Bassvictim – ?

Bassvictim, a duo riding the indie sleaze revival with electroclash/bloghouse albums such as with their Basspunk series, takes a sonic and mood shift in 2026 ? EP. Maria Manow and producer Ike Clatman leave behind many of the dance-oriented and intentionally trashy influences in favor of deeply intimate folktronica and twee pop, similar to that of the Femcells’ debut album released this past January, also produced by Clatman. The album’s themes are deeply nostalgic of childhood and contrast innocence and wisdom; this can be heard as many of the folkish influences pull more from Manow’s Polish and Eastern European heritage than the traditional American folk revival harmonies. The 7-minute track Babcia Jadziais easily stands as the album’s highlight and contains stripped-back xylophones and toy sounds with childish vocals reading a tearjerker poem. Easily one of my favorite and well-executed surprises this year. It’s worth the listen.

–Amman Hassan

Stars Hollow – Catch Me (single)

Iowa’s own Stars Hollow has released 2 brand-new songs In preparation for the release of their record Kind of Hoping on April 24. Named after the fictional Connecticut town featured in Gilmore Girls (as well as in Supernatural according to my sister), the sound of Stars Hollow fits shoulder-to-shoulder with other emo projects out of the Midwest from the mid-2010s and early 2020s, though Hot Mulligan and Arm’s Length certainly come most strongly to mind. The singles feature competent math-rocking, scream-singing, and some solid guitar riffage. Stars Hollow starts an album release tour this summer, playing alongside their contemporaries Palette Knife and Kerosene Heights in Des Moines, IA on the 22nd of May. There’s still plenty of time to memorize the lyrics, if you can decipher them through the vocal fry. If the quality of their upcoming album follows the singles, we are in for another solid, supremely rare, emo record out of the Hawkeye State this April.

FFO: Hot Mulligan, Kerosene Heights, Arm’s Length, Palette Knife, Origami Angel.

–Daniel Lawless

heavensouls – westside trapped

While studying for midterms this March, the music I was listening to played a huge role in whether I could stay focused or not. Throughout this time, heavensouls was on the heaviest rotation. Largely known for The Sidepieces (his collaborative effort with experimental rapper Stickerbush) the duo has been making fun, glitchy, maximalist music bordering on the line of hip hop and electronic for the past few years. While all their releases have been great this is likely my favorite thing he’s made. Taking the more energetic sound collage inspired production of his previous works into these more varied lush textures, dipping into more classical genres like soul, jazz and funk. Creating these beautiful luxurious soundscapes that feel like you’re being transported into another world.

My favorite track off the album is easily shed a tear for me, the nine-minute long penultimate track. Starting with the beautiful repeated vocal line of “i can’t breathe,” backed by quiet piano notes before going into this danceable drum line and electric guitar solo (with a fucking choir in the background). This is briefly interrupted by a spoken word section before crescendoing back into this gorgeous multi minute instrumental breakdown. It’s truly a masterpiece of music production and will keep me beyond seated for anything heavensouls makes in the future.

–Tarik Krob

Fcukers – Ö

This is one of the greatest [my favoriteist!] music videos maybe of all time ever.

Contributing to the electronic/sleaze/dance beat wave, NYC duo Fcukers released their lorazepam-ed indie-sleazer debut album Ö last week. It’s a flirty voice and half-lidded eyes hidden behind sunglasses, a big-lights-on house party where scents of designer perfume mix into the cheap wine. The production from Kenny Beats ties UK garage and sleaze into a lazy-cool record that actually works, a genuine miracle these days. Jackson Walker Lewis of the duo describes their approach to reviving the indie sleaze nostalgia by asking, “what would Basement Jaxx do if they were young now?” Don’t get me wrong, this album is trendy, neither timeless nor monumental as the fresh gets cut through by an underlying tiredness. But in this charming moment we all share, it’s sickly sweet & sexy. It captures the haze of a club at 4am, everyone left on the misty dance floor swaying through their own drowsy sense of fatalism.

Ö is one of those albums that makes my depraved kitchen feel like a club for 30 minutes, which is truly all that a good dance beat album needs to be. An aching pit rests in my stomach, this leaden premonition that some track off this album is gonna blow up online and bring great fortunes and success to those Fcuckers (at least success beyond a Jimmy Fallon performance). Listen to it now so you can be cool before it’s not cool anymore. fucking what else is there to do i guess. besides dancing in your kitchen. and reading student radio articles.

–Pauly

Slayyyter – WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA

Miss Slayyyter dropped WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA this month, an explosive and explicit electro-pop record that took the internet by storm. every song sounds interesting, from heavily produced ones like “CRANK” and “YES GODDD,” to tamer ones like “GAS STATION” and “UNKNOWN LOVERZ.” There are also tracks like “DANCE…” which perfectly mix the adrenaline of grittier and more saturated songs with the less explosive ones.

The production of this album is packed with techno-electronic synths and EDM pop reminiscent of early 2010s Lady Gaga and Kesha. The drums and snare construct the songs masterfully. The album is also littered with nasty synths, which are definitely the highlight characteristic of the project for me. Many of the songs carry a sharp baseline that gives me an 80s slasher soundtrack vibe. Her vocals range from a controlled and sultry tone, to a bigger display of her range and impressive belts mixed into many of the choruses. She’s just electrifying through and through. The high you get from this album makes you wanna move a million miles a minute. This album makes you wanna crank up the volume and dance, which really is the unofficial motto of WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA.

–Clara Carrion

Maria BC – Marathon

Maria BC‘s Marathon feels like a logical step in the specific school of psychedelic folk that Sacred Bones Records has been pushing for years now. This record falls well within the tradition of established acts like Marissa Nadler, whilst retaining a sound very much its own. Maria’s performance is immediately intoxicating and demands the listener’s full attention as the slow progression of each track evokes the revolution of the earth, each track seamlessly transitioning into the next. A handful of cinematic instrumental interludes create a sleek journey from one track to the next, as Maria’s voice parses the desolate soundscapes as pleas from the void. The first song and title track constitute an undeniable hook to the record, placing Maria’s methodical craft on full display, and setting the tone fantastically for the record ahead. If you are at all a fan of folk, this is a record for you.

–Evan Raefield

The post KRUI Staff Picks: Best Releases of March 2026 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Friday at Hancher Auditorium

Donika Kelly, 6:30pm

A fitting opener for a festival about exploration and discovery, poet and University of Iowa English professor Donika Kelly will kick off the Stop/Time festival with a short, fifteen-minute reading at Hancher. Kelly’s poetry is reflective and expansive, covering themes from consuming love to blinding pain and everything in between. Her first book of poetry, Bestiary, won the 2015 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, and her most current book, The Natural Order of Things, was released in October 2025 to positive reviews. Many of her individual poems have been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The Paris Review.

–Bailey Vergara

Ambrose Akinmusire, 6:45pm

Hey, you. Do you like jazz? Let’s hope so, because renowned trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire is coming to Hancher Up Close to bless your ears with musings that combine avant-garde jazz, post-bop, hip-hop, and more. With music, Akinmusire hopes to break down the educational barriers surrounding classical jazz and uplift community stories; he borrows from tradition, but is not constrained by it. His newest record, “honey from a winter stone,” is an exploratory journey through a variety of moods, from slow and meandering to restless and lively. And in case you aren’t already sold on his talent, his 2023 album “Owl Song” was nominated for a 2025 Grammy award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album.

–Bailey Vergara

Mei Semones, 8:45pm

24-year-old guitarist and singer Mei Semones will bring her technical talent and playful songwriting personality to Club Hancher in Strauss Hall of Hancher on Friday. Her songs blend indie rock, bossa nova, jazz, and dreamy pop, with lyrics in both English and Japanese. Despite their intricate layering, you’ll still find them easy to hum along to, and you may not be able to stop. Semones’ newest full album, “Animaru,” is dedicated to her trust in her own instincts, built through years of practice and demonstrated by ornate guitar riffs and refined, breathy vocals. Her upcoming EP “Kurage” — which features Liana Flores, John Roseboro, and her own dad — releases April 10th.

–Bailey Vergara

Saturday across Iowa City

Evicshen, 4:30pm at Gabe’s

Tapping into the weirder side of the Iowa City music community, Hancher brought in San Francisco based experimental noise artist Victoria Shen. Performing under the name Evicshen for the past eight years, her music uses powerful walls of sound and intense textures that assault your sonic palette. This often is used with extremely creative ways of bending or playing her records, such as comb filtering and folding records with her nails. 
Within her live shows, she combines this extremely well with creative art installations, and the use of weaponry and other eccentric performance antics to create a vibrant visual experience, and assault on the senses. Watching some of the recorded concerts was a beyond fascinating experience, and something I hope a lot of you guys can enjoy. 
Artists like her aren’t interested in growing a large audience, or mass producing their music. They’re interested in performing for a niche crowd who understand their artistic version, and are open to hearing music on the more experimental and macabre side of the isle. If this intrigues you, she’s playing at Gabe’s at 4:30PM, come with ear plugs.

–Tarik Krob

Sharp Pins, 6:00pm at Gabe’s

Sharp Pins, an exciting new voice in the music underground, is a one man band combining elements of classic rock with more modern indie and alternative stylizations. The side project of Kai Slater, lead singer of fellow Chicago band Lifeguard, has been picking up steam in the last few years with some incredibly unique and high quality albums.
His most recent album Balloon Balloon Balloon is a jangly hallucinatory odyssey connected by three different tracks simply labeled Balloon 1-3. Wearing his influences off his back with zero shame, the album takes the trippy, other worldly sounds of psychedelic bands of the 60s like The Beatles and The Zombies with a more stripped back DIY sound, similar to post punk bands like Joy Division and The Velvet Underground. Their previous release Radio DDR has a similar vibe, but with a more varied song lineup and more pop-centered approach to songwriting. If Balloon Balloon Balloon felt like listening to your grandparents old low fidelity radio, then Radio DDR feels like sifting through random singles in their vinyl collection. 
If any of this at all sounds interesting to you, check them out at 6PM at Gabe’s. Start listening before it’s cool to say you’re a fan.

–Tarik Krob

Danez Smith, 6:45pm at the Englert Theatre

On April 4th, queer, non-binary poet and performer Danez Smith will return to Iowa City to perform at The Englert Theatre for the Stop/Time festival. Smith previously led a workshop and hosted the Writers of Color Reading series in 2017, which was also produced by The Englert. Smith was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and later earned degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Michigan. They’re best known for their poetry collections Boy (2014), Don’t Call Us Dead (2017), and Bluff (2024). Their work has won multiple awards, such as the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry, and the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, just to name a few. Smith has also performed with rapper Macklemore, back in 2016 on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, along with Chicago-based poet Jamila Woods. 
For those interested in attending a poetry reading or specifically in Smith’s poetry, they will also being hosting a reading at Prairie Lights at 3:15 pm that same day. This reading is presented by Stop/Time Festival, but entry at Prairie Lights is free for all.

–Ria Das

The Branford Marsalis Quartet, 7:00pm at the Englert Theatre

The Branford Marsalis Quartet is a jazz band, closer described as a chamber group, headed by American saxophonist Branford Marsalis. Marsalis is a composer and the leader of the band. He has played with Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Sting, the Grateful Dead, and Dizzy Gillespie. He has been playing the saxophone in bands and solo since the 1980s. The quartet officially formed in 1986 with members Kenny Kirkland on the piano, Jeff “Tain” Watts on drums, and Robert Hurst on bass. Pianist Kenny Kirkland died in the 90’s and was replaced by Joey Calderazzo and Robert Hurst was replaced by Eric Revis on bass. Later Tain left the band and was replaced by Justin Faulkner. On Saturday night they will be featuring their newly released album Belonging, which came out last March. Expect an experimental yet classic jazz sound from this quartet. As Marsalis notes, “it doesn’t really matter where our journey goes, as long as we keep the dance going.”

–Moira Grant

Golomb, 8:00pm at Gabe’s

Golomb is a alternative rock band from Columbus, Ohio and are made up of three members, two of which are married (members Mickey and Xenia Shuman). The third member is Xenia’s brother, Hawken Holm who plays drums while Xenia and Mickey sing and play bass and guitar. They have a dream-like/indie sound, leaning into noise and experimental rock. They write their own songs and were formed in 2018. Expect a lively show with folksy-sounding guitar riffs and country elements such as a pedal-steel guitar, especially in the song “Sweet Release (Ain’t No Devil)” but also a loud, lively, and heavy sound from the song “The Beat Goes On.” This band is experimental as well. The lead singer Mickey sounds just like Stephen Malkmus, the lead singer of Pavement. Xenia often does the background vocals and harmonizes excellently with Mickey. Perhaps being unified in marriage also transfers to being unified in sound and music? Find out this Saturday.

–Moira Grant

Tortoise, 9:15pm at The Englert Theatre

The post-rock Chicago legends Tortoise join us in Iowa City to close out The Englert Theatre’s share of events this weekend. This is one of those bands that people on the internet debate about at such a mighty length that this discourse can only be achieved through the means of doctorate dissertations or through Reddit. But at their core, they’re a rock band built from atmosphere. Influenced by electronica, krautrock, and jazz, their music is this kind of eclectic and wondrous mish-mash. It feels a stretch to call it “rock,” the sound is so minimal yet so captivating in how it pulls a listener directly into this world they’re creating. They’re current tour follows the release of Torch, their newest album from last year released after nearly a decade record hiatus, yet still ringing out the same quality as their 1998 landmark TNT album. I’d truly recommend seeing this band, they’ve played such a major part of the post-rock foundation and seeing them at this festival really encapsulates the exact artistry that Stop/Time Festival is creating space for.

–Pauly

Frankie and the Witch Fingers, 10:30pm at Gabe’s

Punk-rock band Frankie and The Witch Fingers performs at Gabe’s for Stop/Time Festival and as part of their tour for their newest album, Trash Classic. The band was originally formed in Indiana by founding member Dylan Sizemore, the band’s vocalist and rhythm guitarist, and later relocated to Los Angeles. Currently, the band consists of Josh Menashe (vocalist, lead guitarist, and synthesizer), Nikki Pickle (bassist), Nick Aguilar (drummer), and Jon Modaff (synths). Frankie and the Witch Fingers evolved from Sizemore’s original solo act into a band, signing to record labels such as Permanent Records, and released their self-titled first album in 2015 with their psych-pop/acid-rock second album Heavy Roller out a year later. The band has since released more albums, with their most recent Trash Classic in 2025, described as plunging, “into a sewer-slick fusion of proto-punk venom, fractured new wave, and industrial grime. Brimming with wiry synths, angular melodies, and grooves that squirm and bite.” If any of that sounds interesting to you, consider attending their show for the chance to rock out with them live!

–Ria Das

There’s plenty more to see at Iowa City’s first Stop/Time Festival this weekend, with a huge spread of incredible local and touring artists, authors, and poets presented by Hancher Auditorium. For more information on further events and to purchase tickets, check the Stop/Time website here.

The post Stop/Time Festival 2026 Preview, a new festival celebrating music and the arts across Iowa City appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Chat Pile – Sifting (single)

Fresh off the heels of their latest collab album with postrock artist Hayden Pedigo, Oklahoma hardcore/noise band Chat Pile return to their typical fast paced and abrasive style with two new singles. Starting off with the absolute head thrasher Masks, you can really feel the influence of their new record label Sub Pop, which they themselves cited as influencing the song. “It’s a true dream to put out a single on Sub Pop, and our new song Masks hopefully honors the spirit of the mythical, sometimes mystical, city of Seattle,” said Chat Pile in a recent press statement. This influence is apparent with the aggression and style of other iconic Sub Pop bands such as Mudhoney and The Melvins. Still though, they maintain the band’s complex rhythms and Raygun’s own unique vocal style to give this era its own spin.

Continuing along with the Seattle tributes, the band paired the Masks release with a deep cut cover of Nirvana‘s Sifting. If you thought that song couldn’t get dirtier and sludgier, you’re in for a treat. The perfectly sloppy guitar solos pairs with these muddy backing riffs and vocals that are just low quality enough make for such a grimy and fun listening experience. The six minute run time feels like a breeze, considering the level of quality we’re working with, and it makes me more than excited to listen to whatever they have planned for the future.

–Tarik Krob

My New Band Believe – Numerology (single)

altFresh from the elegantly titled My New Band Believe is their second ever single, Numerology. Helmed by Cameron Picton of black midi fame, My New Band Believe offers on Numerology a blend of very poppy indie rock with elements of samba and disco that feels triumphantly hectic. The lyrics evoke a night on the town with your buddies as you get increasingly…inebriated, and the finale of the song is admittedly comical, but still feels like a ripe conclusion for the preceding spectacle. The song clocks in at 4:18, yet its manic energy makes it feel half that length. As a consequence, I usually listen to this song at least twice in a row. After the conclusion of black midi, frontman Geordie Greep has received the brunt of the attention from the public, especially following the release of his album The New Sound, in 2024. However, I imagine Picton will have his own stint in the windmill-scene spotlight as Numerology feels undoubtedly like Picton’s Holy, Holy moment.My New Band Believe releases their debut album on April 10th, be there or be square!

–Jack Manley

Lana Del Rey – White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter (single)

To say this new Lana Del Rey track was surprising would be an understatement. Not only is it shocking that she actually released it, instead of just relentlessly teasing it on social media like she’s been doing with her upcoming Stove album for half a year now, but the song itself is a very different direction for the singer. It’s dark and sinister. It builds tension in the verses and dissolves it with an almost “Disney princess” cadence of soft whispers in the chorus. The atmosphere is at times heavy, and at times light, but an underlying eeriness keeps the listener on their toes. The song is composed of haunting synths and magical entrancing string instruments like violins, violas and cellos. Sweet guitars, piano, percussives, brass, and even a harp bleed into the delicate mix. These instruments build the orchestral nature of the track, giving it an almost ethereal and uncanny quality.
Instead of leaning country like Lana promised with the upcoming Stove album, she seems to be more interested in exploring ominous soundscapes with this track, opting for a southern gothic route with her own spin. However, the singer’s tendencies to romanticize the mundane are still very much present, with her basking in the traditional, stay-at-home-wife lifestyle that she has come to greatly appreciate. White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter paints this picture of Lana cooking for her husband while she awaits his return from hunting wild animals in the spooky woods near their home. Mentions of words like “voodoo” and “magical” evoke a mystical feeling into her daily affairs, and the expression “whoopsy-daisy” and the “yoo-hoo” ad-libs make the song feel all the more whimsical.
Lana Del Rey’s new single offers a glimpse into a darker side of her music which was prevalent in the earlier days of her discography. Her Born to Die album and her Lizzy Grant persona both offer a preview of this gloomy sound, as highlighted by many fans in online spaces. But despite similarities to her earlier works, White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter demonstrates an entirely new soundscape and tonal shift for Lana, which is exciting to experience as we await the release of the upcoming album.

–Clara Carrion

Ratboys – Singin’ to an Empty Chair

Chicago has always consistently been putting out incredible music: Wilco, John Prine, Mavis Staples. Today, there is something brewing in the second city, that has come to boil over. Leading this charge is indie-rockers, Ratboys. The Notre Dame Alumni, and Chicago natives, celebrated their sweet sixteen as a band by releasing their sixth studio album, Singin’ to an Empty Chair.

This is not only a continuation of their breakout success from 2023’s, The Window, but an expansive journey into their own sound and personality. This album feels as though every note has a meaning behind it and every strum is a continuation of a bed time story you don’t want to end. Ratboy’s has a comforting sound, one that puts the listener in their world with lyrics reading, “the bugs are writing books with their eyes.” This sense of joy and poetry bleeds from songs, while reflections of todays wild world in The World, So Madly brings it back down to earth. The slide guitar sings by itself, and the bouncy yet fuzzy guitars within the band blend together like peanut butter and jelly.

Ratboys throw in hits throughout their album like its nothing, and put forth my favorite album of 2026 so far. They will be touring the record this spring with support from Florry, villagerrr, and fellow Chicagoans Free Range.
FFO: MJ Lenderman, Waxahatchee, Wednesday, The Beths

–Logan Melia

xaviersobased – Xavier

Periodically, it seems that the Music Discourse Eye of Sauron happens to latch its all-consuming gaze onto a particular artist who has established a particular brand of sound until it has become so virulently synonymous with their name that it cannot help but seep through these fiber-optic spaces into the minds of those cultural sleuths so invested in the all-important web of contemporality. Xavier happens to be one such example, the culmination of multiple years of underground consistency and empire building surrounding Xav’s uniquely futuristic, atmospheric, and outright unpredictable approach to production. He proves himself to be at once an absurdist paragon, a staple of the modern cloud rap scene (as well as the extended Surf Gang universe), even forming his very own imprint 1c in the lead-up to this album. Thus, through following an approach that is entirely unpredictable yet expected, Xav has captured the spotlight into a…decidedly mixed reaction.

The seasoned listener will notice differences. There is a greater sleekness in each beat’s construction. There are feature placements that would have once seemed impossible with Zaytoven and Rio da Yung OG, as well as this being Xav’s first big-boy big label treatment, giving cause for a greater critical stir even with this being his first studio album in four years. It seems Xav took this opportunity to give people more of what they had flocked to him for in the first place: a cinematic, woozy, and disorienting experimental rap album. iPhone 16 features a discordant symphony’s instrumentation that wouldn’t have been out of place on a Steve Reich composition. Production standouts include Tony Hawk, as well as 100,000, both ranking among Xav’s most explosive compositions yet. However, the real star of the show is the digital streaming exclusive, Party At My Place, featuring Dylan Brady of 100 Gecs and Skrillex, creating a characteristically mind-bending and bombastic blend of the three’s respective styles. All in all, those who were already fans of Xavier’s output found more to enjoy, whereas those who weren’t (for the most part) gave a collective shrug and continued about their days. Give it five years, though…

–Evan Raefield

Converge – Love is Not Enough

Metalcore legends Converge return with another intense record after five years. This band does not miss, they wind up each shot and take the fattest fucking swing at it and send it flying at wee Anthony Fantano’s slippery baldass head. It’s a great record, neither their best nor worst, but Converge excels at consistency. 30 years of this metalcore business and they’re still accelerating ahead, splitting noise and peeling catharsis off the razor’s edge. Vocalist Jacob Bannon describes the album and its creation as “unrelenting and super raw the entire time, and that’s by design, because that’s how we feel. That’s what’s resonating in our collective spirit right now.” It’s a surprisingly political album, with lyrics from Bannon lying much more grounded in reality than his previous work, themes ranging from human powerlessness to the opiate industry. The band describes Love is Not Enough as less approximating an album, instead existing as the culminating “artist’s statement,” of the full band. Don’t let the title fool you, this is a record that advocates for love. Each song is a lonely cry of agony, desperate for more love to lay exposed and shared in the world, combating the darker chaos and panic around us. “Love is essential, but it’s not everything.”

–Pauly

The post KRUI Staff Picks: Best Releases of February 2026 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Some of us KRUIers saw Lip Critic back in October, when they opened for White Reaper at Gabe’s, after a brief discussion, our prestigious council reached the unanimous conclusion that they were by far the best part of the show. Their music is somewhere in between electronic and hardcore, full of samples and electronic crunches, a divorced(?) eccentric vocalist, and best of all, not one, not three, but two drum sets! Our friend Tarik says it perfectly, “The infectious riffs, the manic yet catchy lyrics, the insane vocals combining with intense electronic production and live drumming create such a fun and powerful song that was both amazing live and amazing to listen too at home.” (Tarik©, 2025). Explosive energy drives tracks that slip into bizarre time signature changes leaving the crowd jumping more and more off-beat, reaching higher and higher.

Recess is a newer band out of the Iowa City punk scene but have been playing shows across Iowa City the past few months, and traveling to Omaha soon. With tomorrow night’s lineup spanning across hardcore, punk, metal, and electronic, they’re gonna be a great piece of the set. Their current Instagram story reads “GO TO A SHOW GODDAMNIT,” and I’m a good boy so I’ll be there. I must advise all others to comply with these vicious commands as well.

This will be a good show as Lip Critic’s first show of the year and the first of a mini-Midwest tour. I mean come on, “standing in a Wawa convinced I’m a god, so I’m gonna get any sandwich I want,” who else gets it like Lip Critic does? Even if you hate hardcore, or metal, or having fun with funky noises, I’m sure they’ll be delivering plenty of these poetic lessons, teachings that could deliver the unknowable visions of the second world into your consciousness. Just maybe, even someone like you could be the god in the Wawa…..only one way to find out!

Earplugs advised. Please. Doors at 8pm, more information and tickets can be found here. <3.

The post Show Preview: Lip Critic with Recess and Ascended Master at Gabe’s, February 19th appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Video Game: Dispatch

I have a lot to say about Dispatch but for conciseness’s sake and honest niceties, I’ll be frank. I didn’t think much about this game from the getgo when my manager at work started barking funny little references I didn’t understand, but when I went home, I caved and found something pretty nice. While there are a lot of narrative options I heavily disagree with, that’s the point of the game. Adopting the developers from Telltale Games, AdHoc Studios put together similar “choose your own adventure” elements in this superhero story from titles like The Wolf Among Us and Batman: the Telltale Series. What was put together, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful games to release in the last few years. The art direction is gorgeous and has this great comic book feel that most Telltale titles share, but Dispatch is so bright and colorful and lively like vintage superheroes. There are so many layers to the game and its characters that replaying even with roughly 12 hours worth of content feels new and fresh down to the third or fourth route.

Going online and seeing feedback on this game doesn’t do it justice, because the only way people know how to talk about Dispatch is by saying it isn’t dark enough to be profound like the inverted superhero tropes of Invincible or The Boys. But not everything needs to be dark and scary to have an impact on people. The speculative fiction aspect of Dispatch is meant more to reflect the everyman playing the game rather than be a massive political commentary. The characters act like your average coworkers, and the protagonist, Robert Robertson III (yes, that is seriously what they called him), is just some guy in his early thirties going through a transitional period in his life as he is essentially disabled out of being a superhero. There’s a lot of themes of grief, moving on, and finding peace through either contentment, or malice and revenge. Overall, a beautiful experience, would recommend playing it not only once, but a few times just to surprise yourself by making the “wrong” choices.

-Lee Nienhaus

TV Series: Peacemaker, Season 2

Peacemaker season two released at the tail end of the year, and was a sensation that built off the first season in amazing ways. They developed characters, expanded the DC Universe, and allowed for characters to take on heavy issues while still keeping that comedic element to the show. They pick up after the events of season one, with many members of the 11th Street Kids looking for new work, and trying to discover themselves in their professional and personal lives. The show faces various issues head-on, including themes of belonging, guilt, privilege, forgiveness, and grief. This show is set apart from other superhero media with how it handles its characters. They show honest growth throughout the series, with the start of this season focusing on Harcourt’s growth following the death of her ex, Chris’ dedication to become a ‘real’ hero, and Adebayo’s dedication to be taken seriously in her new job. Overall, the season is done well, with key comedic action and emotions always the centering point of the show. The one critique for the show held by many, is that the ending is seen as anti-climactic and boring. I personally disagree with this. I see the ending as a way to set up the future of the DC universe, and was a great way to wrap up the series.

-Will Clair

DJ Set: HOOCHIE MAMA MIX OF GHETTOTECH JUNGLE BALTIMORE CLUB JERSEY CLUB MIAMI BASS by girlypop princess

Ever had a bad day? I’ve got something to make sure you don’t have any more of those. 

In the year of our lord 2025, following the path set for me by many a screwtape, not to mention a growing fascination with DJ Kicks, Elevator Music, and NTS, DJ Sets occupied a considerable slice of my overall music listening. The internet is truly a wonder in running across such things, the vast expanses of SoundCloud proving my personal favorite- the depths from which this particular gem fell into my possession. An hour of lush, blissful ghettotech to keep your head high and your booty bouncing. I mean, really, what more could one ask? My favorite stretch goes around the 23-minute mark, featuring an absolutely electric jungle remix of Ciara’s Get Up that had me… well, getting up. A wise man once said, “The DJ got us fallin’ in love again,” and I live by that. In 2026, may a DJ help you fall in love again. Thank you, girlypop princess.

-Evan Raefield

Movie: Sinners

Released in April of 2025, Sinners took the film industry by storm, impressing both critics and audiences alike, rated with a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. And its reputation precedes itself. The movie is a vampire tale, blending southern gothic horror, drama and musical elements. It explores themes of racial oppression, ancestry, colonization, culture assimilation and spirituality. The film follows main character, Sammie as he abandons his duties as the preacher’s son and runs off to join his cousins, the Smokestack Twins, who want to open a juke joint of their very own. The twins are war veterans and gangsters who return to Mississippi in the hopes of giving back to their community. 

“Stack”, also known as Elias, is the approachable and outgoing brother, often depicted in red. Elijah, whose nickname is “Smoke”, is the serious and cynical brother, dressed in shades of blue. Together, they purchase a venue, gather materials and recruit musicians, cooks and dancers. During the opening night however, Sammie’s musical talent, which is so powerful it can transcend time and connect ancestors, attracts the attention of bloodsucking vampires who seek to harness that power. Therefore, the main characters must come up with a plan to survive the night or die at the hands of the supernatural evil that needs nothing but an invite to ruin their lives. 

Coogler really nails this film as both a horror and a well-developed drama: the characters are realistic and complex, the premise is simple yet effective, the vampire folklore is handled with expertise, and the cinematography is gorgeous. A standout moment in the film is when Sammie’s performance invokes different generations of musicians/performers, and as they join the fun, the screen extends beyond the standard widescreen and envelops the entire picture. It marks the transition to the second half of the movie and raises the stakes and horror elements without us even noticing it. Additionally, Sinner’s casting was exceptional, with the actors all giving award-worthy performances. Overall, it’s a beautifully crafted vampiric horror movie that is absolutely worth the watch.

-Clara Carrion

Video Game: No, I’m Not a Human

This year, I seem to have become the de facto video game journalist for the KRUI website. If you know me at all, you know I’m woefully unqualified for the position. I have no reputation as a gamer, having only started getting into gaming this year, and I’ve only played a measly few games that I got for free on Steam. In fact, my favorite game of the year, Trioskaz’s No, I’m Not A Human, is one I haven’t even played myself. I’ve only seen it played, over and over, by various streamers.

For those not familiar, No, I’m Not A Human centers around a dreary apocalypse: the sun is moving closer to the Earth, making daytime unbearably hot. Simultaneously, strange beings dressed in human skin (called Visitors) are emerging from the ground, trying to gain entry into people’s homes and murdering anyone they find alone. You just so happen to live alone. So, against your better judgement, you start accepting people in off the street who are searching for shelter from the sun. Except some of those people might not be people. So now you’re an investigator, trying to determine whether the people you let in at night are actually human or an alien Visitor in disguise. This is the main mechanic of the game, listening to your companions’ stories and checking them for signs that they might be Visitors. But the information you’re getting about what makes someone a Visitor is shaky at best. Visitors allegedly have red eyes, dirty fingernails, and perfectly straight teeth. But what if a human spent the night crying? What if a Visitor washed their hands? What if a human recently went to the dentist? There’s no foolproof way to tell if someone’s a Visitor, meaning you’re often forced to convict without enough evidence. Either that, or you let more innocents die.

The game’s art style and writing only heightens the tension of its premise. It’s tempting to decide who to let in based on looks alone, or maybe their general attitude. But, in this game, everyone who approaches your door, Visitor or human, looks uncanny. Not even humans look human, meaning your gut instincts on who to trust will often lead you astray. It’s hard to tell who’s honestly being nice and who’s faking it; every character has unique and well-written quirks, regardless of whether they’re human or Visitor.
When creating any piece of media, it’s hard to make your audience feel the specific emotion that you want them to feel. But I and every other person who has played or watched this game knows exactly the strain of paranoia that No, I’m Not A Human depicts so well. This is a game that will make you question everything. It will give you a piece of information, then immediately contradict it. It will introduce you to a sweet, lovable character, then force you to shoot them in the face before they kill again. In times of true unprecedented crisis, the only choices you can really make are shots in the dark. But who are the stray bullets going to hit?

Can you deal with the consequences?

-Bailey Vergara

World Cup Qualifier Match: Hungary v. Ireland, Nov. 16th

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is taking place across 16 cities in North America this upcoming summer, and boy am I excited. One of the final rounds of qualifiers for the UEFA (European) teams occurred this past November, where 12 nations have fully qualified, 26 have been eliminated, and 16 will continue to the vicious UEFA playoffs in March to compete for the 4 final available slots. Hungary hosted the final match for both Hungary and Ireland on November 16, 2025, neither team able to fully qualify, but both contending here for the playoffs. Hungary needed only a draw to move on, while Ireland needed a win.

At just 3 minutes, Hungary scored the first goal to set their immediate daunting lead. The match continued scrappy from that point on, high energy and desperation from both teams charging their playing. Neither country is favored to make it into The World Cup, with Ireland’s most recent appearance in 2002, and Hungary’s in 1986. This time around, both teams have strong players carrying national hopes on each side, Ireland’s hero with two goals against Portugal just three days prior, Troy Parrot, and Hungary’s captain the Liverpool star, Dominik Szoboszlai. The qualifiers are an incredible series of matches to see these fierce teams as they scrap it out, and play with a kind of energy and madness that really makes the game special. It’s not a clean or perfect match from either team, but that kind of toe-to-toe brawl into a last minute, game-deciding hattrick goal is the pure vision of drama that’s special to The World Cup.

Ireland will continue to the playoffs after the unbelievable last minute score from Troy Parrot crushed Hungarian dreams 2-3. They will face The Czech Republic on March 26, 2026. If they win, Ireland will need to beat Denmark or North Macedonia during the playoff final to finally advance to The World Cup

-Pauly

The post KRUI Staff Picks our Favorite Media of 2025 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Addison Rae, ‘Addison’

There was no other album I was more excited to make fun of this year than Addison Rae’s self-titled Addison. Yet, despite all odds and precedents, the TikTok-star-turned-singer-songwriter has deservedly etched a space for herself in the pop star landscape despite following one of the most pivotal years in the genre. In an interview on the Popcast podcast, Rae quotes, “taste is a luxury,” in reference to her own tastes in music and fashion. She credits her success on TikTok and her public as the reason she is now able to pursue her more genuine interest in music. This philosophy becomes very evident within the first few seconds on the album, with the song, New York. A familiar, yet unconventional, pop track opens with a rapid electronic pan and escalates to a breathy Max-Martin-esque dance beat that screams 2000s Britney. It feels nostalgic, yet new. The album is immediately rewarding, offering a fun and campy surface appeal on tracks like Money is Everything and High Fashion. Yet, the listener is often gifted with deeper lyrical focus on songs such as Times Like These and Headphones On. With an entirely female produced record, Addison feels in complete control of the feminine sexuality that underlies the album, reminiscent of her fellow recent breakthrough superstars like Sabrina, Chappell, and Charli XCX. Addison is an incredibly impressive debut project that makes me very excited for her career, and the future of pop music.

-Becca Warfield

Don’t Tap the Glass – Tyler the Creator

DON’T TAP THE GLASS by Tyler, The Creator is a shorter album, running just 29 minutes throughout its ten tracks. Released on July 21, just less than 9 months after the release of his last album, this
album is an outlier in his discography. Tyler’s known for his writing style which (lately) tends to be more
confessional and narrates the personal themes in his life. Instead, this album was written purely to make people move. When he released the album, he was open about this switch and told fans “yall better get them expectations and hopes down this aint no concept nothing” on Twitter. This tweet severely downplayed how strong this album stands out in his discography. While nothing conceptually profound, the album is one of his most upbeat and engaging. Every song builds off of the energy from the one before. Some standout tracks include Sugar on My Tongue, Big Poe, and Ring Ring Ring, which all experienced a lot of hype online. My own personal favorite is Sucka Free. Overall, this album is definitely worth a listen, especially if you need something carefree and upbeat, or just want a good beat to dance to.

-Will Clair

Ethel Cain, ‘Perverts’

Ever since its release back in January, Ethel Cain’s new project Perverts entranced me. This EP represents a drastic tonal and thematic departure from Cain’s debut album, Preachers Daughter, which built a southern gothic narrative from a mix of folk, slowcore, and elements of dream pop. This time around, Ethel Cain completely switched gears and opted for a dark ambient project composed of drone music, unsettling sounds, a near complete lack of lyrics, and a oppressively haunting atmosphere. With Perverts, we are taken on a journey of transcendence to explore the different manifestations of perversion in all its forms. From the opening title track, we are immediately thrust into this world Cain experiences, which transports us to decrepit basements, vast stretches of woods, industrial power plants, and this esoteric divine theatre. 

Songs explore twisted depictions of desire, with kick drums, delicate piano and fragile vocals in Punish, and the terrifying howling over continuous murmurings of “i love you’s” in Housofpsychoticwomn. The album touches on the perversions of pleasure with my personal favorite, Onanist, creating its perversion with whispers, powerful bass, and building crescendos. The rest of the soundscape is a combination of heavy instrumentals, drones, distorted vocals, drums, lap steels and the hurdy-gurdy as Ethel Cain represents lustful experiences in Vascillator, proximity and abandonment from God in Thatorchia, and self-destructive within Amber Waves.

In just nine songs, she explores themes of guilt, shame, eroticism, resentment, faith, transcendence and corruption of self, with a soundscape akin to a horror movie soundtrack. It is best challenging for a casual listener, and at worst downright terrifying to anyone curious enough to peek into her veil. But I would be remiss if I didn’t insist that this project is worth the listen, if only to experience the journey of sonic transcendence Ethel Cain drags us through within her perversions.

-Clara Carrion

Westside Gunn, ’12’

Westside had a big year in 2025 with 3 full-length albums, 2 EPs, and multiple singles, including crossovers with JID, Cookin’ Soul, Karriem Riggins, and Doechii, who just received the Grammy for Best Rap Album of the Year last February. 12 is the newest installment of Westside Gunn’s long-running Hitler Wears Hermes mixtape series, which feels less like a batch of individual songs and more like a cohesive project than any Griselda releases this decade.  Amidst all the deluge of content from the Griselda label this year, 12 went under the radar and underappreciated, even by fans. While the album doesn’t experiment or break new ground sonically, it’s my favorite this year merely for the penmanship and lyrical delivery from all parties involved. 

The best RYM review I’ve ever seen noted, “Westside Gunn is the moment hip-hop goes post-hip-hop—transforming the MC into an echo, the beat into a museum piece, and the genre’s symbols (luxury, violence, nostalgia) into looped artifacts”. Almost nowhere is that more clear than on tracks like Vert and Bury Me with a Stove, where the essential hip-hop drums are replaced with droning ad-libs and grainy phonographic samples: Creating Giselle’s trademark haunting and lavish atmosphere. The tracklist, however, diversifies, with the gritty hardcore boom bap posse cut that is Boswell and Tom Sos’s featherlight voice and rhymes on tracks like Gumbo Yaya and Health Sciences offering a ray of light in 12’s nocturnal atmosphere.

Though technically under the name Westside Gunn, spiritually, this is Stove God Cooks’ masterpiece. He features on almost the entire first leg of the tracklist and steals the show in the album’s drumless outro, Dump World. StoveGod sounds more at home on an altar than in the studio, bringing unflinchingly egotistical lyrics and drumless gospel hymns to create a liturgy of the self, demanding the listener bend the knee and pray. Bars like “The Virgil Rug say rug, the plug name in my phone say plug” or “YOU EVER COOK HALF A BRICK IN DA AIR FRYER”  puts the entire Western literary canon to shame. Stove God features on this project more than any other Westside release. So if you’re looking for the most lavish bars in hip hop today, this project is for you.

-Amman Hassan

PinkPantheress, ‘Fancy That?’

It’s a Pink sweep. This music video for Stateside was shot outside a JCPenny, and really I think that’s all you need to know to truly get what this album’s all about. Music and fashion trends have been dominated by this idea of “Y2K” for the past few years, what initially began as unique and inspired 2000s throwbacks quickly turned into force-fed slop and algorithmic nostalgia regurgitated back at us from every corner Tiktok could touch. This year–praise god!–we’ve maybe started resisting crap in a low-rise bow, and with projects like Addison, Essex Honey, and cheetah print, we’re finally seeing a rise of Y2K nostalgia that is not only hopes to remind, but to inspire.

I hate to laud a southern, but anyone who can flaunt ultra-high rise capris is committed to this Y2K shit. It might as well be 2006 for PinkPantheress as she’s tapping into her U.K. jungle and D&B roots right from the opening beats of Fancy That’s first track, Illegal, with a complete embrace of a nostalgia that doesn’t stale or pull superficial. From Tonight to Romeo, this is neither her most emotional nor ambitious release, but I’d say it’s by far her most stylistically unique and coherent project by far. With this mixtape, Pink’s solidified her image. She’s drawing influences from around the world into her Brit tartan aesthetics, and creates tracks out of it that are so fresh & fit, it’s actually a no-skip record. Whether I was fucking about in Scandinavia or stateside, Fancy That? has been my dearest friend this year. This mixtape is sweet, sexy, and just pure fun with a bassline, it’s everything that this vague memory of an animal-printed and velour-clad 2000s embodies. Nostalgia is a tool, and Pink wields it with her iron-plaid fist. like what!?

-Pauly

Sudan Archives, ‘The BPM’

“An artist’s foray into a “Gadget Girl” persona in the year 2025 may verge on cliche and could even be banal, but with Sudan Archives it just feels so right. Following the acclaimed 2022 album Natural Brown Prom Queen, on this new record, The BPM, Sudan Archives leans even heavier into the (dare I say) archive of dance beats she intricately weaves together to explore the relationship amongst technology, body, and identity. With fifteen songs and clocking in at just under an hour, the album never feels bloated or rushed. The songs, which pull on club beats inspired by Midwest cities like Chicago and Detroit, flow from one to the other to explore Gadget Girl’s sci-fi persona and life. “MY TYPE” is a notable standout, with a racing beat, quick lyrics, and a chorus that is an instant club classic. On the album opener “DEAD” she sings: “Where my old self at? / Where my new self at? / Where my light side at? / Where my dark side at?” with a chorus of “right here, right here” reassuring herself after every line. Gadget Girl can go everywhere and be everything, as she sings on “A BUG’S LIFE,” another album standout, “’cause she never looks back / and she can’t go home.” With Sudan Archives and The BPM, I don’t think we even want to anymore.”

-Corrine

Frost Children, ‘SISTER’

SISTER, the latest Frost Children album, was released on September 12th of this year, which perfectly blends genres to create a timeless electronic-hyperpop-indiepop-EDM album that will be played for years to come. The two siblings, Lulu and Angel Prost, began making music together in 2020, leading them to release 5 albums from 2020-2023. After a 2 year break, they returned and released what is, in my opinion, their best album yet.

SISTER builds upon the electro-punk and indie-sleaze style of hyperpop they employed in the albums SPEED RUN and Hearth Room, but turn the EDM knob up slightly. This gives the album an inherently nostalgic quality that I haven’t heard from a new release ever in recent memory. They perfectly encapsulate the energy of 2010s pop hits but build upon them with their already established abrasive style of hyperpop, to not only draw from the past but to innovate a new style of electronic music all together. Songs like Falling and Position Famous perfectly illustrate this push and pull – they sound at points deeply nostalgic and also very innovative, creating for a sound I haven’t heard before and a mix of genres that I’m sure will influence the next wave of electronic music for years to come.

-Chase

MIKE, ‘Showbiz!’

I, like many others, was introduced to MIKE by his long term friend, collaborator and fellow abstract hip hop artist Earl Sweatshirt. Mainly from a line off his 2018 single The Mint, “I was in the kitchen with that nigga Mike”. Curious, I decided to check out his 2019 album tears of joy, and since then I’ve gotten to experience one of the best and most unique modern hip hop discographies unravel with Showbiz! being no exception. 

With 24 tracks, you’d think MIKE’s signature laid back, monotone delivery would get repetitive or boring but far from it. Combined with the sample heavy jazz & soul inspired production it creates a very relaxed, meditative feeling to the album that makes it feel more dream-like than sleepy. His lyrical ability has also never been sharper with tracks such as Lucky and When it Rains featuring bar after bar of creative and well delivered lyrics. 

But what really holds this album together and makes it my favorite release of the year is its common thread of family, reflection of one’s past and the path ahead of him. On one of its standout tracks What U Boutta Do?/A Star was Born he professes “I’m the living proof, I’m my parent’s child. Put you in my shoes, it’s a scary route”. Since a lot of MIKE’s work revolves around mental health and personal struggles, seeing him be able to so honestly reflect on some of what’s led to these issues discussed on other tracks is very fascinating. On the albums most popular track man in the mirror it begins with a sample of a man discussing the pressure of his job and how “showing off” has almost become a requirement, but also a huge cause of pain in his life. As MIKE has continued to see growth and recognition it’s fascinating to see how this has affected his perception of himself and “the man in the mirror”.

With such a consistent album that I’ve been replaying since its release I’m excited to see where the career of one of hip hop’s best working rappers is gonna continue to lead us toward. And if it’s to more amazing albums like this one. Then I’m pretty happy with the trajectory.

-Tarik Krob

Kevin Atwater, ‘Achilles’

Once again, Kevin Atwater manages to break my heart yet simultaneously make me sing along. His first album, Achilles managed to be in my constant rotation year round. Despite his soft voice, Atwater with each song, manages to illustrate his emotions so impactfully. Atwater has been hurt before and much of that gets channeled in crushing lyrics that paired with intense instrumentals. That’s what I like about Atwater and this album. It wears its heart on a sleeve and inspires a sort of connection with Atwater in a sense. Atwater bares his soul for the album and as a listener I feel appreciative he’s willing to share it all with me. Most of songs come from Atwater’s personal experiences and it’s clear that he’s laying all his cards on the table. I don’t just admire that Atwater’s is willing to get vulnerable, it’s also that I think he’s able to tell the stories in these songs quite beautifully. That’s what got me to got me to come back to this album numerous times this year. Some of my favorite tracks of this album include “Jamie’s Daydreams” and “the cage”, as they show Atwater at his angriest and hurt. Even though Atwater never raises his voice in either song, his anger is palpable and visceral through lyrics that pack a punch. achilles has showed me that Kevin Atwater is still manages capitivate me with his stellar songwriting and has me excited to see what he has in store for the future.

-Ria Das

the side peices (heavensouls x stickerbrush), ‘darkskin n****s with lightskin problems’

Prolific avant-rap producer-mcs stickerbrush and heavensouls more than eke out a place for themselves within an ever-expanding universe of deepweb art. Teaming up for a second time after their initial inverted skintone collaboration, 2024’s lightskin n****s with darkskin problems, 2025 sees the two solidifying their artistic connection in a fragmented and frenetic auditory experience often as multifaceted as everyday life in 2025 feels, an unpredictable world of extremes, liable at any moment to turn on a dime to a polar opposite. Expansive, enveloping sound collages initially cloying in their sweetness give way to harsh staticky bursts, overlapping vocal shards and textures swirling- one moment cacophonous, the next, breathtaking. Any artist that can transition from a verse about zero star yelp reviews to one of the best Jersey Club beats I’ve heard all year surely has a grasp of what exactly they are doing.

While both artists are by no means household names, the sheer quality of this project has caused a slow but steady expansion of their profiles throughout the year, setting the stage for their anticipated third project dropping next year.

-Evan Raefield

Sam Fender, ‘People Watching’

For 2,603 minutes this past year, I was listening to Sam Fender. In November of last year Fender announced his third studio album “People Watching” would be released on February 21st and the anticipation only built until then. Some singles to try and calm the excitement only led to the expansion of this desire to hear the whole thing. The record opens with the title track, my 13th most listened to song this year, and for good reason. Its bright instrumentation, a collection of acoustic and electric guitars brought along with a dancing bassline and much more, welcome you into this reflective and beautiful record.

One of Fender’s greatest skills is making you feel like you’re next to him at a pub talking. These songs trace all the things that have made him who he is to their origin. A disruption of faith on “Little Bit Closer” is written as a confession of confusion from a man who is lost in his relationship with god, or whatever else is up there. It’s not often a younger artist, 31, can be so honest about his worries about death and what will happen to him and his loved ones when that day arrives. A plea for not even an answer, but guidance, placed along with an outro that rivals any contemporaries is something that will rattle around the ears after a listen.

“Arms’ Length” is another favorite of mine, with a riff that made me find the nearest guitar and play along. Fender’s voice is an instrument in and of itself. His tenor range cuts like a silver bullet through his guitars, with a sturdiness that anchors each tune to the stories he is so good at telling. “Rein Me In” has gotten a lot of attention recently too with Fender inviting fellow rising star Olivia Dean along for the tune. “Something Heavy” is another honest reflection on the loss of friends, even if they are still alive. It drips in heartbreak for those who’ve fallen to substances and is an extension of the hand to those trying to make it out the other end. This album is a no skip for me, but these songs in particular have etched their way into my mind.

Fender rightfully so has a stranglehold across the pond, selling out three nights at St. James Park in Newcastle this past June. These annual homecoming gigs in Newcastle keep getting bigger and bigger, and rightfully so. His live shows are an explosion of joy and vulnerability. I had the privilege of seeing him in a much more intimate setting than those in England at The Aragon Ballroom in September. Hitting six songs off “People Watching”, Sam and his band have written their names on this historic venue. Accompanied by a stellar live band that brought my favorite record of the year to life, the closing tune of “Hypersonic Missiles” left me hugging my brother and strangers alike. There was a communal feeling in that room, knowing this was the smallest venue we will ever see Fender in as his conquering of the States will require a much larger space the next time he comes our way.

“People Watching” has not left the rotation and will not any time soon. An open book with a golden voice, Sam Fender is here to stay.

-Logan Melia

Thanks for rocking with college radio in 2025, stick with us here at KRUI in lovely 2026 and beyond<3.

The post Best Albums of 2025: KRUI Staff Picks appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Hayley Heyndrickx and Max Garcia Conover, ‘Song for Alicia’

Song for Alicia is a piece dedicated to Alicia Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican activist. While named after her, the song discusses a lot of various injustices done to her, but is ultimately more focused on the capitalist society of the United States of America. Haley Heynderickx and Max Garcia Conover started this song asking people to listen to his story if you, “have never believed in this kingdom of commerce we have lived in.” They call on people to listen to how people have been silenced and how the government can be bought out by those with money. They tell part of Alicia’s Story, about how she was arrested and her fight for independence. They sing of how she and other members of the FALN (Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña) group were abused in jail, and put into prison with “no trial or charge or conviction.” Max sings about various injustices that happen in Puerto Rico caused by American greed, saying to “just be patient while we burn your poets pages.” Beyond the moving lyrics, the song shows great sound with an amazing guitar backing the moving lyrics with amazing background vocals done by Haley. This song sounds beautiful and is written so well with lyrics painting this picture of freedom fighting, it is a very important song from this year.

-Will Clair

Ethel Cain, ‘Nettles’

In the summer, “Nettles” was released as a single to promote Ethel Cain’s new album, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You and by my 9th listen I could easily declare it had become my favorite song. Six months later, I still feel the same way. This beautiful track offers a glimpse into the narrative of this album, the love story between the Ethel Cain persona and her first love, Willoughby Tucker, as they grapple with the hardship of the religious south in the 1980s from familial trauma, emotional turmoil and the fears that accompany a blossoming relationship. Ethel recounts a terrifying experience she imagined where her boyfriend is hit by shrapnel from a power plant explosion and is told that he has less than 24 hours left to live. The emotions in her voice and the depth of the anecdote almost make you forget this didn’t actually happen, but Ethel’s insecurities and fears keep her stuck in these fictitious scenarios where tragedy eventually reaches the two of them. 

Nettles immerses the listener with folk Americana instruments like the banjo and the fiddle, immersing us in the rural south of the 80s. The song starts out with delicate, rhythmic beats and steadily builds until the sound reaches its climax with the second chorus and ending, accompanied by vocal inflections, soft snares, drums and pedal steel guitar.

Ethel is deeply scarred by her environment, having suffered at the hands of loved ones and peers, “they did to me what I wouldn’t do to anyone.” In response to her trauma, Ethel developed a defensive shell, which can cause her to harm without intention, akin to a nettle. Because of this, she thinks being loved is a terrible burden, “to love me is to suffer me.” But Willoughby loves her. And she is deadly afraid of losing this one person who looks at her with adoration, afraid of not having enough time with him. She is afraid of tragedy, afraid of injuries, afraid of harsh white lights of hospital rooms and whispered prayers begging God for a miracle. As their community continuously pulls them down, Ethel and Willoughby cling to each other in the hopes of finding solace in each other’s arms, dreaming of a new home with gardenias on the tiles, “where it makes no difference who held back from who.” Where they can look into each other’s eyes and just be.

-Clara Carrion

Invariance, ‘Saint’

Consisting of the musical minds behind Black MIDI, Tom Hesh, and Oliva Dean, the supergroup Invariances‘ debut album takes all my favorite elements of the UK’s Windmill and New London Jazz scenes and combines them for an experimental experience at the forefront of contemporary music. Specifically, the track Saint caught my attention, as it takes both music scenes’ eclectic sonic traits to their final conclusion. 

The track combines the deconstructed post-minimalism approach of artists like Colin Stetson and the improvised jazz-rock instrumentation and lyrics of Soft Machine to create an eerie, droning atmosphere tinged with anxiety and swing. The vocalist, Kaidi Akinnibi, repeats the song’s string of lyrics louder and louder over 5 minutes until the track’s crescendo of sax (also performed by Kaidi) overtakes the song’s eerie progression with shouting horns and crashing symbols. While not a club banger, the song and the album Wish You Well, stood out more than any other amongst the chaff and offered an exciting glimpse of the experimental future of England’s music revival.

-Amman Hassan

Empty Parking Lot, ‘pictures of you by the cure’

Chronically online music fans may recognize the popular Instagram shitpost account, @midwest.merky for his emo-centered memes and Spotify playlists. Unfortunately, not enough people are aware of his myriad of musical projects, including the one man band Empty Parking Lot. I got the pleasure of seeing him and his other band, Breathing Techniques, live in Ames at the beginning of 2025. I got to listen to an hour of some of the most vulnerable and beautiful emo music of the last few years, with this track in particular being an incredible standout.

A clear homage to the classic track from The Cure, this also deals with heartbreak and obsession over a failed romance. Delving deep within his own insecurities that likely led to his downfall, “I’d rather stay home tonight, if that’s alright. It’s just that I’m so god damn scared of going outside and being looked at. I hate myself for wanting to stay home all of the time.” Combined with the swelling guitar’s and his painfully tragic vocal performance, you can really feel the emotional resonance that went into this song and that makes Empty Parking Lot such an exciting new voice in the current emo landscape.

-Tarik Krob

RAYE, ‘WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!’

This wasn’t the year I thought we were going to get a jazz revolution. But if I needed a reminder of anything this year, it’s that sometimes surprises can be good! RAYE’s upbeat, swinging, all-caps, instant classic, WHERE IS MY HUSBAND! blew me out of the water in the best way possible this year and introduced me to this artist who’s bringing full orchestra accompaniments back into the mainstream, thank god. As a longtime fan of big band, swing, classic jazz, and funk, I’m delighted to see an artist out there who can play with the classic elements of the genres so masterfully. RAYE slips a groovy baseline underneath layers of big, resonant brass, mixes jazz drums with scat-like backing vocals, and crafts a melody so catchy, I raise my eyebrow at anyone who doesn’t even consider dancing along. There’s so much passion for the craft hidden within this song’s layers. As one YouTube commenter under the music video aptly notes, you can tell this song was made by someone who loves to sing.

And that’s not even touching on on the song’s lyricism, which feels at once ubiquitous and uniquely 2025. Internet discourse has been dominated this year by conversations about boyfriends, husbands, and relationships. From what I’ve been hearing, the consensus is that, for a (straight) woman, having a husband is embarrassing, but also a necessity. You’re not supposed to want one because you’re an independent woman, but you’re supposed to have one because your life would be incomplete without your other half. It makes sense then, that this song doesn’t linger too long on who the husband of the song actually is—what kind of man RAYE wants in her life—but instead focuses mainly on RAYE’s struggles without one. This gives the song a unique angle on the timeless story of looking for love. Not having a man is not a life-or-death situation—it’s just annoying. She’s not lying hopelessly in wait for her prince to save her, he’s testing her patience by taking so long to show up. This makes the song even more universal, in it’s own way. Regardless of who you are, you’ve been annoyed with a man at some point in your life (at least I know I have), and RAYE is able to vocalize this universal frustration in her own unique and snappy way. In my eyes, she’s been able to hit that sweet spot of music-making with a song many can connect to, and all can enjoy.

-Bailey Vergara

Meels, ‘Willow Song’

There is not an up-and-coming artist I am more excited about than Meels, and her track, Willow Song is my favorite song of the year. Accompanied by a charming Muppet-inspired puppeteer music video, Willow Song immediately transports me into 1979—back to a time when country music was good, sorry, but it’s true! Emulating John Denver and Bob Dylan, Meels is an expert storyteller and songwriter.

Here’s my favorite verse in the song, grounded in tried-and-true storytelling with a 21st-century edge, “When you run to the river and you ask for a drink It may not concede in the way that you think. Its surrender is painful and it cuts mighty deep. At least the painkillers around here are cheap.”

On Meels’ Instagram, she posted a self-proclaimed, “Bob Dylan–Joan Baez-esque love story,” song she had written. Had it been released already, it would have been my pick for my favorite song of hers. I can’t wait to see what she does next. She is definitely one to watch.

-Becca Warfield

Jane Remover, ‘Dancing with your eyes closed’

Watching the artistic trajectory of Jane Remover has been an incredibly fulfilling experience- there is no doubt whatsoever about that. The progression from a no-name artist dropping loose singles on Soundcloud in the early days of the hyperpop scene to establishing a name as one of the go-to producers in the genre, becoming so embedded that fans could hardly go a project without hearing something that Jane’s hands had touched. 

This, to the explosion of Teen Week, Frailty, Census Designated, and now in 2025… Jane’s proper mainstream EDM opus thus far, Revengeseekerz. As a longtime fan, I knew it was only a matter of time before Jane’s ear would translate to proper mainstream attention, as things had been trending that way for some time- but perhaps there was no better way of that happening than with the release of one of the singles for Revengeseekerz, titled Dancing with your eyes closed.

There is something unexplainable about much of Jane’s electronic dance compositions, an underlying bit of magic that is presented–a vitality, a heartbeat thumping at the speed of the BPM–a synthetic creche where the spirit resides, and inflates. While Revengeseekerz had its fingers in many pies, I find that once again, it is through dance that Jane Remover is most potent in her craft. 

-Evan Raefield

Sabrina Carpenter, ‘House Tour’

Do you want the house tour? Probably not, but I do. Personally, this song haunted my every second online this year, and I had no issue with that whatsoever. My good buddy, William Clair, will argue with me to hell and back about this take, but Sabrina Carpenter is easily the single best pop girl in the game right now. The alternative nature of this radio station matters naught to me when it comes time for end of year reviews. Last year I wrote about Miss “Jesus was a Carpenter” herself’s album, the Short n’ Sweet Deluxe Edition, but this year I have a more fitting pick than Man’s Best Friend, so Will gets to live without rolling his eyes back in his now bald head.

Enough Will Shade, House Tour meant an absurd amount to me this year. As none of you dearest readers can probably relate, I went through my first experience with formal sorority recruitment this year, and this song stayed in the back of everyone’s mind the entire time. It was the entirety of TikTok and Instagram for girls who just wanted to show everyone their house–especially their sorority house, and ignore the actual innuendo purposes of the song. My friend Kaitie and I even painstakingly made a video with this song for almost 12 hours at our house talking to probably 40-50 girls. We were exhausted and all we wanted to do was feel cute and special again. House Tour is without a doubt my favorite track from Man’s Best Friend. Sabrina’s brand of being this subtly-misandristic, silly girl is so important to me. She has this sort of Miss Piggy/Turner Classic Movies heroine/pin-up doll energy to her that’s absolutely timeless and fresh compared to other stars at the moment. Her lyrics and sound match her aesthetic to a T. Twitter, as always, had a lot to say about Man’s Best Friend, especially when the contentious album cover and track list were dropped early, but it still held up for me and I think the actual content of the album was a lot better than the assumptions people were making purely from the crumbs of ideas that were originally out there. Do I think some criticism was valid? Yes, but I also think a lot of it was unfounded and completely wrong after the album released. On House Tour specifically, the production quality and mixing was just so funky and even after months I haven’t gotten tired of it. Not to mention how catchy and genuinely hilarious some points of the song are. I can’t help but think she might’ve gotten inspiration for the house-body metaphor from Monster House, which I definitely watched far too young. Overall, another great year for Sabrina and I can’t wait to see where she goes next.

-Lee Nienhaus

Deafheaven, ‘Incidental II (feat. Jae Matthews)’

Having to pick a single song of the year always leaves me absolutely wrecked. Incidental II doesn’t even count as a true song, it’s an interlude from the blackgaze legends, Deafheaven off their recent (generally good) album, Lonely People With Power. Have I betrayed my many other darlings of the year by picking this? Though it’s far from being my most highly listened track, this one song stands out to me as the one song that made me feel actually scared. It begins with soft mechanical groans, a crackling synth creeping on top and forming this mysterious gentle fog from which Jae Matthew’s rasping voice emerges. Breaking up the oppressive vocals of George Clarke, she sings this haunting melody enrapturing the listener within every quiet breath and movement of her voice. The groaning instrumentals suddenly drop out underneath us, and we’re left flailing with nothing to hold onto but Jae Matthews and a light guitar accompanying her. We’re lost, alone, but with this sinking nausea that something massive approaches.

It’s one thing for a song to make you dance, to make you feel good. But when a song makes me physically anxious, I pay attention. This is a song where every choice builds this tangible dread, this song could snap and explode at any point, and strains that point of nervous tension until it snaps. Out of the silence and sweet voice, thunder erupts. Oppression does not begin to define the noise that follows. It’s every ounce of sound that Deafheaven can rip out of themselves, as their brutal wave crashes down.

The recording is incredible, each tone is perfectly processed and layered into this sickly mix, but it doesn’t compare to seeing it performed live. I had the chance to see them recently at their show in Davenport, where they used this song as an interlude to separate half of their set. It was the most incredible sound I had truly ever heard, just an absolute oppression condensed into noise. Deafheaven continue to reinvent the possibilities and emotions of metal with this album, unexpectedly found most intensely in this interlude.

-Pauly

The post Best Songs of 2025: KRUI Staff Picks appeared first on KRUI Radio.

It was surreal to see this band as it was formed 20 years later, still singing through the modern classic The Michael Jordan of Drunk Driving tumbling over into Disposable Everything off their newest record. They chatted with folks between songs, completely just two dudes up on a stage. At one point, a Santa hat was given to Ben Gallaty, who captured the look extremely well. Their sound was sparse with just a guitar and stand-up bass, but they both pulled their notes full to flood into the crowd. AJJ’s most recent record Disposable Everything is definitely an “end of the world” record, nihilistic folk punk in every way AJJ was expected to deliver. They sang through songs about pride, waste, corporations, and the human greed destroying the planet and killing the humanity of what we have left to offer. It’s a change from their earlier discography, which focused through the same semi-nihilism ideas, but from a very personal view. Now, their messages encompass everyone, framed to describe the world at large, and the end of it all. Sean Bonnette’s voice rang out in a fully half-step-off pitch at every point where it mattered, it was a beautiful set. They closed out with a favorite, Big Bird, and the crowd sang and cried along while the final piercing notes of AJJ howled around us.

Room is a generous term to describe The Raccoon Motel venue, a tall but narrow side to the main bar, it’s like Gabe’s upstairs had a wall built halfway lengthwise and shoved a sold out show into the space, people like sardines in a quaint tin. The stage was no different, stickered amps, two guitars, a bass, a firetruck red tambourine, a synth set, a drum kit with the newest Cursive album cover skinned onto the front, and a fucking electric cello sat squished together on a stage that would struggle to fit a mattress, with a massacre of Hy-Vee plastic water bottles scattered around.

That one dude (don’t know his name but remember his voice) who announces these kinds of shows with his crazy impressive yelling stepped on stage to introduce a poet to prelude the Cursive set. A man read out his poem he wrote from emotions seeing Cursive perform when they were last in Iowa, I don’t recall what he said, but his words struck into me that this would be a special show, that could affect us in the same way to be moved into poetry. His words ended, and five people walked on stage, the sixth (Tim Kasher) less walking than bouncing into his spot. 5/6ths of the band was wearing a button-up shirt that night.

This tour formed for the release of the most recent Cursive album, Devourer. Released last year, Devourer is this maniacal end-of-the-world frustration and this idea of the great consumer, an imperialistic devourer that controls our lives, and the very personal imperialism that we find eating away at our own selves. Regaling earthquakes, volcanoes, gasoline advertisements, and self-immolation DIY, and the Cursive protagonist’s own denial of reality as they’re stuck within their own consumptions.

“Happiness is in the devouring. I saw our future, and I want to go back,” Cursive opened the final show of their tour with Consumers. This band has mastered building melodies out of simple riffs for decades, somehow reinventing a blowing heaviness within each pattern. It’s so simple, yet never boring. They continue into The Casualty, another dense melodic tune as the set continues weaving tracks around their full discography from the past 20 years. During a break, Tim Kasher justifies that since this is the last night of their tour, “we have a lot of fucking off to get out of our systems.” As Cursive gets comfortable on the twin-size stage, the singer Tim and cellist Megan Siebe continue to get lost in the throes of their hammering tones. The rest of the band plays incredibly with a much more subdued energy, the others with that desperate gleam of an exhausted runner in their last mile of a month-long marathon.

As the set continued, you could notice a distinct difference in the energy between their older music, and their most recent album. Tracks like The Recluse and Caveman from their younger years were played with a loose recklessness, they felt like a band of 20-somethings playing with lazy exaggeration to cause a scene. That same recklessness became much more intentional, almost a nihilistic abandon during The Avalanche of Our Demise and tracks from Devourer, still filling the hall with the same thundering energy but with a stronger intention.

Cursive continued their unburdening “fucking off” spiral, and the crowd joined right in with them. All around, the vast sprawls of middle-aged dudes in beanies and baseball caps screamed along, a drunk birthday girl and her even drunker friends all dressed in tiaras shoving and shrieking against the rail, before collapsing under the weight of the tallest moshpit I’ve experienced heralding the first thrums of Art is Hard. I’m not exactly one for self-preservation, but even under the intoxicating cello pulls of that tune I’m not fucking about in the midst of eight dudes with perfect elbows swinging into my eye level. Immediately after finishing the song, Tim threw the shot back he had so tenderly carried on stage with him as it became increasingly obvious he was at least reasonably hammered, whipping his ridiculous curtains on his head all around.

Megan Siebe on the cello really pulls Cursive together as a band, the final and fundamental piece that separates them apart from the whole slew of indie-rock bands out there. Seeing her play live was incredible, bridging some gap between classical technique and rock with her skill and intense energy. She also had a wee finger monster stuck onto a knob on her cello, mad respect. I’ve been a huge fan of their music for years, one of the bands that really dragged me into this divorced-dad-indie-rock shithole that we love and adore. Cursive as a band has changed so much, and not at all since their humble Omaha beginnings. It was really lovely to see them at the end of this tour, to really experience how they’ve stayed exactly the same yet changed so much, their fundamental uniqueness staying so consistent yet fresh for the past 20 years. They closed out their main set with From the Hips, with nothing more needing to be said.

Huge thanks to The Raccoon Motel for supporting KRUI, to check out their upcoming events (or to see Kermit hanging off a mountain lion) visit them in downtown Davenport. They’re hosting a record party on New Years Eve. Thanks as well to Marshall Rogers for sharing these lovely photos.

The post The end of the world written in Andrew Jackson’s script, Cursive with AJJ at The Raccoon Motel, December 21 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Future Teens – Adjust Failure (single)

Featuring release art by Wyatt Campbell, son of The Wonder Years’ Dan Campbell, Future Teens return in all of their Bummer Pop glory for Yet Another Indie Banger. I say this like I’ve written anything about them before, but it’s my first semester with KRUI! Give me a break. These guys are True Indie Legends and deserve roughly twelve billion times more flowers than they’ve received. It’s a super solid indie anthem with creamy vocals and a whole lot of angst. Daniel, usually secondary vocals, shines on this track, and Amy’s backing shouts are Superb – Give it a listen, and if you don’t like it you’re wrong! (not really :p but I Love It).

–Daniel Lawless

Madison Cunningham – Ace

My favorite album of October is Ace by Madison Cunningham. The album looks into the complexity of relationships; what makes us stay when we should leave, dealing with residing feelings, and how relationships can make us lose parts of ourselves, along with many other complicated truths within romantic relationships. The sound of the album is also beautiful, with a variety of string instruments, woodwinds, acoustic and electric guitars, piano, and various percussion instruments that bring out a peaceful tone that contrasts with the melancholic nature of the lyrics. When I first listened to it, the album reminded me of a spring day where the sun is shining and the snow has melted. Some standout tracks are “Shatter Into Form I” and “Shatter Into Form II” which are instrumental intros for the first and second parts of the album that sets the tone and really pushes the overall sound of the album. Along with those there are many other amazing songs on this album. “Mummy”–which is my personal favorite song from the album–is a song with devastating lyrics about how cycles can repeat and how our upbringings can change us, but the message can be hidden behind its wistful tone. “Break The Jaw” is about relying on someone and how they can let you down, and how it can affect a bond long term. What I noticed most about the song was its abrupt change in tone. It became more upbeat and almost angry. On the second half of the album the song that stood out the most to me was “My Full Name”. It’s a song about being seen and how you change parts of yourself to be seen and loved by those around you. Overall I think that Ace is an amazing edition to the indie folk genre.

–Will Clair

MOBO Presents: The Perfect Cast LP feat. Modern Baseball (30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition)

A rerelease of their 2015 EP The Perfect Cast, Modern Baseball sort-of-kind-of (not really) return with more meat (demos and live recordings) on MOBO Presents: The Perfect Cast LP feat. Modern Baseball (30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition). While not a sign of their return, in my opinion, more recordings are really all that a MOBO fan can ask for these days. These are good ones! If you already like Modern Baseball (who doesn’t?) then you’ll like this. Give it a listen!

–Daniel Lawless

Appreciate your Iowa heritage and engage in some more (Philadelphian) Midwest emo. I stole the original The Perfect Cast CD from my older sister when I was in middle school (she had it coming she got to see them at Gabe’s for the 2015 Mobo-PUP-Jeff-TMP tour) and life was never the same, mostly for the worse. Having this album released again in 2025 is like being sent back to high school in the most despicable/cathartic way. It’s the same EP, with additions of live recordings and alternate cuts of the original. It’s as whiny and heart breaking as it ever was, a sonic impulse to slam PBRs and chain smoke in a plastic lawn chair. It’s not a return, not even a reunion, but a fucked up reminder excavating the worst versions of ourselves that we buried six feet underground a decade ago. Much love and hate for it.

–Pauly

The Hellp – Doppler (single)

The Hellp‘s new single Doppler was my personal favorite of October. The opening acoustic guitar is a beautiful new addition to their instrument lineup, and an added focus on guitar for the band would be a great addition, and Noah Dillons vocals have been the best they have ever been on this track. The instrumental is a departure from past songs like “Caustic”, being only a drum line, a synth pad, and occasional arps, Vox stabs and piano notes. The progressive building of intensity gives movements and emotion to when a new verse is introduced. If LL was LCD Soundsystem, Riviera is Crystal Castles.

I first found The Hellp on 4chan in 2021. On a forum about interesting upcoming musicians an anonymous user posted a link to the music video for “Tu Tu Neurotic”, a song from their 2018 album Curtis. The title of “The only band out right now that matters” has followed the band for years and it’s been proven more and more true. I have been following The Hellp since the release of the EP Enemy in 2021 and I’ve seen them grow into the cultural phenomenon that they were destined to be. They have single handedly grown a new American youth revolution underground (and they even brought back skinny jeans). When I think of tip of the spear, vanguard music and youth culture I think of The Hellp. Something so new and honest is such a breath of fresh air from the past ten years of Pitchfork certified, sanitized, safe for the mainstream indie culture. This is what being years ahead looks like.

After an amazing 2024 run, the duo’s next project, riviera, has the chance to finally push the band into the mainstream, or to loose their momentum to the artists that they have inspired such as Snow Strippers (the Detroit based duo who’s song “Under your spell” gained worldwide attention last summer) or 2hollis (another LA based artist with 4.6M monthly listeners on Spotify). LL, Dillon and Lucy’s last release and the following tour brought a massive wave of interest due to the intensity and danceability, with every song having an ear worm hook. What concerns me is the massive departure from the energy of LL with the Riviera singles. “Country Road”, “Doppler”, and “Here I am” are slower and spacier, and more blue. Judging this upcoming album by its singles, this could make or break The Hellp, but we all will still be listening this November.

–Bodhi Brent

Peel Dream Magazine – Taurus

Taurus is a dreamy yet jangly, soft, and short (only eight songs, with the shortest clocking in at just 1:29) album from Peel Dream Magazine. While these songs may be seen as rejections from their 2024 album, Rose Main Reading Room, discarded and packaged together for a quick follow up, they stand on their own and bring a fuller, different vision to the whole.

“Venus in Nadir,” the lead and only single off the album thus far, starts the album off with a jaunt, quick-paced and beating; it’s a song that feels like the fall sun, warm and hopeful through the chilly air. “Taurus,” the namesake of the album, has the specter of Sufjan Stevens floating all around it in the best way. Other standouts include “The Band From Northampton,” another fall-campus-walking-hope-seeking tune with a driving drum beat and a twee spirit, and “Seek and Destroy,” a Stereolab-infused dream-pop song that softly states: “I found a secret in the grass/Out on my ass/Seek and destroy.” “Down From the Trees” is an experimental sample from a lecture on monkeys with dreamy, experimental chimes playing all around it, asking the question we all wonder: are we human, or are we monkeys? While the lyrics to each song are soft-spoken and subtle, they mix with the dreamscape created by Peel Dream Magazine to take you away as you lay in the fading fall sun with the leaves swirling ‘round.

–Corrine Jones

Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska ’82: Expanded Edition

Coming on the heels of the movie “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere”, based on the Warren Zanes novel, The Boss rereleased a elaborate collection of tunes to make up this 2025 version of his 1982 record. The original album “Nebraska” released after a trilogy of commercial successes. With arena rock hits, transcendent choruses, and iconic saxophone solos via Clarence Clemons, Bruce found himself lost in the sound while in Colt’s Neck, New Jersey wanting to strip it all down with an acoustic guitar. Recording tracks that would make up “Nebraska” and “Born in the USA”, Springsteen gives us demo’s, outtakes, and a long awaited electric version of these songs that comprise “Nebraska”.

This record has always moved me, a concept album of sorts about the helpless living in America. The dreary outlook this album carries is still there on the live version of these songs, recorded just north of Asbury Park in Red Bank, New Jersey on April 22nd, 2025. The 76 year old provides his raspy voice to add an extra layer of desolate feeling to the live version of this album. The harmonica floats atop the acoustic guitar, the subtle mandolin harmonizes, and the greatest rock star ever bellows out these poems that sit in your heart and mind. “Johnny 99” is about a mentally ill man who loses his job, shoots a night clerk, and is served “98 and a year” in prison. There are lessons in these songs, but let’s focus in on “Johnny 99”. The closing of union jobs and their effect on the economy as he wails that “they closed down the auto plant in Mahwah late that month”, and “the bank was holding my mortgage, they were gonna take my house away”. The mental effect of a dead economy on an abounded town is brought up as well singing “I ain’t saying that makes me an innocent man, but it was more than all this judge, that put that gun in my hand”. Another lesson is the lack of care provided to those who need it as Johnny threatens to “blow his top” in the middle of the street before the police arrest him. I could write an essay on each song on this record and the impact it has. There is little that The Boss shy’s away from in the harsh reality that many face. The electric version was well worth the wait, boasting E Street legends Roy Bittan, Clarence Clemons, Danny Federici, Garry Tallent, Steven Van Zandt, and Max Weinberg all at home on their respective instruments. The full album bounces with an energy that puts you more in mind of a classic Springsteen project, providing new life and energy to these often grim tracks. I enjoy it as a change of pace, and it delivers what you would expect from an expanded studio Springsteen record. I love the live versions of songs off this record such as “Atlantic City”, where the horn section plays the harmonica line and Bruce plays his butterscotch blonde Fender Telecaster instead of an acoustic. The electric version does not reach these live album heights, but I still enjoy its sound.

The sound is great on all the records, and the storytelling holds up. “Nebraska” is one of the greatest records in my collection. There is little The Boss can’t do, and an acoustic folk album is definitely not on the list. Holding within a demo of the hit “Born In the U.S.A.”, B-Side favorite “Pink Cadillac” which was opposite on the 45 of “Dancing In the Dark”, and much more, Nebraska ’82: Expanded Edition” was a journey that I loved every second of. There is so much to explore between the outtakes, electric version, and live version, it has been on constant rotation in the days since it has released.

–Logan Melia

PinkPantheress – Fancy Some More?

Wait what do you mean Bladee feature on the Pinkpantheress remix album?? Dreams–perchance–truly can come true. Following this year’s earlier hit release Fancy That, the awaited remix compilation Fancy Some More? released early October, right before her limited but massively popular U.S. tour. It’s a collection of remixes ranging from jungle, alt-pop, techno, k-pop, and Kylie Minogue. She’s built her international army of Brits, Koreans, Swedes, & Brazilians, all united in the name of Pink. There’s some hits and misses stacked between each other, regrettably I must inform that some of them are boring. Pink’s strength is her contemporary pop diversity, how she can pull from samples and her international influences and bring it into her maximalist girl-world of Cockney aesthetics and create hit after hit. Standout remixes here completely reimagine the original song, where it becomes an entirely new track and interpretation of Fancy That, and make clear just how inspired her overall music style is, where influence and aesthetic merge into the one and only Pink.

–Pauly

The post KRUI Staff Picks: Best Releases of October appeared first on KRUI Radio.

All Time Low

These Warped-Tour era icons have been releasing albums consistently since 2006, their newest project “Everyone’s Talking,” released just a couple weeks ago on Oct. 17, diving straight into an immediate tour for the band starting out with When We Were Young Festival. I recently learned their name derives from the song Head On Collision by New Found Glory, so I have a new found trust in their dedication to the craft. Throughout the decades, fans have been loyal to this Baltimore pop-punk boyband for a reason, they’ve been putting out consistently exciting music backed up by their playful humor and personalities, they’ve maintained their popularity and have stood out in the genre for decades. All Time Low has collaborated with artists like Demi Lovato, Blackbear, and Vic Fuentes, while this new album features JoJo and Ruston Kelly. They maintain their hold on the pop-punk scene, and are sure to put on a great show in Waukee. They’ll likely play a good chunk of their newest album this time, with a few select tracks featuring from across their greatest hits.

Mayday Parade

Another pop punk legendary act, Mayday Parade returns with their album Sad in 2025, following a seven year break since their last album. The band formed in Tallahassee in 2005, and celebrates their 20 year anniversary as a band this year with Sad, amazingly with nearly all of their founding members still together. They have upcoming plans to release 2 more parts of the Sad album in the upcoming months, much to look forward to from them. I’m anticipating a pretty even mix of their classic hits and tracks off their newly released album tomorrow evening, drawing into a classic pop punk experience.

The Cab

Best known to me for having a song in Rockband 2, this Las Vegas-based band returned in 2025 with a reuniting following a decade long hiatus. This year, they released their long-awaited EP, Road to Reign: A Prelude. It’s a catchy pop EP, supported by a bit of their grittier punk background seeping through into something that could’ve been featured in a early 2000s romcom movie. It’s a strong, and characteristic follow up after 11 years of a break, they’ve managed to come back still sounding like The Cab that we remember. Expect to relive their biggest hit tracks at the show, with a new song or two in between.

The Paradox

This up-and-coming pop punk band out of Atlanta might be young, but are putting out music that sounds like a skatepark in 2005. Their recent and rapid rise to popularity has them opening for icons like Green Day and Jack White, and recently also performed at When We Were Young Festival in Las Vegas. They’ll play at this show with high energy, and bring fun to pop punk at Vibrant Music Hall tomorrow. They have multiple singles out now, and are currently in the works getting together their first EP released.

Tickets for the event are for sale from First Fleet Concerts here.

The post Concert Preview: All Time Low, Mayday Parade, The Cab, & The Paradox at Vibrant Music Hall on Oct. 29 appeared first on KRUI Radio.