The Alt Weekly Roundup (4/25)
Posted: by The Editor
The Popdosemagazine 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.
Smol Data—”Emotional Labor Day”
It was a sleepy Saturday when I pushed play on Smol data’s new single, “Emotional Labor Day”. That was short-lived. The fizzy-fuzzy rocker about the frustrations of arguing with men punched me right in the face, and I can’t wait for their upcoming album to wake me up even more.
Jami Fowler | @audiocurio
Ellis—”Hospital”
Ellis writes the sort of songs that you get lost in, that just wash over you, that envelop you. Anyway, “Hospital,” her latest single, is no different. It’s an unobtrusive dream-pop song that manages to be at once both one of her most bare-bones and one of her most thrilling.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Pronoun—“I Wanna Die But I Can’t (Cuz I Gotta Keep Living)”
“I Wanna Die But I Can’t (Cuz I Gotta Keep Living)” is immediately one of Pronoun’s absolute biggest songs, a straight-ahead ripper in the vein of Jimmy Eat World’s more aggressive material. It’s a bombastic return two years after I’ll Show You Stronger and it suggests that OMG I Made It, Pronoun’s upcoming EP, will be their strongest yet.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
In My Lungs, Kierst—“Slowdance”
Sam Slocum and Kiersten Chow come together in this gentle 90-second song packed with calculated harmonies, subtle guitar picking, and a violin finale. The track sits silent like the stillness of being underwater. For five seconds, you can see everything without the noise of the world above.
Jane Lai | @soldtogod3000
Cartalk—”Anyone”
Pass Like Pollen was one of 2020’s sleepers, a quietly simmering, subtly-folk-influenced indie rock record, and Cartalk is back only months later with “Anyone.” An aching ballad that rises to a crunchy, Springsteen-sized climax, it’s one of the project’s best songs, and hopefully a sign of things to come.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Wild Pink—6 Cover Songs
The latest entry in Wild Pink’s series of very appropriately-titled EPs is 6 Cover Songs, and it’s just what the label suggests: a collection of six previously released covers. What’s more interesting, though, is the way that Wild Pink makes each of these songs their own; their interpretation of Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Getting Back Together” doubles down on the autotuned, futuristic synth-pop they toyed with on A Billion Little Lights, while their incredible take on the Jeopardy theme is a mournful alt-country interlude. “Lonesome Highway” combines the two approaches, turning the song into a jittery acoustic love letter from 3021.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
The Popdosemagazine’s ‘New Music Friday’ playlist
Each week our editor Lindsy Carrasquillo compiles a playlist of songs our staff has been jamming. We’ll post it on Fridays on Twitter and then include it in each edition of the ‘Weekly Roundup’ to make sure you don’t miss all of the great music we’re recommending.
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