Any week with another excellent new The Cure single is already a great week for music, and it gets better with the many great new albums out today. I highlight eight below, and if you like darker/heavier stuff, this is a good week for you. There’s of course other cool stuff besides that, and you can find even more new reviews in Indie Basement, including Goat, Field Music, La Femme, Lou Hayter, and more.

On top of those, this week’s honorable mentions include Charli XCX’s Brat remix album, The Offspring, Dua Saleh, BigXthaPlug, DeJ Loaf, The Blessed Madonna, Harmony (Girlpool), Vomit Forth, Tucker Zimmerman (ft. Big Thief), Stuck Lucky, 7xvethegenius, Caroline Says, Dawes, Becky G, Nate Mercereau (ft. André 3000, Shabaka Hutchings, Kamasi Washington & more), Leila Abdul-Rauf, Rod Wave, Popstar Benny, Teddy and the Rough Riders, De Mannen Broeders (Amenra), Samara Joy, Propaganda, Molina, Mercury, Warm Human, Ariella, Jamison Field Murphy, Early Riser, Liela Moss, Mutant Academy, Babii, Paul Heaton, Curren$y & DJ Fresh, Rich The Kid/Famous Dex/Jay Critch, Willie The Kid/V Don, DoFlame, Current Joys, Myles Kennedy, RÜFÜS DU SOL, Jelly Roll, the Tourist & Gold Panda EP, the Sophie Thatcher EP, the Help EP, the UV-TV EP, the Golden Apples remix EP, the archival Chameleons EP, Pharrell’s soundtrack for Piece By Piece, the Last Dinner Party acoustics & covers album, and the “Meditation Mixes” of John Lennon’s “Mind Games.”

Read on for my picks. What’s your favorite release of the week?

Envy – Eunoia (Temporary Residence Ltd)
The veteran Japanese band seamlessly fuse screamo, post-rock, shoegaze, and more on their towering eighth album

It’s hard to think of many bands in heavy music that have been at the top of their game for three decades straight the way Envy have, and every time they drop, it’s an event. They’re one of those bands where you can hop on board at any point; if you haven’t heard their classic 2001 LP All the Footprints You’ve Ever Left and the Fear Expecting Ahead, it’s probably worth changing that, but their new album Eunoia would make just as good of an introduction. It finds them trekking through screamo, post-rock, and spoken word, and effectively dipping their toes into shoegaze on “Beyond the Raindrops,” and they remain masters at nailing a balance between beauty and chaos. The aggressive parts sound as furious as Envy did in their feral early years, and other parts are overwhelmingly gorgeous enough to bring a tear to the eye. And Eunoia finds Envy blurring everything together so seamlessly that it’s usually scratching multiple itches at once. What stands out even more than the various tones or moods or genres of the album is just how emotionally rich it all is.

Touché Amoré – Spiral In A Straight Line (Rise)
The remarkably consistent post-hardcore heroes are simultaneously at their most genre-defying and natural-sounding on their sixth album

Touché Amoré’s sixth album has some of the fastest, most aggressive songs that Touché Amoré have written in years, like “Disasters,” “Mezzanine,” and “Finalist,” and it also pushes the band forward into places they’ve never gone. Underlying acoustic guitars frequently populate the album, and guitarists Clayton Stevens and Nick Steinhardt craft patterns and chord changes that sound miles away from punk and hardcore, successfully shoehorned into that realm when blended with Tyler Kirby and Elliot Babin’s furious rhythm section and Jeremy Bolm’s unmistakable shout. It sounds like an album that was very natural for Touché to make, one where they sound so firmly in their comfort zone that the songs are destined to leave an instant impact on longtime fans. The vast range of influences also makes it the band’s most genre-defying album yet, and when they’re bridging the gap between classic pop balladry and fast-paced hardcore on a song like “Hal Ashby,” they do it in a way that sounds like second nature.

For much more on the LP, read our new feature Touché Amoré are still climbing.

Chat Pile – Cool World (The Flenser)
The OKC noise rockers’ sophomore album is bigger, heavier, harder to pigeonhole, and even more bleak than their beloved debut

Chat Pile’s 2022 debut LP God’s Country saw the band rising up as the latest torch-carriers of Jesus Lizard-esque sludgy post-hardcore/noise rock, and they’ve become so beloved that even in a year with the first Jesus Lizard album in 26 years, the anticipation for Chat Pile’s sophomore album Cool World can be heard and felt all throughout the world of underground rock. And the hype is deserved. Cool World is a noticeable expansion of the music Chat Pile were making on God’s Country, and it’s definitely not just the work of another Jesus Lizard wannabe. Chat Pile are really making this stuff their own and bringing it into the future, even when they steal the riff from Nirvana’s “Scentless Apprentice” (on “Frownland”), a song they also released a cover of this year. The OKC band brought in an outside mixer for the first time (Uniform’s Ben Greenberg), and they made an album that sounds bigger, heavier, and harder to pigeonhole into a hyper-specific subgenre. It ranges from somber, gothy moments to straight-up metal, with lots of other ground covered in between, and they’ve expanded their lyrical scope as well. Vocalist Raygun Busch says the album is more macro than God’s Country, “with thoughts specifically about disasters abroad, at home, and how they affect one another,” and it finds Chat Pile continuing to hone their ability to hold a mirror up to the forces that make the world a shitty place. Things often feel like they’re only getting worse, and Chat Pile’s caustic, abrasive, bass-heavy desperation is the perfect soundtrack to our collective downfall.

Oranssi Pazuzu – Muuntautuja (Nuclear Blast)
The Finnish band branch out from black metal and embrace the influence of Portishead, My Bloody Valentine, and Death Grips on this genre-blurring new album

Oranssi Pazuzu are pretty adamant in interviews that they don’t necessarily identify as a metal band, and that they find the usual confines of the genre can be limiting. On the Finnish band’s last album, 2020’s Mestarin Kynsi, they sounded like a psychedelic rock band trapped in a black metal band’s body, and for their new album Muuntautuja, they’re breaking out of their shell entirely. They’ve been citing influences like Portishead, My Bloody Valentine, and Death Grips, and you can hear that stuff coming through as they trek through noise, electronics, trip-hop, and hazy wall-of-sound guitars with as much intent as they have during the more overtly black metal moments. Muuntautuja isn’t not a metal album, but it’s not exactly a metal album either. It feels like what might’ve happened if Ulver made Perdition City without abandoning the aggressive elements of the albums before it, but with a point of view that’s entirely unique to Oranssi Pazuzu. If you like dark, creepy, weird music of any stripe, don’t let this album pass you by.

ELUCID – Revelator (Fat Possum)
The Armand Hammer member embraces noise, glitch, and electronics on one of his darkest, strangest solo albums yet

Coming off Armand Hammer’s live-instrumentation-based We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, Armand Hammer member ELUCID teamed up with co-producer Jon Nellen to go in a noisier, glitchier, more electronic direction on his new solo album Revelator, while still embracing live drums. He cites Miles Davis’ 1974 avant-garde piece “Rated X” as a core influence, and it’s not hard to see the connection. It’s some of the jazz legend’s most out-there, unsettling work, and if ELUCID rapped over it, it’d probably fit perfectly on Revelator. Throughout these 15 tracks, ELUCID fuses the deeply experimental, avant-garde sound pieces with his equally ominous rapping, and the result is one of his darkest, strangest albums yet (in the best way). His Armand Hammer partner billy woods joins him on two songs, and the album’s only other appearances come from Creature and Skech185. Otherwise, you’re just sucked into the mind of ELUCID, and what a delightfully odd mind it is.

The Linda Lindas – No Obligation (Epitaph)
Fresh off a stadium tour with Green Day, the rising LA punks deliver a fun, catchy sophomore album

It can’t be easy to be the first-of-four opener on a stadium show, especially when the other three bands all have hits dating back to the ’90s and your first song came out four years ago, but The Linda Lindas worked the crowd like seasoned pros when they opened for Green Day, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Rancid at Citi Field earlier this year. At the time, they’d only released a few singles from their sophomore album No Obligation, and that album is now here, and it captures the same excitement I felt watching them own that massive stage earlier this summer. Picking up where their 2022 debut LP Growing Up left off and taking a clear step forward, it ranges from snappy, power-poppy punk (“All In My Head,” “Too Many Things,” “Don’t Think”) to shouty Riot Grrrl (“No Obligation,” “Excuse Me”) to calmer indie rock (“Once Upon A Time,” “Cartographers”), and The Linda Lindas sound even tighter and more polished than they did two years ago. They’re speaking to a new generation the way their recent tourmates spoke to Gen-Xers and millennials, and they’re reminding all of us that concise, catchy punk rock songs never go out of style when they’re done this well.

GloRilla – Glorious (CMG/Interscope)
The Memphis rapper swerves between hard-hitting Southern rap and gospel on her official debut album, with help from Megan Thee Stallion, Sexyy Red, Latto, Kirk Franklin, and more

In the two and a half years since GloRilla’s video for “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” blew up, the Memphis rapper signed to a major; released world-conquering collabs with Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, an EP, and a mixtape; and she spent the summer winning over crowds as an opener on Megan’s arena tour. Now she releases Glorious, her third major label project but her “debut album,” and it seems poised to keep her momentum and energy going. Mega, Sexyy Red, Latto, and others make appearances, and it’s got plenty more where the raw, hard-hitting Southern rap of her biggest singles came from. Being that it’s being presented as her debut album, there was also presumably an attempt to make it feel like a grander project than her last two, and it also has a newfound emphasis on gospel and R&B (with contributions from Kirk Franklin, T-Pain, and others) sprinkled throughout the latter half of the album. Sometimes it feels like it’s trying to be more at once than it needs to be, but the highs are high and they only throw more fuel on Glo’s fire.

Ovrkast & Cardo Got Wings – KASTGOTWINGS EP (IIIXL Studio)

Oakland rapper/producer Ovrkast is usually known for making woozy abstract rap in the vein of artists like Earl Sweatshirt, MAVI, and MIKE, but his new EP is a collaboration with G-Funk revivalist Cardo Got Wings, and it finds him in noticeably different territory than usual. The two artists find common ground in jazzy, mid ’90s-style boom bap, and the more direct, straightforward approach suits Kast well. It’s not better or worse than his more abstract material, it’s just a testament to his range that he pulls this off as naturally as he pulls off everything else he’s done these past few years. And this quick seven-song, 14-minute EP goes down like sugar.

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Read Indie Basement for more new album reviews, including Goat, Field Music, La Femme, Lou Hayter, and more

Looking for more recent releases? Browse the Notable Releases archive.

Looking for a podcast to listen to? Check out our new episode with Cursive’s Tim Kasher.

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