Cold Specks – Light for the Midnight (Mute)
Cold Specks returns to the spotlight after a seven-year hiatus, and Light for the Midnight showcases an artist thirsty for the spotlight. Compared to I Predict a Graceful Expulsion and Neuroplasticity, Cold Specks‘ newest release is mournful, suggesting that the climate has utterly changed the artist in the intervening years. “I have been cheap dreaming, cheap dreaming,” she ruefully sings; “Dreaming away.”
The sadness hangs over Light for the Midnight, a record coated in self-doubt, yearning, resolution, and re-imagining. As albums go, Cold Specks’ fourth one jumps from funereal slow waltzes (“Lovely Little Bones”, “Curse Away”) to speedier, solipsistic-laden gospel (“How It Feels”, “Venus in Pisces”). – Eoghan Lyng
Courting – Lust for Life, Or: How to Thread the Needle and Come Out the Other Side to Tell the Story (Lower Third)
Liverpool quartet Courting return with their third album in three years. Lust for Life, Or: How to Thread the Needle and Come Out the Other Side to Tell the Story, covers a lot of ground in just over 25 minutes. Most of these songs are the same strong pop-rock that is their wheelhouse, but the more unusual choices are fascinating. Courting pack a lot of superb material into such a short running time. Every one of Lust for Life‘s eight tracks is engaging, and most are unique. Their slightly off-kilter take on guitar rock is rewarding, and the way the album’s end matches up with its beginning is very successful. – Chris Conaton
Cult Therapy – Get Fucked, Sinner (Freak Baby)
From the art to the lyrics, there is nothing subtle about Cult Therapy. Their full-length debut, Get Fucked, Sinner, is an unsparing account of religious trauma and abuse lead singer Jason Duncan experienced growing up in a religious cult. His continued recovery from that experience is at the center of this collection of raging, yet accessible songs. It’s equal parts raw confessional, grief exorcism, and journey of healing, and is one of the singular records of the year to date. It’s a menacing indictment of religion’s power to coerce, create fear, control, and harm, a primal scream in the face of that hypocrisy, and a testament to the work that goes into healing. – Brian Stout
Richard Dawson – End of the Middle (Domino)
Richard Dawson’s End of the Middle is, by design, an album about the “small-scale domesticity” of “a typical middle-class English family home”, according to the explanatory biography accompanying the record. While this context is far from universal, the turn toward the home as a subject, along with additional inspiration from the narrative approach of filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu, results in a more streamlined effort that is no less engaging and perhaps more accessible than Dawson’s previous concepts.
Death by Unga Bunga – Raw Muscular Power (Jansen)
The cover of Raw Muscular Power from Norwegian rockers Death by Unga Bunga shows all five members as the snarling heads of an outrageous, underground comix-style hydra—a writhing mass of gnashing teeth, bulging eyes, and gyrating faces closing in on an unlucky warrior swinging a battle axe. That sets the right tone for an album that is a masterclass in rock ‘n’ roll clownery of the highest pedigree—a defiantly unpretentious gem delivered by a band whose sound could rightly be described as a kind of monomaniacal five-headed beast.
The tight, ten-song collection seethes with the wild, forlorn emotional intensity of every notebook-doodling, daydreaming middle schooler. It is anchored securely by a combination of hard-earned musical craft, stylistic simplicity, and, perhaps most importantly, a sense of humor. – Emily Votaw
The Devil Makes Three – Spirits (New West)
The Devil Makes Three’s Spirits is a spellbinding mix of foot-stomping rhythms, soul-stirring storytelling, and their triumphant return after a seven-year hiatus since the 2018 Chains Are Broken release. Spirits is a celebration and a reckoning. Each song unfolds like a parable, interconnecting striking imagery and hardscrabble truths to portray loss, addiction, and resilience. Musically, it reflects Americana’s lively spirit, blues’ melancholic essence, and folk’s grounding nature. Each genre contributes to Spirits’ testimony of the pain and perseverance that define the human experience. The Devil Makes Three let listeners lose themselves in song, but not without losing sight of the deeper truths. – Elisabeth Woronzoff
DJ Koze – Music Can Hear Us (Pampa)
What’s that you hear? A dental drill? Is that Vocaloid Damon Albarn giggling? Is this vibe heading towards “Woody Woodpecker” or an “ayahuasca retreat?” But most often, you’ll ask: Have I heard this sample before? Maybe you have, perhaps you haven’t, but that’s beside the point. DJ Koze thrives on a sense of déjà vu, reshaping sound fragments, reversing melodies, warping tempos, and layering unexpected textures to create something new.
Across 64 minutes, he challenges every preconception about what should sound good. Think nu-metal is dumb? Then why is “Brushcutter” so fun in all its gritty, neon-colored glory? Do you think “Chipmunk Soul” is played out? Then why do the spiraling, sped-up vocal swirls of “Wie schön du bist” hit so close to the heart? – Emily Votaw
Sam Fender – People Watching (Polydor)
Sam Fender‘s People Watching demonstrates an appreciation for the past without fixating on it. For the first time, it feels like he can consider places outside of himself for inspiration. This time around, he made some deliberate decisions that make the album feel bigger than his previous works and more dialed in. Part of that has to do with production choices that allow him to deliver songs that seem appropriate for pop radio, yet not draw the ire of indie rock purists. With his previous efforts, Fender was an exciting, up-and-coming artist, but on People Watching, he has now established himself as a generational talent deserving of your attention. – Patrick Gill
FKA Twigs – Eusexua (Young / Atlantic)
Dancefloor dissolution and connection are the main themes on Eusexua, the third official full-length from FKA Twigs. Inspired by her time in Prague and taken by the city’s underground denizens purging themselves of their demons every weekend. These packed dancefloors led FKA twigs to experience the sensation that would give the album its name, which she has described as “the pinnacle of human experience” or “when you’ve been kissing a lover for hours and turn into an amoeba with that person. You’re not human anymore; you’re just a feeling.” Eusexua is about transcendence, introspection, isolation, and connection – the annihilation of the spirit to make room for something more. – J. Simpson
Sami Galbi – Ylh Bye Bye (Bongo Joe)
There’s nothing plastic or inauthentic about Sami Galbi’s debut for the Swiss label Bongo Joe. It’s as earthy as a DIY block party, sweltering with the scent of street vendors and the sound of battery-powered sound machines. Coming from a background in anarchist punk squats, Galbi approaches his unique take on North African folk music and international club pop with revolutionary vigor, leaving you a sweaty, breathless, exhilarated mess by the time it’s all said and done.
Although it’s rooted in real life and a folk sensibility and fired with a punk rock spirit, there is nothing archival or archaic about Ylh Bye Bye. Any of its three-minute bangers would sound as at home in a modern Middle Eastern dance club as it would at a wedding party. – J. Simpson