I’m happy to say that this week’s slate of new album releases is a little more manageable than the last, but I still have six reviews, including the latest from METZ, The Reds Pinks & Purples, Kelley Stoltz, English Teacher, and more.
Over in Notable Releases, Andrew gives five new albums a spin Shabaka, Nia Archives, and more.
In other Basement-related news: Blur played their first US show in 9 years (a Coachella warm-up); Paul Weller announced his first North American tour in seven years; and Ride announced more tour dates (including a new NYC show). Also: Keith LeBlanc, RIP.
Head below for this week’s reviews…
ALBUM OF THE WEEK #1: METZ – Up On Gravity Hill (Sub Pop)
The Toronto trio trade anger for catharsis on their fifth and most welcoming album yet
After more than a decade of pummeled punk fueled by noise, bile, and sheer volume, Toronto trio METZ have let a little sunshine in on their fifth album. In the four years since 2020’s caustic Atlas Vending, singer/guitarist Alex Edkins released a downright poppy album as Weird Nightmare, collaborated with Holy Fuck’s Graham Walsh as Noble Rot and did some soundtrack work, and all of that seems to have seeped into METZ, though Edkins stresses that all their records are very much band efforts. “We’re at the point now where we feel really strong as a band and as musicians, and there is no second guessing our collective instincts. Allowing ourselves to branch out and work with other musicians has been a blessing and also continues to remind us that what we have, our musical bond, is very rare and really special.”
Up on Gravity Hill is METZ’s most melodic, nuanced record to date, packed with earworms that may still induce tinnitus. Edkins’ guitars remain shringy, Chris Slorach’s basslines are as flinty as ever and drummer Hayden Menzies still sounds like he’s trying to bash his kit through the floor, but there are big hooks at the heart of all these songs, from the insistent harmonies of “99,” to the massive sing-along chorus of “Entwined (Street Light Buzz),” the swirling miasma that is “Superior Mirage,” and the towering, anthemic “Light Your Way Home” that, mood-wise, is unlike anything they’ve ever done before. Even a song titled “Wound Tight,” which is an apt description for the band’s sound up to this point, has a pop center. That added use of melody and harmony has the effect of taking METZ further into (heavy) shoegaze territory. It’s a natural fit for these three, moving from anger to catharsis, not mellowing or maturing, but evolving.
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ALBUM OF THE WEEK #2: English Teacher – This Could Be Texas (Island)
This may be their debut album, but this Leeds, UK band sound like seasoned vets
When Leeds band English Teacher first garnered attention in North America it was for their single “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab” and between that title and the band’s name it seemed like they were the next in the line of talky British post-punk groups. If that’s what you’re expecting from their debut album well…you’ll get a bit of that. But, apart from being on the same label as Yard Act, they don’t have much in common with them, Dry Cleaning or IDLES. This Could Be Texas may be their first LP, but the band have been together since 2016 (formed at Leeds, University) and in many ways it represents that near decade of growth. I would say it feels more like a third album where you hear a band growing out of their original sound into something grander, where a few jagged post-punk numbers sit alongside sweeping, string-filled ballads and widescreen rock. The youthful spirit is still there, though. At the center is singer and keyboardist Lily Fontaine whose warm voice can handle both Life Without Buildings-style sprechgesang (the wonderful “Nearly Daffodils”) and belt-it-out numbers like the album’s gorgeous, orchestral title track.
Lily is maybe not comfortable with all styles, though. “Despite appearances, I haven’t got the voice for R&B,” she notes on “R&B,” one of the album’s talkier songs, adding, “Even though I’ve seen more Colour Shows than KEXP.” She’s addressing casual (and not-so-casual) racism in the music business, but Fontaine clearly has the voice for R&B too as “Best Tears of Your Life” and “Not Everyone Get to Go to Space” show. Fontaine is a brash lyricist, sometimes mixing personal and world politics within a single line, and brings the same touch to the album’s more romantic numbers. The rest of the band, who contribute to the musical side of the songs as well, are terrific players and more than able to roll with the range of styles on this uniformly strong batch of songs. With their debut out in the world now, showing so much range, the possibilities seem endless for where they go next.
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The Reds Pinks & Purples – Unwishing Well (Slumberland)
More bummed-out bangers and sad smash hits from Glenn Donaldson’s mopey alter ego
“Two lovers entwined pass me by,” Morrissey sang in 1984, “and heaven knows I’m miserable now.” Glenn Donaldson sees the world through similar gloomy glasses, at least in his Reds, Pinks and Purples guise. There’s definitely some of The Smiths nucleotides in Donaldson’s DNA, from the light jangle of the guitars to RPP’s wordy song titles, but he’s carved out a very specific niche within this indiepop world. How so? A large percentage of his songs are about the music biz, stardom or lack thereof, and the youthful obsession of pop, all written from the perspective of a witty, cynical and failed wannabe popstar who maybe hasn’t left his house in a decade but churns out these musical missives on a daily basis. I see this as Donaldson playing a character but certainly some of his experiences in indie bands over the last 30 years inform his RPP songwriting. Unwishing Well is the project’s eighth album in five years, give or take a mini-LP, under this banner and it’s a noticeable bump up in fidelity, with cleaner sound, real drums on a few tracks, and slightly less reverb. His way with a fey melody, a grabby song title and bitter lyric is unwavering, though, and this album is full of mopey hits sure to please the Sarah Records, Go-Betweens and Smiths fan in your life. This one includes such hilariously snobby jams as: “What’s Going on with Ordinary People” (he and Bud in Repo Man share some opinions), “Your Worst Song is Your Greatest Hit,” “Nothing Between the Lines At All,” and the rare flicker of hope that is the spectral “Faith in Daydreaming Youth.” There seems to be no end to Donaldson’s nonchalant disdain, which hopefully means many more Reds Pinks & Purples albums.
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Bodega – Our Brand Could Be Yr Life (Chrysalis)
Bodega rework songs from their 2015 debut as Bodega Bay, and add a few new ones, for another batch of ultra-catchy consumerism critiques
If the title of NYC band Bodega’s third album seems familiar — beyond its hat tipping/tweaking of Michael Azerrad’s punk tome — it’s because it was also the name of their 2015 album when they were called Bodega Bay. That record, all 33 songs of it, was recorded on GarageBand and is decidedly low-fi and shambolic, sonically, while no less laser-focused on consumer culture criticism via ultra-catchy songs than what they’d do on Bodega albums Endless Scroll and Broken Equipment. They’ve now re-recorded some of those songs with bigger production and higher fidelity and added a few new ones as well. (This is also their first album for the recently relaunched Chrysalis Records that was once home to The Specials, Jethro Tull and Sinead O’Connor and is now distributed by Secretly.) “It’s something we’ve been wanting to do for years,” says singer-guitarist Ben Hozie. “We thought of it like a director remaking one of their old films, like when Hitchcock remade The Man Who Knew Too Much, or when Yasujirō Ozu re-did The Story of Floating Weeds… When you’re older and better at your craft, you can revisit the same material but do different things with it.” Nearly a decade on since the original Brand, songs like “Tarkovsky,” “Bodega Bait,” and “Webster Hall” sound brand new with this sonic upgrade and new focus, which in some cases are wildly different from the originals. The lyrical themes, however, feel all the more relevant, which will certainly appeal more to longtime NYC residents who have a foot in indie/alternative culture, with its songs about annoying people at Webster Hall and references to ’00s-era Williamsburg. (The central ATM metaphor, from the album art down into the songs, has dated a bit in these days of tapping and Apple Pay, however). Meanwhile, new songs like “G.N.D. Deity” nestle in perfectly alongside the reworks. Dinging the new paint job just a little are the Siri-like interstitials between some songs that, while clever and make the record more of a grand statement, feel like unnecessary underlining of the songs’ themes, and after a few listens you may wish you could edit out. Otherwise this is a bit of welcome rebranding.
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Blue Bendy – So Medieval (The state51 Conspiracy)
Grandiose and theatrical art-rock debut from the same London scene as Black Country New Road and Squid
As opening lines go, “No sex, no mess, no second chance / the ceremonial setting fire to my underpants” might not quite be in “Call me Ishmael” territory, but Blue Bendy have your attention right from the start of their debut album, So Medieval. Birthed from the same South London scene that has given us Black Country New Road and Squid, this six-piece make ambitious, far-reaching art-rock that just dares a critic to sum them up in a few words. Arthur Nolan’s flowery lyrical style and florid vocals are Blue Bendy’s most distinctive element but the band rises and falls with Nolan in highly romantic fashion, often sounding like the music was written to fit the lyric, never worrying about traditional pop song forms, though they come close with “Sunny,” a 1:40 earworm that’s immediately followed by the epic and crashing, “Cloudy.” So Medieval is so grandiose at times I would not be surprised to learn it was originally intended as a ballet, and these songs are vivid enough to make you wish it actually was.
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MELTS – Field Theory (Fuzz Club)
Electro-fueled gothy postpunk jams abound on this Dublin band’s second album
The second album from Dublin’s MELTS opens with an irresistible synthesizer hook, a bubbling arpeggiated riff that sounds like the promise of the ’80s. It’s so effervescent you expect the drum machine to kick with an electro-tom or rapid-fire handclaps but, no, here’s a real drum kit that snaps in and takes the song into more rock territory. That combo — synthpop stylings with real instruments — is always an appealing combo and MELTS deliver that all over Field Theory. This one has a decidedly more new wave approach than 2022’s Maelstrom which mixed in krautrock and psych elements; those things are still here, but the keyboard sounds are definitely more ’80s, with catchier songs that really suit frontman Eoin Kenny’s plaintive, post-punk howl. Along with dark bangers like “Figments” and “Altered,” MELTS are also good at moody atmospherics, as seen on “Shelter Of The Shade.” It’s the crack of those real drums, though, that make all the synths spark to life, and that make the listener think “hey I bet this band is really good live.”
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