Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
The Alternative Weekly Roundup is a column where our staff plugs a variety of new releases in a concise, streamlined format. Albums, singles, videos, and live sets. Check back each Monday to see what we were jamming the week prior.
Autumn – Finding Language
The penultimate song on Finding Language, the lovely debut LP from New York ambient artist Autumn, is called “Tension & Release,” but there is little tension to be found here. The artwork and title suggest crescendoing, cinematic post-rock, and certainly many moments find kinship in that sound (single “With You Until Tomorrow” especially), but there’s far more Grouper inspiration to be found here in the mix of Woods Tucker’s almost ghostly voice and gentle, unobtrusive field recordings (save for the stomping on “Lookout”). Tucker only sings on four of these songs, and devoid of their hushed vocals Finding Language almost plays out as diegetic music; it’s a forty-minute gust of wind picking up and dying out, or it’s all a sigh of relief–all release without tension.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Luby Sparks – “Summer Days”
“Summer Days” is a perfect name for the new Luby Sparks song. It’s bright, dreamy, and jangly, just what you need to make the November cold a little more bearable. For four minutes, anything feels possible, like the bell just rang on the last day of school and you’ve only got a bus ride between you and freedom.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Penalty Boxing – Mill Town
Chicago alt-country project Penalty Boxing go for broke on Mill Town. It’s a bigger and more expansive album than 2022’s impressive And Another Thing, although it’s only about two minutes longer; tracks like “Real Fear” and lead single “The Joke” scuzz things up, and “Prophet” and “A Laugh” bring a breezy, lackadaisical energy to the record. Closer “Dog” is the highlight, though, one of the longest Penalty Boxing songs to date and a sparse, tender blend of softly plucked strings and field recordings that feels like a homecoming when the full band joins in in its final minutes.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
You Could Be a Cop – “foreverness.”
The latest single from You Could Be a Cop follows in the mold of their most recent original track, “Does everybody dream pt. 2” off their split with Ben Leiper, filtering meditative emo through a sprawling post-rock prism. As ever, there are shades of the late ’90s in “foreverness.” but also something new–You Could Be a Cop’s found a new lane in this sound, and there’s no one who does it like they do.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Boldy James & Harry Fraud – The Bricktionary
It’s a shame GNX dropped the way it did Friday, because The Bricktionary deserves that sort of hype. Boldy James’ third full-length of 2024 is his first outing entirely produced by Harry Fraud, who provides a variety of backdrops for his ruminative raps: the smoky, lush coos of “Pressin’ My Bunk,” the spacey jitters of “Speedy Gonzales,” the skronking horns of “Shadowboxing.” Boldy James sounds totally at home over all of it, and he goes toe to toe with Benny the Butcher, Tee Grizzley, and Babyface Ray throughout but always comes out on top. His work with Conductor Williams and Nicholas Craven earlier this year was excellent, but The Bricktionary is his best release of 2024, and he sounds as good over Harry Fraud production as he does with his most acclaimed collaborators The Alchemist and Sterling Toles.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
The Alternative’s ‘New Music Friday’ playlist
Each week we compile a playlist of songs our staff has been jamming. We post it on Fridays and then include it in each edition of the Weekly Roundup to make sure you don’t miss any of the great music we’re recommending.
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