Alternative Album Chart: the best new indie and alternative albums this week
While ostensibly an indie rock outfit, The Maccabees always stretched the confines of the genre, standing out from the mass of groups their era produced. Although each member brought something vital to the fold, frontman Orlando Weeks was central to their lustre, particularly in their later, more artful chapters, and it’s no surprise that he has continued to flourish since they called it a day in 2017. His new album, Loja, is so compelling that it has confirmed what we always truly knew: he’s a true force on his own.
A blend of different styles making good on the records he has previously released, Loja is fuelled by that distinctly heady, intangible essence Weeks has begotten in his solo career. From experimental electronic pop to authentic art-rock, a lot is going on here – including an appearance from Wet Leg’s Rhian Teasdale – but it’s concise and surely a contender for album of the year. Again, it must be affirmed that he’s no longer the former Maccabees frontman. This is Orlando Weeks.
Loja arrives in a week brimming with other enchanting releases. Elsewhere, Sweden’s Amanda Bergman has re-emerged after eight years with Your Hand Forever Checking On My Fever, another solo masterpiece that takes songwriting back to its purest form. It provides multiple snapshots of life, compelling melodies and astute instrumentation, all the while allowing her voice to take centre stage and guide us on the journey.
It’s not just Bergman that has us returning for more during this seven-day cycle. South London’s Goat Girl deliver their best effort yet in Below the Waste, Good Looks return from the brink stronger than ever with Lived Here for a While, and Charli XCX has satiated her fans with the eclectic future classic Brat, a tale of two Charli’s that adds another welcome chapter to her already storied oeuvre. Even B-Town survivors Swim Deep re-assert their chops with There’s A Big Star Outside as they look to finally break off from the short-lived scene from which they emerged.
Find this week’s Alternative Album Chart below.
The best new indie and alternative albums this week:
Loja – Orlando Weeks – 4.5
For me, and likely many others my age, it’s very difficult not to see a bracket after reading Orlando Weeks‘ name that says “former Maccabees singer”. Weeks’ work with the indie darlings is impossibly connected to his life. Since then, he has offered a string of superb, variated solo albums. However, with Loja, the songwriter must surely be seen most clearly in his own right.
Loja is the sum of Weeks’ long and winding road. It captures not only the brilliance of The Gritterman, A Quickening and Hop Up, which each took massive strides forward for him as an artist but also the journey Weeks has experienced as a man. No longer the shiny-faced young adult with a collar so tightened to the top one feared his head might pop off, Weeks is now creating records that act as maps to the landscape of his adult life.
Effortlessly blending electronic modernism with the rich organic crema that one can only find in the cafes of Lisbon, Weeks is clearly evolving beyond anything his audience may have imagined. There’s a dexterity to Loja that hasn’t been seen before, as he not only provides a sense of welcoming warmth but doesn’t ignore the chill of the shadows it can cast. [Words: Jack Whatley]
Your Hand Forever Checking On My Fever – Amanda Bergman – 4.5
Amanda Bergman has a voice that could haunt an empty house. On Your Hand Forever Checking On My Fever, the Swedish musician’s first solo offering in eight years, she lends that husky timbre to an excision of life. True to the circumstances that spawned it, Bergman’s latest offering is earnestly lived-in. The songs simply spill out of her. By day, she is actually a farmer, but at night, she seemingly makes sense of her world from a piano stool.
It just so happens that she’s a farmer who knows her way around the perfect pop hook. This lends the humble tracks an utterly unique feel. They are diary entries that masquerade as hits, or perhaps vice versa. But every ounce of these stirring ditties is sincere. It is art’s age-old aberration of reality that significant junctures align with a singular manner of thought. This is not true. We are never so caught within a single moment that all other feelings and potentialities are isolated.
In the process, she weaves together little vignettes of life—ones that are produced and textured in such a way that the catchiness and attitude that adorn them never feel out of place or anything other than natural. Synths set an ambience for the songwriting, while clever, melodic instrumentation gives her poetry an effortless groove. However, her voice essentially takes centre stage, always cutting above the mix, bewitchingly beaming with all the soulful assurance that a lighthouse gives a sailor. [Words: Tom Taylor]
Below the Waste – Goat Girl – 4
Since they formed in 2015, Goat Girl have become a staple of the current post-punk scene, making a name for themselves early in their career by frequently playing at venues such as The Windmill. They possess the ability to write tracks that will be looked back on as classics of the era’s alternative scene, which has caused them to receive plenty of acclaim during the near-decade that they’ve been active.
Following the release of their self-titled debut album and its follow-up, 2021’s On All Fours, Goat Girl have returned with a considerably more expansive and experimental third record, Below The Waste. It spans 16 momentous tracks, which weave between abrasive guitars—including the heaviest use of their instruments yet—addictive synths, strings, and overpowering basslines.
Vocally, lead singer Lottie Pendlebury is strong as ever, and drummer Rosy Jones even contributes their voice to one track, offering one of the band’s most raw and unbridled moments to date. The album feels considerably more mature and ambitious than their previous work, with songs containing richly layered sections of vocals and instruments they’ve not experimented with before. [Words: Aimee Ferrier]
Lived Here for a While – Good Looks – 4
The past eight years have been tough to endure. Fortunately, the same cannot be said of Lived Here For A While, the second studio album from Austin indie rockers Good Looks. Following their acclaimed 2022 debut, Bummer Year, the band is still looking and sounding good with an update on their associated brand of melodic, guitar-driven rock and reflective concepts.
Bummer Year summarised sociopolitical events in an attractive set of seven tracks. Now, the band returns with ten more, exploring different aspects of the status quo from their Texan perspective. Frontman Tyler Jordan had written much of the new material before tragedy struck in 2022. Just after a show celebrating the release of Bummer Year, guitarist Jake Ames was hit by a car while crossing the street. Fortunately, he made a full recovery with his bandmates close by his side in the ICU.
Once Ames recovered, Good Looks entered the studio feeling closer than ever in order to record Lived Here For A While, an album of familial chemistry. Although the band hasn’t reworked its formula dramatically since Bumer Year, the compositions exhibit a wider breadth of textural and melodic guitar work and some relatable, insightful lyrics from Jordan. [Words: Jordan Potter]
There’s A Big Star Outside – Swim Deep – 4
As There’s A Big Star Outside begins, the keys sound like a lullaby. ‘How Many Love Songs Died In Vegas?’ swells to life in a way that seems to make your body sway side to side as if rocking a baby or soothing your inner child. “It gets better, I heard it gets better in time,” Austin Williams sings like an affirmation of reassurance, acceptance or dedicated hope as a new chapter for Swim Deep opens, motivated by a desire to shake off the shackles or escape the curses of the past ones.
But that’s not to besmirch what came before. Since their breakout in 2013, Swim Deep have more than rightfully stuck around as one of the few surviving – or even fewer still good – bands from their distinct scene. After blowing up during the heyday of indie, they’ve escaped falling into the tired old hole of mere nostalgia by continuously running and experimenting.
But on There’s A Big Star Outside, they seem to have stopped. As if suddenly able to shake off the expectations or the fear of what might happen if they slow down for a second, the album is coloured by a beautiful and impactful simplicity. It feels like they’ve stopped being so distracted by external factors and instead have refocused on nothing but themselves, what they have to say and the power of a good song to say it.
That’s resulted in a record that sounds like the band at their very best across every pillar. Lyrically, Austin Williams’ pen is nuanced and sharp. In his contemplations on fatherhood, grief, childhood and love, he weaves huge feelings into delicate lines that dance between the anthemic and intimate. As a whole band, every detail of the instrumentation feels perfected and in service to the song. Whether it’s gentle details on guitar and synth or huge cinematic, swelling moments, every single song is lush and expertly made. [Words: Lucy Harbron]
Brat – Charli XCX – 3.5
No one executes a marketing campaign quite like Charli XCX. For her latest offering, Brat, she delved entirely into the party girl image, adorning tour posters with baggies and amassing almost three million views on an iconic Boiler Room set, steeping her lyrics in narcissism and roping in fellow it girls in for remixes and music videos. It seemed that Brat would mark a return to Charli’s roots in rave culture – and, at some points, it does.
Future club classics are sprinkled into the tracklisting of Brat. The swerving ‘Von Dutch’ has already found a permanent place on the USB sticks of hyperpop DJs, and the hedonistic ‘365’ is sure to join it as soon as Brat is unleashed on the world. Descriptions of mean girls and shrugged invitations to meet Charli in the bathroom for a little key or a little line maintain the sleazy, underground rave culture image that the record was marketed as, but it isn’t necessarily a club record at its core.
This might be one occasion where Charil’s marketing has been slightly misleading. If you’ve been drawn in by the party girl promotion, Brat might not live up to your hopes for a rave record. Instead, Brat is a tale of two Charli’s: the sunglassed, “so Julia,” it girl who drags you to the club every weekend, sunglasses and poppers in hand, and the more vulnerable Charli behind-the-scenes, who struggles to marry her image with her low self-esteem and attempts to balance her fame with her personal life. [Words: Elle Palmer]
Heart of the Artichoke – Bloomsday – 3.5
Not much has changed for Bloomsday since 2022 except everything—the soft and calculated acoustic deliberations of Place to Land seem very much a first port-of-call with the benefit of hindsight. Its gorgeous relaxations permeate Heart of the Artichoke but with added depth and even more accomplishment, resulting in a featherlight but deeply immersive experience.
Heart of the Artichoke, for all intents and purposes, can be cut into two halves; the first is singer Iris James Garrison getting into the swing of things and almost relying on their earlier debut a little too much. As the record plays out, however, it’s clear that this is no longer their first go at it, and everything comes into focus in a way that can only be compared to the climactic embers of a firework display.
Part of the joy of keeping a close eye on Garrison as they continue to accrue much-deserved popularity is observing and pocketing all of their added nuances like a strange coin collection: the focus is almost on their vocal delivery—as it should be, their voice could melt butter—but within Heart of the Artichoke, the arrangements appear crisper, more like delicately placed petals rather than mere accompaniment. [Words: Kelly Scanlon]
It’s A Sign – Program – 3.5
It is often said that a band’s sophomore record is usually a band’s most difficult, especially if their debut was a success. There is a certain freedom with a debut album because nobody really knows the band yet, and therefore, artists are free to experiment to an extent. With the follow-up, though, musicians have to toe the line between pleasing their existing audience and moving their sound forward in new and exciting ways. However, Australia’s new generation of rock devotees, Program, seem to have navigated this unenviable task with effortless grace.
It’s A Sign is truly an album of two halves. The first of which sees the group continue in their quest to achieve rock and roll greatness through clean-cut guitar-led tunes, backed with slacker-esque performances and lyricism. On side two of the album, however, things get a little more experimental. Do not worry, the laid-back summer rock that Program havebecome synonymous with is still present, but the group also go down some unexpected and compelling avenues. Adopting the distinctive sounds of fuzzy garage rock and even bordering on punk at points, there are brief hints at a darker side to Program, which will perhaps be fully explored in a future release.
Unfortunately, these brief glimpses at another side of the band are never really developed to their full potential, leaving the listener yearning for something deeper at points. Program have clearly been influenced by the vibrant DIY scene in their native Melbourne, and it would be nice to see those influences play a bigger role within their sound. Nevertheless, It’s A Sign, when taken at face value, is a virtually perfect record for the summer period, awash with upbeat guitar-led indie tracks and a sense of optimism that is rarely seen on modern rock records. [Words: Ben Forrest]
Peanuts – Liz Lawrence – 3.5
Some records intentionally set out to disorientate you. These are more experimental numbers, filled with noise and beats that don’t match the music. Then there are others who aren’t intentionally trying to confuse you but manage it anyway. Liz Lawrence’s new record Peanuts is the latter, and believe me when I say this in the most positive way.
Realistically, with this record, you have a few elements that form the foundation of every track. They tend to be a funky (or at least funk-infused) beat, some backing music such as a heavy bass, and Lawrence’s stunning voice. These are the foundations of a track, and after that, different parts are added to flesh songs out, give them structure, and set them apart from one another.
Because the foundations of this record are so prominent, the various other elements that go into songs are subtle and don’t scream at you. Still, when you pay attention to them, there are elements of shimmering pop, glam, country, rock, punk and most other genres going into it. It provides the unsettling element, but not one that makes it hard to listen to, one that makes you want to hear more and explore all of the layers on this LP. [Words: Dale Maplethorpe]
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