Photo of Kristeen Young by Kristeen Young
First Thought Fridays is a (mostly) weekly column offering quick-hit takes on some of the albums released this week (or at least semi-recently), serving up first impressions, favorite or least favorite songs, and whether or not they’re worth a second listen. Check back for more each Friday night or Saturday morning.
A challenging, mind-blowing (formerly) local artist, a beloved band returning after 27 years and the deaths of two of its founding members to say farewell, a voice actor turned country siren, and a quartet of twee Aussies? The energy level is a little all-over-the-place this week, but hey, some weeks are like that. Here’s what I checked out this week, in the order in which I listened to ‘em:
Kristeen Young, Full Scrotal Scorpio (self-released): Any regular readers of this column know that I listen to a huge volume of new music across a wide variety of genres, so believe that it takes a lot for me to say this: I have never heard anything like Kristeen Young’s new album. The St. Louis-raised singer/pianist’s latest album is an almost indescribable mélange of disparate sounds and styles; imagine Nine Inch Nails, Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, Dresden Dolls, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Yoko Kanno, gothic opera, 100 gecs, and a circus funhouse calliope shoved into a blender and topped with a marauding alien army’s worth of laser beams. The result is aggressive, often dissonant, occasionally quite pretty (as on piano ballads like “Phone” and the beautiful, brittle, operatic “Falling”), but completely intoxicating even as it makes you uneasy. Two listens and I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface; looking forward to digging in much, much more. Will I Listen Again?: Absolutely.
The Olivia Tremor Control, The Same Place (Elephant 6 Recording Company): The back story of The Same Place is soaked in tragedy, but you’d never know it from the joyous music. The Olivia Tremor Control were central figures in the Elephant 6 collective, an amorphous group of assorted mostly Athens-based psych-influenced power pop bands started by a group of high school friends that included OTC’s Will Cullen Hart and Bill Doss plus Robert Schneider of the Apples in Stereo and Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel. The Olivia Tremor Control disbanded in 2002 after two albums, but reformed in 2009 and immediately set to the task of recording album #3. Schneider arrived in Athens in 2012 to help finalize the album and that very same weekend Doss died suddenly of an aneurysm. The band took some understandable time to recover, but after the 2022 release of the documentary film The Elephant 6 Recording Co., Hart and the rest of the band were inspired to finally complete work on the rest of the album with the assistance of Jason NeSmith, a.k.a. Casper of Casper & the Cookies. The album was nearing completion when the band issued the first two songs in 2024 as part of the official release of the documentary’s soundtrack, and the very same day those two songs were released, Hart died of a heart attack. The remaining band finalized the songs and now, 17 years after they started working on it and 27 years since their last release, the third and final Olivia Tremor Control album is now here.
And what an album it is. 27 songs and nearly 70 minutes long, The Same Place overflows with the kind of psychedelic power pop that has long defined the Elephant 6 sound. Rather than the electrified power pop of bands like the Apples in Stereo or Dressy Bessy, the Olivia Tremor Control is less giddy and more groovy, the sound of the Zombies and Magical Mystery Tour-era Beatles with baroque touches akin to ELO (including tons of delectable, expertly deployed horns). The band follows their muse wherever it takes them, fully developing some songs, leaving others as snippets and interstitials (nine tracks don’t break the two-minute mark, and four of those are under 30 seconds), and exploding “Path of the Parallels” into a seven-song suite. The album captivates as it ebbs and flows through all these different moods, a pure aural delight with so much depth and variety in its instrumentation. It’s undeniably sad that this album is a farewell, but at least we have this amazing document to remember them by. Will I Listen Again?: Definitely.
Grey DeLisle, Don’t Turn Around (Hummin’Bird Records): Grey DeLisle has a lengthy, prolific career as a cartoon voice actor (she’s the 21st century voice of Daphne from Scooby-Doo, for instance), but for as long as she’s been doing that, she’s also been releasing albums of country music. Her latest is a fine collection of countrypolitan heartbreakers, highlighted by DeLisle’s clever lyrics and clear, brassy vibrato vocals—a little Dolly, a little Dar (Williams, that is). Highlights for me were the opener “Every Day of the Week Ends in Why,” the TexMex Dave Alvin duet “You’re Driving Me Away,” the sweet, poppy “Disneyland,” and the sassy “Open Mic at the Stumble Inn.” The album didn’t blow me away or anything, but for what it is it’s a solid record, and worth a spin if you’re missing Dolly or if you dig Neko Case’s trad country debut, The Virginian. Will I Listen Again?: Maybe
The Cat’s Miaow, When You Smiled and Turned Away (Slumberland): There’s not too many bands formed as far back as 1992 just now putting out their “debut studio album” in 2026, but the Cat’s Miaow is no ordinary band. In that time, the Melbourne, Australia-based quartet has released a mountain of home-recorded cassettes, 7-inches, EPs, and compilations. The sound is about as twee as you can get: Kerrie Bolton’s fragile vocals, Bart Cummings’ gently strummed guitars and mumbled singing, and the whisper quiet rhythm section of bassist Andrew Withycombe and drummer Cam Smith. The songs may be hushed, even borderline sleepy (how appropriate they’re on a label called Slumberland!), but they trot along at their own happy pace—if you don’t let the songs just float right past you, they make for a very peaceful listening experience. There’s a good chance this may be too twee for many, but it was hitting just right on this quiet, sunny Friday afternoon. Recommended if you like Galaxie 500 or early Belle & Sebastian, especially the songs where Isobel Campbell sings lead. Will I Listen Again?: Probably | Jason Green
