Alternative Album Chart: The best new indie and alternative albums this week
2024 continues its challenge for 2023’s title as the decade’s best year in music. Already, we have seen a host of titles released that are putting up a good fight, tussling with the previous 12 months for the championship. This week has seen another batch arrive to prop up the cause, with added help from British legends The Who, with a reissue of their classic effort, Quadrophenia.
Last week saw the largest number of releases in a seven-day cycle that we’ve seen in a long time. With stellar releases from the likes of Radiohead spin-off, The Smile, Gruff Rhys and Ty Segall, there was a broad church of sonic treats on offer, demonstrating just how healthy popular music currently is, despite one record being one of the worst listeners have encountered in a minute.
Admittedly, the amount of releases this week is almost half of what there was last time around. However, the quality has remained high, with our album of the week, Prelude to Ecstasy by The Last Dinner Party, a modern classic and a small handful of other stellar bodies of work keeping it right on. Elsewhere, Dinosaur Jr frontman J Mascis returns with another solo effort, and Mälmo’s Den Der Hale asserts on their second album why they’re one to watch.
Find this week’s Alternative Album Chart below.
The best new indie and alternative albums this week:
Prelude to Ecstasy – The Last Dinner Party – 4.5/5
The long-awaited arrival of Prelude To Ectasy calls for your longest dinner candles, your most expensive bottle of red, your floatiest dress and your tightest corset. It’s a record that begs you to lean into it, to submit yourself to the dramatics and confessionals that have become The Last Dinner Party’s signature, and one that’s all the more rewarding if you do so.
Immersion is almost inevitable on their highly anticipated debut album, which delivers emotional ecstasy and agony in equal measure. The record is guided by Abigail Morris’s fluttering vocals, which contemplate envy, indecision and desire with unparalleled intent. Orchestral swells and art rock soundscapes mould around her emotionally charged romances and rumination with ease, somehow just as dramatic as her weighty words.
If you decidedly don’t like The Last Dinner Party, Prelude To Ecstasy certainly won’t convert you. Their sound is nothing if not consistent. But if you’re willing to hand yourself over to five artists who wield instruments like swords, it just might be your album of the year. [Words: Elle Palmer]
Peacemaker – Vera Sola – 4/5
Vera Sola’s second album, Peacemaker, is a bold follow-up to her 2018 debut record Shades, welcoming listeners to revel in a cathartic exploration of darkness. Created over the course of four years, during which Sola faced many personal challenges, the record is an amalgamation of feelings, including anger, which the musician learnt to process.
This is an album of power, reflected by the strength of Sola’s voice. Every song showcases Sola’s vocals concisely and clearly – every word is sung without flinching – she isn’t scared to sing certain words, even if they’re unpleasant or dark.
Lyrically, Sola shines with clever lines, narrative storytelling and poignant statements, as demonstrated on the album’s last track, ‘Instrument of War’. She opens the track by demanding, “Lord make me an instrument of war/ Lord pack me my pistol bring me my sword/ Load me up with landmines/ Bury me in concubines/ Take me downtown where the bullets are.” It is cinematic, dramatic and wholly addictive. Sola has crafted an album that deserves to be huge, proving herself to be an essential voice in the current musical landscape. [Words: Aimee Ferrier]
Pastoral Light – Den Der Hale – 3/5
Mälmo’s Den Der Hale have returned with their second album, Pastoral Light. Released on UK indie Fat Cat Records, this body of work is another potent mass of psychedelic textures evoking the icy wind-swept vistas of their native Sweden. Produced by the band, it sees them refine the atmospheric sound they established on their 2021 debut offering, Harsyra.
Mesmeric, pulsating and extremely gothic at points, Den Der Hale have resoundingly demonstrated with their new effort why they are a band that deserves more attention. With her otherworldly, syren-like harmonies, vocalist Mimosa Baker not only leads the charge floating on top of Trenter’s swollen basslines, but she adroitly evokes the spiritual history of Nordic countries and the contemporary era’s growing fascination with neo-paganism in all its forms. Also drawing upon the work of auteur Béla Tarr and an obscure French musical from 1970, there’s an eerie and droning undercurrent to Pastoral Light.
I would caveat the praise by saying that some of the songs feel like they get stuck with where to go next, and instead of crashing into the rocks like some of the finest moments on their debut, they fall away into languishing on dynamics and sonics that could have been much more assertive. However, as a whole, it makes for a compelling listen, with enough twists and turns to keep you locked in.
What Do We Do Now – J Mascis – 3/5
Returning with his fifth studio solo album, What Do We Do Now, the Dinosaur Jr frontman reaffirms his adaptability and tireless attention to detail. In a similar vein to his previous solo efforts, the music tends to be much more mellow than his work with Dinosaur Jr, focusing more on Mascis’ lyrics and vocal performance than the music itself. Despite that, the sonics are stunning. Although the incredible guitar stylings of the songwriter, which form one of the most endearing parts of his other work, take something of a backseat on this album, the titular track confirms that he has not lost any of his swagger or substance.
An aggressively American effort, What We Do Now often sounds as though it was created to soundtrack a road trip movie. A gentle plod through the country roads of the USA, even the tracklisting reads like the plot of a romantic road film, going from early excitement to conflict to resolution. While this does provide an interesting theme to the album, it is at risk of feeling repetitive at points – although, at the same time, it does not feel like an out-and-out concept album either. [Words: Ben Forrest]
Reissue – The Who – Quadrophenia – 4.5/5
The Who became one of the first bands to explore the rock opera medium and released their first fully-fledged concept album, Tommy, in 1969. The album was a resounding success, encouraging Pete Townshend to pursue a more audacious rock opera project. Titled Lifehouse, this follow-up sought to explore a spiritual connection between the artist and audience. However, Townshend’s multi-media concept proved unworkable due to the lack of technology. Lifehouse was ultimately abandoned, with many of its surviving songs appearing on the masterpiece 1971 album Who’s Next.
Although Townshend was pleased with Tommy and Who’s Next, he still had unsated ambitions. Tommy was finally adapted for the screen in 1975, but before that, Townshend sought to create another rock opera to fulfil his dream of movie adaptation. The result of such aspirations was Quadrophenia.
The finished product comprised 17 songs across two LPs spanning 81 minutes and 42 seconds. Quadrophenia returns to the mid-1960s to follow the story of a young mod named Jimmy. As he navigates London’s pill-popping nightlife, his associated mods lock horns with the antagonistic rockers in several skirmishes. Later, reality bites hard with heartbreak and isolation, leaving the young man desperate to find purpose on the cold pebbles of Brighton Beach.
Fortunately, The Who has announced a new reissue for those interested in adding this essential rock opera to their vinyl collection. Hitting shelves on Friday, February 2nd, the celebratory 50th-anniversary reissue includes two 180-gram records with half-speed masters cut by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios. Packaged in the original gatefold sleeve design, this reissue also features a 44-page information booklet.
You can preorder the album and view purchase options here.
Far Out Magazine may earn from qualifying purchases. [Words: Jordan Potter]
