In 2016, indie pop's highlights often went hand-in-hand with a general feeling of fading away, falling apart, saying goodbye.
5 - 1
Album: Spilt Milk
Label: Slumberland / Fortuna Pop
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/p/pete_astor_spilt_milk.jpg
Display as: List
List number: 5
Display Width: 200
Pete Astor
Spilt Milk
Split Milk is driven by witty pop-rock songwriting with super melodies, framing life's frustrations in an immediate, entertaining way. That shouldn't be a surprise -- it's what's driven Pete Astor's music now for over 30 years, starting with his bands the Loft and the Weather Prophets in the 1980s, and continuing solo since 1990. His perspective on Spilt Milk is older and wiser, or perhaps older and jaded, with a persistent sense of humor. James Hoare (Ultimate Painting) recorded the album, played a number of instruments, and apparently convinced Astor to make the album. Thanks for that, as Spilt Milk is a beauty, which should appeal equally to longtime fans and to listeners coming to the charms of Astor's music for the first time.
Album: Adult Contemporaries
Label: Lollipop
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/a/ablebody_adult_contemporaries.jpg
Display as: List
List number: 4
Display Width: 200
Ablebody
Adult Contemporaries
The debut album from Ablebody is a luxurious, romantic affair, albeit one where the lyrics seem driven by doubt, frustration and heartbreak. A bittersweet romance, like all the best ones. The project of Christoph Hochheim (Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The Depreciation Guild), aided by his twin brother Anton Hochheim, Ablebody play melodramatic synthpop steeped in influences of the past, but not dominated by any one. The synths mean the '80s are never far from the listener's mind, but various sides of that decade, from top 40 radio ballads to shy underground anthems. On Adult Contemporaries Ablebody turn those influences into a consistently beautiful and affecting album; a pleasure to listen to, with layers of sound and feeling to dive into.
Album: Running Out of Love
Label: Labrador
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/t/the_radio_dept-running_out_of_love.jpg
Display as: List
List number: 3
Display Width: 200
The Radio Dept.
Running Out of Love
Attention Americans: before you start thinking of running away to Europe to escape the current political state of things, you might want to listen to the latest from Sweden's the Radio Dept. Living in a climate shifting towards xenophobia, fascism, aggression, etc. has chased the love songs out of their music. The Radio Dept has always been defiant, provocative, progressive in spirit, but never this single-minded. Which doesn't mean Running Out of Love is a more narrow realm than their impressive back catalog -- they're still progressing, pushing their music forward. The sound is as dreamy as ever, with synths you can get lost in and a new focus on dancefloor grooves. It's a powerful combination -- protest and romance.
Album: Ishkode! Ishkode!
Label: Blue Arrow
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/j/jonathanrichman_ishkode.jpg
Display as: List
List number: 2
Display Width: 200
Jonathan Richman
Ishkode! Ishkode!
At the point in his career where the attention he gets is mainly from longtime superfans, Jonathan Richman remains on a genuinely independent path, stubbornly so. His latest is countercultural, in that you won't find it on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, et al., but you can buy it directly from the record label (Blue Arrow, a record store turned label). He remains countercultural in outlook, and idiosyncratic, and sound as great as ever, in voice and guitar. And while he displays his trademark blend of wide-eyed sentimentality, playful humor, and nostalgia for another era, over the last handful of years he has also quietly been probing deeper into questions of mortality and life's meaning, something he continues here. While his story has been written as a progression (youthful angst leading to a second childhood), his more recent work is tonally more complicated than that story would lead you to believe. Ishkode! Ishkode! is one of the best albums he's released in the last two decades, though he's released a lot of great ones in the time. This time he's even brought back at least one hallmark of his earlier albums -- the giddy, loveable amateurish backing vocals -- while continuing to move forward.
We are wholly independent, with no corporate backers.
We can't survive without your support.
Album: Next Thing
Label: Bayonet
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/f/frankie_cosmos_next_thing.jpg
Display as: List
List number: 1
Display Width: 200
Frankie Cosmos
Next Thing
The labyrinthine creative world Frankie Cosmos has built in the last few years, out of homemade Bandcamp releases full of in-jokes and wisps of tunes, instantly felt like it was just training, upon the release of Next Thing, her second album to have more of a band/studio treatment. Her dozens of releases all have their charms, but there's nothing anywhere near as well-developed as this. The sturdier musical approach is the perfect foundation for her songs, which are so interior in focus and gentle in tone that they can in other settings be dismissed as lightweight. Nope, the emotional depth here, projected as often through tiny scenes and stories as through openhearted expressions, is vast. Her singing is affecting, the melodies feel familiar like old friends (not familiar like tired). The songs seem tiny and epic at the same time; intimate and universal. They're packed with ideas and experiences, much more so than it can seem at a glance. On Next Thing, an album with deep pleasures to offer indie-pop fans, Frankie Cosmos feels like one of the best young songwriters working today.
