Happy August! Hope everyone's enjoying their summer and staying cool. It's certainly been a chiller week in the music world than usual, and there aren't too many releases out this week, but I've rounded up five releases that I highlight below, and Bill tackles a few more in Bill's Indie Basement, including Healing Potpourri, Marci of TOPS, and more.
Plus, here are some honorable mentions: Neil Young + Promise of the Real, Calvin Harris, Fireboy DML, Mall Grab, Pussy Riot, The Flatliners, Ether Coven, Amon Amarth, ShittyBoyz, Jay Worthy & Harry Fraud, Nezi Momodu, Froggy, Cheekface, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Elio, Kal Marks, Lee Bains + the Glory Fires, Jennifer Vanilla, Dust Star, Mercy Union, Girls' Generation, Planet Drum (Mickey Hart), T Bone Burnett, the My Favorite EP, the Bobby Shmurda EP, the Lifeguard EP, the John Anderson tribute LP (ft. John Prine, Sturgill Simpson, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Tyler Childers, Eric Church, Brent Cobb, Sierra Ferrell, Sierra Hull & more), and the Eminem greatest hits album of songs from 2005 to present.
Read on for my picks. What's your favorite release of the week?
Doechii
Doechii - She / Her / Black Bitch EP TDE/Capitol
Rising rapper Doechii recently signed to TDE and released a string of singles for the label, and now she's put out the she / her / black bitch EP while she gears up for a full-length. "Many times I’ve been referred to as a “bitch” as a way to gaslight me out of certain spaces, something I think many people can relate to in one way or another," Doechii says. "Lots of people will call you various names for doing something differently. So I decided to take ownership of the ‘black bitch’ and title my EP she/ her/ black bitch and reclaim that motherf***ing power. So if you’ve ever been put down for being yourself, just remember you're powerful and unapologetic- these songs are for you." The EP includes her recent singles "Persuasive" (the version with her TDE labelmate SZA) and "Bitch I'm Nice" (but not "Crazy"), as well as "Swamp Bitches" (ft. Rico Nasty), "Bitches Be" (ft. Jst Ray), and "This Bitch Matters." Pulling largely from brash, in-your-face rap, with a little airy R&B in the mix too, she / her / black bitch serves as a short-but-sweet major label debut for one of the brightest new voices in rap music.
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The Interrupters
The Interrupters - In The Wild Epitaph
Four years after scoring an unlikely ska-punk hit with "She's Kerosene," The Interrupters are back with a new album, and it's their most personal and genre-defying yet. They made it at their home studio with guitarist Kevin Bivona producing, after doing all three of their previous records with producer Tim Armstrong of Rancid (who did still contribute to this one and sings on a track), and it finds Aimee Interrupter opening up about a lifelong battle with mental health issues and a history of abuse, after undergoing intense therapy during the making of the album. To make sure Aimee's stories were delivered in the most impactful way possible, The Interrupters expanded their sound stylistically too, letting the spirit of the song inform the direction it would take, rather than shoehorning anything into a specific subgenre. The album ends up embracing everything from rootsy, traditional Jamaican ska to reggae to 2 Tone to '90s-style ska-punk, as well as glammy rock & roll balladry, power-poppy '70s-style punk, and more. To help them see their vision through were some amazing guests, including Tim Armstrong as well as 2 Tone legend Rhoda Dakar (The Bodysnatchers, The Special AKA), Hepcat, and The Skints. For much more on this album, read our new feature on it and listen to our new podcast episode with the band.
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Mat Kerekes Nova
Mat Kerekes - Nova Wax Bodega
Citizen have been very busy lately. They released their great, dance-punk-infused album Life In Your Glass World last year, along with an EP series of alternate versions of songs from the album, and they've been touring like crazy, including recent treks with Turnstile and Drug Church, and a run with Joyce Manor that began this week. They also unleashed the killer non-album single "Bash Out" earlier this year. Somehow, throughout all of that, frontman Mat Kerekes also found the time to record a new solo album. He made it with Daniel Fang of recent touramtes Turnstile on drums, and Daniel's propulsive style really helps bring these songs to the next level. It's rawer, more jangly, and more stripped-back than Citizen, but Mat still has that forceful percussive vocal delivery that he brought to Life In Your Glass World. And Daniel's presence is similar to the one he brings to Angel Du$t, fueling the songs with hardcore-informed energy even when the songwriting is otherwise light and breezy. The result is an album that's really unlike any other that Mat's ever made, and some of his sharpest, most fat-trimmed songs yet.
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Kokoroko
Kokoroko - Could We Be More Brownswood Recordings
With singles and a self-titled EP dating back to 2019, London 8-piece collective Kokoroko now finally release their debut album, Could We Be More, via Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings. The 15-song album cruises between blissful jazz, hard-edged funk, psychedelic soul, and the rhythms of the West-African and Caribbean music that the members grew up listening to. "I think home has hugely informed the way we write and play our music," trumpeter/vocalist Sheila Maurice-Grey says, and percussionist Onome Edgeworth piggybacks on that, adding, "For me, Nigerian music and soul was played in the house a lot so I felt I had ownership over it so when I heard it elsewhere, there was a certain pride and energy filled with it." Their arrangements range from warm and welcoming to hypnotic and daze-inducing, and they've got both the technical prowess and the gripping songcraft needed to make this album land with impact.
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Art Moore
Art Moore - Art Moore ANTI-
Art Moore is the trio of Taylor Vick of Boy Scouts and Ezra Furman collaborators Sum Durkes and Trevor Brooks, and they're about to tour with Ezra this September. But first, they've just released their self-titled debut album via ANTI-. The album already sounds like a group who have been together for a long time, but in reality the project came about more recently, in an effort to write material for movies and art projects. "Four songs in, I think, after the first recording session, we realized it was going well, and it was pretty efficient," Brooks says. "Making music with both Sam and Taylor has always been so easy." That ease comes across in the trio's breezy dream pop, which makes for an addictive listen. Nowhere is that more evident than on the instant earworm "Snowy," which soothes with gentle, hazy indie rock while an undercurrent of melancholy tugs at the lyrics. [Amanda Hatfield]
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Read Bill's Indie Basement for more new album reviews.
Looking for more recent releases? Browse the Notable Releases archive or scroll down for previous weeks.
For even more metal, browse the 'Upcoming Releases' each week on Invisible Oranges.
