Jeff

It's only been a couple of full listens so far but "Philadelphia power pop band makes album that is 23 songs in 39 minutes" is so deeply my shit I am concerned that someone is reading my innermost thoughts.

Look I'm not saying I'm the President of the Chris Farren Enjoyers Club, but I am certainly an elected official of some kind.

I was really scared at first about what this was going to sound like based on his previous album (instrumental-only fake movie soundtrack), moving to a permanent full band, and the first single (which sounded too much like the usual contemporary indie rock that takes way too many cues from 90's alt rock for my liking).

But goddamn if Statue Song isn't an all-time great song. It's the other side of the Phil Collins coin with Mk.Gee - a song that leans into the earnestness of that style of 80's pop without ever crossing the line… More

While I'm glad that getting BNM from Pitchfork has led to a resurgence in interest in Los Campesinos!, I can assure you that they've always been this good and them shedding the twee label once most of the original band left for real jobs led them in an interesting and fuller direction.

Hello Sadness is their pinnacle and this comes the closest to getting there.

Absolutely one of those albums that makes me feel like the Elder Millennial that I am, but one that I can also 100% get behind.

80's music gets so much unfair stick for being cheesy when it's a combination of what was then cutting edge technology and cocaine fueled earnestness. Taking the first half of that and recontextualizing it into this 2020s era that's marked by gauzy, empty, lonely spaces is really interesting and good, IMO.

This is exactly what I wanted from a Sunset Rubdown revival that I didn't know was happening until it did. It's arch and slightly off-putting and pretentious in all the ways Sunset Rubdown should be (see also: the collected works of Dan Bejar).

This is Peel Dream Magazine's 4th album and I genuinely cannot describe what type of band they are.

This time they're embracing Sufjan Stevens-esque baroque indie pop but in their usual way of dabbling but never committing.

This might be my favorite album this year?

Switches between intimate/quiet and epic/loud with incredible ease, walks that fine line that "emo" walks between earnest and cloying incredibly well, and they put on a hell of a live show.

Wish they'd stop opening for Tiktok famous bands that sound like what milquetoast Zoomers think "indie" music sounded like (e.g. MGMT but as the background music in a plaque psoriasis commercial) and headline their own shit because they'd set the world on fire (metaphorically).

Clubby as fuck which isn't my favorite side of Caribou but it's still Caribou so I'm going to enjoy it on some level (see also: Andrew Broder).

The AI voice thing has me torn - when Holly Herndon did it back in 2019 on PROTO, it was done with an artistic vision in mind. But now when we're in an era of AI becoming synonymous with cheaply made, copyright violating shovelware that is very clearly a way for VC-types to bypass paying actual creators to actually create by stealing their work and training "robots" to "make" music or illustrations or movies for them, it's tough to be on board with any sort of AI inclusion in any sort of art… More