Photo of Sampa the Great from the artist’s Bandcamp page.
First Thought Fridays is a (mostly) weekly column offering quick-hit takes on some of the albums released this week, 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.
Catching up on one more fine release from last week plus three new ones from this week, two from bands whose early work I loved but later work didn’t grab me the same way, and a new release fairly outside my typical fare that I listened to on a whim but ended up loving. Stuff like that is why I’m still doing this column every week. There’s a treasure trove of great new music released every week, and you can find some real gems if you’re willing to dig. But dig I did, and here’s what I dug:
Claud, Me and the Music (Dead Oceans): “I was just sick of taking everything so seriously,” Claud lamented regarding their previous album, 2023’s excellent but very serious Supermodels. For the follow-up, Claud still tackles serious topics but approaches them with lighthearted twists. See “Just Kidding,” a song about infatuation where Claud sings “I wanna marry you/ I wanna carry your babies/ Just kidding, but I do wanna marry you,” or “The Legend” (co-written with Olivia Rodrigo co-conspirator Dan Nigro!) where Claud laments a partner who shows love in private but acts cold in public, begging “can you show me off?” and to “make me feel like you feel like to me.” The title of “She Doesn’t Love Me” makes it sound like a downer but turns out the “She” in question is America and Claud finds a modicum of comfort in singing out with your “beers in the air.” For something a little different, “Spells and Fortune Tellers” offers a sweet sincere folk song in an Elliott Smith mold.
Claud long ago received the Phoebe Bridgers stamp of approval (they were the first signee to Bridgers’ Saddest Factory label) and while you can hear the connection, I’m thankful that Me and the Music approaches its sad topics with a lighter touch. Will I Listen Again?: Yes.
Queens of the Stone Age, Perfecth (Matador): In 2024, Queens of the Stone Age became the first musicians ever allowed to perform in the Catacombs of Paris, as captured on the EP Alive in the Catacombs. Perfecth, the band’s first new album since that experience, seems to have been heavily influenced by the experience as it follows in that EP’s sonic footsteps, eschewing the band’s trademark propulsive stoner rock for something more haunting, vaguely psychedelic, driven largely by acoustic guitars and strings, with Josh Homme’s voice firmly set in falsetto mode for much of the album’s runtime. The change does them a world of good: though I adore their first three albums, I’ve struggled to get invested in any of the ones QOTSA has recorded since (not that any of them bad, they just never really grabbed my attention enough to keep returning to them). But this album just might be their best since their 2002 breakthrough, Songs for the Deaf. Will I Listen Again?: Definitely.
DIIV, Zirp! (Fantasy Records): Another band whose early work I loved, DIIV’s early records were like the dreampop of Real Estate but druggier, woozier, and punctuated with squalls of Sonic Youth-inspired feedback. “Zirp!” must be the sound the band made when they made the hard right turn to this album’s completely more straightforward ‘90s alt-rock style, with elements of the epic space rock of Failure, the morose soundscapes of the Cure, the grind of Stabbing Westward, and the dazed and phased guitars of My Bloody Valentine. It’s such a huge change that I’m not quite sure what to make of it, but I’m intrigued enough to want to explore it more. Will I Listen Again?: Yes.
Sampa the Great, Nu Zamrock (Loma Vista): Born in Zambia, raised in Botswana, established as a musician in Australia, and based back in Zambia since the early days of COVID, Sampa Tembo brings a global perspective to this fantastic new album. The “zamrock” in the title is a hybrid of psych-rock, funk, and Zambian music crafted in Zambia in the 1970s by bands like W.I.T.C.H., which featured Tembo’s uncle George Kunda, whose voice in an interview is intercut throughout the record.
I wasn’t familiar with Sampa the Great or zamrock when I stumbled across this album in Wikipedia’s list of albums dropping this week. Earlier this summer, I listened to Congolese-born, Belgian-raised singer Zap Mama on a whim for the first time in a quarter century and she instantly became my most-listened-to artist of the summer with her blend of African beats and American rap and neo-soul. Sampa the Great sounded intriguing in much the same way and I’m glad I gave her a shot because this is good stuff. While the logline is “zamrock with trap beats and tongue-twister raps on top,” it’s more eclectic than that; take a song like “Can’t Hold Us” (featuring guest vocals from Tembo’s sister Mwanje), which feels like Kendrick Lamar and Fatboy Slim tossed in a blender with vocal breakdowns that are downright En Vogue-esque. I took the liberty of sampling Sampa’s previous album, 2022’s As Above, So Below, her raps on Nu Zamrock (her third official full-length; she also has two mixtapes and an EP) are so much more assured, so much more aggressive with so much more personality, and the kitchen sink approach to music is ear-grabbing at every turn. And where her last release was swimming in guest spots, Nu Zamrock keeps them to a minimum to let Sampa shine on her own (though it should be noted fellow Aussie Sia slides right in on the excellent “Supernova”). The album starts in-your-face but purposefully slows down over the last few tracks and even those work, with the exception of the bland, sleepy “Gone” featuring Nicole Gumbe. Other than that one misstep, this is a strong album, one I look forward to hearing a lot more. Will I Listen Again?: Absolutely. | Jason Green
