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Weekly Adds: 1/25

  • Post Author
    by Music director
  • Post Date
    Thu Jan 27 2022

Every Tuesday at WSUM, our Music Director, Arthur, chooses his favorite new releases to add to our music library. Here are this week's favorites, presented to you by WSUM's Music Journalism Club.


Earl Sweatshirt, SICK!

HIGHLIGHT TRACKS: “Old Friend, Vision,” “Tabula Rasa,” “Lye,” “Fire in the Hole”
GENRE: Hip hop, alternate hip hop
RIYL: The Alchemist, Armand Hammer, Vince Staples, Freddie Gibbs, Zelooperz

Expectations were high for Earl Sweatshirt's next full-length project following his critically acclaimed 2018 album Some Rap Songs. SICK! meets those expectations. The strongest component of SICK! is its production and guest features, including work from the acclaimed producer The Alchemist and lesser-known producers Black Noi$e, Theravada and Rbchmbrs. On the track “Vision,” Zelooperz has a great verse, which heightens the track greatly. The next track, “Tabula Rasa,” is the highlight of the album. Armand Hammer has an amazing verse laid over a jazz-rap beat. This album is very short, at only 24 minutes long, but a short length benefits the album by getting rid of any filler it could have had.

— Quentin Holle


Sun June, Somewhere (Expanded)

HIGHLIGHT TRACKS: “Reminded,” “Bad with time,” “Everything I had,” “Karen O”
GENRE: Indie pop
RIYL: Katy Kirby, Adult Mom, Cassandra Jenkins, Lomelda

Self-described as “regret-pop” makers of music, Sun June, the five-piece hailing from Austin, Texas, have released an expanded edition of their 2021 release, Somewhere. Somewhere (Expanded) adds three bonus tracks to the band's sophomore album, including “Reminded.” As a whole, the album is a gentle, glittering work of indie-pop. Lead singer Laura Cowell's soft and airy vocals stand out, especially when paired with the light production. On Somewhere, Sun June embrace their pop side with catchy beats and hooks. The album is wistful and warm, slow and romantic, dreamy and atmospheric. With three new bonus tracks on the expanded edition, Sun June continue to stand out in the indie-pop scene.

— Amany Khreis


Red Vox, Visions

HIGHLIGHT TRACKS: “There's a Place” “Choking on the Spite” “The Temple,” “Middle of the Street”
GENRE: Alternative rock, neo-psychedelia, jangle pop
RIYL: Radiohead, Pixies, Blur, R.E.M.

Visions is the fourth album by the New York-based Red Vox, a project fronted by the Twitch streamer Vinny of the streaming collective, “Vinesauce.” Visions sees the group return to a more guitar dominated sound in contrast to the swirling and psychedelic synths that the band gravitated towards in 2020's Realign. In addition, the album sees the band cover territory not necessarily explored in their previous releases, for instance, the noisy, dense, and propulsive track “The Temple.” However, where the band excels the most in Visions is through the melodic alternative rock stylings of tracks like “Choking on the Spite” or “There's a Place” both filled with strong captivating hooks and performances. Ultimately, Visions is a very solid effort, and is a definite recommendation for anyone in search of catchy alternative rock.

— Matt Jarosinski


Foxtails, fawn

HIGHLIGHT TRACKS: “ego death,” “star-crossed,” “gazelle,” “paper tiger”
GENRE: Screamo, post hardcore, midwest emo, chamber rock
RIYL: I Hate Sex, Your Arms Are My Coccoon,

In fawn, Connecticut based screamo quartet Foxtails showcases the reasons why they are one of the biggest names in the scene right now. Their highly anticipated fourth album builds onto the aggressively cathartic sound that the group trademarked, with the new addition of Jared Schmidt on the violin. The newly incorporated strings beautifully compliments the traditional post-rock instrumentation, elevating the LP to the new definition of “chamber screamo.” However, the true highlight of the album are Megan Cadena-Fernandez hard-hitting vocals. The band's frontperson showcases masterful control of their vocals across all tracks, even deviating from her emotional screams in favor of a more traditional approach to singer in segments of the album's opener “ego death.” Other bands in 2022 will have very worthy competition with such a strong album coming out so early in the year as fawn undoubtedly becomes one of the genre-defining LPs in modern screamo, turning the violent genre into pure art.

— Arthur Machado

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