Music Suitcase: Favorite New Albums from July/August, 2023
After 5 1/2 years, I missed a month! So, welcome to the rundown of my favorite albums of July and August! This batch is especially strong in the way of folk music, of psychedelia, and of underground rap, and of course I’ve got some indie rock picks as usual.
Along with the blog, here’s a massive playlist of favorite songs from the last two months!
PJ Harvey, I Inside The Old Year Dying
One of the year’s most ambitious albums, PJ Harvey’s latest masterpiece is based on an epic poem she published last year, written in the dialect of her native county Dorset, and deliberately voiced far outside the singer’s comfortable range. A concept album involving the esoteric magic of seasons, genderqueer mystics, and Elvis Presley, the record is enjoyable without knowing the backstory or delving into the inscrutable (for most) lyrics, but those up for the adventure it’s an extra-rewarding journey. Highlights: “Lwonesome Tonight,” “The Nether-Edge,” “A Child’s Question, July”
Osees, Intercepted Message
I mean — Jesus, if the Osees can go synth, then anyone can. Though landing on the punkier side of their musical spectrum, the prolific SF band’s 27th-or-something album is lit up by colorful keyboards which are often as prominent as John Dwyer’s guitars. Still generally driven by muscular riffs, it feels like another brand new version of the band, and it’s arguably the most fun reinvention they’ve undergone. Highlights: “Intercepted Message,” “Goon,” “Chaos Heart”
Rhiannon Giddens, You’re The One
A folksinger with a classically trained voice, Rhiannon Giddens tends to unite a diverse range of standards of varying vintage and musical heritage. Her first album of entirely original songs — mostly concerned with either love, or social justice — sounds somehow just as timeless and as broad in its scope. Highlights: “You Louisiana Man,” “You’re the One,” “Yet to Be”
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, City of Gold
A fantastic California bluegrass record about traveling around in the wild west, the gold rush, altered states of consciousness and more, Molly Tuttle’s fourth album is the first one she’s recorded with her touring band rather than hired guns. This is also where her songwriting catches up with her stellar musical chops. Highlights: “Yosemite,” “City of Gold,” “Goodbye Mary”
WITCH, Zango
Progenitors of Zambia’s psychedelic scene in the 1970s, WITCH (We Intend To Cause Havoc) return with their first album in about 40 years, and a multi-lingual mixture of rock, funk and soul that holds true to their Zamrock legacy but embraces modern elements of Zambian music and sounds fresh and alive. Highlights: “Waitle,” “Avalanche of Love,” “Stop The Rot”
Noname, Sundial
Still ethereal and imbued with her usual cosmic jazz sensibilities, the Chicago rapper’s third album feels more direct, more grounded, and more explicit in its leftism as well. A lyrical approach which blends the confessional, the observational, and the political, works like a charm. Highlights: “Hold Me Down,” “Namesake,” “Gospel?”
Lori McKenna, 1988
Clear-eyed, motherly wisdom imparted through deceptively simple tunes. This Boston-based mother of give made a name for herself writing hits for country singers, but her appeal cuts through genre lines and her 12th album is full of emotionally affecting songs. Highlights: “Happy Children,” “Wonder Drug,” “The Tunnel”
The Cat Empire, Where The Angels Fall
One of my all-time favorite bands soldiers on after replacing 4 out of its 6 veteran members (including my favorite one). While the result is not as transcendent, it’s still a lot of fun. The new band coalesces around a more straightforward sound I’m tempted to call “party jazz,” though there’s more depth to it than that implies. Highlights: “Thunder Rumbles,” “Oh Mercy,” “Coming Back Again”
Buck Meek, Haunted Mountain
Having launched a solo career just before becoming a founding member of one of his generation’s best bands, the Texan-bred Big Thief guitarist now lets the influence of his band into his solo work. Still country-tinged, this rockier, plugged-in indie folk nicely balances s and centers his sweet, whimsical approach. Highlights: “Undae Dunes,” “Haunted Mountain,” “The Secret Side of You”
Bonnie Prince Billy, Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You
Increasingly self-assured in the perspective he’s developed over time, Will Oldham brings us a very personal, powerful, mostly warm and yet sometimes chilling folk album. A musically austere affair compared with much of his indie rock, it’s Oldham’s vocal and lyrical gravitas that capture the ear. Highlights: “Queens of Sorrow,” “Like It or Not,” “Behold! Be Held!”
Grouplove, I Want It All Right Now
Anthemic, bright, guitar-and-keyboard driven indie rock is this Atlanta band’s strong suit, and the new album has this in spades. Frontcouple Christian Zucconi and Hannah Hooper (the band’s married dual lead vocalists) are gonna do the best to brighten your day, and it’s hard to get too cynical about it. Highlights: “Malachi,” “Tryin’,” “Cream”
Homeboy Sandman, Rich
Outside-the-box beats — generally minimalistic and of an older vintage — accentuate the Brooklyn underground rapper’s sense of humor, playfulness, and general oddball demeanor on his eleventh studio album. Who else raps about Trader Joe’s not having enough gluten-free cereal?! “Bop,” “Then We Broke Up,” “Loner”
Snõõper, Super Snõõper
This Nashville duo’s debut manages to change quite a bit over the course of its modest 23 minutes, opening up with straight-up classic punk and morphing into something stranger, more angular and even psychedelic as it goes. Punchy and promising! Highlights: “Defect,” “Town Topic,” “Powerball”
Genesis Owusu, Struggler
To the blend of hip hop and punk that graces his debut, the Ghanaian-Australian rapper adds more post-punk complexity. Balancing this musical diversity is a unified lyrical approach, where his central imagery — being a roach, on the run from a cruel, find its way into most of the songs. Highlgihts: “Balthazar,” “That’s Life (A Swamp),” “Freak Boy”
The Hives, The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons
Loud, rollicking revivalist rock and roll with enough lyrical wit to keep your attention for a full album, the Swedish band plows through its 6th album with their usual vim and vigor, pounding guitars and anthemic choruses turned all the way up to 10 almost the whole way through. Highlights: “Smoke & Mirrors,” “Rigor Mortis Radio,” “The Bomb”
Paris, Texas, Mid Air
While they use primarily rock instrumentation, the duo of Louis Pastel and Felix are fully a rap duo — from Compton, no less — and their debut album doesn’t sound like a compromise, the way some hybird “rock/rap” acts do. This is a sound that’s at home in both worlds. Highlights: “Lana Del Rey,” “Panic!!!,” “…We Fall”
Guided By Voices, Welshpool Frillies
Hitting the pause button on the prog-bound trajectory of their last few albums, Robert Pollard and company now integrate those tendencies more subtly into their hooky but always off-kilter indie rock in a way that honors both their overall legacy and also what they’ve been up to lately. Highlights: “Cat On Heat,” “Why Won’t You Kiss Me,” “Awake Man”
Hozier, Unreal Unearth
At heart, Andrew Hozier-Byrne is an indie rocker with deep roots in folk and soul; here he leans more into the soul side — Gospel music for Pagans, perhaps— and also into his Irishness, showing his accent and even singing in Irish a few times. Not as focused as his debut, but more adventurous than the second, and worth exploring! Highlights: “Anything But,” “De Selby (Part 2),” “Eat Your Young”
The Armed, Perfect Saviors
It’s just as noisy as 2021’s Ultrapop, but the Detroit punk band’s new album is a lot more straightforward, its enjoyment much less dependent on knowing the the band’s public eccentricities or cult status. Standing on its own merits, their music is still kinetic, affecting, and invigorating. Highlights: “Burned Mind,” “Liar 2,” “Clone”
Open Mike Eagle, Another Triumph of Ghetto Engineering
A looser, more ramshackle batch of underground rap than his recent highly conceptual efforts, Mike Eagle’s 9th album drops less than a year since the last and may be biding time for a more ambitious project, but his sharp wit and tight rhymes still hit their mark. Highlights: “A New Rap Festival Called Falling Loud,” “The Grand Prize Game On The Bozo Show,” “The Wire S3 E1”
Blur, The Ballad of Darren
A reunion album, understated partly because Damon Albarn‘s been so ’prolific with other projects — and partly because many bands‘ output gets less frequent with age — the Britpop giants’ 9th album feels more like the result of a gradual maturing than a dramatic return, but it’s good to have them back. Highlights: “St. Charles Square,” “Barbaric,” “Avalon”
Other highlights!
Since this usually monthly blog, and I only covered a little more than half of what I’d have covered for each of the two months represented here, here are some of the other albums I’d have featured from the last two months if I’d done a full column for each month!
You can check out of some of my favorite songs from all of the above albums that I did and didn’t include in my official rundown, plus others I haven’t mentioned here at all, on this playlist here.
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While we’re here…
Did you enjoy this article? Awesome! It was written by a white guy privileged enough to have time listen to like 40 albums every month and write a blog as a passion project, for free.
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Nerding out over music is fun, but let’s not forget that we live in a burning world that needs our help! Black Lives Matter.