Review Roundup #9
Ten more albums from this year that I thought were great and deserve your attention (links to the albums are embedded in the album art).
Odyssey
Nubya Garcia
Jazz Fusion
Nubya Garcia's Odyssey is a complex, adventurous jazz album that showcases her growth as an artist, pushing boundaries, balancing intensity with elegance. Unlike her debut, Source, which embraced accessible Afro-Caribbean and contemporary influences, Odyssey dives into intricate orchestral arrangements and intense compositions. The record features rich, layered soundscapes, with standout tracks brimming with energy and emotion. Although challenging to digest at first, its depth rewards attentive listening, revealing new details with every play.
Highlights: “Dawn”, “Set It Free”, “The Seer”
Orchestra Hits
Ed Schrader’s Music Beat
Post-Punk
Ed Schrader’s Orchestra Hits blends sleek, sensual synth tones with darkwave influences, drawing from new wave sounds reminiscent of bands like New Order and Depeche Mode. The album combines Schrader’s signature baritone croon with glitchy textures, mixing romanticism and dance-floor energy. The tracks it contains evoke both celebration and regret, capturing a feeling of partying on the edge of doom. This tension between surface-level fun and underlying desolation makes the album compelling and emotionally layered. Schrader continues growing his musical maturity, and they never seem to disappoint.
Highlights: “Into the Knotted Trees”, “IDKS”, “Waterfront”
Real Deal
Honeyglaze
Indie Rock
Written after a difficult breakup, Honeyglaze's Real Deal is a bold, mature album, reflecting personal growth and emotional complexity, blending introspection with sharp commentary, and tackling topics like societal expectations and heartbreak. The best tracks combine catchy pop hooks with deeper reflections, while others express a sort of raw anger. The band moves away from their debut’s youthful uncertainty to deliver an assured, imaginative work that rewards listeners both musically and thematically.
Highlights: “Safety Pins”, “I Feel It All”, “Ghost”
Absolute Elsewhere
Blood Incantation
Death Metal
🔥SIPHON🔥MY🔥FLESH🔥THROUGH🔥THE🔥STARGATE🔥
Highlights: “The Stargate [Tablet I]”, “The Stargate [Tablet II]”, “The Message [Tablet I]”
13” Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips
Xiu Xiu
Neo-Psychedelia
Xiu Xiu's newest mind-shattering experiment, 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips, showcases the band’s signature chaotic blend of noise rock and experimental pop, while also leaning into a significantly more controlled, structured songwriting style that hasn’t been seen since FORGET. Despite retaining their abrasive and surreal sound, the album offers some of their most accessible tracks to date while continuing their reflections on violence, power, and futility. Encapsulated by the titular knife metaphor, it's both a visceral and polished entry into their catalog, balancing intense emotional expression with moments of dark humor and an eerie knack for musical precision.
Highlights: “Common Loon”, “Veneficium”, “T.D.F.T.W.”
Cutouts
The Smile
Art Rock
Stunning us with a second album this year, the Smile's Cutouts showcases a looser, funkier sound with influences ranging from Middle Eastern music to free jazz. The album highlights the trio’s near-telepathic chemistry, developed through extensive touring. Tracks mix intricate rhythms with Jonny Greenwood's experimental guitar work and Thom Yorke’s lyricism, which explores themes of sociopolitical dread and existential uncertainty. Simultaneously, Tom Skinner's complex drumming brings a distinct energy to the album, which blends the group’s musical spontaneity with a sense of foreboding.
Highlights: “Foreign Spies”, “Zero Sum”, “Don’t Get Me Started”
Dunya
Mustafa
Contemporary Folk
In his newest effort, Mustafa explores grief, love, and estrangement with Dunya, reflecting on the hardships of his Toronto upbringing and the loss of his brother. The album widens his sonic palette, blending folk, electronic, and Middle Eastern influences. Lyrically, Mustafa addresses violence, mourning, and existential contemplation with poignant songwriting, and his gentle, emotive voice holds together the album's themes of loss, resilience, and spirituality. Dunya is an intimate yet expansive work.
Highlights: “Name of God”, “Imaan”, “SNL”
Synthesizer
A Place To Bury Strangers
Noise Rock
A Place to Bury Strangers has been making the same album since 2007, and barring just a couple mistakes (I’m looking at you, Transfixiation and Pinned), I wouldn’t really change a thing. The band, led by Oliver Ackermann and featuring John and Sandra Fedowitz, explores both familiar and new sonic territories with tracks that highlight their signature intense sound, while others experiment with pulsating rhythms and instrumental complexity. The album is another bold addition to their discography, offering unpredictability and rewarding listeners with its layered textures.
Highlights: “Disgust”, “Bad Idea”, “You Got Me”
A Sliver of Space
Mr. Gnome
Stoner Rock
Mr. Gnome's A Sliver of Space is a breath of fresh, particularly desert rock-y air, offering a unique blend of dark, groove-driven, gritty, stoner metal guitars, jagged synths, and slinky beats. Nicole Barille’s strong vocals enhance the album's balance of energetic, club-like production with a more brooding atmosphere. The album maintains dynamic pacing, blending equal elements of the Cure and Kyuss, creating an engaging electro-rock experience that subverts expectations with both bold noise and nuanced songwriting. Put on your best headphones and spark it up.
Highlights: “Nothing and Everything”, “Fader”, “Not This Time, Devil”
Starchris
Body Meat
Glitch Pop
It took me a while to get around to this one, but now that I have, I don’t know how I went so long without it. Body Meat's Starchris is an incredibly brave, experimental debut that fuses glitchy beats, sideways R&B, and chaotic-yet-controlled sound design. The album blends a wide range of influences, from Afrobeat to nu-metal, while maintaining a rhythmic focus that pushes boundaries. Chris Taylor’s DIY background and interest in video game design shine through the intricate, genre-defying tracks, while his use of Auto-Tune and dynamic shifts keeps the listener engaged, navigating between moments of chaos and clarity in a meticulously crafted sonic world.
Highlights: “Electrische”, “Starchris”, “Im In Pieces”
As always, happy listening.
