1st Quarter Favorites

Hi Everybody and welcome to our 1st post of the year. There will be 3 more most likely but this is the first. This list is to highlight the best albums from Jan through March. There was a lot to listen to over the past few months, most of it pretty bad but these are the little gem nuggets I've found to bring to you, our dear reader. The genres are wide and expansive, the sounds are fresh and exciting or new updates to classic sounds. So fire up that spotify playlist and give these a whirl, I don't think you will be disappointed.

American Culture-For My Animals

Why It's Good: An awesome mix of LOFI and regular studio techniques are applied to this rock genre jumping album. It has flashes of the great LOFI college rock bands of the 80s and 90s like Sebadoh. He also touches upon the newer LOFI/not so LOFI of artists like Ariel Pink(yes he sucks now but his music was good). His hand at adding micro genres of rock into his overall sound combined with a great sense of melody really propels this album to one of the best of the year. 

RIYL: Sebadoh, Mac DeMarco, Ween

Armand Hammer And The Alchemist-Haram

Why It's Good: So far it's the best Hip Hop album of the year. Why? Well for starters a lot of it is weird. The production adds to the overall weirdness of the feel of the album. The MC work here is super solid and continues the trend of Billy Woods being insanely solid. This also shows Elucid's upward trajectory(his Small Bills project was my highest ranked Hip Hop album of 2020). This is just solid stuff. 

RIYL: Madvillain, Madlib, Quelle Chris, Small Bills

Sarah Mary Chadwick-Me And Ennui Are Friends, Baby

Why It's Good: Extremely honest and stripped down singer/songwriter stuff from an artist who was already establishing herself as an honest bare bones songwriter. This album takes that honesty to new heights. The lyrics are especially devastating on more than a handful of tracks. This one hits hard with mostly just words and a piano and the result is something to behold. 

RIYL: Cat Power, Lisa Germano, Joanna Sternberg

Elephant9-Arrival Of The New Elders

Why It's Good: Well it's 2021 and I'll say it; not enough Jazz incorporates electronic elements. It's such an obvious choice as a way to augment Jazz and propel it into the future. This album does just that. This is chilled out spiritual inspired Jazz that is slathered in excellent use of electronic music. So much so that it's hard to tell what's a treated instrument or an electronic creation and this blending is near perfect. So far this is the best Jazz album of the year. 

RIYL: Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea

Noga Erez-KIDS

Why It's Good: I hate overblown pop. I can't stand when the pop vocalist sounds like everybody else in the game. I love when pop gets stripped down, not of it's melody but just of all the clutter. Major labels seem to think you need an army of songwriters and musicians to make great pop music. Thankfully Billie Eilish and her Brother Finneas showed the music industry you could make a million seller pop album with just two people in a bedroom. So with all that being said, it sure seems that Israeli musician Noga Erez was listening. This is awesome stripped down pop music where almost only the simple melodies remain. It doesn't hurt that a lot of her lyrics make fun of all the popular culture noise out there. To me this is the best we've got from the Pop sphere this year. 

RIYL: Billie Eilish, M.I.A., Santogold

Fievel Is Glauque-God's Trashmen Sent To Right The Mess

Why It's Good: This is a real weird one. It's like a chilled out exotica album sung by a French or English woman in English. At times it gets funky and jumpy. Sometimes it reminds me of Django Reinhardt. Also most of the album is recorded in a very LO-FI style which just makes things even weirder. The closest touchstone would maybe be Young Marble Giants but even that misses the mark. It's the most nervous easy listening you will likely come across. 

RIYL: Young Marble Giants, Broadcast, Slapp Happy, Stereolab, Pram

Ron Gallo-Peacemeal

Why It's Good: Well it seems almost every year this guy puts on his musical running shoes and takes genre exercise. This time it's total oddball craziness rooted in Indie Rock and goofy Alternative Rock. Before this he tackled country, garage rock, full blown kick ass rock n roll. But this is something totally different. Half the time it sounds like he's fucking around(a really good thing) other times he's very serious. All while the music takes us on a similar journey of just the bizarre. The interludes are truly weird. This is party music for weirdos and it's awesome!

RIYL: Mac DeMarco, Ween, Cayucas, Vampire Weekend, Beck

God's Hate-Self Titled

Why It's Good: These guys are from where I grew up. You wouldn't know it based on their sound. This shit is the heaviest and nastiest metal of the year. Lyrically these guys absolutely hate you and everything you do(that is if you land on the right in terms of politics). Their music actually sounds dangerous. This is an awesome thing in the metal world. Very rarely does metal sound as nasty as this. Let's hope these dudes from Van Nuys keep kicking our asses for years to come!

RIYL: Slayer, Meshuggah

The Horrors-Lout EP

Why It's Good: If you asked me in 2007 if the super hyped Post Punk Indie Rockers The Horrors would drop all of what was trendy in the moment and lay down a 3 song EP completely inspired by the nasty side of Industrial music by the likes of Ministry I would have told you to kick rocks. Well it's 2021 and The Horrors have done just that. This hits like the best period Ministry albums and they do it well. It's a tiny nugget of awesomeness but man if this is a preview of a full length in this style, it's going to destroy us all and I can't wait. 

RIYL: Ministry, Broken era Nine Inch Nails, Big Black

Valerie June-The Moon And Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers

Why It's Good: Honestly my only gripe with Valerie is that she needs a new art director. Her album covers and art direction for her albums just kind of sucks. I wish this wasn't the case because she is seriously one of the best voices in Country and Folk music. The art on her albums would lead you to believe this is cheesy crap but it's actually this weird awesome Joanna Newsom/Dolly Parton hybrid of piano led Country Rock and near Funk that really hits you right in the gut. Don't sleep on this as you see it in the aisles of your local record store, your eyes may so "no" but your ears will thank you once you get it home. 

RIYL: Joanna Newsom, Dolly Parton

Melvins-Working With God

Why It's Good: This is by far the goofiest the Melvins have gotten over a sustained period on one of their albums. It really works. They get into some truly Weenish territory here. The album is pretty much divided up into 2 styles of tracks. There's the aforementioned Ween/weird funny tracks. Here they cover both The Beach Boys' "I Get Around" and Nilsson's "You're Breaking My Heart" but retitle them as "Fuck Around" and " Fuck You". They change the lyrics to fit this narrative. In this half there is also a little bit of messing around with electronic elements. The other side of the album is all classic Melvins rockers that are very similar to early Queens Of The Stone Age or The Melvins at their crunchiest and catchiest. Overall one of the best Melvins albums you can get your hands on. 

RIYL: Ween, Queens Of The Stone Age, Nirvana

Nopes-Djork

Why It's Good: Not sure if it was intentional or not but these Bay Area punks ended up channeling this weird micro genre of mid to late 90s garage punk bands. Specifically, The Peechees, The Monorchid, Skull Kontrol and Circus Lupus. They are a little more Hardcore Punk than those bands but man they really capture that energy that was there in that time period in the Punk scene. The hooks are tight, the vocals are bratty and the rhythm section is in the pocket. Above all there is a layer of danger and nastiness. What more could you want from a Punk album?

RIYL: The Pattern, The Peechees, The Monorchid, Skull Kontrol, Wrangler Brutes

Pom Poko-Cheater

Why It's Good: I loved there first album from 2019 and this is just more of the same quirky nervous inspired by early 2000s Indie Rock(think Deerhoof and Blonde Redhead). This band is so infectious and catchy its absurd. Every corner is filled with a tiny little nugget of an ear worm that just keeps pulling you back in but by the time you wrap your head around that first nugget 5 more pop up in another way and you are back to catching up to this bands awesome grasp of songwriting. This is the way Indie Pop should be, catchy, infectious and fun as hell.

RIYL: Deerhoof, Blonde Redhead, The Cardigans, St. Vincent(circa self titled)

Lana Del Rey-Chemtrails Over The Country Club

Why It's Good: Probably the most understated album of her career outside of maybe the spoken word one. This is very stripped down. She continues the lyrical exploration she has always used so that's solid and it's very much there. The music's simplicity actually really helps to highlight the storytelling of her lyrics. Once again she has found a really good production partner with Jack Antonoff(not always great). Their teamwork really shines through on this one as it did on Norman Fucking Rockwell. Just more of the same from Lana and that's exactly as it should be. 

RIYL: Julie London, Nancy Sinatra

Slant-1

Why It's Good: Absolutely brutal Hardcore Punk from these female fronted South Korean punks. This shit whizzes by on the merits of fast hard Punk Rock. The hooks are as good as any old school Dead Kennedys album and the vocals rival The Hirs Collective for most abrasive and devastating female vocals I have ever heard. This is whiskey drinking, pool playing, fight starting Hardcore that you need to stand up and pay attention to, at 17 minutes long honestly what the fuck do you have to lose?

RIYL: Guitar Wolf, Turbonegro, The HIRS Collective

Smerz-Believer

Why It's Good: I love when the "weirdo" R&B tag actually applies. This album is that. I have heard countless descriptions of "artistic" R&B and whenever I listen it's always a huge letdown. This album is the opposite of that. People need to pay attention to stuff like this when they want to go down that road of songwriting because Smerz had it. This is what I have always wished Sade sounded like given all the hype she has. 

RIYL: Tirzah, Sade, Beyonce

Serj Tankian-Elasticity

Why It's Good: Frontman of System Of A Down does his legacy proud with this EP. The sound comes very close to his best work with them. Albeit there is a lot more humor on this one and the music doesn't get as hard. This is him trying his hand at awesome 90s style Alt radio rock and it works really well. It's also political as he always is and that rage bumping up against funny one liners is what really keeps me coming back to this time and time again. 

RIYL: System Of A Down, Jane's Addiction, Rage Against The Machine, Ween

Tela Novella-Merlynn Belle

Why It's Good: Confession time: this is my favorite album of the year so far. Why? Well the essence of it is, it sounds both completely familiar and alien at the same time. At first it sounds like normal Country influenced Indie Rock but when you really pay attention, the instruments are all wrong for that set up and then you realize the melodies are almost medieval in their writing. Then you realize there are elements of Goth music and Cabaret and then well your brain is melted. This is not uneasy listening though. This one goes down really easy and is really beautiful. The lyrics are also incredible. There is something special here and you all should really have a listen. 

RIYL: Quix*O*Tic, Young People, Angel Olsen

Tobacco-Fucked Up Friends 3

Why It's Good: This guy makes the best music for rolling down the windows and cruising across an alien planet. His brand of electronic stuff really tows the line between terrestrial and extra terrestrial, it's kind of insane how robotic and organic he makes everything sound. There really isn't anything new here so if you don't like him you won't like this but if you do, open your mouth and take your spoonful of sugar. 

RIYL: Tobacco(nothing really sounds like him)

Weezer-OK Human

Why It's Good: So it took adding strings to their music to really make Rivers write good songs again? Damn I am super impressed by this. As with most years I shudder whenever there is a new Weezer release because they have really been middling to pure crap since maybe Maladroit and that's being nice. This sounds laid back, sounds like Rivers just stopped caring and started writing like he used to. The strings really elevate this stuff to great status within their catalog. I would say this is their third best album behind the Blue Album. Get on this, trust me, for a fan that's been burned countless times waiting for something great, this is it. 

RIYL: Old Good Weezer, They Might Be Giants, Most 90s radio rock(in the best way possible)