Every week WSUM's Music Director, Claire, chooses some of the best new releases to add to our music library and on-air rotation. Here are a couple of recent highlights, presented by the station's Music Journalism Club!
Kim Gordon, The Collective
HIGHLIGHT TRACKS: “Bye Bye”, “I Don't Miss My Mind”, “The Believers”
GENRE: Electronic, Industrial, Alternative
RIYL: JPEGMAFIA, Death Grips, SOPHIE
Kim Gordon reasserts herself as a truly cool and unique creative on her sophomore album The Collective. The sound is modern, all digitally edited and composed, but her iconic disruptive whispery vocal style and alternative spirit holds true. In “Bye Bye”, Gordon recites a packing list like spoken word poetry over 808s in a stream of consciousness style reminiscent of Joan Didion's piece from The White Album. The whole album features this dreamlike delivery accompanied by stretched out guitar samples so dramatically distorted that sometimes all you hear are echoes. She covers topics such as sex, gender, loneliness, the internet and mental illness, the latest being covered on a favorite of mine, “I Don't Miss My Mind.” On “It's Dark Inside” Gordon references and offers a feminine interpretation of sexual pleasure as SZA does on her song with Kendrick Lamar, “Doves In The Wind.” As soon as it starts, the record deteriorates into a clunky, unapologetic celebration of intensity. It's honest, realistic and relatable.
— Evie
Bleachers, Bleachers
HIGHLIGHT TRACKS: Modern Girl, Alma Mater, Tiny Moves, Self Respect
GENRE: Alternative Rock, Indie Pop
RIYL: The National, The 1975, Lana Del Ray
The self-titled fourth studio album from Jack Antonoff's band Bleachers is a contemplative and reflective album that isn't afraid to have fun. The second track “Modern Girl”, is a summer pop ballad with jumping vocals, bright trilling sax, and an incredibly danceable backbeat. This song puts you in the middle of a party “shaking ass” with all the modern girls, it's a song that is easily belt-able and promised to become a summer favorite. The album hits more reflective lyrical moments best in “Alma Mater” and “Self Respect” both featuring female artists. On the highlight track “Alma Mater”, the intensity of Lana Del Ray's voice puts you right in the car with a couple driving down the Pike crying to Tom Waits; it's an incredibly personal and witty love song. Florence Welch adds her touch to “Self Respect” in the expansive track that combines Welch's unique voice with Antonoff's production creating a crescendo so satisfying you will want to start the track over. Bleachers succeeds in balancing fun pop-tracks with deeply personal moments for all the ups and downs of life, it has a little bit of everything for everyone.
— Camille Bush
Konradsen, Micheal's Book on Bears
HIGHLIGHT TRACKS: “Scandinavian Dynamite”, “Michael”, “Pillow Mountain”
GENRE: Indie folk, singer/songwriter
RIYL: Bon Iver, Lizzy McAlpine, Adrianne Lenker
Every now and then I find an album that encapsulates everything I love regarding music, and this album does just that. I went into this album blind and found it to be a overwhelmingly cathartic listening experience from Norwegian duo Konradsen. One of the first couple tracks on the album that really stood out to me was “Scandinavian Dynamite”. This song starts out like any other folk pop song and then explodes into a chaotic masterpiece towards the end of the track. Throughout the rest of the album, there are more upbeat songs and also a few slower tracks that really interested me. One of these is “Dološ Viessu”, which is sung by Emil Kárlsen who sings in the indigenous Sámi language with a melancholic piano playing in the background. I thought it was very interesting and thought provoking that Konradsen added that song to the album before the last track, “Æ og Min Elskede”, a song entirely in Norwegian. The tracklisting on the album is arranged perfectly and offers an easy listening experience throughout the forty minute runtime.
–Jordon Stangland
Sweet Pill, Starchild
HIGHLIGHT TRACKS: “Starchild” & “Eternal”
GENRE: Pop-punk, alternative-rock,
RIYL: blink-182, Linkin Park, Paramore
Philadelphia's Sweet Pill expels emo energy through angsty melodies with pop remnants. The local scene of Philadelphia seeps from the band members into their music. The band takes heavy influence from the surrounding sounds of Philadelphia's emo scene in particular. Sweet Pill creates complex song structures while continuing to push the boundaries of their sound. Sweet Pill's Starchild tells a melancholic tale with a mix of wistful sounds.
– Samantha Markus
