Alternative Album Chart: the best new indie and alternative albums this week
As we enter the start of summer, the indie scene has come through with its seasonal knockout punch from bands both old and new. Storming out of the gate on her fourth outing, Mabe Fratti has been taking her avant-garde take on pop music to new heights on Sentir Que No Sabes. It is a record aimed to craft songs that are liable to break your heart regardless of whether your Spanish is your first language. While this is an emotional wrecking ball, Fratti isn’t alone in the potential classics for the year.
After decades in the underground, Guided By Voices have emerged with one of their most worn-in releases on Strut of Kings. While the group could have easily relied on the tried-and-true sounds that everyone knows from them, seeing them take a few chances and actually manage to get better with age is something that anyone should strive to do once they have multiple decades under their belt.
There are also a handful of artists who find themselves in a perpetual state of change throughout their records. While the latest from bands like Loma and Hiatus Kaiyote have seen them going into different sonic territories, they each are on the verge of releasing something even better on the horizon. For those not listening for the introspective side of things, artists like Homeshake deliver the kind of music that can kill in the right relaxed setting.
Even from beyond the grave, Johnny Cash’s estate has also blessed fans with a new album, with added instrumentation recorded just last year. While most would probably rightfully assume that we wouldn’t get anything else from the country legend, the new record is yet another example of the kind of summer this year is shaping up to have. Whether from the old guard or the fresh faces on the scene, every heatseeker has kept audiences on their toes to see what the hell is going to happen next.
Find this week’s Alternative Album Chart below.
The best new indie and alternative albums this week:
Sentir Que No Sabes – Mabe Fratti – 4.5
Central and South America has always been a fertile breeding ground for endlessly inventive music. For most people, the mention of the continent’s music will evoke the euphoric sounds of cumbia, Latin psychedelia and even bossa nova. In the modern age, however, the music scene is distinctly more diverse. Perhaps one of the most exciting and innovative artists to arise from Central America in recent years has been Mabe Fratti, the Guatemalan cellist whose fourth solo record, Sentir Que No Sabes, speaks volumes about her dedication to experimentation and honesty.
Sentir Que No Sabes is arguably Fratti’s strongest effort yet, with each track seeming more impactful and emotionally affecting than the last. As a record, it is awash with emotionally-driven, melancholic offerings. In contrast to a lot of – for want of a better phrase – sad music, this album never seems to wallow in itself or drag on too much. Perhaps this is due to the fact that, among the melancholy, there is a great deal of variety in Fratti’s sound, darting between avant-pop, cinematic soundscapes, and even jazz at times with apparent ease.
The sounds that Fratti is able to create with the cello can only be described as experimental, bolstered by the fantastic production work of I. La Católica. In addition to that experimental edge, however, the record contains a lot of classic soundscapes which would feel right at home in the cinematic world. Tracks like ‘Kitana’, for instance, are equally befitting of this album as they are the soundtrack of an Italo-horror film from the 1970s. It is this wide variety in sound which helps this 13-track album fly by without becoming repetitive. [Words: Ben Forrest]
Songwriter – Johnny Cash – 4.5
As a longtime fan of Johnny Cash and his innovative, highly influential country music, I was delighted to hear that an album of previously unreleased music was on its way. Though enjoyable, such posthumous releases often leave fans short-changed with a discordant array of jagged offcuts cobbled together in a cash-grab compilation. Songwriter is nothing of the sort.
During his career, Cash prospered from his own songwriting but never shied from using the lyrics of others to bolster his records. June Carter’s ‘Ring of Fire’ and Nine Inch Nails’ ‘Hurt’ are perhaps the two most notable examples of this. One of the many beautiful aspects of the aptly-titled Songwriter is that each song contains lyrics written solely by Cash, with perfect, sonorous delivery to boot.
For all involved, the Songwriter restoration was a labour of love. In their meticulous and discerning production work, Carter Cash and Fergie have honoured Cash’s memory with one of the finest posthumous releases of the 21st century. The only contender is another of Cash’s albums, American V: A Hundred Highways. [Words: Jordan Potter]
Strut of Kings – Guided By Voices – 4
There are several reasons why Guided by Voices are one of the most lauded and cultish rock acts of all time, but frontman Robert Pollard’s continued brilliance as a prolific purveyor of songs is what underpins all their success. Despite the continuous shifting of the zeitgeist, the band’s leader and only constant member has always trodden his own path. Their latest album, Strut of Kings, is a resounding display of his supremacy.
Don’t get me wrong; on their last outing, Nowhere To Go But Up, the band’s third of 2023, I felt that the formula was getting a touch fatigued. It appeared that Pollard might be slowing down at long last after years of being the most proficient songwriter around. After all, it was his 40th album with the group, a milestone seldom seen in music. However, on Strut of Kings, he emphatically puts any misgivings to bed.
This is a collection of 11 songs that range from the punchy, crunching rock that the band first found acclaim with to more expansive epics and even the odd tender moment, an area in which Pollard is also well-versed. While there are many elements that stand out with the first listen, it’s the way that Strut of Kings keeps you on your toes throughout, and its inherently dynamic, eclectic nature has you coming back for more. It’s a sonic odyssey brimming with delights. [Words: Arun Starkey]
Love Changes Everything – Dirty Three – 3
Money changes everything, Morrissey once asserted—perhaps love only changes where money is spent. That’s a very cynical way to look at things, and the Dirty Three – Warren Ellis, Mick Turner and Jim White – have no time for cynics on their first new album. That certainly makes you want to like the record. Nobody wants to be a cynic, but cynicism is often borne from reality, and as the listener, those two camps clash in your mind.
Love Changes Everything is the Australian trio’s first release since 2012. With it, they create an instrumental ride of orchestral minimalism. Plodding piano, wailing violas and scattered drums endeavour to whisk up weathered memories of outback scenes under bruised skies and eroded by the sands of time. There are moments of clever and creative musicology afoot in this shady world that is no doubt transfigured into magical sweeps by those who love it. After all, love changes everything.
Alas, the smart money (or cynical money) says that the lovers will be few and far between, and when tasked with reviewing such a record fairly, consideration has to be given to the fact that for most people, the music fails to fully grab you enough not to be dismissed as self-indulgence with too much of an impenetrable, personal intent that never reveals itself to the listener. This makes it hard for the music not to be heard as mere tuning-up at the points where that clever and creative musicology falls short. [Words: Tom Taylor]
Horsie – Homeshake – 3
The wine bars of East London are about to go crazy over this album. They’re going to buy it on vinyl and display it on shelves next to the bottles and take a photo for Instagram: “Now spinning: Horsie. The new one from Homeshake sounds so good with a chilled glass in the sun.”
They won’t be wrong. Horsie will sound incredibly good in the sunshine, playing off a speaker as friends sit around and chat. It’s the perfect album for a vibey background to some sweet summer day. But really, that’s a polite way to say it’s essentially glorified background music.
I guess it all depends on what the purpose of lo-fi or bedroom pop music is. If it’s meant to create a kind of atmosphere or simply paint the background a nicer shade, then Horsie does that. The guitars are stunning, weaving between bigger moments into seductive slow-jam grooves. The drums are just loud enough to deliver a clear and hooky groove to take listeners through the record. Homeshake’s voice feels tailor-made for this kind of music, being sweet and pleasingly inoffensive. [Words: Lucy Harbron]
How Will I Live Without a Body – Loma – 3
Loma is ready for rebirth. How Will I Live Without A Body? – a title rather appropriately suggested by Laurie Anderson’s AI – wasn’t just the perfect stage for a much-needed reunion; it also took the band’s haunted inclinations to a whole new level, not just in Emily Cross’ intricate crooning but in terms of the entire setting. After all, the album was recorded in a coffin-maker’s workshop.
In her efforts to exhume another project and deliver a worthy follow-up to 2020’s Don’t Shy Away, a project urged by Brian Eno, Cross transformed the workshop into a recording studio, creating a vocal booth using a coffin woven from willow branches. Somehow, however, such a macabre marker of the end of life ended up being the ideal context for the band’s resuscitation.
How Will I Live Without A Body? delivers on its promise to remind you of all the reasons this band deserves its place among other contemporaries. Its mild and slightly understated mellow arrangements infiltrate your stream with relaxation, completely guided by Cross’s endearing vocals. The only slip-up with a sound like this could be pinned on the listener; the music will resonate as long as the patience is there. [Words: Kelly Scanlon]
Love Heart Cheat Code – Hiatus Kaiyote – 2.5
Even if you haven’t heard of Hiatus Kaiyote, you’ve probably heard a Hiatus Kaiyote song. Their genre-blending sound has proven ripe for sampling, with moments from their catalogue appearing on records by Beyonce, Anderson Paak, and both halves of the biggest feud in rap right now, Kendrick Lamar and Drake. In fact, they’re probably your favourite rapper’s favourite band.
It’s perhaps Hiatus Kaiyote’s commitment to rejecting genre that has earned them the admiration of so many big names. They flit between styles with ease, pulling in anything and everything they can get their hands on, from funk to prog to soul. The best moments on Love Heart Cheat Code, their latest full-length offering, come amidst that genre experimentation.
For much of the album, Hiatus Kaiyote seem to stay in one place. They keep it safe with fairly straightforward psychedelia and neo-soul, their lyrics often lacking the emotional depth or humour to drive those soundscapes home. But when they delve into stranger realms, into playful odes to the longest cat in the world and, eventually, into scuzzier, grainier realms, they thrive. [Words: Elle Palmer]
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