Favorite Album Teasers - July 2022
- Adeline
- Jul 23, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 23, 2022
July, aka the mid-year portion where albums are either getting announced or released. Here's a list of the samples I've enjoyed so far & a few of the albums I'm looking forward to!
Simply a no brainer. "L-Train" navigates understanding the strive to escape a cycle and wanting to get better. If we're all being honest as listeners, a release from a new project is always a little treacherous. And rightfully so, it's the unexpected. But when it comes to TOLEDO, I don't even have to worry. My prediction for their debut (!!!) album, How It Ends (out 9/23), is Jockeys of Love but inverted. A little more bass-centric & a bit more "hands on" production-wise, but remaining in the indie-folk realm. Definitely still super candid though, it is TOLEDO afterall.
"Shine A Light" feels like the opening credits to Paolo Nutini's second portion of his career. The guitar heavy track races on in an anthemic way, sort of like a Springsteen song would. As someone who still quite frequently listens to Sunny Side Up, I couldn't help but instantly hear the aging in Paolo Nutini's voice and writing. I mean wow, the 8 year hiatus really did something. I feel as if when some artists try to get back into the game, you can hear the strive in trying to find their place again, but Last Night In The Bittersweet stands strongly on its own. As different and genre-diverse as it sounds from his previous works, it's almost as if Nutini never left the game.
Alvvays is back and more shoegaze-y and noisier than ever. I love the momentum and buzziness of "Pharmacist", the song rarely slowing down. The descending distorting outro just makes me want the rest of the album right now. I'm so looking forward to Blue Rev out on October 7th.
Sonically, "Part of The Band" reminds me a lot of "AUTAC" by Bon Iver with the teetering drums, little vocal inputs, and fluttering synths. The tension created in the verses with strings and the release with the clean acoustic in the chorus is such an interesting combo that just works. Despite the odd lyrics, given the album title Being Funny in A Foreign Language, I'm giving a lot of leeway especially after a line like "I like my men like I like my coffee". By the last verses, Healy seems to become self-aware of this persona he takes on, adding credibility to his existence as a songwriter and as a human being. Lyrical content aside, I'm so here for this new acoustic, experimental-ey 1975 and can't wait to see what direction the band takes with this album.
To listeners of Hippo Campus & Baby Boys, this might sound familiar. Brotherkenzie is the solo project of one of their guitarist/vocalists, Nathan Stocker. "GET ON IT" meets at the intersection of the two projects, which is quite inevitable if you exist within all three projects... If you liked Hippo Campus' recent album LP3 and their electro-borderline hyperpop take, I highly recommend checking this song. The pro-bono, "I'm ready for whatever is thrown my way" mood is copied and pasted. Maybe we could add another one to the books with his third album, NATHAN, out August 26th.
Check out my Summer playlist for this year. It's a pretty solid one, but I'm very biased.