The Fat Angel Sings

Body Type‘s debut album, “Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising”, appears to have been largely overlooked in many end of year lists but their ability to imbue earworm melodies into kick ass groves, post rock/grunge/indie sounds is unmatched this year. The Australian single ‘Sex & Rage’ skitters on a bed of serrated riffing, kick-ass, quick-fire drum fills and the naggingly brilliant vocal dexterity of Sophie McComish consumes the doggerel of desire, angst, and euphoria in a hook-laden plea for exuberance and actual excitement in the face of boredom and stunted digital consumption.

‘The Brood’ jumps in feet first with frenetic rhythms and swaggering vocals as the band join hands and ask what’s your resistance to letting go? ‘Buoyancy’ is urgent visceral and careers down the highway on a bed of body popping percussion, vocal sparring and fantastic choruses riven with cool as f#ck vocals, are you ready for lift off? .

Body Type‘s ‘Sex & Rage’ , lifted from their awesome debut album “Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising”, skitters on a bed of serrated-edged riffing, kick-ass, quick-fire drum fills. Riven with the nagging, brilliant vocal dexterity of Sophie McComish that consumes the doggerel of desire, angst, and euphoria in a hook-laden plea for exuberance and actual excitement in the face of boredom and stunted digital consumption. Australian group Body Type have the kind of artful melodic hooks of the Breeders, but all processed in a withering knowing delivery faintly redolent of early Courtney Barnett. But really they’re just Body Type and they’re bloody great!

Dirty Honey were still unsigned when self-released single “When I’m Gone” hit number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart in 2019. The song, which has racked up over 13 million streams on Spotify, introduced rock radio to a band that sounds a lot like their musical heroes, Guns N’ Roses, with a dash of Aerosmith, The Black Crowes, and even Led Zeppelin. 

While the vocal similarities between lead singer Marc Labelle and Axl Rose are unmissable, Dirty Honey retains the essence of their influences rather than ripping them off, resulting in original-feeling grooves like “When I’m Gone”.

The Dirty Honey debut LP is available now!

These Michigan retro-rock revivalists saw your “Led Zeppelin cosplay” jokes and raised you some strings. Everything about Greta Van Fleet’s second full-length is more expansive: the instrumentation, the song lengths, the budget, the fantasy-realm absurdity, the physical range of Josh Kiszka’s Valhalla-seeking shriek. Working with top-drawer producer Greg Kurstin (Paul McCartney, Foo Fighters, Adele), Greta Van Fleet leaned into their proggiest, heaviest instincts — jettisoning the dopey folk-rock detours (““You’re the One””) that bogged down stretches of their 2018 debut, “Anthem of the Peaceful Army”. They sound more natural in this cinematic space, allowing guitarist Jake Kiszka to orchestrate riffs on a bigger scale (like on epics “Age of Machine” and “The Weight of Dreams”). Sure, nothing about “The Battle of Garden’s Gate” is particularly original — but who cares? Few bands recycle the past with such flair and finesse.

In “Heat Above“, from the 2021 album “Battle at Garden’s Gate”, the band infamous for sounding too much like Led Zeppelin air some of their other classic rock influences, most notably those in the prog space. The save-the-worldism that was too sticky and blunt throughout their debut album, “Anthem of the Peaceful Army” (2018), is here polished into something glam, exultant, and deliciously over the top. 

Their instrumentation will put you in mind of Rush, their presentation of Elton John, and their lyrics of The Guess Who on this years-in-the-making single that represents Greta Van Fleet at their best.

The Led Zep-lovin’ boys from Michigan blew away the Covid cobwebs, Is there anything more comforting to men of a certain vintage than the crunching guitars and wailing vocals of classic rock?

Not for me. This year, the genre transported me back to a musical era of sheer joy and wild, creative spirit; a time when musicians were as interested in letting the good times roll as saving the world. A time of bands like classic rock revivalists, Greta Van Fleet. 

Gemma Laurence is a indie folk artist from the coast of Maine, now based in Brooklyn. Her debut LP “Crooked Heart” came out in 2019, The American folkie Gemma Laurence makes a deep impression on her latest release “Lavender” with intimate and emotional folk songs and beautiful vocals, but also dares to colour outside the lines with special sounds

Gemma Laurence’s “Lavender” starts as a standard folk album with acoustic guitar, banjo and a beautiful voice, but as the album progresses, the American musician shows that she is not a standard folkie. Gemma Laurence’s voice is not only exceptionally beautiful, but she also interprets her personal songs with great feeling. Furthermore, in the often very atmospheric instrumentation she occasionally looks for adventure, making “Lavender” much more than the umpteenth folk album of the moment. The more I listen to it, the more impressive this album becomes. “Lavender” could just be one of the big surprises of 2022.

released November 4th 2022

Behind the name Brimheim lies Helena Heinesen Rebensdorff. The Danish musician was born in the Faroe Islands, but now lives in Copenhagen. With can’t hate myself into a different shape Helena Heinesen Rebensdorff has delivered a very personal album. It is an album on which psychological problems are central, making Brimheim’s debut album a dark coloured album.

Brimheim is active in a genre in which it has been crowded in recent years and in which it is gradually becoming really overcrowded, but with “can’t hate myself into a different shape”, the Danish musician have made an above average good album. Brimheim impresses in several ways on her debut album.

The debut album of the Danish musician Brimheim it is an interesting album that can go along with the best within indie rock and indie pop. Also in 2022, piles of albums by young female singer-songwriters appeared again with a penchant for some melancholic indie pop and indie rock. Saturation is now firmly lurking, but it would be a shame if this were at the expense of the music of the Brimheim. The debut is now almost a year old, but can’t hate myself into a different shape is an album that still deserves all the attention. Helena Heinesen Rebensdorff’s alter ego has made a personal and dark album, but her songs can sound surprisingly accessible and at the same time stimulate the imagination. Special album.

To start with, I really like her vocals on the album. Helena Heinesen Rebensdorff sings mainly whisper-soft, but nevertheless brings a lot of variation to her vocals. Certainly in the somewhat supercooled passages, the vocals on can’t hate myself into a different shape are close to those of Phoebe Bridgers, but Helena Heinesen Rebensdorff can also sing a lot more powerfully and expressively and then has a clear sound of her own.

The beautiful voice is one of Brimheim’s strongest weapons, but as mentioned, there is more. Also musically can’t hate myself into a different shape is an interesting album. Brimheim’s music has the spatial and darkness that characterizes so many Scandinavian albums, but the copenhagen musician’s debut album is also an adventurous and versatile album.

Brimheim’s music is often relatively sobre and atmospheric, but a number of tracks on the album are much fuller. Brimheim’s song therefore covers the entire spectrum from Scandinavian ice princess music to the more exuberant indie pop and indie rock as it has been made a lot in recent years, especially in the United States.

released January 28th, 2022

Baltimore trio Pinkshift are very much at the forefront of that movement. Signed to pop-punk heavyweights Hopeless Records, the trio are smack bang in the middle of a scene infamous for its dominant white-male perspective. They fit in perfectly, while also shaking things up drastically. “Love Me Forever” is the band’s debut album, which arrives after last year’s “Saccharine” EP. Like that release, these 12 songs bristle with raw personal emotion, all within the context of the greater world at large and the various systems in place that have held people of color back—particularly in America—for centuries. 

That’s all conveyed through lyrics about anxiety, depression, insecurity, and heartbreak—to name just a few of the subjects that vocalist Ashrita Kumar tackles across the album. Whether they’re spitting out rageful defiance, as on blistering opener “i’m not crying you’re crying,” or unconvincing, ironic affirmations as on “cherry (we’re all gonna die),” the vocalist packs generations of trauma into their voice, but channels them into their own specific experiences. It’s the same with the sneering animosity of “Trust Fall” (“I really hate you,” Kumar sings over an urgent melody courtesy of guitarist Paul Vallejo and drummer Myron Houngbedji, “but you’re just a mirror of the past”), the breakneck blast of “Burn The Witch” and the stirring riffs of “Cinderella.”

A mix of punk, post-hardcore, grunge, as well as pop—at times, there are undeniable nods to No Doubt at their most visceral here—“Love Me Forever” is a stunning burst of influences and experiences, all of which coalesce in a swirling swathe of anger and injustice, not least on brutal penultimate track “let me drown.” Yet beneath it all, there’s also a real vulnerability, too. Just listen to the lyrics of the title track, or if that’s not obvious enough, “in a breath”—the gentle but powerful piano ballad that slows everything down right in the middle of the record. Regardless of the statement it makes within a racially homogenized scene, this is a phenomenal album. Taking that into account makes it utterly indispensable.

In March, Long Island, New York’s Oso Oso (Jade Lilitri) released “Sore Thumb”, one of our favorite albums of the mid-year. The emo mastermind now returns with “De Facto” a troubled love song featuring propulsive drums from Jordan Krimston. Lilitri airs out feelings of guilt (“Violent eyes did it again / Lost my way, path less taken”) and defeat (“This familiar slope, are we headed there? / And if I’m being real, I just don’t care / what happens anymore / I laid my shit out on the floor”), but the song’s defining emotion is the kind of love to which all those headaches pale in comparison. “When you’re not near, I feel nothing at all,” Lilitri punctuates each chorus, each word somehow hookier and more melodic than the last.

He takes a quick solo, then breaks the song down to nothing but Krimston’s racing beat and a lone guitar, singing, as if from a distance, about a dream where he “fell through the TV screen / The change was small, nothing really new / Still reciting lines with everyone but you.” It’s a characteristically irresistible Oso Oso song about the kind of connection that matters most. 

“sore thumb” wasn’t supposed to exist as it does. But when Jade Lilitri, the brainchild behind the beloved Long Island emo project Oso Oso, lost his cousin/guitarist/creative partner Tavish Maloney, who had been helping him record new tracks in 2021, he felt compelled to put them out — no changes necessary. It diverges from the band’s power pop to be a bit more subtle and strange, but the hooks still arrive, and do so exuberantly. Ultimately, it rages with Lilitri’s sweet, bro-y motto that Oso Oso’s become known for: that nothing will ever be better for the soul than hanging out with your friends. Kick back, pour one (a gatorade, obviously!) out, and let the inside jokes (and maybe a few tears) roll. 

Released on: 2022-10-04

I’ve been obsessed with the runaway rogue narrative of Ethel Cain since I heard her single ‘Crush’ at the end of 2021. After playing her EP, “Inbred”, on repeat, I was thrilled to see that the American songwriter was releasing her debut album, “Preacher’s Daughter”, this year.

Permeated by a palpable sense of lust, her evocative lyrics, reverb-heavy instrumentation and stunning vocals make for truly divine listening. From opening track ‘Family Tree (Intro)’, through to the sultry ‘Gibson Girl’ and stunning ‘Ptolemaea’, it’s the most sensual of sermons that absolutely sets my cells on fire every time I listen to it.

Hayden Anhedönia, also known by her stage name Ethel Cain, uses Cain as a precautionary tale about the effects that familial and religious pressure can cause on a person’s outlook on love and acceptance, and the dark path that trauma can lead a person down, which, as “Preacher’s Daughter” demonstrates, often has dire consequences.

“Preacher’s Daughter” conjures images of endless Midwestern plains, sweet tea, scorned housewives, and empty Southern church pews, save for one woman looking for salvation. With the record, singer-songwriter Ethel Cain created a gorgeous, tragic world that both looks lovingly, but also with disdain, at Americana. At times, she goes pop (“American Teenager”), and others, she taps into her goth and rock influences (“Family Tree,” “Gibson Girl”), and even hymns (“Sun Bleached Flies”), all to tell the story of the character Ethel Cain’s journey on the road, only to die at the hands of a cannibalistic killer.

Throughout it all, she’s as vulnerable as she was on the second floor of that “house in Nebraska.” It’s an album that’s sure to go down as a modern classic in American gothic. 

Seeing Ethel Cain perform live at Heaven earlier this month was also an experience I will never forget. Long live Mother Cain.