The first quarter of the year is a wrap, we just posted a list of 55 albums we’re anticipating this spring, and today we review some of those albums, plus a whole lot of other ones. With 13 reviews in Indie Basement and the 9 I highlight below, that’s a total of 22 new albums we recommend out this week alone. Happy listening! Bill’s picks this week include Mount Kimbie, The Libertines, Still Corners, Cindy Lee, Jane Weaver, Pernice Brothers, Gustaf, The KVB, Khruangbin, Pye Corner Audio, Einstürzende Neubauten, Annie-Claude Deschênes (Duchess Says), and Mei Semones.

On top of all those, here are this week’s honorable mentions: the surprise J. Cole album (Kendrick Lamar diss included), Lil Wayne & Wheezy, The Black Keys, Bayside, Caleb Landry Jones, Old 97’s, Katie Pruitt, Iron Monkey, Planet On A Chain, Cock Sparrer, Marcus King, Matt Koziol, Amblare (ft. the late Hum drummer Bryan St. Pere), Maxband (Parquet Courts), Lillie West (Lala Lala), Varg2™ (ft. Earth, Eartheater, Bladee, Skrillex, LEYA, RX Papi & more), Sinkane, Vegyn, Locrian, Funeral Leech, Drahla, Grace Cummings, Lizzy McAlpine, Valebol, Bnny, Bob Vylan, Conan Gray, .22LR, Strung Out, Palace, Lil Yachty’s Concrete Boys, NLE Choppa, Bryson Tiller, TisaKorean, Major Pain, Marv Won, Fabiana Palladino, Joseph Shabason, Nicholas Krgovich, & M. Sage, Josh Johnson, Replicant, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams, Kate Clover, Non La, Concrete Boys, Cuffed Up, Olin Janusz, Witch Vomit, FYEAR, Ingested, Vessel, Michelle Moeller, Maggie Rose, Beatenberg, The Amplifier Heads, Novo Amor, Flung, Lo Moon, Yellow Days, Oliver Anthony, Doja Cat’s Scarlet 2 CLAUDE, the Woods EP, the Stars Hollow EP, the Jane Penny (of TOPS) EP, the Fleshripper EP, the Cosmo Pyke EP, the Conservative Military Image EP, the Puzzled Panther (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Gogol Bordello) EP, the UNIIQU3 EP, the Dreamcar (No Doubt, AFI) EP, the Small Pictures (Record Setter) EP, and the Pedal Steel Noah EP.

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

Vampire Weekend – Only God Was Above Us
Columbia

“Fuck the world” is how Vampire Weekend begin their fifth album, with a tone that immediately differs from the summery, breezy (yet often deceptively happy-sounding) Father of the Bride. Only God Was Above Us embraces the darker, colder, more claustrophobic vibes of 2013’s Modern Vampires of the City, and like every Vampire Weekend album before it, it sounds both comfortably familiar and refreshingly new. The band has a way of growing and reinventing themselves at each turn, without straying from the instantly-recognizable path that they carved out for themselves on their blog-rock-dominating debut over 16 years ago. And like all truly great bands, they transcended genre and scene a long time ago. They’re just Vampire Weekend, and five albums in, they’re still really good at being Vampire Weekend.

Down to its title, Only God Was Above Us goes for big ideas that would come off as pretentious in the wrong band’s hands. Orchestral arrangements and studio-as-an-instrument wizardry augment an art rock approach that would sound adventurous even if it was stripped down to its barest elements. The chaotic whimsy (or is it whimsical chaos?) of the band’s earlier work returns in new ways. Lyrics explore philosophy, sociology, religion, and war. The album’s main character is New York City, explored by way of Grant’s Tomb, the long-in-process Water Tunnel 3, a now-closed tie shop in Penn Station, and 1982’s “New Queen of the Art Scene” Mary Boone. The ideas are colossal, and yet, Only God Was Above Us often sounds intimate, much more so than the sprawling double album that preceded it ever did. It’s catchy and concise (even the eight-minute closer “Hope” feels that way) and it goes down remarkably easy given all the complexities weaved into these songs.

Young Miko – att.
The Wave

Young Miko crowns herself “rookie of the year” on the first song of her debut full-length album att., and it feels like an understatement. The Puerto Rican rapper/singer has had one of the fastest rises in Latin trap and reggaeton in recent memory, and att. makes good on the promise of all the infectious songs and guest verses that got her to this point. She has a few well-picked guests–she reunites with her “Classy 101” collaborator Feid on “offline,” brings in influential reggaeton vets Jowell & Randy on “ID,” and taps transgender rapper Villano Antillano for the queer anthem “MADRE”–but Miko doesn’t overcrowd her grand introduction. It’s a cohesive, well-sequenced, no-filler album and a powerful statement from start to finish. Young Miko isn’t “next”; she’s already here.

Phosphorescent – Revelator
Verve

On Phosphorescent’s (aka Matthew Houck’s) third album since 2013’s career-reinventing Muchacho, he’s continuing to work in the ethereal, synth-infused Americana realm that began on that album and continued with 2018’s C’est La Vie. This one feels a little warmer and cozier than the sometimes-off-kilter C’est La Vie, but still with a hint of darkness, and it sounds like he’s really settled into this chapter of his career. Revelator sits adjacent to current trends (indie-heartland rock, alt-country), but always feels like a world of its own, and the music that Matthew is making in that world has an appeal that endures. He blends vintage sounds with futuristic ones seamlessly, and his way with words and melodies stands out from whatever pack you might be tempted to group Phosphorescent with.

John Moreland – Visitor
Thirty Tigers

Having taken his country/folk rock in an increasingly electronic direction on 2020’s LP5 and 2022’s Birds in the Ceiling, John Moreland has unplugged once again. The surprise-released Visitor was largely self-recorded at John’s home with just a few other musicians, is fueled primarily by acoustic guitar, John’s grippingly somber voice, and the occasional light drumming. His songwriting–which stylistically occupies the middle ground between Jason Isbell and David Bazan–is at its most impactful, with songs that are fueled by the hellscape we live in sung in a way that comes off personal and vulnerable. John’s delivery is mellow but devastating, with melodies that wrap around you like a warm blanket and one-liners that stop you dead in your tracks.

Dustin Kensrue – Desert Dreaming
BMG

Everyone’s going country lately, even the singer of Thrice. It’s not a totally new move; Dustin Kensrue’s had elements of country music in his solo material before, but he’s never gone full-blown, capital-C Country like he does on Desert Dreaming, and he wears it well. The album takes place in the American southwest (“the setting really is the main character of the record,” Dustin says), inspired in part by childhood trips to the Sonoran Desert with his grandparents, and Dustin cites Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Townes Van Zandt, Whiskeytown, Drive-By Truckers, and Wilco as core influences on this record. From the soaring pedal steel to the trad-country rhythms to the lyrical themes, Desert Dreaming feels as authentically country & western as Thrice is authentically post-hardcore. It’s the kind of album that can and should be appreciated on its own, outside of the context of Dustin’s other work. Even if you never got down with “Deadbolt,” you might fall in love with Desert Dreaming. It’s an artistic reinvention that deserves to be taken on its own terms.

Wisp – Pandora
Interscope

The way the current TikTok-driven shoegaze phenomenon has made the genre bigger than it’s ever been in the genre’s 35+ year existence is still surreal to me, and the story of Wisp’s rise is just about as surreal as the genre’s resurgence itself. Inspired by a love of classic shoegaze-related artists like Cocteau Twins and Bowery Electric as well as more recent purveyors like Beach House, Whirr, and Narrow head, the teenage solo artist wrote and recorded a song “for fun,” threw it up on the internet, and, seemingly out of nowhere, the song racked up millions of TikTok views and Spotify streams. That song was “Your face,” and its success led to Wisp signing to Interscope before even releasing a second single or playing a live show. Now, she releases her debut EP with “Your face” and five other songs. It might be easy to get cynical about an artist going to a major that early in their career, or about a solo artist rising on TikTok in a genre originally named after the way bands look on stage, but the songs on the Pandora EP speak for themselves. Wisp has fully absorbed all of the aspects that made classic shoegaze so appealing, and–with the help of producers grayskies, Photographic Memory, Kraus, and Elliott Kozel–she’s also put a totally modern spin on it. The EP is ethereal, beautiful, and pretty heavy at times too, and it has a sense of immediacy that shoegaze can sometimes lack. It feels like something that new and longtime fans of the genre can both agree on.

Dana Gavanski – LATE SLAP
Full Time Hobby

Dana Gavanaksi’s last album made our list of great folk albums of 2022, but I don’t think anyone would call LATE SLAP a “folk album.” Dana still has that earthy quality to her voice, but LATE SLAP kicks off with an indie rock barn-burner and then leans heavily into the baroque/art pop side that Dana merely brushed shoulders with in the past. The retro elements of her past work are replaced by defiantly modern ones (the album came after Dana started experimenting with Logic Pro and it was produced by Mike Lindsay of Tunng and LUMP, who knows a thing or two about blending the electronic and the organic), and even when the exterior sounds wholly of the digital era, Dana comes off like a descendant of the time-tested, tried-and-true songwriters of the pop canon. It’s an album born of clashing ideas and contradictions, and the lyrical themes follow suit. Look no further than the first song, in which Dana sings “How to feel uncomfortable/How to feel alive.” This album feels like a masterclass in both of those things.

RiTchie – Triple Digits [112]
self-released

Last year, rap group Injury Reserve made the decision to retire their name after the 2020 death of group member Stepa J. Groggs and continue on as By Storm. They’ve so far only released one single as By Storm, but now group member RiTchie releases his debut solo album. With production from RiTchie himself, his By Storm/Injury Reserve partner Parker Corey, AJ Radico, Melik, J Fisher, FearDorian, and Reske; and appearances from Aminé, Niontay, and Quelle Chris; Triple Digits [112] finds RiTchie bouncing back and forth between rapping his ass off and diving into something a little more melodic and soulful. (On “Get A Fade,” RiTchie auto-tune-croons his way through a cover/interpolation of DIY indie popster Radiator Hospital’s “Cut Your Bangs” with the lyric switched to “you say you’ll get a fade and I’m calling your bluff.”) After going in a deeply experimental direction on Injury Reserve’s last album, By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Triple Digits [112] finds RiTchie blending his weird side with some of the most widely accessible music of his career, and this new look is a very good fit.

GloRilla – Ehhthang Ehhthang
CMG/Interscope

Memphis rapper GloRilla took the rap world by storm in 2022 with “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” and her ensuing Anyways, Life’s Great… EP, and–at least as far as the fast-paced rap world is concerned–she slowed down a little bit since then. But it looks like she’s gearing up for a big 2024. She’s opening Megan Thee Stallion’s Hot Girl Summer Tour, and she just dropped this new mixtape, which Megan also appears on. The lines between “mixtape” and “album” remain blurry, but this feels like the old school version of the former. 12 tracks, no sweeping introduction or album arc, just GloRilla rapping her ass off. And she remains really, really good at doing that.

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Read Indie Basement for more new album reviews, including Mount Kimbie, The Libertines, Still Corners, Cindy Lee, Jane Weaver, Pernice Brothers, Gustaf, The KVB, Khruangbin, Pye Corner Audio, Einstürzende Neubauten, Annie-Claude Deschênes (Duchess Says), and Mei Semones.

Looking for more recent releases? Browse the Notable Releases archive or scroll down for previous weeks.

Looking for a podcast to listen to? Check out our new episode with VIAL.

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