling to let it go. It’s also a shout out to my father who loves to say, ‘I’m not asleep, I’m just resting my eyes.’

The song was recorded in North Carolina by Alli Rogers and features Justin Morris (Sluice, Fust) on pedal steel. When Dan Duszynski mixed it he morphed the pedal steel into something more haunting and more ghostly . We wanted the video to capture the feeling of coming down after a long night or a short visit with someone you miss, the kind of daze that’s a mix of longing and appreciation. I am not a morning person, but I really wish I were.”

Sun June is Laura Colwell (vocals), Michael Bain (guitar), Justin Harris (bass), Sarah Schultz (drums), and Stephen Salisbury (guitar).

The band’s last full-length album was 2021’s “Somewhere”. the album ‘Bad Dream Jaguar’ out October 20th, 2023 via Run For Cover Records

Metric are releasing a new album, “Formentera II”, on October 13th via Metric Music International/Thirty Tigers. The band have shared its third single, “Who Would You Be For Me.” The band have also announced some new tour dates, including some acoustic ones in Europe and some full band shows in South America. Justin Broadbent directed the video.

Haines had this to say about the new single in a press release: “The song ‘Who Would You Be For Me’ is a throwback lullaby set in NYC in 2002. All the action takes place in Tompkins Square Park, in a subway car, and at the café on St. Marks Place where I worked as a waitress when we were getting our start.

“Automatic behaviors and patterns are often fairly easy to flag in others but can be a riddle to spot in yourself. In life and in love, all the emphasis in your mind can default to being what someone else wants until it dawns on you to consider your own desire. I could be the girl for you, but who would you be for me?”

This week is the 20 year anniversary of Metric’s debut album, “Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?”, and the band have re-issued the album on vinyl with new color variants (neon violet, hot pink, and tangerine.

“Formentera II” is the a follow-up to their 2022 album “Formentera”.

“Formentera II” was recorded at the band’s own Main Street Studios and completed at Motorbass Studios in Paris. “Formentera II“, which is Metric’s ninth studio album, The band are also releasing a complete double vinyl set of both “Formentera I & II” on opaque white vinyl.

Metric is Emily Haines (vocals, keys), Jimmy Shaw (guitar), Joshua Winstead (bass guitar) and Joules Scott Key (drums).

Philadelphia five-piece Slaughter Beach, Dog are releasing a new album, “Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling” on September 22nd, 2023 via Lame-O Records. The album’s fourth and final pre-release single, the nine-minute long “Engine.”

Slaughter Beach, Dog is led by Jacob Ewald, who had this to say about “Engine” in a press release: “This song keeps changing for me. First, I didn’t think it was about anything. Then I thought it was about the van. Then I thought it was about [Slaughter Beach, Dog bassist] Ian Farmer, and I couldn’t figure out why the guitar solo kept making me cry. Outside the Sinclair in January, I saw a flyer for a house show and remembered how long we’ve been doing this. Then my heart was in my shoes. Ten years of thinking a different life was right around the corner, selling off all this heavy machinery and making spreadsheets for somebody, futzing with chicken wire, everything more simple.

“Lately this song feels like. a eulogy for the change that never came. Ten years gone and I’m still squirming under freedom’s thumb, too easily forgetting rock’n’roll, my great hulking vessel, a framework to swing from, a history to make home inside of. Forms to learn, rules to break, comrades to find, mysteries turned over ad infinitum, inexplicable monsoons of the heart. I’m still finding myself inside this song, still learning to accept that I lived it. Some of it spooks me. I can hear it in the pain of belonging—standing in one place long enough to not take leaving lightly. Staying put when the outlaws arrive at night. Saying very quietly to no one, this is where I live.”

This week, singer/songwriter Marika Hackman returned with a new song, “No Caffeine,” via a music video. It’s her first single for Chrysalis. Hackman co-directed the video with Natàlia Pagès. The song tackles anxiety and the conflicting advice for how to deal with it. “Occupy your mind, don’t stay home/Talk to all your friends, but don’t look at your phone,” Hackman sings, later adding: “Remember how to breathe, maybe try and fuck/Stay away from love, maybe take your clothes off.” The second verse ends with: “Don’t forget to wash, don’t become a write-off.”

Hackman plays almost every instrument on “No Caffeine,” apart from the brass and strings. She self-produced the song, with additional production from Sam Petts-Davies (Thom Yorke, Warpaint) and long-term collaborator Charlie Andrew (Alt-J).

A press release describes the song like so: “‘No Caffeine’ finds Marika in fetal position, rattling off tactics to prevent a panic attack while likening her anxiety to an abusive partner.”

Hackman‘s last release a covers album, simply titled “Covers”, via Sub Pop. Hackman’s last album of originals was, “Any Human Friend”, which came out in 2019, also via Sub Pop.

After three critically acclaimed EPs “Party Food”, “After Party“, and “Nothing Is Real“, they are now finally set to release their debut album,” Killjoy”, which expands their sound but also retains all the energy that made them such an exciting proposition. Coach Party’s “Killjoy” carries an ethos that taps into a desperate desire to live life with the joyous freedom of youth, and a reckoning with just how hard it is to do so. It’s a traverse into the depths of mid-20s despair, in all its resentful, god-complex ridden, horned-up glory. Back in 2019, Coach Party announced their arrival with the frenetic fuzzed-up debut single “Oh Lola.” While they didn’t quite explode out of the Isle of Wight in the same way as fellow islanders Wet Leg Coach Party’s progress has nevertheless been thrilling to watch.

The record is painfully intimate and raucously human; a melodic, crashing fall down the rabbit hole of the dissatisfied mind. When I first heard “Born Leader,” It was one of those catatonic, “holy shit” moments you get when you hear a song that feels like you should’ve been the one who wrote it.  With the explosive unhinged rush of songs such as recent single “Parasite” and “Micro Aggression,” but also more reflective moments on tracks such as “Be That Girl” and the wistful “Always Been You.” It’s an album that flows beautifully.

The album does feel like a synthesis—or, perhaps, a culmination—of a band that’s taken its time to get off the ground in the most polished, sharp-toothed iteration it could strain for. But there’s a kernel of inspiration they know they’ve got, and they’re nursing it carefully—and with big plans in mindilljoy

Semisonic, the Nineties rock outfit behind the perennial late-night anthem “Closing Time,” are back with a new song, their first album in over 20 years, “Little Bit of Sun”, out November 3rd.

Semisonic have announced their first new album in over 20 years. “Little Bit Of Sun”, an exploration of acoustically-driven vulnerability and their own indelible mark on the world of power pop, In the wake of “Grow Your Own” and the titular “Little Bit Of Sun,” the band have unveiled another single called “The Rope,” a breakup ode to L.A. that frontman Dan Wilson wasn’t initially sure fit in with the band’s oeuvre. It’s sunny and propulsive, sweetly reflective and self-aware with a bouncy instrumental underpinning

“The Rope” has a bright alt-rock crunch bolstered by brisk horns and piano, as well as a rich halo of backing vocals. The song arrives with a charming music video, directed by Otto Harder and Philip Harder, in which a dog breaks free of its owner and enjoys a bit of time on the lam before getting lonely, spotting a “lost dog” poster, and dashing home.

“The Rope” follows two previously released singles, “Little Bit of Sun” and “Grow Your Own,” both of which will appear on “Little Bit of Sun” as well. The new album was recorded in Semisonic’s hometown of Minneapolis and will feature contributions from Jason Isbell and My Morning Jacket’s Jim James. The band also worked with songwriters like Lori McKenna and Amy Allen, with the latter co-writing “The Rope.”

“My approach as an artist has always been to write from where I am now,” he said. “It’s been two decades since Semisonic made a full record together, so it was interesting to write from the perspective of returning to the band and finding it inspiring but very different. I couldn’t help but think about the early days, about the formative influences that shaped and inspired us, but a lot of the songs are about the present moment in my life.”

Little Bit of Sun will mark Semisonic’s first studio album since 2001’s All About Chemistry, though the band did return with new material in 2020, dropping the EP, You’re Not Alone. Frontman Dan Wilson — who’s enjoyed a very successful songwriting career in the interim, working with artists like the Chicks and Adele — spoke about writing a new album with Semisonic after such a long time. 

Serving as a sequel to 2002’s “All Hail West Texas”, the new album is “a rock opera about a woman named Jenny, who buys a Kawasaki to ride as far away as she can from a town she’s been carrying on her shoulders too long,” per bandleader John Darnielle. Its 21-year-old predecessor was a loose, rough around the edges and broad-spanning concept album that, over time, has become critically lauded. Our new star Jenny made her first appearance on that LP, and now she gets her story told in full in typically off-kilter Mountain Goats style.

Lead single “Clean Slate” sets the scene of Jenny’s life: The house she rents, the couch surfers she aids, the transformation she’s undergoing. It’s got that special admixture of nonchalance and deep humanity that make the Mountain Goats so irresistible, replete with Darnielle’s crisp drawl and a jazzy, cinematic combination of horns, shakers and piano—all of which set the stage for Jenny’s next chapter.

“Jenny from Thebes” began its life as many albums by the Mountain Goats do, with John Darnielle playing the piano until a lyric emerged. That lyric, “Jenny was a warrior / Jenny was a thief / Jenny hit the corner clinic begging for relief,” became “Jenny III,” a song which laid down a challenge he’d never taken up before: writing a sequel to one of his most beloved albums. The Mountain Goats’ catalogue is thick with recurring characters Jenny, who originally appears in the “All Hail West Texas” track bearing her name, as well as in “Straight Six” from “Jam Eater Blues” and “Transcendental Youth” side two jam “Night Light,” is one of these, someone who enters a song unexpectedly, pricking up the ears of fans who are keen on continuing the various narrative threads running through the Mountain Goats’ discography before vanishing into the mist. In these songs, Jenny is largely defined by her absence, and she is given that definition by other characters. She is running from something. These features are beguiling, both to the characters who’ve told her story so far and to the listener. They invite certain questions: Who is Jenny, really? What is she running from? Well, she’s a warrior and a thief, and, this being an album by the Mountain Goats, it’s a safe bet whatever she’s fleeing is something bad. Something catastrophically bad. “Jenny from Thebes” is the story of Jenny, her southwestern ranch style house, the people for whom that house is a place of safety, and the west Texas town that is uncomfortable with its existence. It is a story about the individual and society, about safety and shelter and those who choose to provide care when nobody else will. Recorded at Tulsa, Oklahoma’s legendary The Church Studio with Grammywinning producer/engineer Trina Shoemaker, “Jenny from Thebes” is a lush collection of showtunes, pushing Darnielle as a vocalist and the Mountain Goats as a band, broadening their sonic palette once again by leaning into influences like Godspell, Jim Steinman, and The Cars. Lifted by Matt Douglas’ horn and string arrangements, the dreamy guitar of Bully leader (and Bleed Out producer) Alicia Bognanno and backing vocals from Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go’s and Matt Nathanson, “Jenny from Thebes” is a widescreen musical in scope, a melodrama of richly detailed characters and sweeping emotions.

“Jenny from Thebes”, out October 27th on Merge Records.

The importance of Sufjan Stevens lies in his classic ability to create great songs (like the full “Illinoise” album), but also to recognize great talent via his Asthmatic Kitty label (Lily & Madeleine got their start on his label.) He has twelve albums in his catalogue with a new one on the horizon.

Each track on “Javelin” starts intimately: the trickle of an acoustic guitar, the patter of a lidded piano, and the cascade of a coruscant arpeggio. And then, of course, there is that disarming voice, the throughline in one of the most eclectic catalogue’s of any songwriter this century – soft but strong, as if the very scenes of hurt and hope it is about to share have only galvanized it through the decades. “Javelin” pairs musical sweep with emotional breadth, an entire lifetime of feeling woven into 42-minutes. On “Javelin”, Sufjan, as you may know him best, returns: offering gorgeous if pained glimpses of himself, so that we may see ourselves more fully. This album is classic Sufjan. A must own.

It’s his latest foray in a scattered grouping of primarily singer-songwriter focused LPs, which have seen the artist gain mass acclaim for his evocative, heart-wrenching storytelling style. Lead single “So You Are Tired” is typical Stevens at his most poignant, compassionate and searching with a relentless introspective streak. As insistent on painful honesty as always, You can hear a track from the album below “So You Are Tired”.

On October 6, Sufjan Stevens returns with a new collection of songs contained within “Javelin“. Crafted at his home, all of “Javelin” is his own personal draft. The album will feature 10 new Stevens compositions just how you’d expect them.

Bonus CD = 5 Unreleased Extra Tracks.