One of the most prolific gothic country artists of the past decade, King Dude doesn’t particularly attempt to change up the formula on Full Virgo Moon— namely a lot of reverb, late ‘80s neofolk, and Tumblr Catholic moodboards— but it still lends itself to his strongest body of work yet. There’s a co-habitual gentleness and …
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Cold Beat, Mother (Feb. 28)
Sounding like a cross between Black Marble and Future Islands, quartet Cold Beat adroitly navigate between coldwave and indie pop on Mother. The band’s one and only surprise hit, 2017’s “62 Moons,” seems to accurately sum up the band’s appeal: it encapsulated classic post-punk sensibility and snares within a dreamy pop structure to stand out …
King Krule, Man Alive (Feb. 21)
King Krule’s Man Alive! finds the hit art rocker returning to experiment with everything from neo-psychedelia and no wave to classically tense post-punk. The tracklist flows so easily that you could be fooled into thinking Archy Marshall’s process was effortless, first drawing you in with the coldly laid-back “Cellular” before the rest of the A-side …
BAMBARA, Stray (Feb. 14)
Stray is forty minutes of a Southern gothic purgatory, sending you hurtling through a pitch-black, rain-soaked tumult of soulless yet deeply compelling characters. The record succeeds on both fronts here: it’s absolutely stunning, both lyrically and musically. The former succeeds to the point where I’m actually angry about it: the line “Burning through Georgia like …
Women, “Eyesore”
(Author’s note: Earlier, on my review of Public Strain, I’d claimed that I couldn’t find the words to describe Women’s “Eyesore?” I changed my mind, but it needed a separate review.) It snowed all of this past Saturday. That’s pretty rare in Georgia— Northerners joke that we cancel everything as soon as we see a …
HMLTD, West of Eden (Feb. 7)
I’ll just be blunt: I’ve absolutely hated HMLTD’s previous work. Somewhere in between all of the glam and the punk, they’d forgotten about the actual music itself, and 2018’s generally panned EP Hate Music Last Time Delete was some of the most atrociously handled rock music I’d had the unfortunate opportunity to subject myself to. …
Them Airs, Union Suit XL (Jan. 31)
I first learned of Them Airs after last year’s Echo Park Bomb City, a pretty good if mostly forgettable DIY Bandcamp-punk record. 2020’s Union Suit XL, on the other hand, takes their rough brand of American art punk and— if not refines— elevates it to a pleasantly developed fourth studio album. There’s something almost Spiderland-like …
Algiers, There is No Year (Jan. 17)
Though I’m loath to compare Algiers to TV on the Radio after August’s scathingly hilarious “Can the Sub_Bass Speak?”, the comparison bares its neck so temptingly that I just couldn’t resist. Let’s throw in all the bygone heroes of early 00′s post-punk revival while we’re at it, actually, Interpol and The Rapture and The Walkmen be …
Women, Public Strain (Decade Series, 2010)
Right from the first glowing notes of opener “Can’t You See”’s nocturnal bassline, Public Strain already feels jarringly displaced from time. Immediately, you get the sense that this is a delicate, intentional effect. After all, was there ever an album that spilled and melted and deformed itself more naturally than Women’s second– and infamously final– …
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Post-2019
Now that 2019 Q4 has wrapped up, here’s all hundred significant post-punk EP’s and releases from this year, ranked by Raising Doves: Diät – Positive Disintegration Fat White Family – Serfs Up! BLACK MIDI – schlagenheim Metro Crowd – Planning: Be Forest – Knocturne Priests – The Seduction of Kansas Black Marble – Bigger Than …
