by Owen Neaman, Arts and Culture Editor
On the same day as They Are Gutting a Body of Water’s album came out, their singer/guitarist/indie label extraordinaire Doug Dulgarian announced his cancer diagnosis. Seeing the recovery fund reach its goal in less than a day made me smile big, and makes “DIY or Die” sound marginally less corny. In that spirit, all of these albums are on independent labels. Tinashe gets a pass. There’s something in here for everybody.
Now go vote,
Neaman
@ - Autosmile
The guy-girl folk duo is probably the most en-vogue aesthetic for indie musicians trying to grow an Instagram following, but @’s acoustic Beatlesy psychedelia has always reached for the proggy and weird instead of the cute and pastoral. The songwriting on this album is an exercise in how far the two singer/guitarist/mouth-trumpeters can stretch their imaginations and their spare instrumentation. Alas, none of the songs come close to the sheer ambition and grip of the title track, with its nearly 7 minutes of melancholy vocal harmonies and weaving acoustic guitars. The rest of the songs are still hazy and pretty, and their brooding lyrics are enough to keep you immersed in their short trip.
Hear: “Autosmile”
For Best Listening: Vote in the midterms.
Worldpeace DMT - Stick Around For Tea
Leo Fincham and Rowan Please have expressed contempt for the “twee” pigeonholing, and while this album doesn’t help them shake that title, the duo take traditional twee and satirize it to delightful results. Yeah, the four-chord songs about love, Jesus, and the almighty power of rock n’ roll don’t land as well now as they did when Lou Reed sang them, but some of these lullabies are cheeky and smart enough to make me forgive them for their needlessly
deafening ‘Sco set last year. “Stratocaster” is an acerbic jab at the guy who finds the guitar at a house party and plays at women, and atop the toybox electronica of “Stick Around For Tea,” Rowan chirps about breaking a girl’s arm and pulling up in style so she can win back her man. Zooey Deschanel could never. Cheeky, those ones are.
Hear: “Stick Around For Tea”
For Best Listening: Vote in the midterms.
June McDoom - Follow The Light
McDoom treads the line between grounded folkiness and the floaty and spaced out. Being part of Big Thief’s touring band has probably rubbed off on her: there are harps, harpsichords, a tiny string orchestra, and voices that sound like they were recorded behind a waterfall in an idyllic garden. But as dramatic and sprawling as the song arrangements are, this album flows without much tension or movement. As ethereal as the wispy spray of McDoom’s voice is, it becomes the monotone standard for every song on the album. Instrumentally, Follow The Light is a gorgeous atmosphere of calm, but the lyrics and vocal performances turn into fog after a while.
Hear: “Without Me”
For Best Listening: Vote in the midterms.
Tinashe - Popstar
Of all the post-Brat dance pop albums, Popstar might be the one that most closely matches Brat’s breathless pacing and staggering consistency. Tinashe’s voice deftly bounces between a guarded introvert who’s there for the music and a social animal who’s there for the party. The changes in texture and dynamic on each song match the headrush you get after clubbing for six hours: the music being played matches every spell of energy and exhaustion, and it feels like the DJ is telepathic. Apart from the painfully self-aware angst of “Brainrot” and a bland acoustic track at the end, Popstar is effortlessly cohesive and propulsive.
Hear: “Melatonin”
For Best Listening: Vote in the midterms.
Fontaines D.C. - Dopamine Chamber
There’s something about the Island of Ireland and a specific kind of gloomy synth pop: Fontaines take a stab at it with enough droning vocal performances to make Ian Curtis twist a little in his grave. It’s refreshing to hear them lean into 80s nostalgia, but most of the songs here sound melodically dry compared to the previous album. Grian Chatten’s singing sounds disaffected to the point of robotic sometimes, and this schtick only really works when Rosalia joins him for a duet. The coolness of the entire album has satisfying moments, but the band rarely sounds like they’re playing as a unit. The tightest they sound is on their pseudo-goth tributes, and at that point I’d rather listen to the source material.
Hear: “You Miss Me”
For Best Listening: Vote in the midterms.
Gilla Band - Pugnello
On the other side of the Dublin post-punk spectrum is Rough Trade’s noise rock foursome. Singer Dara Kiely sounds somewhere between the megaphone volume of IDLES’ abstract ranting and the sensuality of Troye Sivan’s speaking interludes. There’s clear Nine Inch Nails influence here (the cover even resembles the nightmarish cover of The Downward Spiral), with brutal walls of distortion that rip into songs like intrusive thoughts and distorted drums that buzz around the mix like a swarm of horseflies. Like Spiral, Pugnello attempts and succeeds at being the noise inside your head that makes harmony with the noise of the outside world when it gets too loud. Some of the ranting gets tiresome towards the center of the album, but the foaming-at-the-mouth energy of the opening tracks and the serrated lash of closer “At the Gallop” make misanthropy sound stunning.
Hear: “Giraffe”
For Best Listening: Don’t vote in the midterms and wallow in self-hatred.
They Are Gutting a Body of Water - Kool Faith/Loosies II
It’s uplifting to read through the list of TAGABOW’s collaborators on this massive compilation, but I have to remain objective despite half of The Entire Philly Independent Music Scene being on the same album. This album is the product of Doug Dulgarian’s creative tunnel vision in all of its eclectic, imperfect glory, but I could do without some of the piercing electronic interludes. It’s clear which rappers on this indie rock album were paid to do features and phoned it in (RXKNephew) and which ones are doing it for the sake of friendship (FearDorian, I hope). TAGABOW just do their dreamy, hypnagogic, fuzzy thing while an A-list of other artists experiment on the canvas laid out for them, and the results are sometimes magical. While some of the shoegaze tracks don’t stand alone as amazing songs, this album is ordered in a way that makes each distinct track feel connected to the roots of one long Cloud 9 ride. It works as a remarkable sampler for the artists that TAGABOW/Julia’s War Records love, but more importantly stands as proof that witnessing an incredible scene of artists is the greatest musical experience you can have. It might not be a studio album, but this might be the band’s defining document.
Hear: “baiting breath” with her new knife, or the whole thing.
For Best Listening: Vote in the midterms.
