Hello and happy August! Just to be transparent, this is kind of a crazy week for me personally so I’ve got just four album reviews this week and I’m gonna keep the intro short. Bill tackles a few others in Indie Basement, including the “final” album from LA punk legends X, Chrystabell & David Lynch, and NightjaR (mem Doves, ft. Quelle Chris, Vast Aire, Homeboy Sandman, Guilty Simpson, Sleaford Mods’ Jason Williamson & more).

This week’s honorable mentions include The Smashing Pumpkins, Orville Peck, WHY?, Polo G, Swami & the Bed of Nails (John Reis of Rocket from the Crypt/Hot Snakes/etc), I Love Your Lifestyle, 49 Winchester, G.O.O.N., J.R.C.G., Meshell Ndegeocello, Footballhead, Tenue, Khalid, Anberlin, Joe Ely, Slumped, Mechanical Canine, Simon Fisher Turner, Cowboy Boy, Tones and I, Blood, Loidis, Los Lonely Boys, 86TVs (ex-Maccabees), the Burna Boy EP, the Moses Sumney EP, the Poison Ruïn EP, the Maren Morris EP, the Father John Misty comp, and the deluxe edition of Kacey Musgraves’ Deeper Well.

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

JPEGMAFIA – I Lay Down My Life For You (Peggy/AWAL)
The Baltimore rapper/producer’s first solo album in three years is a melting pot of rap, rock, psychedelia, and a wide range of electronics

2023 was one of JPEGMAFIA’s biggest years yet, thanks to a collaborative album and accompanying tour with Danny Brown that found both rappers at their most chaotic. He said he would release his own new album last year too, which he planned to apologize for not releasing on December 31 and then surprise-release on January 1 of this year, but January 1 rolled around and Peggy realized the album needed more work. Eight months later, after working on it nonstop and posting several updates throughout the year, JPEGMAFIA’s first solo album since 2021’s LP! is here and it was well worth the wait. It’s one of his most jaw-dropping pieces of work yet.

Across 14 songs, the almost-entirely-self-produced album (with a little help from Flume, Kenny Beats, and a few others) is a musical melting pot with everything from ’60s psychedelic pop pastiche to RZA-style hip hop beats to Daft Punk-worthy stadium electronics to plenty of shit that sounds futuristic by today’s standards. There’s Judgement Night soundtrack-style rap rock with shredding guitars, industrial rap with glitched-out effects and synthesizers, and dreamy indie pop thanks in part to guest singer Buzzy Lee. Very few songs embrace a typical looping rap beat, and Peggy’s rapping has just as wide a scope as his production. He’s ready to out-rap your hardest fave on one song, and scream maniacally on the next, and he’s got a toolbox of vocal effects that add to ILDMLFY‘s overall head-trip. Just two guest rappers join him, and they’re both unique, trailblazing rappers that have been in their own lanes for years, just like Peggy himself. One is Vince Staples, who shows up on the clamoring standout “New Black History,” which also makes great use of the same sample of Future’s “Covered N Money” that Vince had on “Señorita” almost a decade ago. The other is longtime JPEGMAFIA collaborator Denzel Curry, who puts his head together with Peggy on the crazed, triumphant, horn-fueled “JPEGULTRA!”. They’re such a natural fit at this point that, if JPEGMAFIA ever does another full collab album with another rapper, I hope it’s with Denzel. At the beginning of the last song, when Peggy employs a retro-psych-pop vocal loop with the words “funny how time flies when you’re having fun,” you’ll find yourself aggressively nodding in agreement.

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Navy Blue – Memoirs In Armour (self-released)
The New York underground rapper’s latest is a compact offering of personal, poetic screeds and lush backdrops

For the followup to his 2023 Def Jam debut Ways of Knowing, NY rapper Navy Blue (aka Sage Elsesser) goes indie again with the self-released Memoirs In Armour. It doesn’t really matter what label he’s on though; Sage’s major label debut didn’t sound any more commercial than his independent albums, and he didn’t need a major label budget to make Memoirs In Armour sound as grand and gorgeous as it does. With no guests and pretty much no hooks, Sage delivers one personal, poetic screed after the next over a lush backdrop of smoky jazz piano and chopped-up soul samples. Similar to past collaborators like Earl Sweatshirt, billy woods, MIKE, and Ka, Memoirs In Armour is rap music that requires deep listening and sinks in more and more over time. With just 10 songs in 26 minutes, it’s easy to just keep hitting that repeat button, and it gets better and better every time you do.

Michael & The Mighty Midnight Revival (Killer Mike) – Songs For Sinners & Saints (Loma Vista)
Killer Mike returns with an “epilogue” to his deeply personal album ‘MICHAEL,’ featuring his touring gospel group

Last year, Killer Mike took a break from Run The Jewels to release the very personal, memoir-like album MICHAEL, and the same night that he won three Grammys for it, he was arrested at the ceremony after an incident with a security guard. He was released later that night, and the very next day, he found himself back in the studio with a new burst of inspiration. The first song he released since then was “Humble Me,” an emotional recount of his arrest, and this week he revealed that he has a whole new 10-song project that he considers an “epilogue” to the MICHAEL era. “After the celebratory atmosphere that followed MICHAEL I was reminded that tribulations never cease, but God is always with me and this is a testimonial of my tumultuous times, my trials, and my continued triumph in spite of doubt, outright hate, and fear,” he says.

The new project is credited to both Killer Mike (billed simply as Michael) and The Mighty Midnight Revival, the gospel group he’s been touring with, and it also features several guests, including Offset, Blxst, Key Glock, Project Pat, Anthony Hamilton, and more. As you’d assume from the billing, there is indeed a gospel element, and those parts are seamlessly incorporated with the Killer Mike that you know and love. Ranging from hard-hitting trap to pensive, soulful rap ballads, Songs For Sinners & Saints scratches a very similar itch as MICHAEL and this epilogue is just as impactful as the main event. One of its songs (“Slummer 4 Junkies”) is a medley of two MICHAEL songs (“Slummer” and “Something For Junkies”), inspired by the way he’s been playing it live, and it’s more than just an alternate version. It’s evidence of what can happen when you really allow a song to organically grow.

Sonagi – Everything Is Longing EP (Secret Voice)
The Philly screamo band make their debut for Touché Amoré vocalist Jeremy Bolm’s Secret Voice label with a grief-stricken EP

Screamo has always been a good vessel for grief. The music is built for letting out feelings of devastation and despair and reaching a level of catharsis that the band and the audience can share, and that’s exactly what Philly’s Sonagi do on their new Everything Is Longing EP. Members also play/played in several other great screamo bands–including but not limited to Closer, The Saddest Landscape, Capacities, and Pique–and at this point, Sonagi are just a great band in their own right, regardless of their “members of” list. Everything Is Longing–their first release for Touché Amoré vocalist Jeremy Bolm’s Secret Voice label, following their great 2022 debut LP Precedent on Get Better Records–was written after the death of vocalist Ryann Slauson’s father, and the record is filled with all the feelings that come with losing someone that close to you. The songs are raw, heavy, and beautiful all at once, and the intensity is on full blast for the entirety of this record. Even with just four songs in 13 minutes, it leaves a very big impact.

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Read Indie Basement for more new album reviews, including X, Chrystabell & David Lynch, and NightjaR.

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

Looking for a podcast to listen to? Check out our new episode with The Get Up Kids about Something To Write Home About for its 25th anniversary.

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