First part of this month’s Capsule Review is finally done, the second part should be due just before New Year’s Eve where I will clamp down on getting my lists up for the best music of this year. Do note that the second part itself will likely be smaller relative to this list as there’s a good chance that I’ll get a festive article out on Christmas – that being Sufjan Steven’s ‘Sister Winter’. Guy’s really good at nearly all kinds of genres, isn’t he?
JPEGMAFIA – I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU (1 August 2024)
One of the masters in avant-rap is back with a rockier, groovier, and moodier direction in his usually excellent production even if the divergence is less apparent than in 2021’s LP!. Any wit you would have hoped from the name who brought you ‘I Might Vote for Donald Trump’ or any drive that punctuates Scaring the Hoes with Danny Brown are not exactly available. I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU does not contain any bizarre switcheroos to make for a thrilling listen. However, the record is among the most fun you can have in experimental hip hop without heading into shitpost territory thanks to its drizzles of deconstructed club on a handful of highlights and a lightning rod of a guest verse from a good friend Denzel Curry. The last silver lining to keep in mind is that even if there isn’t as much comedy as one would have hoped from Peggy, there are still some hilarious punchlines to experience. 3.6/5
2nd Grade – Scheduled Explosion (25 October 2024)
2nd Grade is a Philadelphian power pop band with… not much to their name. Now, there are a lot of acts who lurk under the surface for a long time without drawing much attention from any listener whatsoever. They might have content that is derivative of your usual type with immaculate performance, they might also have a chance at being staunchly experimental in their artistry. The problem is that Scheduled Explosion has neither the technical talent to energise the whole album nor does it have the imagination to work around the traits of the genre. The guitar work sounds familiar, the lyrics are familiar, the vocals familiar, almost everything comes off as being familiar to the point where whatever it is you are looking for, you would be more satisfied with Weezer in their childish trudge. One would hope that the band digs up some outside-the-box thinking to liven up their direction. 1.5/5
Skinscape – Another Side of Skinscape (27 September 2024)
Skinscape is a UK-based psychedelic soul artist who has enjoyed a relatively prolific history of having 9 albums made in the span of 10 years. With Another Side of Skinscape, the artist dives into funk, spending roughly 38 minutes conjuring up booming basslines with tricklings of reverbs and a more androgynous vocal delivery. Whatever hopes one might have in discovering a time in the rough would be left with remarkable disappointment – the whole album feels imitative of the 1960s without any drive for uniqueness. The craftsmanship is still there as the technical performance in itself is competent enough for a pleasurable listen. It is the lack of complete experimentation which leads the album to being forgettable once you bypass through its competence and that should be the one priority that he should take on. 2/5
Mild Monk – Comets (10 December 2024)
In a very spacey way, the California band’s latest album details everyday struggles through sci-fi conventions and tropes. If you are hoping for a bit more, then there isn’t exactly much to say outside of how this album was inspired by a muse named “Carly”. The lyrics aren’t as deep as one would have liked despite its attempt at bringing the futuristic atmosphere into the present. The neutered mixing makes the space rock likeness come off as superficial. The instrumental diversity is lacking in its neoteric potential.Yet, for all its dull execution, Comets has shown the technical aptitude to be relaxing and the vocal performance melodic to the point of ecstasy. The talent/proficiency alone adds to the downtempo pacing which enables the album to be a relaxing listen even if there are no grounds to break. 3/5
Snoop Dogg – Missionary (13 December 2024)
West Coast rap legend Snoop Dogg never shies away from his hedonistic pursuit and in more than thirty years’ worth of success from 1993’s Doggystyle, sex would have been the first thing to come up in anyone’s head when it comes to the rapper after weed. Missionary proves that even if he knows the art of philandering and marijuana-related takes like the back of his hand as is the case with Clipse and drug dealing, he should consider protective measures. He can still rap with an irresistible kind of flow that made him a regional wonder, yet so much of his topic feels like familiar territory without a whole load of dexterity to prove his mastery. It’s a shame given how Dr. Dre happens to be in charge of the production which breathes a bit of life into the otherwise tired tropes that see little remake. Kudos to the guest verses from Eminem and 50 Cent however, that’s a throwback if anyone hears one. Come to think of it, why didn’t K.A.A.N get a larger slice out of his feature? 1.8/5
Queen Willow – Restful Tales of the Shapeless Seasons (8 November 2024)
Queen Willow is a French indie rock band from Nantes who, in their debut album, has a notable sense of punctuality in the way they reminisce about sobriety. With the folkish undertone that blends in the style of Okkervil River and the Shins together, the fantastical songwriting and chamber instrumentation brings into life the wonders of rebuilding your life from an addiction. Restful Tales of the Shapeless Seasons isn’t a magic bullet that would revive arena rock into the trend like Arcade Fire and, if you want an insistent hope that it’s still a tour-de-force in whatever subtlety there is, the identity still feels as if it’s in the making. For all intent there is, the fact stands that the band are among the names to look out for in the near future for if you are bored of the names in the United States or the United Kingdom. If Queen Willow succeeds in ironing out the parts that they want to excel hard at and if they want to continue to make the extraordinary out of the ordinary, it might not be long before they make a dark horse classic. 3.9/5
Cristóbal Avendaño and Silvia Moreno – Lancé esto al otro lado del mar (19 April 2024)
For a start, Cristóbal Avendaño and Silvia Moreno are respectively independent Chilean and Spanish artists who, with a largely unknown background in their careers, have joined together to make an album. Like many, it’ll be a contemporary folk piece with an emphasis on lyricism, focusing on the turmoils of love and the longingness of getting back together. Unlike many, the two will make sure as hell that there will be an emphasis on lyricism – and they ace it. Even if you decide to try and translate the music through a program like Google Translate, you’d be stunned at the provocative images and allusions. One song, there is an ecological feeling whereby hurt feelings are comparable to a forest fire. Another, a Dantean or Christian condemnation of the broken relationship that has crossed a point of no return. And in yet another, the hyperbolic boundary filled with deep and empty water. The fingerpicking of the guitar has a hypnotic quality that feels incidental to the poetry that permeates the whole album, its chiming notes hammering home the desire for reunion. Even if the words fall quiet, the music itself carries onward the atmosphere like an octave to reveal the gravitas of the shattered heart. Lancé esto al otro lado del mar has little that it could use to make itself into a gem. Instead, it turns out like a treasure that few could ever wish to reach. 4.5/5
The Softies – The Bed I Made (23 August 2024)
The Softies are an Oregon-based duo consisting of Rose Melberg and Jen Sbragia who specialise in a cuddly kind of twee pop. Both veterans in music already with a plethora of experiences in other bands which includes Tiger Trap since the mid-1990s, the Softies served as a side project with frequent break-ups and hiatuses to focus on other creative endeavours. The Bed I Made was literally the very first album they made in 24 years and only their fourth in total. This is a big problem – why did they treat it as a side gig when they work well together? Even though they should be middle-aged now (apologies for coming off as a tad bit ageist), the jangleness of the record entirely supports the fledgling innocence that so many younger acts lack in this day and age. The singing is soothing, the percussion is minimal, and the guitar gentle as it comes. You don’t need to ask the whole world for a diamond in a rough like this one. 4.3/5
Sleater-Kinney – Little Rope (19 January 2024)
One of the all-time greats in indie rock aren’t going to stay on top forever; they already have the creds to show their worth in 2005’s The Woods and 1997’s Dig Me Out. As the duo of Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker gets divided up with different projects, so begins the drying in the well of inspiration for the next potential classic. Little Rope has the spark for the shrill, the march for feminism continues on without reproach. The big bummer is that so much of the album lacks the decisive kick that made their two acclaimed masterpieces matter. The permanent departure of their main drummer Janet Weiss means that the drum beats on without the timing on when to go wild nor the control on when to be restrained or vicious. When you know for sure that Brownstein and Tucker aren’t exactly poets when it comes to lyricism, only their riffs will hold the record together and the line will only remain for so long before it snaps. 2.2/5
Grandaddy – Blu Wav (16 February 2024)
Once known as one of the big indie names in the late 1990s-early 2000s, frontman Jason Lytle revived Grandaddy back into business following a seven-year hiatus from their last album following the unfortunate passing of their member Kevin Garcia. It was speculated, based on a handful of comments from Lytle, that this might have the potential of being the last album. In such a case, it’s not a bad way to go out even if it might not necessarily be with a bang as fans would have hoped. The instrumentation is akin to alt-country with a slant of indie rock more than it does indie rock with a slant of alt-country that most remember the band’s style as. Blu Wav, instead of wondering about the impact of technology as is usually the case with the band, makes amends with the living and the gradual journey towards death. It might not capture the same creative zeitgeist in mortality that David Bowie had done. But, if life is all about waiting until the very end, then does it matter if you try to seek meaning in the most common experience any person will ever have? 3.4/5
Cameron Winter – Heavy Metal (6 December 2024)
Misleading title aside, the frontman of Geese’s solo debut contains some gorgeous, gorgeous singing. It stands as a largely folkish piece with themes that pertain to love, addiction, longingness, and loneliness with the acoustic guitar playing being a tad bit more subdued in favour of the more expressive violins and percussions. If you are hoping for anything that happens to not be like Gordon Lightfoot, let alone Sufjan Stevens, be on guard for the vocals. Every inflection, every enunciation, every accent, it all elevates the album’s sum from being a lovely yet common piece into an evocative, emotive, and essential treatise on the roadblocks of romance and connections. If you could picture someone like Adele writing her next album with more literate attention and a more emboldened direction to take her artistry to, Heavy Metal could be seen as a prototype for that. 4.1/5
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