Alternative Album Chart: the best new indie and alternative albums this week
Sometimes, when there’s a lot of buzz around a band, it can put many people off, as hordes of gushing sycophants praise them as the second coming without any substantial evidence. Yet, with the new Fontaines D.C. record, Romance, the Irish group pushes themselves further artistically than ever, taking a bold and convincing leap into their future. They leave their early days as a scruffy band of indie lads behind, seemingly confirming what all the fuss is about.
While Fontaines D.C. have kept evolving throughout their time – a tact that has brought increased success with each release – the changes on Romance are the most stark and most effective because of it. From trip-hop textures to frontman Grian Chatten’s profoundly frank lyricism and even the supposed influence of Korn, it’s clear that the quintet are now in the promised land. After so long eyeing it up, they now have both hands firmly on the crown of the most popular contemporary guitar band.
It’s not just Fontaines who released masterwork this week, though. Philadelphia favourites Spirit of the Beehive, who have long been one of the most unique acts around, have released another deeply prismatic and cinematic opus in You’ll Have to Lose Something. The most refined opus they have released to date, encompassing a glitchy mass of emotions and grappling with the oscillating nature of reality more analytically than ever, I get the sense that the cult group might be about to find more ears; they certainly deserve it.
Outside of the two genre-bending masterstrokes that have graced our ears this week, other notable releases include The Softies’ minimalist palette of grandeur, The Bed I Made, and Magdalena Bay’s glistening pop epic, Imaginal Disk.
This week’s releases have confirmed that even when listeners are exposed to more thoughtless content than ever, music can still be deeply authentic and cogent and that quality always finds a way to float to the top. Find the Alternative Album Chart below.
The best new indie and alternative albums this week:
Romance – Fontaines D.C. – [4.5]
Half a decade has passed since Fontaines D.C. began carving out a place for themselves amid the modern post-punk resurgence. In the five years since then, they’ve experienced a much more interesting and impressive trajectory than any of their Dan Carey-produced peers, expanding their sound and success far beyond the walls of London’s Windmill hotbed with trip-hop influences and gloomy electronica.
On their latest offering, Romance, the band sound more and less like themselves than ever before. The guiding star of Dublin is clearly dwindling, lost to the disillusionment of Los Angeles and the unexpected influence of Lana Del Rey, but Grian Chatten’s lyrics remain as profound, as poignant and as poetic as on any of their previous records. He delves into new feelings of panic and pain, of desire and despondency, clamouring to find meaning and Romance amidst the unforgiving modern world. He now does this in a more plainspoken manner.
If a blistering show at Glastonbury and the three records that preceded it hadn’t already cemented Fontaines as the most exciting guitar band in the world, Romance certainly does. If you can’t find romance in a place or a person, maybe you can find it in this record, at a Fontaines show, or in the tender writings of Chatten, but for those aboard the bandwagon, the hype is powered up once more.
You’ll Have to Lose Something – Spirit of the Beehive – [4.5]
Philadelphia‘s Spirit of the Beehive have been one of the most compelling and distinctive acts since their emergence a decade ago. Their ever-evolving, kaleidoscopic sound has shifted over the years, becoming more challenging in some ways and more profound in others. On their fifth album, You’ll Have to Lose Something, they craft yet another postmodern masterpiece, blending an array of genres and emotions to create a fully immersive yet unpredictable listening experience. The album captures every possible sensation, akin to spending a week alone, wandering through the hidden corners of a sprawling urban metropolis.
Whether shimmering Harold Budd-esque moments of pure musical transcendence, brutal snaps of industrial, or discombobulating samples and textures, You’ll Have to Lose Something sonically mirrors a world where humans and technology are becoming one and information is more accessible than it has ever been, creating personal realities established from privately assembled contexts. This, when fused with a new concentration on refinement and an added dose of sincerity, has created a cinematic offering that stands as one of the best of 2024.
The Bed I Made – The Softies – [4]
One of the most common critiques of modern music by people who latch onto the past a bit too much is that it’s too easy to make. They argue that thanks to technology and the fact musicians today have access to such a range of means when making music, it becomes far too easy and loses all soul. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
It’s hard to narrow down what kind of music you want to make when you have access to every sound ever, and in the case of The Softies, with their new album The Bed I Made, it can be equally hard to keep listeners engaged when you decide to move away from all the bells and whistles and instead make a stripped back guitar and vocal album.
However, despite the complications that can come with making something minimalist in the modern age, the duo manages to pull it off in the most wonderful way. Their new album focuses on three things: lyricism, guitar, and harmony. Those pillars hold up the entire record, and there isn’t an example of music out there where they have been stronger.
Imaginal Disk – Magdalena Bay – [3.5]
The duo behind Magdalena Bay are a match made in heaven. Built of vocalist Mica Tenenbaum and producer Matthew Lewin, the pair met in high school and have revolved around each other ever since in life, love and music. On Imaginal Disk, the glory of their unity is celebrated with each and every track as they hold hands tight and wander the whole terrain of what the word ‘pop’ could mean.
First, there’s the realm of dream pop. With Tenenbaum’s angelic vocals being absolutely made for the form, Lewin’s production builds incredible and intricate worlds for it to exist in. Some are bright and shimmering, like the alt-disco edge of ‘Killing Time’ and ‘Cry For Me’. Others feel moody and cinematic like the Air-esque blue-toned ‘Watching T.V’, which would be well-placed in a Sofia Coppola flick, while ‘Fear, Sex’ is bright red and Lynchian.
You know an album is good when even the interludes beg for a replay. As if proof of their tight creative partnership and near life-long understanding of each other’s influences, interests and inner worlds, Imaginal Disk feels like a perfect product of Magdalena Bay’s relationship, where that closeness allows them to manage fun, experimentation, outright joy and deeper intrigue in a careful balance.
Meditations on Love – Susanna – [3.5]
Five years in the making, Norwegian singer-songwriter Susanna Wallumrød’s new avant-folk album, Meditations on Love, arrives just like a tin of Ronseal paint: difficult to consume in one go, but does exactly what it says on the tin. If you’ll bear with this analogy for one more second, the colour of this paint is undoubtedly black, and it’s built to endure tough winters. With Susanna’s mostly solemn discography in mind, this is perhaps not much of a surprise. Still, this record brings some interesting nuances to the table.
The album’s merits lie mostly in the execution: Susanna’s haunting, pitch-perfect vocals perfectly suit the album’s mystical tone. If the melodies ever risk becoming too bright, she is careful to bring the tone down with dejection, either in the lyrics themselves or the slow, spacious delivery. Between crescendos of intensity and vocal flourishes, Susanna makes great use of silence in between.
As the title suggests, the album is preoccupied with the theme of love, eros, to be precise. In keeping with Susanna’s associative sonic mood, these ten tracks do not run up the street clicking their heels in sexual satisfaction. Instead, they mostly respond to the challenges posited by romantic relationships. Though we can expect little more under such a title, the lyrics become somewhat monotonous, despite the album showing few weaknesses when each song is taken on its merits.
Mucho Mistrust – Fake Fruit – [3.5]
Today, the field of guitar-led post-punk music is so oversaturated that standing out from the crowd is more difficult than ever before. For a scene which first started as a means of rebellion and experimentation, a great deal of modern post-punk music has become formulaic, repetitive and, above all else, boring. Thankfully, bands like California trio Fake Fruit exist to show the rest of the movement that there is still a place for raucous experimentation and original compositions.
It has been a few years since we last heard from Oakland outfit Fake Fruit, who burst onto the scene back in 2021 with their self-titled debut record. Now, at long last, they have returned with the stunning sophomore effort Mucho Mistrust – which takes its title from the lyrics of the Blondie classic ‘Heart Of Glass’. In that sense, the album’s title is incredibly fitting, as Fake Fruit repeatedly pay tribute to their punk heroes while simultaneously pursuing new and interesting musical angles. On tracks like ‘Gotta Meet You’, for instance, the sounds of groups like Gang of Four and X-Ray Spex are abundantly clear, yet it still feels refreshingly original.
Summing up the sound of Fake Fruit succinctly is not an easy task. Over the course of Mucho Mistrust, the band darts sporadically from old-school punk to shoegaze, even to indie folk on the acoustic-led track ‘Sap’. This uncompromising diversity in sound prevents the album from ever feeling particularly repetitive or uninteresting. While, at points, Fake Fruit do risk bringing a formulaic approach to their music – starting gently and building to a colossal, distorted finale – the individual performances of the trio are so powerful that it is truly difficult to dislike these efforts.
Triple Fire – Geneva Jacuzzi – [3.5]
In Goth: A History by Lol Tolhurst, the label is ascribed to an alternative lifestyle that celebrates the beauty of the macabre through music and art. Whenever you go looking for communities and conversations that centre on Geneva Jacuzzi, the word isn’t that hard to find. Aside from previously covering typical Goth bands like The Cure, Jacuzzi is considered a Gothic artist due to her unique creative identity, which blends 1980s synth-pop with avant-garde experimentalism, creating a sound and aesthetic that resonates with the tradition.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of going into Triple Fire is the fact that from the moment the needle drops, the album feels more extensive than the restrictions implied by the Goth label. As you go, it becomes clearer that this is the case not only because her team referred to it as “the record that’s going to save mankind” during its creation but because the entire experience presents a striking contradiction. It’s an experience that captivates you so thoroughly that walking away from it feels impossible, yet it’s not amazingly welcoming either.
Triple Fire might seem unsettling at first, but that’s the gateway to entering its charming realm, its blood-soaked bed sheets a promise of the viscera of experience when you choose to enter an arena filled with lawlessness. Triple Fire celebrates the messiness of art and life and the beauty that comes with resigning to the instability of uncertainty. Triple Fire is satirical and off-kilter, a deliciously darkwave descent into what happens when pyrotechnics meet genuine artistry.
