Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
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The Alternative Weekly Roundup is a column where our staff plugs a variety of new releases in a concise, streamlined format: albums, singles, videos, live sets. Check back every other Monday to see what we were jamming the week prior.
Jai’Len Josey – “Housewife”
As the second single for Jai’Len Josey’s pending debut album, “Housewife” combines the riotous fun of her Southern Delicacy EP with tasteful refinement. Similar to this record’s lead single “New Girl,” Josey explores the transformative nature of love. Flipping the tradwife archetype on its head, “Housewife” is nothing more than indulgent wish-fulfillment: no mentions of raw milk or homesteading here, just daydreaming about all-expenses paid trips to Bali while maintaining her agency (“still a hot girl to the game, to my man, I’m Lois Lane”). And with Jai’Len’s off-the-charts charisma and some great funk production, “Housewife” is a fantasy that I’m fine with making a reality.
E.L. Suarez-Thomas | @insomniblvck
evony – Hazed
Hazed, the new EP from Chiba’s evony, perfects their twinkling emo by slowing things down a bit; these songs are longer and more layered than anything on Jigowatt, taking their sound to even prettier places.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
skaiwater ft. Ti Steele – “midsommar”
skaiwater’s “final underground rap album” wonderful was hit-or-miss, especially compared to their excellent 2024 record #gigi. Ti Steele collab “midsommar,” however, was a major highlight; their standard flexing is swapped out for social consciousness in the face of anti-immigrant sentiments in the United States. The song’s tension is accentuated by skai’s heavily-processed vocals and Ti Steele’s restless verse mirroring their alienation and anxiety. Halfway through, the track explodes into a wall of synth and breakbeats, overcome by its own neuroses: it’s the most stunning moment on wonderful by a mile.
E.L. Suarez-Thomas | @insomniblvck
Honor Choir – Modes of Transport
Honor Choir throws the pop-punk, emo, and post-hardcore of the early 2000s into a blender and retools it for the 2020s on Modes of Transport. Their 2024 tracks “Animal” and “Beat Up Foreign Car” were great, but every song on Modes of Transport clears them easily.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
MGNA Crrrta – “Heels broke = died”
Born out of a shared love for Kesha and Minecraft, NYC duo MGNA Crrrta is simultaneously indebted to the early 2010s maximalist pop-girl pantheon and abrasive soundscapes bred from insular online communities. Thudding EDM bass and distorted voices are coupled with memetic, flirtatious lines like “You’re fresh meat, motherfucker, I just dance / Hips on me, I’m your bitch, I like, like that / Heels on, freak, motherfucker, I just like that.” In interviews, the duo cited seedier remixes from Kesha’s I Am the Dance Commander + I Command You to Dance as a major influence, and “Heels broke = died” encapsulates that same violently horny, late-night headrush.
E.L. Suarez-Thomas | @insomniblvck