Lots of new music this week from Oli Rockenberger, Karen Dio, Jawdropper, High Fade, Softcult, Echo & the Bunnymen, Beck, Slow Pulp, beebadoobee, Gang of Youths, Haken and so much more. Enjoy!
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Right at the top, when the hell did Oli Rockenberger get this good? I mean, he's always been solid and those of us in the songwriter world know about his crazy resume of collaborations, but the new album, "Chambers", is by far his best work. I start the playlist with a track and have a couple more scattered around the list as well. He steps outside of the truncated form pop songs tend to follow today and it's a welcome surprise. Highly recommended.
I have found Beck's output to be uneven at best. His good stuff is really good but his bad stuff isn't worth your time. Thing is, he does this on every album and his latest, "Ride Lonesome", follows this same pattern. Like many of his albums there is a theme that runs through everything but it's not really my taste. And then he throws down a couple of spectacular tracks, both of which I've included (especially this week's closer).
beabadoobee is a fascinating artist in my book. I can remember when she was just releasing tracks she recorded in her bedroom as a teenager and now she has millions of followers. Her new album, "Pylon", is yet another stretch into pop music. It's rare for me to discover an artist so early that develops this much (Lola Young was another). Her new album is fun and it was hard to only pick out a couple of tracks.
Until this week I had never heard of Jawdropped. What an apt name for a band that has put out an album this good. I added 4 songs from "Secrets To Spare", their sophomore release. I was actually stunned that they're this good. They don't have all that big a following yet, but I predict great things for them.
I really wanted to like the new Echo and the Bunnymen album. I really did. They've stripped down their sound and they really sound like they did back in the day. But back in the day they had better songs. "Apples for Isaac" isn't a bad album and there are good songs on there, but if you were expecting Bedbugs and Ballyhoo you'll be disappointed.
On the flip side, the new Jesus Jones is solid. "Twilight" is as solid as any of their releases, just from the viewpoint of men who've grown older. There is plenty of experimentation that they do and more than once I was asking myself "how do you even play that"?
And what can you say about the new Bob Seger album "Face the Promise"? I hope I can still rock like that when I'm 81 years old. He sounds exactly as he did in his heyday. Exactly. There isn't anything terribly inventive or new here, but that's part of what works for the man - he has been consistent going back decades. He has a formula and it works for him, and this is one of the better renditions of his sound.
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AI doesn't learn, it synthesizes from past data. It is a type of learning, but it doesn't take new steps without working with prior data. So if AI rises up and enslaves/kills us, it's because someone programmed it to do that.
I have said this before: There are 5 times as many police officers who have been ARRESTED for stalking people using Flock Cameras as there are trans people in professional sports. And what do they want you to be afraid of again?
Now that the cost of a gallon of gas is greater than the federal minimum wage you have to start wondering when people who earn only that much and drive more than 30 minutes to work start to stay home instead because it's cheaper.
To quote Kash Patel upon being presented with bad news from the K-9 unit, "Fuck me." (Seth Meyers)
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Bruce Springsteen and I have the same birthday. I'm making brownies. He's releasing concerts. Because I love you, here is part 1:
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