On Aethiopes, billy woods reestablishes his strengths as a storyteller, with help from producer Preservation’s experimentally jazzy beats. By now, woods has cemented himself as one of hip hop’s greatest writers, and his brooding yet clever introspection sounds especially powerful over Preservation’s musical backdropping. Samples of pianos will twinkle across some tracks, and pound discordantly on others, while electric guitars ring and horns blow. By the time the harmonica enters the equation, the beats here are unparalleled. It is an enveloping atmosphere completed by excellent percussion, which moves between hand drums, full kits, and shuffling jangles difficult to place, but woods and his guests sound great over it all. “NYNEX” with ELUCID, Denmark Vessey, and Quelle Chris compellingly describes a tech dystopia that seems inevitable, and also manages to be an exciting, head-nodding posse cut. A healthy disdain towards institutions carries across the record, but just as often, woods’ writing is remarkably human, with a cohesion that can only be understood from a full listen. “No Hard Feelings”, “Christine”, and “Remorseless” are all perfectly heart-stopping examples. He’s a special rapper that references Camus and Dostoevsky without sacrificing the intensity of his personal voice–here it’s more of a footnote citation. woods has delicately arranged the pain and beauty of a life–sometimes through humorous sarcasm and sometimes through poignant prose. Aethiopes has it all, becoming a high point in billy woods’ already otherworldly discography.

–Jaden Amjadi

Christian Lee Hutson – Quitters

Christian Lee Hutson describes his songs as “little collages of memories.” Much like his previous album, Beginners, in which the memories he details are of his awkward teenage years and his uncertainty at the thought of growing up, Quitters brings us more recent memories of his awkward adult years and his uncertainty at the thought of being a grownup. Don’t let the repetition in theme fool you, though; his most recent work is a beautifully original, heart-wrenching, and at times, witty masterpiece. In his song “Rubberneckers,” Hutson, accompanied by Phoebe Bridgers, states that “if you tell a lie for long enough, then it becomes the truth, I’m gonna be okay someday with or without you,” insinuating that a theme of adulthood is lying to oneself to cope with the existential dread of losing a loved one. In fact, the ending of relationships seems to be one of his larger themes throughout the album, not overshadowing motifs of mental illness and self-doubt. Hutson’s cynical lyrics in songs like “OCDemon” and “Strawberry Lemonade,” accompanied by his soft voice and melancholic instrumentals, make Quitters a wonderfully thought-provoking and hauntingly beautiful instant classic in the indie folk genre.

–Juniper Hollis

Pusha T – It’s Almost Dry

Over the last 20 years, Pusha T has secured the reputation as the undisputed king of coke-rap. With his highly anticipated follow-up to 2018’s Daytona, It’s Almost Dry powerfully reminds listeners why that crown is his. Like his previous works, Pusha spits countless bars about his coke-dealing past; yet he never fails to maintain a cold, hard-edged approach that always feels fresh. The production is handled by two of the most prominent all-time heavyweights of hip-hop producing: The Neptunes (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo), and Pusha’s longtime label colleague Ye (fka Kanye West). Their superior sampling skills and melodies create a lustrous foundation for Pusha to flex his pen game over. The third track “Dreamin of the Past”, features a sample of Donny Hathaway’s cover of John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy”, a vintage soul song that spotlights Ye’s legendary sampling. Pusha T marches over the beat with unrivaled confidence and swagger, warning any rivals that “award shows the only way you b*tches could rob me”. “Hear Me Clearly” features a gloomy, cutting melody over granulated drums, setting an ominous mood in which Pusha reminds the audience that he isn’t quite like other rappers. “See the difference ‘tween me and them, I move to a different drum like EDM.” Pusha’s longevity has been arguably the greatest feature of his career. From the days of Clipse to today, Pusha has consistently dropped nothing but timeless music, and It’s Almost Dry is another instant classic from the self-proclaimed “cocaine’s Dr. Suess”. 

–Evan Weidl

MJ Lenderman – Boat Songs

On Boat Songs, North Carolina-based songwriter MJ Lenderman writes alt-country barn-burners and tear-jerkers with even parts grit and heart. Known as the guitarist of indie rock act Wednesday, Lenderman takes the honky tonk spirit that has always laid beneath the band’s work and runs with it on this solo project. Most noticeably, the guitars on this record sound great–wretched and squelching on the noisy cuts, soft and supportive on the slow ones, and generally played throughout with a nice helping of distortion. The hum of pedal steel appears a few times, and brings a lot of atmosphere to the record. Lenderman gives some of his best vocal performances here, with a seemingly effortless sincerity. He has an approach to lyricism that allows a gut-punch like “I always believed you every time you said / You were gonna be like our heroes someday / Well, baby, all our heroes now are dead” (“TLC Cagematch”) and a piss-take like “Jackass is funny / Like the Earth is round” (“You Are Every Girl to Me”) to appear on the same record, and both be memorable lines in their own ways. A song like “Dan Marino” may be unconventionally produced–were those guitars and drums recorded from a different room??–but it ultimately reinforces the record’s wild spirit. Boat Songs meets country and chaos with excellent results.

–Jaden Amjadi

Daniel Roseen – You Belong There

In his debut solo album, You Belong There, Daniel Rossen, co-lead vocalist of indie rock band Grizzly Bear, delivers his personal creation in the form of rich, melancholic neo-classical folk. The featured vocals and acoustic guitar are accompanied by a wide range of orchestral instrumentation that adds an incredible and unique depth. It is a somber and introspective album; lyrics are sparse and convey a very personal, melancholy with a beautifully crafted ambiguity. There is a transportive quality to Rossen’s music, a natural soundscape delivers the listener to a lush, secluded world, exhibited best in songs “Shadow in the Frame” and “Repeat the Pattern”. Like being in a densely forested fantasy, it has a quiet sort of loneliness intensified by an otherworldly depth. Simultaneously, the song “You Belong There” is a more intense interpretation of the same transportive nature, driven by an almost agitated momentum with a captivating combination of bass, strings, and woodwinds supporting the guitar and vocals. Daniel Rossen exhibits a musical mastery, being able to subvert classical instrumentation for his own unique compositions and introspection, culminating in an incredible folk album, inspiring a new and exciting potential for his future work.

–Elizabeth Pauly

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On recording, many of Burt’s songs are accompanied by keys, drums, and bass. While the additional instrumentation can add some groove to these songs, they also thrived in this stripped-down setting. Burt has great control over the guitar, and can fingerpick with both a delicate gentleness and a fiery brashness. This also put more of a focus on his lyricism, an area where Burt unequivocally shines. His lyrics portray the dreary as beautiful through detail and storytelling–a death of someone dear, or a lonesome bender. He wasn’t alone all night, however. Friend and collaborator Jules Baenziger of Sea of Bees joined him to sing a couple of songs. Unsurprisingly, the two performed with excellent vocal chemistry.

Some especially powerful songs addressed systemic racism in the US police–“By the Jasmine,” a story of a character, Dante, accosted by the police on a walk, and “Under the Devil’s Knee” which tells the stories of the police’s murders of George Floyd, Eric Garner, and Breonna Taylor. An intense and reflective stillness came over the room of mostly white Iowans in these moments, before returning to motion from the roars of applause at the songs’ conclusions. Burt’s approach to discussing the police’s racism is to do so with unflinching clarity, letting no abstraction or metaphor possibly interfere with the message of the song.

Closing out the set, Burt played the John Prine song “Sour Grapes,” a song he seemed so familiar with that he could have performed it in his sleep. To conclude, he played his newest album’s lead single, “Sweet Misery”, a gorgeous song that confronts life’s melancholy with a light-hearted stand-offishness: “Sweet Misery / You can follow me down to the end of my path / But you still gotta get through me.” But in these last moments, misery was far away, as the crowd soaked up the joy of hearing this special songwriter. And then, loud applause.

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“We’re from the Pacific Northwest. That’s why we talk soft,” Heynderickx said before launching into the first song of her set, “The Bug Collector”. A couple of things were immediately apparent, which would apply to the set in full. One–the only rhythm section this song really needs is the pizzicato of the bass, which supplies a bouncing sway to even the most emotionally harrowing of her songs. The same is true of many of Heynderickx’s other songs. Two– Heynderickx is an excellent guitar player, and one of the best I’ve seen live. It may be that I’m extra sensitive to great fingerpicking, but her quick and precise playing was downright dizzying at times.

Both her guitar playing and singing were dynamic performances. She portrayed the pain of “No Face” just as intensely as the confidence of “Oom Sha La La.” This song was an instance of bright, simple guitar strumming in a set of mostly detailed fingerpicked patterns. Between songs, she’d muse on sunsets, a Spirited Away character, and how redwood trees would make better world leaders than humans–you know, Haley Heynderickx things. In a new song called “Tour Song,” she did something I’ve never seen an artist do before, which was tuning all the way through the song and working the whir of the string into the guitar melody in a way that felt surprisingly natural.

Speaking of new songs, the new songs are great! It’s been about four years since Heynderickx officially released new music and hearing these songs made me feel as if I’d been granted access to highly classified information. There’s “The Park” which teased laughter out of the audience with the inflection of her voice alone, “Louis and the Redwoods” re: the earlier redwood comment, “Ben I’m Trying” about living with a partner throughout the pandemic, “Sorry Fahey,” she said, “because it sounds like a John Fahey song,” and a couple of others too. As a longtime fan, these songs seemed noticeably more cheerful than much of her older work–something that made me glad to hear.

The two closed the set with “Untitled God Song,” an occasion for which Heynderickx pulled out a steel slide, and Blackwell pulled out a bass bow–the second time it was used that night. They broke into a climactic jam in the breakdown before the last chorus, which rocked as hard as two acoustic instruments can rock. With these two musicians–it rocked pretty hard. Heynderickx left the audience overjoyed with the set and more than excited to hear these new songs put to record.

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Extremely well, it turns out! The crew energetically railed through a selection of tracks off Songs of Violence, “Josie’s Experiment” off Both Neither and Both, and a couple of new ones too. Cacciatore traded off riffs with guitarist Griffen Clark–both getting their time to shine on extended jam sessions during the set openers–“Deadbeat Pt. 1 & 2” and “Holy Ghost.” Drummer Aaron Knight can both barrel through a beat and patiently hold back, and did both across songs of dynamic intensity. A highlight of the set was “Big Flood,” where Cacciatore mostly shrugged off the melody of the chorus in favor of an impassioned shout, which suited the song well. I’d describe Cacciatore’s shout as having the yelp of early Isaac Brock and the sneer of early Conor Oberst–pretty much it ruled.

From there they played two new songs, “Birds Fly” and one that went unnamed. While Cacciatore tends to have some great lyrics that meld the physical and emotional, (There’s no loneliness and there’s no pain / There is only the falling rain, it’s an ideal / But I’m not gonna reach for it on “Holy Ghost”) “Birds Fly” is an instance where they let Cole Hatsky’s cool, lumbering bassline do most of the talking. It culminated in a pretty raw slowcore jam. Their other new song had an almost classic rock quality to it with its soaring guitar lines but still kept its indie rock grit. “Josie’s Experiment” was a nice nod to GMM’s earlier years and worked exceedingly well in the Englert’s dazzle–a reminder that great songwriting transcends lo-fi-dom.

Cacciatore and Co. closed with “And to All the Lonely Painters,” the last tune on Songs of Violence. In the first moments of the song, Cacciatore repeated a calm guitar riff and the room was quiet enough to hear the lone snare rattling. Clark, Knight, and Hatsky joined in, proceeding with the tune as it reached a natural crescendo. This has been a favorite of mine in GMM’s catalog since it released and the crowd seemed to agree. The audience roared in applause when the instruments ceased as Cacciatore was still trying to sing the momentous words leading into the final jam session. Good Morning Midnight rocked the Englert in the strongest performance I’ve seen from them yet.

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My main curiosity going into this show was how this two-person band would operate. Of course, Jasmine Golestaneh sings while Eddie Cooper plays guitar, but like much of their catalog, Tempers’ most recent album New Meaning is full of pounding beats and has an ethereal atmosphere. How would these two capture their music on stage? Not unexpectedly, the third member of Tempers is a Macbook that sits to the left of the stage, playing through the setlist of songs with just enough time in between for the audience to applaud and for Golestaneh to voice a quiet “thank you”. It covers the drums, synth, bass, and any other tones not made with guitar or voices. This fits with the tradition of darkwave and wasn’t too surprising, even if part of me hoped a secret third member would hop out of the shadows to tap a launchpad or midi keyboard. Unfortunately for anyone hoping to join the band as a touring musician, people and instruments take up vital space in the touring van reserved for Tempers’ assortment of flashing light fixtures. 

Even with my preference towards live instrumentation at shows, I’m glad to say that the personality Tempers brought to their performance made up for it completely. Golestaneh displayed a rawness in her vocal performance, which is only hinted at on the band’s records. She is a rare vocalist that knows exactly how to excel with reverb. Cooper’s laidback guitar lines allowed him to pull off some infectiously groovy dance moves while playing, and the minimalist playing made his tremolo freakouts all the more exciting. They boldly played what is probably their biggest song, “Capital Pains,” in the first half of their set. Their mastery and energy during this song and many others was clear. Occasional waves of feedback would crash into the set, which only served to elevate the intensity of the performance. Tempers puts on a great show, inspiring chill dance moves and moments of high transcendence.

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Tré Burt gives listeners the authentic folk blues the way it was meant to be played. He brings a poetic flair and passion to his storytelling that makes him unique in contemporary alt-country and indie folk. You, Yeah, You may deal in sadness, but it is a content sadness that often finds comfort as well. Fans of Bob Dylan and John Prine will adore Burt’s songs for sure, as will fans of contemporary indie folk acts like Big Thief and TK & The Holy Know-Nothings. After this date at the Riverside Theatre, he will play a show in Chicago the next night before taking off for Sweden to start his tour of Europe. 

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In a sea of indie folk songwriters, Heynderickx’ intricate guitar and emotionally raw vocal performances make her stand out. She writes on past loves and regrets with optimism towards the future, but is sure to hit a few soft-spots on any listener in the process. Fans of artists such as Adrianne Lenker, Julien Baker, and Joni Mitchell are sure to fall in love with her songs. Heynderickx will keep playing sets across the Midwest throughout April, before returning to the upper West Coast for some dates in May. 

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On Weatherglow, 5th-wave emo icons Weatherday and Asian Glow, masterminded by Sputnik and Gyungwon Shin respectively, team up to create a new high-water mark for the genre. While these recordings may sound comparatively hi-fi beside Weatherday’s Come In, and a bit closer in production style to Asian Glow’s Cull Ficle, the raucous, DIY ethos is present as ever. Dirty guitar textures blanket an atmosphere of shoegaze and pair it with vibrant riffs and intimate vocal performances. This duo’s comfortability in both crooning and screaming allows them to convey a full range of feeling while writing lyrics that sidestep cliche completely. No one else would sing lyrics like those on “Clockwalk Around the Ache”: “All of my penetrated spells were found to head to you through the neon signs / If we come to break right in time, no longer suffer from each other.” It is a loose poetry just barely audible under the scuzz of guitar and crashing cymbals. Most impressive is how they pull off something only the best emo bands can–they make melancholy really rock. A song like the opener, “Melt a Bed” showcases the variety of their strengths–from the starting get-up-and-jump riff, to the middle section of ambient, crackling synths–the band jumps between levels of energy with such ease that the song is barely more than three minutes–no big crescendoes necessary. “Look Alive, Sunshine”, meanwhile, has some of the catchiest melodies in either of the bands’ catalogs–a feat of its own. Weatherglow is an accomplishment that packs the brilliance of five genre-defining albums into one EP.

–Jaden Amjadi

Denzel Curry – Melt My Eyez See Your Future

Denzel Curry has never been one to cling to a single style or sound. While he may be best known for his more energetic tracks, complete with jarring, horror-esque production and raucous delivery, he turns away from his signature sounds in favor of a more reserved sound. Many of the beats are much more relaxed than on Denzel’s previous albums, but they still cling tightly to the alien, foggy sounds that are a key component of Denzel’s musical reputation. While the sound may not be as striking, the beats are still filled to the brim with zest and still capture Denzel’s musical personality flawlessly. While he has never shied away from opening up to his listeners, the emotion and tenderness is particularly dense on this record. On the lead single, “Walkin”, he touches on his personal demons and expands on how this struggle is not unique to him, but is a struggle brought on to many by the system. He preaches over a simple yet smooth beat, with a graceful beat-switch in the middle of the track that he glides over with multiple flows. On “Ain’t No Way”, one of the album’s more zestful cuts, Denzel joins forces with 6LACK, Rico Nasty, J.I.D., Jasiah, Powers Pleasant, and Kitty Ca$h, all of whom add a unique element to the track in what is by far the most feature-heavy song on the album. On “X-Wing”, Denzel’s originality in his production blossoms, fusing angelic strings and piano melodies with classic trap 808s and drums. This direction of sound and theme may not have been what most fans, including myself, expected, but the direction Denzel chose is clear and executed with few flaws.

–Evan Weidl

Charli XCX – Crash

After working with some of the most acclaimed artists in the hyperpop hemisphere, such as the late SOPHIE herself, Charli XCX has returned to rip out the barely beating heart of the pop industry to take a nasty bite. On her latest release, Crash, Charli plays up the big popstar trope with lavish outfits, choreographed dances, and even bigger hair while the music follows suit, drawing heavily from the glam pop of the 1980s and millennium-age dance pop. This tongue-in-cheek incarnation of the “pop diva” stereotype is elevated by the undeniably catchy and commanding pop songwriting the singer consistently brings to her work. On tracks like “Beg for You” and “Used to Know Me”, Charli interpolates the classic 00s hit “Cry for You” by September and the 1992 track “Show Me Love” by Robin S. These odes to her so-called pop foremothers not only uniquely reimagine the tunes, but also imbue the record with a shot of pop gold from the past. While it veers hard into the campy realm of mainstream pop, this record also steps away from some of the heavier hyperpop work she has done recently, specifically on her last release in 2020, how i’m feeling now. Throbbing bass and erratic synths are replaced with nostalgic, shimmery keys and light-footed staccato beats on the tracks “Constant Repeat” and “Lightning” just to name a couple. Though, while she may be moving into a territory that some consider superficial, over-the-top, and predictable, Charli proves that she is anything but your run-of-the-mill pop princess. She is indeed the bloody queen of the pop charts.

–Sydney Sjobakken

Soul Glo – Diaspora Problems

To live in the US diaspora population, in my experience, is to be in many ways removed from the culture some would assume of you. It is to recognize you live in a deeply racist, nationalist country while also recognizing, with respect to people in destabilized countries, that much of the terror the US perpetuates is somewhere far away. Of course, this is in no way equal for everyone in the US diaspora (it helps to be white, for one!). On Diaspora Problems, Soul Glo meets these contradictions with wit and grace–and a whole lot of energy. Sonically, the band sits beside emotional hardcore acts like Orchid and Converge–but with an added undeniable sense of groove. As vocalist Pierce Jordan cascades between high register screams and low register rhymes, he reminds the listener how negligible the line between rapped hip hop vocals and screamed punk vocals has always been. Afterall–what hip hop fan could possibly deny “Driponomics” with Mother Maryrose for the banger it is? While the quickly screamed lyrics can be a bit hard to make out, they’re well worth a look-up. Jordan writes about emotional subjects with great humor. Jordan’s lyrics are less about being some dialectical literary dork that politically “dropkicks MGK” and more about being–and through being the inherently political nature of just living on appears. But outside of any lyrical content, the passionately performed music on its own packs more of a punch than your average hardcore record. Soul Glo’s Diaspora Problems is the most exciting punk album to come out in a long time.

–Jaden Amjadi

Zeal & Ardor – Zeal & Ardor

There’s something to be said for musicians who ensure that a constant je ne sais quoi permeates their art; something that tells the listener, “Hey, you’re listening to my album!”. In the case of Zeal & Ardor, their commitment to creating a world through their music that asks, “What if enslaved people in America turned to black magic as a means of escape?” is right up that alley. The Swiss sextet’s newest self-titled album is both ambitious and insular in its sound with tracks like “Emersion”–a synth backdrop coupled with unintelligible death metal shrieks–and the blistering bare-bones black metal “Götterdämmerung” sharing space in this release and neither feeling out of place. Of course, the true highlights are when lead singer Manuel Gagneux brings out his blues-inflected vocals like on singles “Church Burns” and “Run”. Altogether it’s a dark churning mashup of the humid South and freezing Europe with something on it for just about everyone.

–Zachary LeBoeuf

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Good Morning Midnight’s sound is a confluence of styles set off by Cacciatore’s own songwriting strengths. Their scuzzy guitar tones and exciting riffs reach towards the essence of lo-fi indie rock, but the Drag City folk classics—Silver Jews, Smog, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy—have all undoubtedly left an imprint on their approach to penning a tune. As it stands, Cacciatore writes where the poetic meets the personal, and it has the tendency to rock. Fans of Dinosaur Jr., early Bright Eyes, and Heatmiser will all find something to love in Good Morning Midnight. See KRUI’s recent Live From a Liminal Space in-studio session with Good Morning Midnight here. 

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The latest single from Corridor, “Et Hop”, released in 2021 on Sub Pop and features a bouncy yet simple bassline. Like much of the band’s music its vocals are sung in French, but the guitar melodies and laidback vocals are so infectious that an English-speaking listenership won’t find the language barrier much of an issue. While the band rests comfortably in comparisons to a contemporary post-punk band like Parquet Courts, their breeziness will also make them appreciated by the average indie rock fans who like Wolf Parade, Broken Social Scene, or Death Cab for Cutie. Corridor will be back in Canada on April 10^th to play a show in Ontario. 

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