Photo of she’s green by Jaxon Whittington
Hey, how are you? It’s been a while! For those of you that don’t follow The Arts STL on the socials, we ran into a sudden and unexpected limit on our site hosting that made it so I could no longer upload images or articles to the site until we migrated to a new server. But as of August 1st (our site’s 9th birthday!), we’re on a new, much larger, dedicated server, and it should hopefully be smooth sailing from here. (I’ve also renewed our website hosting for 10 more years—don’t worry, we’re not going anywhere!)
During that absence, of course, the new album releases kept stacking up (as did a mountain of concert reviews and photo galleries to upload, so keep checking back for more!). Here are my thoughts on eight mid-to-late July releases. You may note one big name is missing from the list: The Strokes’ Reality Awaits. Spoiler alert: I didn’t really care for it. BUT, a friend whose taste in music I respect (and mostly match) encouraged me to give it another shot and a deeper listen. So stay tuned for that one! Also stay tuned for some August 7 releases, including Margaret Glaspy (I heard the first few tracks, and wow, sounds like another winner) and Mountain Goats (which I haven’t heard any of yet but, based on their last one, am really looking forward to). And August 14 brings the new Phoebe Bridgers and Hovvdy releases. Lots to be excited about, so keep coming back and thanks so much for reading in the first place. But first, on to this week’s writeups:
foamboy, STUPID HOT (self-released): foamboy started as a pandemic project between producer Wil Bakula and singer Katy Ohsiek, collaborating over email to craft the kind of indie dance party we were all sorely missing in those days. The band swelled up to a six-piece in a live setting, the configuration that recorded their 2024 sophomore album Eating Me Alive, but for album #3 they’re back down to just Bakula and Ohsiek in the studio. Ohsiek has a winning, warm voice (as appealing here as it was on her rockier album released last year as Katy & the Null Sets) and Bakula supplies sunny Seventies synth vibes that are a little Daft Punk, a little Giorgio Moroder, and a little Everything But The Girl. There’s nary a weak track to be found, but the best tracks to these ears are “Far Away,” “Summering,” the Dua Lipa-ish disco of “Loud Boy,” and my two absolute favorites, the strutting “Lonely” and the triumphant kiss-off “Book and a Cold.” Will I Listen Again?: Absolutely.
she’s green, swallowtail (Photo Finish Records): Being a fellow Green, this band’s name caught my eye when they scored the opening slot for Blondshell last fall, and our Laura Jerele’s glowing review sealed the deal. Swallowtail is their first LP (though at 7 songs and 28 minutes, it’s barely longer than the two EPs they’ve released previously), and it positively glistens, all gauzy, dreamy waves of shoegaze guitars and Zofia Smith’s girlish, tender vocals. The bigger songs (“locket,” “dear ivy,” “paper thin”) sound like the Sundays, Mazzy Star, and Soccer Mommy all put in a blender, with one notable exception: the beautiful “empty house,” which opens with just voice and acoustic guitar before slowly adding more elements to achieve an aching slow burn. Will I Listen Again?: Absolutely.
Sad13, 1331 (Exploding in Sound Records): The year after the band Speedy Ortiz released their last album, Rabbit Rabbit, in 2023, singer/guitarist/bandleader Sadie Dupuis was in a bicycle accident that shattered her elbow and required extensive physical therapy. Finally healed up, Dupuis celebrated by crafting this mixtape, featuring 13 songs that blaze by in just 16 minutes with Dupuis playing every single instrument (the first time that’s happened since The Death of Speedy Ortiz EP way back in 2011). Despite the short runtime, these are anything but half-formed thoughts or tossed-off demos: these are adventurous, fully arranged, ear-grabbing indie pop songs. It’s a brief listen, but a thrilling one. Will I Listen Again?: Definitely.
Gracie Abrams, Daughter from Hell (Interscope): Gracie Abrams has a lane—breathy, heartbroken ballads—and she mostly sticks with it on her third LP. Abrams’ trembling double-tracked vocals are her secret weapon and can be quite intimate and evocative, while co-writer/producer (and The National guitarist/Taylor Swift collaborator) Aaron Dessner supplies her with all the slowly strummed guitars and slow-burning instrumental catharsis her songs need.
The songs hit individually, but at album-length, the relentlessly slow-pace and general samey-ness of the music keeps the songs from connecting when delivered back-to-back-to-back. At almost an hour in length, the album feels like it downright plods; even a guest spot by Marcus Mumford on “What If It’s Right?” doesn’t nudge the album’s energy level. The lone song that kicks up the tempo (‘Look at My Life,” the one track aided and abetted by Olivia Rodrigo cohort Dan Nigro) grabs hold so much harder than the songs around it that it’s further evidence that a little more energy and variety (and a shorter runtime) would do Abrams wonders. Will I Listen Again?: To the whole thing, maybe. To individual songs, yes.
Taylor Bickett, Nothing I Can’t Undo (If This Then Records): Taylor Bickett often sounds quite similar to Gracie Abrams, but where Abrams keeps her voice at a mumble and hides it beneath double tracking, Bickett has a rich quiver to her voice and isn’t afraid to deploy it for maximum emotional impact. She’s also not afraid to push her music to higher energy places either, resulting in something quite a bit more ear-grabbing, and her confessional lyrics bring to mind one of favorite musical discoveries of the last couple years, Eliza McLamb. Though Bickett hails from Nashville, there’s only the slightest hint of a country twang to this album, and that’s in the strummy, folksy acoustic guitars rather than the vocals, a sound reminiscent of that other, more famous Taylor before she went full pop. An able, appealing debut. Favorite tracks: “If Only,” “Firefly Collector,” “Good Thing Short.” Will I Listen Again?: Yes.
Swapmeet, Mount Zero (Winspear): This excellent LP got on my radar courtesy of a text from my The Arts STL cohort Mike Rengel, who advertised the Adelaide, Australia-based quartet as “a legit slice of moody, wiry alt-rock guitars.” Sign me up! The band do indeed conjure up many different moods, with songs often shifting from gentle strums to fuzzy feedback to stabs and jabs of electric guitar, with highlight “Personal (Don’t Take It)” even adding some expertly deployed strings. The band features one bassist (Joshua Doherty) and three singer-guitarists in Venus O’Broin, Maxwell Elphick, and Jack Medlyn (Elphick and Medlyn trade off on drums as well), O’Broin delivering her vocals in a fragile whisper while Elphick and Medlyn use more of an Alex G-esque slacker-y shrug. Swapmeet are sure to appeal to fans of Momma or feeble little horse, while fans of Wednesday will likely appreciate when O’Broin digs into a bit of a Karly Hartzman-esque wail on the 6-minute closing epic “My Heart Breaks II.” Will I Listen Again?: Definitely.
mary in the junkyard, Role Model Hermit (AMF Records): Another debut full of moody songs and wiry guitars, but the mood is a little more haunted and off-kilter than Swapmeet. Singer-guitarist Clari Freeman-Taylor has an Adrianne Lenker-esque warble to her voice, David Addison supplies the whipcrack drums (and, on songs like the highlight “New Muscles,” kitchen sink percussion), and Saya Barbaglia occasionally shifts from bass to viola to bring a mournful John Cale vibe to the proceedings. A brittle but beautiful record. Best song of the bunch: “Crash Landing.” Will I Listen Again?: Yes.
Dallas Good & Richard Reed Parry, We’re “The Watchtowers” (Yep Roc): Before he died in 2022 at the way-too-young age of 48, the Sadies ringleader Dallas Good completed much of this duo album with the Arcade Fire multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry. But don’t come in expecting to hear the Sadies’ patented blend of country, garage, and psych-rock here, at least for the most part: barring a couple of tracks (the speedy shuffle of “There’s Time,” the Zombie-ish psychedelia of “Hope I Dream Again”), We’re “The Watchtowers” mostly sounds like early Simon & Garfunkel like “Scarborough Fair,” all folky close harmonies and softly picked acoustic guitars. The songs are all quiet and a little eerie, but also quite beautiful.
While obviously not recorded as a farewell, it often plays like one, especially on the fraught final two tracks. Likely completed after Good’s passing, “The Hole in the Wall” instead features Good’s sometime collaborator Neko Case (the Sadies served as Case’s live backing band in the 2000s, including on the spectacular 2004 live album The Tigers Have Spoken). Case’s ethereal voice floats in on ghostly reverb as she memorializes her dear friend; the track opens with the lament “How I miss those days with you/ Of coloured lights and bright faces” but saves its emotional kicker for the end: “If I could go back to that time/ To that snowy New year’s night/ Wake you up to tell you/ We had everything we needed/ Yeah, we really had it all.” Hitting just as close to home, the haunting closing track has Good and Parry once again harmonizing portentously “We will sing this together one day/ Not in this world, not in this world.” Hopefully in the next. Will I Listen Again?: Yes. | Jason Green
