#1822 Ecstatic Sunshine - Freckle Wars

Freckle War's got a dozen little propulsors, all angles and micro-start-stops, jangle jangle, arpeggio-io-o-O, rhythm overload without a single drum hit, voices galore without a touch of vocals. It's classical guitar updated for the 00's, Dananananakroyd and Fang Island stripped all the way down to the basics until it's soundtracky and propulsive, like chiming microdosed Explosions/Godspeed. Frantic and relaxing, subtly evocative fun 3.5/5

#1821 Video Hippos - Unbeast the Leash

Every note of Unbeast the Leash floats on a sea of synth tone and rumbling guitar drone and endless bass notes - there are no moments of silent, no breaks between the sounds, just that sea and the spikes and peaks of vocals and guitars that manage to crest it. It can't stop, it pushes forward always in overwhelming, bristling, start-start post-post-punk glory, Single Frame with motion blur, thrilling, exhausting, nauseating, pushing till you drown 3.5/5

#1820 Sheer Mag - II

Man, you gotta love that giant bass, that slashy guitar, that hooksome Thin Lizzy / Cheap Trick feel good strut.

But before you dive into this, you're gonna have to ask yourself if you're up for Christina Halladay's shrapnel vocals, shouted from a broken megaphone across a tincan telephone. It's one part her delivery, one part blownout production, all physically hurtful.

Fuuuck though, that songcraft behind it, and the actual energy underneath the jagged edges on the voice, I can't quite stay away, back into the nailbomb phonebooth for superman all again 3.5/5

#1819 Royal Headache - High

At first I was disappointed that this lacked the breakneck energy of the Headache's debut. But it finds its own lane - as a pre-post-punk take on The Strokes maybe, that clipalong cool, run ragged with shattered, lovelorn vocals. The poppier stuff like the title track's catchy as heck, and things kick up nicely as it all spirals to destruction before you know it.

I first heard this the morning after rewatching episode 2.3 of Rick and Morty, which I won't spoil. But for some reason the impossible tale of a bright-and-fast fling with an intergalactic hivemind seemingly fit this album's soundtracking. Something in High's hugeness, recklessness, sadness and fury strikes a chord, as it glances in humble terms off something gorgeous and impossible with an energy just beyond grasp 4/5

#1818 The Doors - Morrison Hotel

Oh Doors - they're rip-roaring when Morrison breaks on through, but too often his baritone and the backing band's bass and organ swirls make for a murky mess, a blanket of stifling humid air.

There's hookiness here, drawing on blues and general Americana to conjure dusty energy, spinning the sound out in a dozen little directions. But goddamn, Morrison's voice, swampy and winedark and all-consuming, a weight in the gut, making even the hookiest song echo from across a heroin haze, making every song a varying degree of misery 3/5

#1817 Mini Dresses - Four

Listen / buy here!

That slowrolling bass and chiming guitars and piping ladyvocals, it's a catching combination. But it's the same tricks, the same languid tempo, across all 5 of these songs and its numbing by the end 2.5/5

#1816 High Pop - Holy Smokes!

Listen / buy here!

Right up in the psyche/garage/surf-adjacent early 10's / late aughts scene, right down to those unfortunate whiny Deerhunter vocals and Wavvesey blownout fuzz. When they really go for it though, that guitar muscle and reckless charges are refreshing as hell, there guys'll be all fucking right once they get out of the shadows of their inspirations 3/5