“Absent Thereafter” - Between the Buried and Me

Colors (2007) remains one of the great achievements in progressive metal, and nothing about Between the Buried and Me’s descent into noodle proggery since then can take away from the imagination they exhibited on that record. Yet though some of the band’s latest record, The Blue Nowhere (and all of its 71 minutes), slips into instrumental wankery for instrumental wankery’s sake, the stunning “Absent Thereafter” testifies that this group still has plenty of innovations up its sleeve. Beginning in deathcore, segueing into Queen-style rock balladry, then into chicken-pickin’ 12 bar country, and then culminating in late night talk show band music, saxophone and all, “Absent Thereafter” on paper sounds like the equivalent of tossing Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, Celsius, and Mountain Dew into a blender and seeing what happens. But the power of Between the Buried and Me at their best is that, no matter how inchoate the ingredient list, they can make magic with it. - Brice Ezell

An ambitious track by Rosalía with guest spots from Bjork and Yves Tumor, “Berghain” is a genre-spanning love letter to classical music sung in German, Spanish, and English - in just under 3 minutes. Rosalía flexes years of classical training, her floaty soprano effortlessly accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra. It’s thrilling to see these boundaries pushed by an artist within the mainstream and the boundless potential within. - Bree Nicolello

It’s confirmed: Jane can make peak with her eyes closed!

The second single off of her generational statement-release Revengeseekerz is (somehow) a slight step back from the overwhelming overstimulation of the majority of the tracklist. As the title would suggest, it’s an opportunity for Jane Remover to turn inward, to reflect on old friends, old dreams, and the daunting passage of time in the midst of the hedonistic maximalism and debaucherous drug abuse. Through the visage of bravado and swagger, there’s a pinch of exhaustion, doubt, and regret, underlying the notion that yeah - this all really is a bit too much, isn’t it? But, BUT I LIKE IT LIKE THAT! I PROMISE!

The tension between Jane’s inner turmoil and the euphoria of the production is palpable. The first drop finds miraculous pockets through downtrodden and distorted synth patterns that close in on themselves with every loop as the groove runs full steam ahead into the stratosphere. And the second drop - holy fuck. I’m truly convinced Jane is a real-life Stand User manifesting her soul through Digital Audio Witchcraft. She’s clearly a student of the BT School of Stutter, yet her tastefully extreme application of it in every nook and cranny demonstrates that she has already become the teacher. She casts spells with every isolated stem, sequencing micro-processed soundbites together through some demonic form of melodic thaumaturgy. She throws countless ingredients into an alchemic mix, producing nothing but gold. 

This track is an aural mainline for the terminally online. It’s endgame for the kind of listener who wants to find the shiniest, newest sound on the block but also have it scratch an itch fathomlessly deep within their being. “This song is fucking match point.”

“Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party” - Hayley Williams 

On a street where nostalgia is a multimillion dollar industry backed by private equity, Hayley Williams wryly nods to our desire to remember - and forget. On Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party, she dreamily works her way through Broadway Street, stepping into the sanitized version of Nashville’s storied district and making her way into its many bars, including one owned by a “racist country singer” (it’s Morgan Wallen). Williams, referencing TLC, wryly remarks there’s “no use shooting for the moon, no use chasing waterfalls”. 

Sometimes you cherish a place so much, it’s difficult to tell where it stops and you end. What does it mean to love these places that don’t always love us back? To mourn its changes and many faults? Williams doesn’t know - and perhaps none of us do - but in our grief, we can find the way forward.

Pop’s freakiest diva has had a hell of a year! With so many in the industry turning to dance music for inspiration, her veteran status in the field of avant-pop electronica has enabled her to come out with multiple projects brimming with nonstop, ahead-of-the-curve heaters. And among her most heavenly and intoxicating singles this year has to be the titular “Eusexua.”

A term of twigs’ own invention, the word describes “a feeling of extreme euphoria in which one transcends the human form.” As a love letter to the alt rave scene, twigs wanted to capture the feeling of losing oneself in music, in movement, in the inescapable gravity of the beat, for hours on end. And by god, she nailed it.

The subdued but enthralling trance revivalism of “Eusexua” is such a fresh and fertile foundation for twigs to float over with her transfixing vocals, poetically musing about the spiritually transcendent as choirs of synthesizers flood the air with an indescribable seductiveness. Given her track record for cultivating extremely odd and off-kilter sound palettes with themes reflecting the darker side of lust and power, it is so deeply satisfying and empowering to hear her spirit shine in stunning radiance as she reclaims her sexual being and (literally) makes the experience all her own.

There’s something about Addison Rae that’s refreshingly earnest. Maybe it’s the perfect references to 90’s-era Britney or the blatant desire to be famous. Either way, in a world where everyone is trying to look cool, Addison Rae seamlessly plays the role of excitable, starry-eyed ingénue. In her hit “Fame is a Gun,” Addison Rae whispers her desire for “the glamorous life”, sung like a breathy confession on a late night phone call. Anchored by sparkly synths and a sunny beat, it’s a life she now has.

“Fame is a Gun” - Addison Rae

“It Could’ve Been Very Very Beautiful” - Alex Zethson / Johan Jutterström

John Lurie is a troll. If you make a fishing tv show as an excuse to talk wayward philosophy with Tom Waits, you’ve got shitposter DNA. Same went for Lurie’s excursions in music which, though often brilliant, were usually pastiches of scenes and sounds he wanted to poke fun at. But what if you stripped all the irony from the work and let it live and breathe on its own? 

Alex Zethson and Johan Jutterström’s brilliantly stark, live recorded It Could/ If I is a meditation on artistic perfection never being obtainable and the piercing frustration that follows. Lurie’s piss-take as The Lounge Lizards delivered “It Could’ve Been Very Very Beautiful” which Zethson and Jutterström warp from a winking, noirish jazz tune into a stunning dirge. It is the sound of utter defeat, crushing failure and–exactly because of that, it is more beautiful than it has any right to be. (Listen to our interview)

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