Photo of Stella Lefty by Jack Balaban
I keep promising to review the new Margaret Glaspy, and I keep not doing it! I will say that I gave it a spin and it’s fantastic, but I needed a bit more time to ponder what to say about it. In the meantime, here’s a little country, a little metal, and a trio of albums more in my usual indie rock sweet spot:
Xandria, Eclipse (Napalm Records): You know, I only randomly grab a metal album out of the ol’ email inbox every few months, but I frequently enjoy them more than I expect to…I should do that more often. Case in point, Xandria, a German quartet founded by multi-instrumentalist and sole songwriter Marco Heubaum way back in 1994, although the entire lineup swapped out around him in 2022 so it’s effectively a fairly young band. This is the second album of this rebooted Xandria lineup, and it’s an epic listen, all symphonic grandeur and high energy power metal guitars (courtesy of the locked-in duo of Heubaum and lead guitarist Rob Klawonn) and Ambre Vourvahis’ soaring vocals. Xandria is the kind of anthemic music that makes you feel like you could march into any battle and win, no matter the odds.
What I really appreciate about Eclipse is how dynamic it is, how Heubaum always knows just when to dial the energy down only to push it higher later, which keeps the album engaging from start to finish. The only demerit to these ears are little bits of guttural, raspy vocals, which harshes the buzz a bit (though fortunately they’re only used sparingly). Side note: there’s a deluxe edition that includes an instrumental version of the album, but then you’re missing out on Vourvahis, and her singing is one of the album’s main selling points. Best to stick with the standard edition. Will I Listen Again?: Yes.
French Film, Yours + Five (Solid Brass): It’s something old and something new from Austin quartet French Film, who take last year’s Yours EP and add five more tracks to get it up to LP length. It’s good that summer is almost over because this is very much an autumn record, with Drake Moreno packing it full of massive distorted guitars that alternately soar and shimmer like shoegaze and prickle like post-rock, topped with Ash Keenum’s lackadaisical yet lilting vocals. Autolux is the most obvious analogue, with bits of Interpol, My Bloody Valentine, and the Raveonettes in the auditory mix as well. Looking forward to getting to know this one better as the weather turns cold and gray. Will I Listen Again?: Yes.
Foglights, Nous Deux EP (Slumberland): One of the albums I flagged for review for this column in its early days but didn’t get around to listening to until months later was the self-titled debut by Scottish band The Cords, as giddy a sugar rush of an LP as you’re likely to hear. Foglights finds Eva Cord from that band teaming up with Archie Ingram (who records under the name Stone Anthem) and the results are decidedly different: this is slow, stark, strummy stuff, more in line with Galaxie 500 or the Velvet Underground’s third LP. It’s definitely worth a spin if you’re into that sort of thing as the songs are definitely pretty, but they’re also pretty samey; I’ll absolutely check out more from this duo but I do hope for a bit more variety on future releases. Will I Listen Again?: Probably.
Weezer, self-titled (Reprise): St. Louis recording engineer, producer, and former So Many Dynamos/current Thor Axe guitarist Ryan Wasoba has been running a series of reels on his Instagram reviewing every Weezer album of the 21st century. The videos are irreverent but impressively insightful, and I think even he’d argue that he found more to like among Weezer’s scattershot latter days than he initially expected to.
I’m interested to hear Wasoba’s take on the so-called “Gold Album,” Weezer’s seventh self-titled release. A little context: I haven’t really kept up with Weezer post-2005’s Make Believe, and of their 16 full-length albums, I think there are six (plus all four of the SZNZ EPs) that I’ve never heard before and another three that I’ve only heard once or twice. But given that, I found the Gold Album to be a decent journeyman rock record, the kind of thing that a young me would have expected Weezer to be doing 30+ years into their career. Rivers Cuomo told Consequence of Sound that he leaned heavily on drummer Patrick Wilson’s tastes when recording the album, and I appreciate that it has more of a loose vibe to the recording than a lot of Weezer’s more labored-over latter-day releases, and a lot of heft to the guitars.
“Say Yes” opens the album in fine fashion with a slow build and an explosive power pop chorus, conjuring up that Blue Album magic in one of the best Weezer songs I’ve heard in a long time. Nothing else on the album hit me quite as hard, though “We Might as Well Be Strangers” (a duet with Wednesday leader Karly Hartzman) and the laser-guitared power ballad “Up in the Clouds” (a song that dates back to 2014’s Everything Will Be Alright in the End) come close. The good is that unlike a lot of Weezer albums, the rest of the tracks don’t include any ill-fitting pop moves or hopelessly awkward lyrics (though “Hoops” gets dangerously close to that line). So yeah, the Gold Album: good, not great, but it rocks and I think Weezer diehards in particular will find a lot to like about it. Will I Listen Again?: Probably.
Stella Lefty, Long Way Home (Atlantic Outpost): Stella Lefty is a new country singer hailing from the decidedly not-country environs of the Chicago exurbs. She burst onto the scene with her single “Boston,” a heartbreaker that borrows some of its catchiness by interpolating Noah Kahan’s recent mega-hit “Stick Season.” That song shot all the way up to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 earlier this month (meaning there’s a decent shot at it hitting #1, if “Choosin’ Texas” ever relinquishes the top spot). Her profile has popped high enough that she recently scored a primo slot at the upcoming Confluence Music Festival at Gateway International Raceway, warming up the crowd right before the green flag drops at the Enjoy Illinois 300 NASCAR race on September 13.
Most country pop is way too slick for me, with committee-written generic lyrics and music that’s been burnished until all the humanity has been removed from it. Stella Lefty, by contrast, has an easygoing, natural appeal to her, both in the hint of grit in her unfussy vocals and the straightforward approach to the music, all bouncy acoustic guitars and pedal steel. The tunes are catchy and hit on relatable topics (mostly heartbreak and drunken bad decisions) in a way that you think maybe she’s actually experienced some of this stuff. The end result feels a bit like Taylor Swift or Gracie Abrams as filtered through Kacey Musgraves. There’s a particular run of songs in the middle of the album (tracks 3 thru 8) that landed just right for me, just a pleasant, imminently listenable batch of catchy, poppy tunes with just the right amount of country seasoning sprinkled on. The only songs that didn’t work for me come immediately after that set of winners, primarily because they mess with the winning formula: “Forever Guy” strives for Adele-sized heartbreak but doesn’t quite make it, while “Something to Lose” adds Lefty’s boyfriend, fellow country singer Vincent Mason, to the proceedings but loses some of the album’s attitude and authorial voice in the process.
If I can make one complaint, it’s the somewhat baffling manner in which Stella Lefty was rolled out into the world. Her six-track EP, Is This Heaven?, dropped on May 15. Less than two months later, on July 3, an “expanded edition” arrived with just one more track added. And now here we are, six weeks later and the album arrives under a different name but containing all seven of the previously released songs plus seven more new ones. Record labels, man. I will never understand. Will I Listen Again?: Yes, especially to that middle chunk of songs.
