Alternative Album Chart: The best new indie and alternative albums this week
Despite the doldrums of the current month, there are silver linings to be found, whether in the tantalising hints of spring or political shifts. Moreover, the influx of exciting new music offers a welcome respite and a reason for celebration amid the monotony.
Taking our Album of the Week is One More Thing, the debut full-length studio effort by Brighton’s Lime Garden. A stellar way to confirm their significance, the quartet’s debut is a collection of ten bangers that range from introspective moments to more anthemic ones, with big singalongs and melodies in store. Putting a distinctive twist on the indie genre, Lime Garden stand out from their peers, and they couldn’t have sewn together a much better first chapter.
Following Lime Garden, releases from across the musical sphere have had varying effects. One highlight includes Against Me! leader Laura Jane Grace’s solo album, Hole in My Head, an immediately arresting and consequential effort fusing traditional rock music with an array of elements of her life, including the complexities of being transgender. It is music extracted from the soul and, in tandem with her obvious talent, leaves a mark on the listener.
Another stand-out is Bats Feet For A Widow by Bingo Fury, a cinematic collection of surreal tales that also stand out from the crowd and suggest that their career is to be a fruitful one. This is singer-songwriting at its best in the tradition of the late David Berman.
Find this week’s Alternative Album Chart below.
The best new indie and alternative albums this week:
One More Thing – Lime Garden – 4.5
Writing songs, playing shows, gaining fans, writing more songs, playing more shows. Rinse and repeat until the crowds and stages get better, the festival lineups move your name up a few rows, and eventually, a label comes along and asks you to cut a record. That’s how it used to be done. It’s a tried and tested process that has given the world countless history-making acts, allowing them to figure themselves out first and put it all on tape when they’re at their very best. Hitting play on Lime Garden’s debut album, One More Thing, proves that the recipe still works.
This isn’t an album born out of label conversations or marketing meetings. In every decision, from the witty lyrics to the interesting use of vocal effects, it’s like you can hear the four band members figuring it all out and having fun experimenting. It’s exactly the type of album that only comes from being a tight band who know themselves and each other inside out, have a vision of where they want to be, but have enough all-round passion for music not to be so singular and still let themselves test things out.
As a debut album, it’s easy to say something like “this is a promising release”, as if the record stands on the precipice like this is the beginning of their career. Instead, One More Thing feels like a landmark, capturing all the promise that has been rolling and building for years, marking and solidifying the fact that Lime Garden are, and have been for a while, one of the UK’s most exciting acts. [Words: Lucy Harbron]
Bats Feet For A Widow – Bingo Fury – 4
Bingo Fury claims to have read no more than three books in his adult life. It’s a fact you might find difficult to believe upon listening to his debut album, Bats Feet For A Widow, which seems to spill over in poeticism and wit. Perhaps less surprisingly, one of those three reads was a poetry collection penned by David Berman.
The influence of the Silver Jews songwriter pervades Fury’s first full-length offering, but it never overshadows the singularity of his voice. His words and the delivery he affords them are just as devastating and dazzling as his predecessor. They flit between sincerity and absurdity, tackling topics of love, longing and loaded fictional billionaires.
Bats Feet For A Widow is daring and dramatic, cinematic and contemplative, but it somehow resists pretension. It finds itself in the authenticity of Fury’s voice, one that will hopefully continue to cut through contemporary music. [Words: Elle Palmer]
Hole in my Head – Laura Jane Grace – 4
I Can’t Write Left-Handed’, by Bill Withers, is one of the best anti-war songs ever made. In it, Withers talks about someone fighting in Vietnam who has been shot in the arm and is upset because it means he can’t write home to his mother. It’s a great example of bringing humanity and perspective to a bigger problem by focusing on a small detail. Laura Jane Grace achieves the same thing on ‘Dysphoria Hoodie’, one of the leading singles from her new album Hole In My Head.
If you are looking for complicated instrumentation and song structure, you won’t find it here. Sonically, this album is as raw as they come; the songs are quick and sharp, and the riffs are inspired by ‘50s / ‘60s rock music. That’s not to say the music isn’t good; quite the opposite. The raw energy, which is vacuum sealed and shaken around on every track, adds to the authenticity and appeal of Hole In My Head.
No word feels thrown away. The way that Laura Jane Grace can talk about different elements of her life, whether that is being transgender, memories of punk or giving love to the city she lives in, are beautifully articulated here. This is the most human-sounding album released in a long time, and it deserves your undivided attention. [Words: Dale Maplethorpe]
Souvenir – Omni – 4
In the wake of the recent post-punk trend ebbing away, the stalwarts who were drawn to the genre for genuine reasons persist, offering a more authentic rendition of the music they cherish compared to the multitude of imitators. Among these enduring groups is Omni, who return with their new album Souvenir. With a masterful compilation of 11 tracks, the trio pays homage to their influences and ventures into uncharted territory. While rooted in post-punk, Souvenir promises to deliver something distinctively original.
While some may argue that Souvenir occasionally treads familiar ground, a deeper examination reveals the creative vision and expert execution that elevate this album to a remarkable listening experience. Omni retains the elements that catapulted them to influence upon their emergence, yet they now ascend to even greater artistic peaks. Notably, they explore diverse musical epochs, infusing their compositions with a theatrical flair that keeps the music in constant flux. With Souvenir, Omni demonstrates that they are just getting started, hinting at even greater things to come.
Springs Eternal – William Doyle – 4
Gently lifting the chin as we approach springtime, Bournemouth’s William Doyle times his latest solo endeavour, Springs Eternal, to perfection. The consummate producer set out under the East India Youth alias a decade ago in the footsteps of his esteemed luminary Brian Eno, with whom he can now boast of collaborating. Of course, Doyle would never dream of such conceit; this beautiful new offering betrays a humble and introspective yet bold and curious personality.
Instrumentally, the Springs Eternal keeps the listener on their feet with charming melodies and dynamic beats liable to dramatic shifts and flourishes. Eclecticism is Doyles’ middle name, and he certainly didn’t hold back this time around; from the dewy pastures of ‘Garden of the Morning’ to the jagged and propulsive ‘Relentless Melt’, Doyle exercises the full breadth of his skillset.
It is widely believed that each of us is predisposed to at least one profitable talent. Sadly, many of us never manage to find it, but Doyle can rest assured that his multiple facets all seem to reside in the musical medium. Personages of such vocal, lyrical, instrumental and productional merit are exceedingly scarce and must be celebrated. [Words: Jordan Potter]
Musow Danse – Les Amazones d’Afrique – 3.5
Is it possible to have too much of a good thing? For every hungover soul nodding their head in agreement, there’s a poor fellow counting change and saying no. This is the quarrel that rattles around the listener’s mind throughout the new Les Amazones d’Afrique album Musow Danse. So, is it too manic, or is it an exuberant bombardment of joy?
In the end, it feels like both. The explosion of sound on every single track is a force to behold, and it is strangely one that both supports the empowered message of the album while simultaneously crowding it out of clear focus. It’s a glowing exhibition of skill and a thrilling wall of innovative pan-African sounds, but it can also bewilder you to the point where you beg for a bit of pause and refinement.
All in all, Musow Danse is a record that can’t be ignored. Nor should it. It is an important album, but it doesn’t let that get in the way of having a good time—and it does that to an extreme degree, only briefly pausing for more solemn, soulful sections. As a result, like attending a wild wedding party in your 40s, your heart is warmed, and you’re invigorated, but by the end, you’re also utterly worn out. [Words: Tom Taylor]
Pratts and Pain – Royel Otis – 2.5
Royel Otis hail from Australia, although they wrote and recorded Pratts and Pain over in England with the help of iconic producer Dan Carey, who has worked with a range of successful artists from Black Midi to Fontaine’s D.C.
Despite being in seemingly safe hands, Royel Otis, a duo made up of Otis Pavlovic and Royel Maddell, have created a lacklustre debut album that never seems to go far enough. The tracks are largely forgettable, an inevitable addition to a landmine of average indie pop records that have emerged over recent years with a penchant for the sound of the early 2010s.
Royel Otis are undoubtedly talented musicians, yet their skill feels wasted here, and a menagerie of unimaginative lyrics fails to act as a saving grace. Perhaps in a few years’ time, the duo will find a more distinctive and unique sound, but for now, Pratts and Pain doesn’t bring anything new to the table. [Words: Aimee Ferrier]
TANGK – Idles – 2.5
There was a time, not too long ago, when Idles were at the forefront of Britain’s punk and post-punk revival. Through albums like Brutalism and Joy As An Act of Resistance, the Bristolian punks put themselves out there as a voice of reason in a divided society. As time has progressed, however, the band has repeatedly shown themselves to be an increasingly lacklustre and unimaginative outfit, acting as the punk equivalent of Keir Starmer.
In their latest effort, TANGK, the band shows some willingness to develop and mature their signature sound, but these efforts never feel particularly developed or interesting. The inclusion of slow, piano-based tracks could have provided an engaging opportunity for the band to explore different influences and sounds, yet these are continuously overshadowed by the monotonous tones of frontman Joe Talbot and a constant return to the outdated sounds of their early work. Idles have never been particularly noted for their lyrical brilliance, but that lack of imagination and literary effort really shines through on TANGK.
Punk rock is inherently political, and during these politically fractious and desperate times, the substanceless, Brewdog-esque shouts of Joe Talbot simply do not have the same impact as they once did. For much of the record, Idles could easily be confused for a parody group attempting to emulate the sounds of punk, à la Jilted John. It has been seven years since the band released Brutalism, and here they stand, producing an almost identical sound all these years later. It is as laughable as it is frustrating. [Words: Ben Forrest]
